Anti Bullying Week 2019

Last week was anti-bulling week, so we have been learning about how to spot a bully and what to do if you see one. We all agreed that everyone has the right to feel safe and happy and school, and nobody should have to feel sad or scared!

“If you was punching someone thats unkind and you might hurt them.” Lois

“It’s not kind to call somebody names” Remi

“to tell lies about them” Carter

We know that bullying is different to being unkind just once…

“you do it over and over and over” Lathen

When we made our class promise at the beginning of the year, it was important to the children that everyone was kind to one another. The children came up with lots of great suggestions about how to take care of your friends.

“You could make them a picture” Aniya

“Give them a cuddle” Anaea

“Play with them” Mutasim

“Sharing is caring” Jay

This week we loved reading a very special book called Superkid, all about a little boy who was secretly a superhero and saved his friends from mean bullys. So much so, that we made our own superhero story about how to stop bullies!

 

 

 

Bonfire night!

After half term, lots of us in Onyx class had been really excited about fireworks. Some of us had been to see fireworks with out grown ups in Manor top and other places. Some of us had even had fireworks in our very own gardens!

“When I went to the fireworks in the big field, I seen 100 sparks and then it started to Pop!” Kallum

“I like the way it sounded ,blue , green and brown!” Aisha

“The fireworks went pop and whizz and bang!” Lois

We enjoyed learning about Guy Fawkes, and how he tried to blow up the houses of parliment. We have been thinking about the sounds that the fireworks made and describing what we could see, hear, smell and feel.

It was really exciting to see our very own sparkler display by Miss Hukin in the outdoor area. They wern’t as noisy as the fireworks we watched, but still made lots of sounds! It was very cold, but that didn’t put us off! We wrapped up nice and cosy and enjoyed some delicious hot chocolate to keep us warm. We had to sit on the crates in a circle so that we were a safe distance away, as we know that fireworks can be very dangerous if you aren’t careful with them.

“They get hot so you don’t touch them” Jay

“They could burn you”. Lathen

“It was like a rainbow” Hannah

“It went fizz and bang.” Atrisa

 

 

What have we been learning?

• To show an awareness of the need for safety and take measures to keep ourselves safe.
• about special occasions and how we celebrate them.

 

How can you carry on the learning at home?

• talk to your children about why we celebrate special events.

Healthy Living week

Before the half term holidays it was healthy living week at school. We have done lots of learning about how to keep ourselves safe, healthy and happy.

First Mrs Murch came to visit us with her special friend the pantasourous. He is a really clever dinosour who knows all about good and bad touch. He taught us about good touch and bad touch, and about what to do if we feel unsafe or uncomfortable.

Please follow the link bellow if you would like any more information.

ttps://www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-abuse/keeping-children-safe/underwear-rule/

We also talked about how important exercise is! Our bodies need to move around lots when we are little to help us grow and develop. Exercising is really important, so that we can be fit and strong, so we can run fast, and move our bodies freely as we play and learn with our friends. We know that doing lots of exercise builds a stronger heart, bones and healthy muscles. 

“We do exercise when we do PE” Anaea

“We got to exercise when we play basketball” Jay

“You got to exercise so you get muscles and run really fast” Harvey

We had lots of fun in the hall trying different activties, balancing, throwing, catching, jumping. Well done everyone for trying your best! We were all pretty tired out after!

We have also enjoyed having a visit from James, a paramedic at St John Ambulance. James works in the amulance. If someone is really hurt, his job is take them to the hospital, where the nurses and doctors help make them better. He talked to us about what to do if our friends hurt themselves. Miss Boyd even found us some bandages so that we could practice on each other.

 

We talked about eating a balanced diet. Your body needs lots of different types of food to grow big and strong. Some foods like sweets are okay, but only as a treat!

Riley Mae, “Don’t eat too many sweeties or you get cavities”.

Aniya, “Fruits are really good for you”.

We all agreed that fruit and vegetables are really good for you, so we decided to make our own vegetable soup!

 

What have we be learning?

• to eat a range of healthy foods.
• to develop healthy habits and keep ourselves safe and healthy

 

 

Worms and Stick insects

Lately the weather has been a little damp! Perfect worm weather! We have been finding worms everywhere and the children have been fascinated!

In the outdoors area, the children have been really busy collecting worms for our class wormery. We keep our wormery filled with sand, soil and some leaves for the worms to much on!

We decided that we needed to find out more information about worms if we are going to keep them as our pets. The children came up with lots of great questions that we wanted to find the ansers to:

“How do you know if it’s a boy or a girl worm?”

“What do they eat?”

“Do they have babies?”

“How do they dig?”

As a class we discussed where we could find out information. Some children suggested we go on google to find out more. Miss Boyd thought this was a great idea. She also suggested that we could read some non fiction books about worms! We are really lucky to have a library right in Prince Edwards where we might find some!

We explored some non fiction texts to find the answers to our questions. Can you remember any facts about worms?

“There are no boys or girls, they’re both” Lois.

“Worms play on the dirt and they play everywhere around the world” Zayyan

“The bit in the middle where the babies come from is the saddle” Harvey

The children of Onyx class show lots of care and concern for living things. We love to watch the worms in the wormery. They like cool dark places so we cover up the wormery when we aren’t looking at them.

The children also love to explore in the neighbouring Garnet classroom, showing interest in their class pets: the stick insects!

We have been really excited to find that the stick insects have laid lots and lots of eggs. There are now too many babies for Garnet class! We promised to take really good care of them in Onyx class. The children have been waiting very patiently for their eggs to hatch!

 

What have we been learning?

We have been learning about creatures in our environment, and what they need to live. We show care and concern for living things.

We have been showing curiosity about things around us, and we know that information can be retreived from books and the internet. We enjoy exploring books to find information.

 

How can you carry on learning at home?

Encourage your child to observe living things around them, for example, go on nature walks and look for bugs in your local environment.

Build a bug hotel in your garden. You can find some ideas by following this link https://www.rspb.org.uk/get-involved/activities/give-nature-a-home-in-your-garden/garden-activities/build-a-bug-hotel/

Join your local library and encourage children to explore fiction and non fiction texts.

 

African Adventures

To mark the beginning of Black History month, the children of Onyx class have loved participating in an African Drumming workshop! We had a visit from Rachel, who taught us to play some very special drums. Can you remember what they were called?

We had lots of fun exploring the djembe drums, experimenting with how sounds can be changed, and even learning to play and sing a traditional African song.

It went like this:

Funga alafia, ah-shay ah-shay.
Funga alafia, ah-shay ah-shay.
Funga alafia, ah-shay ah-shay.
Funga alafia, ah-shay ah-shay.

(With my eyes, I welcome you.
With my words, I welcome you.
With my heart, I welcome you.
Today we, all welcome you.)

We learned to create sounds like different African animals: an elephant, cheetah, monkey, by trying different patterns of big and little movements while we drummed. Which was your favourite?

We practiced being really loud, and quiet. All of the children did an amazing job listening carefully and following instructions!

 

 

In fact, we did such an amazing job playing the djembes, the next week Rachel sent us a surprise: a traditional African story called, “Handa’s Surprise”, and some very interesting looking tropical fruit.

We read the story of Handa’s surprise, created our own story map and even acted out the story. Miss Boyd was really impressed with Onyx’ class acting, so she helped us make it into a film!

We worked together chopping up the fruit to make a delicious fruit salad. We ate some mango, pineapple, passion fruit and orange. Which one did you like best?

“We eated some oranges and pineapple, it’s a little bit sour but it’s nice” Jay

“It’s delicious” Ariana

“It’s slimy” Liam

Well done to everyone for trying new things and being willing to give it a go!

We have loved learning about Africa, listening to African music, and making African animal masks and tradional necklaces. It was a special treat to have Mr Sieczkarek come and tell us about his recent trip to Africa. We were really surprised by some of the animals we seen there.

 

What have we been learning?

We have been learning about other culture and lifestyles. We have explored how people are similar and different to us.

We have been trying new things, like fruit tasting! We know that some children like different things, and that’s okay.

We have enjoyed making our own food, and have been showing awareness of safety when using tools like knives and peelers.

We have been experimenting with musical instruments.

 

How can you carry on at home?

Sing songs like nursery rhymes with your child, make up dance moves and music. Have fun exploring and experimenting with how to change sounds.

 

 

The Gingerbread man hunt!

Mrs Murch set the whole school a challenge to make some treats  for the Macmillan coffee morning, to raise as much money as we could for charity. We have been learning about what charity is, and discussing how we could help people. Miss Boyd has been really impressed with all of the children in Onyx class being so kind, thoughtful and eager to help.

Every year group was making different delicious treats. We decided that our class would make some gingerbread men!

Harvey: “We are gonna sell them and make lots of money to help sick people. We could buy them some trampolines. That would cheer them up ”

First, Miss Boyd found us a recipe to follow. We know it’s important to read the recipe carefully because it tells you what to do.

We carefully measured out and counted the right number of cups. Then we had to mix up the ingredients! We rolled out the dough and used the cutters to cut out the gingerbread men. It was lots of messy fun! We worked really hard as a team with everyone helping out!

Miss Boyd baked the gingerbread men in the oven with some children’s help. The gingerbread men were ready and waiting for the coffee morning on Friday.

But… when we got to school on Friday morning, they had disappeared!

What do you think happened?

Atrisa, “the gingerbread men came to life and ran away!”

Jay, “The bad man might have broken in and stolen them.”

Riley- Mae “Someone ate them last night!”

Then we found a clue! We read it together: “I didn’t want to be a snack. Now you will never get me back! You will have to go and look where there are lots and lots of books!

Brooklyn, “there are lots of books in the book corner”!

Miss Boyd told us about a place in school where there are lots of books called the library, so we decided to go there. We alked around school sensibly holding hands and looking out for clues!

Saedi – Grace “crumbles on the floor!”

We followed the clues all over school! We went to the nursery, to the outside area, the dinner hall, the office, even to the staff room, where the teacher’s drink their tea.

 

Finally, we found a clue which told us to go to the best classroom in school, we knew it must be Onyx class!

We followed the clues all the way back to our classroom. There we found the gingerbread men hiding under Miss Boyd’s chair.

“You should have checked there first!” said Zayyan.

Lois, “The gingerbread men were tricking us! He came back when we wern’t looking”

We each enjoyed eating a gingerbread man. They were delicious!

 

What have we been learning?

about the wider world, some of the problems people face and how we can help them.

About where different places are in our school.

How following instructions carefully can be very useful.

 

What you can do at home:

Allow  your child to help with simple cooking, following a recipe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Settling in

All of the teachers in Onyx class would like to say a huge welcome to all of our new children and parents! Miss Boyd, Miss Deakin, and all of the teachers have
been so proud of how well the children have settled in to school.

It has been lovely to start to get to know each child, and we can’t wait to help them on their learning journey over the next year. Already the children have made an amazing start! We have had lots of fun exploring the learning environment and learning rules and routines. We all had lots of time to make new friends and for those who came to
Prince Edwards Nursery to meet back up with their old friends.

Look at us all on our first day of school! Can you find yourself and your friends?

 

 

 

Once we had settled into our new classes, we first of all talked about our rights: we all have the right to feel safe and happy, to be listened to, to have fun, and to learn. We discussed what we needed to do to make sure that this can happen, and decided on our very own class charter. We agreed upon our class promise together and everyone signed it.

We then explored different feelings, looking at the characters from the Pixar film, Inside Out. We all feel sad, happy and worried at different times. We talked about when we feel different emotions and what we can do when we feel worried or angry.

The children have made a fantastic start to the year, tried new things, amde new friends and enjoyed playing, exploring and learning inside and outside. Here are some things we have enjoyed doing, recorded in our class floor book.

 

 

Don’t forget to keep checking back to see what we’ve been up to.
And don’t forget to let us know what you’ve been doing at home on the class email address. Please ask in class if you’re not sure what it is.