A Dinosaur in the Classroom!

We had a special visitor last week….. at first we only saw footprints and we didn’t know what had been in our classroom. Some of the children had an idea and started to investigate further. They found a dinosaur in a classroom and started to make links between the two.

It was a few days until we saw anything else but a few days later we noticed more footprint and the giant egg had hatched! This time there were two sets of footprints. Again we had a to get busy thinking what they could possibly be. There were dinosaurs in our giant egg which confirmed what we thought about it being a dinosaur.

We looked in books to see if we could find out more.

Some of us were a bit sceptical and thought there couldn’t have possibly been a real dinosaur in our classroom. Miss Parker set up a special camera in the classroom over night and the dinosaur came back!!! We got to see it on the iPad.

The dinosaur also left us a note and a present which was very exciting.

We decided that we wanted to paint our dinosaur but that gave us a problem.  Lots of people couldn’t remember how to make the right colour green that we needed to paint the dinosaur. We decided that we needed to refresh our knowledge of colour mixing before painting our dinosaur.

It was so exciting to have a real life dinosaur in our classroom and we hope he comes back again soon!

Our Easter Workshop

It was fabulous to see so many parents and carers come to support our Easter Workshop with the children. We had so much fun making different crafts and doing different activities. Can you remember what you made? I think the pom pom chicks were my favourite. 

Our Mondrian Art

We had an art lesson last week where we looked at the work of Piet Mondrian. He made pictures using black lines and the primary colours of red, blue and yellow.  We looked at lots of examples and then had a go at making some of our own in our Sketch Books. Once we’d had a go we looked again and used Critique to improve our own work. You can find out more about Critique on our school website.

Here is some of our work. We’d love to know what you think…

 

We weren’t finished there either. some of us tried to make Mondrian pictures using the lego blocks.

We found some computer programmes to make our own pictures as well.

What have we been learning? 

• To look at and talk about the work of a famous artist. 
• To recreate the art of famous artists. 
• To talk about what we are doing and about how we can improve our own work. 

How can you continue the learning at home? 

• Search on the internet for Piet Mondrain and see what you can find out about him- remember to only do internet searches with your grown ups help. 
• Choose some different colours and see if you can make your own pictures at home. 
• Look for the Primary colours and see where you can see them. 
• Find out what happens when you mix the Primary colours together. 

Diwali Celebrations

Last week it was Diwali which is a Hindu celebration. We looked at a picture and decided what we wanted to learn. You can see some of the things we said at the bottom of this Floor Book page.

We had a range of activities out in our classroom for everyone to learn more about Diwali. When we were learning the story of Rama and Sita we watched it on a video and read the story in an ebook. If you want to watch the video again you can watch it here. CBeebies Let’s Celebrate Diwali- Rama and Sita Story

We found out the lights were called Diva Lamps and they were used to light Rama and Sita’s way home. We decided we’d like to make some of our own. While we made the lamps we used Critique to help us make them better. We had to talk about what our friends had done well and what we we would suggest to help them make it better. (If you want to find out more about Critique click on this link the whole school webpage about it)

Mrs Ainsley thought our lamps were so good she showed them to the rest of the school in Assembly. We learnt that Hindus put their lamps on the windowsills so everyone can see them. We learnt this by watching videos about what happens are Diwali.

If you’d like to watch the videos at home click on the the link. There are two videos- Preparing for Diwali and Celebrating Diwali.

CBeebies Let’s Celebrate Diwali 

We decided we’d like to try some of the Indian foods which Jessica had shown us in her video. Everyone gave everything a try even if they didn’t like it.

We wrote some of the things we’d learnt in our Floor Book at the end of the week.

Thankfully the Diva Lamps did dry and we could paint them.

What have we been learning? 

• About the celebrations of another culture and religion to ours. 
• About a new story- Rama and Sita- and learning to retell it in the correct order. 
• To try new foods even if we’ve not seen or heard of them before. 
• To use clay to make a given object and also how to make it better with help from our friends. 

How can you continue the learning at home? 

• Talk about different celebrations you have in your family. 
• Watch the videos again and talk about what is happening and why. 
• If you’ve got play dough at home, use it to make Diva Lamps and other given objects. If you’ve not got play dough at home look out for a recipe coming soon on this blog! 

Being Y1 children!

As we get ready for being Y1s we’ve been to our new classes a few times to have a practice. It’s been great to meet our new teachers properly, to explore our new classrooms and to see which other children will be in our new class.

There are two Y1 classes – Jet class with Miss Mason and Mrs Raynes and Topaz class with Mrs Ainsley (Mon/Tues), Mrs Wells (Wed-Fri) and Mrs Pym. We’ll also see Miss Morris in Jet class and Miss Deighton and Mrs Reed in Topaz class.

Look at some of the fun things we did when we went to practice being Y1s.

We we took our new teachers special presents when we went to visit so they’ll be up in our classrooms when we start in Y1 for real. We had to do good teamwork to each contribute to the finished artwork.

We had a great time in Y1 and are excited for September when we get to go to our new classrooms everyday.

Parents/carers- if you’ve any questions about your child starting in Y1 please ask either the teachers in Onyx class or you could walk round to see the Y1 teachers at home time by their classrooms.  

Valentine’s Day

We spent the last week of half term celebrating Valentine’s Day. It’s a chance to read a couple of Miss Parker’s favourite books. If you’ve not read them before see if you can find them in the Library.

After we all had such a good time making potions earlier in the year the children asked if we could do it again but this time we chose to make Love Potions.

Everyone made a Valentine’s Day card for the person or people of their choice. After completing the art it was a great chance to do some writing for a purpose.

There was lots of Valentine’s Day Maths opportunities around the classroom. The children used the hearts cards from a pack of cards, small hearts for counting and the Numicon to count and make their own calculations.

They were also able to explore other Maths opportunities around the classroom in the Sensory Tray, at the Light Table and at the Finger Gym.

We did lots of great learning linked to Valentine’s  Day. There was also a hunt outside for hearts which we had to order by size.

Owl Visit

We were very lucky this week when we had some special visitors in school. Bob brought his owls Archie, Gizmo, Millgan and Ronnie to school to meet us.

We had an amazing time learning all about the owls. Then there was the best bit- we got to watch the owls fly and some of us had a go at holding the owls! It was very exciting as they flew right over our heads.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our teachers held the Indian Eagle Owl because we was too big and heavy for us to hold.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When we’d learnt all about the owls it was time for them to have rest and for us to do some work. We did some sketching of the owls looking really carefully at what we could see.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had the best time and wish the owls could come to school everyday.

If you want to find out more about Bob and his owls click on the link below.

The Owl Experience Bird of Prey Centre