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