Environment Week 2019- Wall-E

During Environment Week we decided to use Wall-E to help us learn about the sort of environment we would like to live in. We thought that Earth in the future was messy and dirty and not very nice. We also learnt how important  plants were.

We decided to plant some beans to add some more plants to our environment. There were some other seeds as well and we talked about which one would grow fastest if we put them in a race.

Look what happened to the bean only a week later!

We also talked about 3-D shape a lot during the week as Miss Parker set us a challenge to build our own Wall-E but only once we could talk about the shapes we needed to make him.

Doesn’t he look wonderful? He even has a flap on the front so he can open it and put the rubbish inside. You might be able to spot some kids from Garnet class there was well who came to help us.

We also worked with our friends from Nursery outside to create a giant Wall-E. He was bigger than we were!

Our parents and carers made lots of comments on our learning about Wall-E during Environment Week.

What have we been learning? 

• About what our environment is and what we would like it to look like. 
• About the importance of plants and why we need them in our environment.
• About 3-D shapes and how to describe them using the correct words- edge, vertices and faces. 

How you can continue the learning at home! 

• Collect some boxes and junk modelling- can you make a model of Wall-E or a different robot? 
• Look for 3-D shapes in your home and think about why it is a good shape for that job, for example, why don’t we have a sphere for a TV? 
• Tlak  ajot what you like in your home environment and what you don’t like. Make sure you keep it tidy like Wall-E did! 
• Look at the plants in your garden. Which plants do you have? Could you add any more! 

 

Starting School

September was our settling in month in Onyx Class. It was lovely to see all the children again after the Summer and start to get to know them better as school started. We started off sharing all the children between the two classes and seeing who became friends with who and where children were best suited. This was a really good way of making sure that Onyx and, our FS2 neighbours, Garnet were both the best classes in school and all the children were happy. Some of our Nursery teachers came to say hi and see how we were getting on too.

These photos were taken on our very first days at school. Look at who we have in Onyx Class:

 

We also took first day photos of some of the teachers in Onyx and Garnet classrooms.

We had lots of fun getting to know new friends and remembering old ones. We also all loved exploring both our new classrooms and trying out all the great activities. Those children who had been in Nursery enjoyed getting back outside and seeing what was the same. Everyone made a really great start to school and all the teachers commented on how well and how quickly the children settled in.

 

The children also enjoyed it when we started going for lunch in the big hall. It was exciting but a little bit scary as we’d not done it before. Everyone did great though and all the lunchtime supervisors commented on how impressed they were with the children’s use of cutlery and sitting at the tables. Even Mr Sciezkarek came to see how everyone was getting on. He left very impressed.

Well done everyone on such a great start to school. 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.

 

 

FS Graduation 2018

One of the best days in FS2 is when we have our FS Graduation to celebrate our time in Foundation Stage at Prince Edward before we move onto Key Stage One. We love it because all the children have a chance to reflect on their learning during the year and tell us what they enjoyed the most. Then we get to share that with all our families.

We sang some songs and then we all stood up to tell everyone what our favourite thing about Foundation Stage had been. We thought about our time with Miss Hulme in Nursery as well. We had to be very brave as there were over 100 adults there for us to talk to.

Mr Siezckarek and Mrs Ainsley came to hand out the certificates and special treats.

We were also given our special string which Miss Parker and Miss Deighton had been holding onto since our first day at school in September. It was exactly the same size as us so we can see how much we’ve grown during the school year. I wonder who has grown the most?!? Don’t forget to tell the teachers how much you’ve grown.

We then got to watch our Graduation Video which is a look back over the year at all the fun things we’ve been learning and experiencing. Everyone loved looking for themselves on the big screen.

You can watch it again below or by clicking here.

We hope you enjoy it. Thanks again to all families for their support during the school year. We hope you enjoy Year One! Good Luck! 🙂 Don’t forget to pop back in and let us know how you’re getting on.

A Huge Thank You to our Mums

We had a busy week getting ready for Mother’s Day and saying Thank You to our Mums and other female carers. Wed decided that we would like to make them a card and give them a present. Everyone agreed that our mums usually liked flowers so this is what we gave them. The twist was thought that we have help our mums looks after their plant and  wait for them to grow.

We invited our mums into school. If our mums couldn’t make it then nannans could come or aunties or big sisters. The only rule was you had to be a girl! (Dads- don’t worry, you’ll get your turn when its Father’s Day and we say no Mums)

We learnt some songs to sing to our mums and then gave them their special gifts. Nursery and Key Stage One did the same. There were so many people there- over 100 mums and other female carers came! Wow!

We were so pleased to see our mums in school and share this special time with them. Thanks to everyone who came! We hope you enjoyed it 🙂

Welcome to Foundation Stage- Reception (FS2)- Download our Book

The children have been working hard to produce a book for our nursery children and all the children coming to join our school from other nurseries. We have been talking about how we felt when we were in our nurseries and it was time for us to start full time school.

We decided that we would write our own book which we could send to the nursery kids which would help them know what to expect. First we had to decide what was important to tell them about. We also went to nursery and asked the children what they wanted to know. Then we had to take the photos, which we mostly took ourselves on the iPad. We even asked our parents/ carers what they thought the new FS2 parents/ carers would like to know. Once we had done that Miss Parker helped us to use an App called Book Creator to turn it into a book on the iPad.

When it was complete we went to Nursery to share it with the kids there. We even shared it with some kids who came to our classroom for an extra visit.

Some of the comments from our parents/ carers were handed in after we’d made our book but they were so good we wanted to share them with you anyway…

“I would say it is normal to feel nervous and worried. Its such a big step and the start of a very long journey but you will soon be so full of pride and they learn something new literally everyday. Its gone so fast (the year) and they are in great hands”

“Children moving up from Nursery is one of the most scariest things ever. Me as a parent who does worry about everything, one thing I can say is trust what the teachers say and they will be fine. My child has changed so much for the better! I just need to say stay happy and excited even though deep down it scary. Good luck!”

You can find the rest in our book by clicking on this link and downloading the whole book.

A huge well done to Onyx Class 2016-7 for writing the book and thinking about what was important for their nursery friends to know.

We recommend that you look at the book together, either on a computer or tablet or you can print a copy and keep it at home. The more familiar your child is with the pictures and names of everything the more secure they will feel when they start school in September.

Miss Hulme will continue to share the book with the children in Prince Edward Nursery and we will be making this link known to all the other nurseries we are expecting children to come to us from.

We look forward to meeting you and your child as they start with us in Foundation Stage Two (Reception) if we haven’t already seen you on a visit.

Visit 1- Thursday 6th July

Parents Meeting- Monday 10th July

Visit 2- Wednesday 12th July

You will have received more details in a letter at your home. Please phone school on (0114) 2281900 if you haven’t received a letter and we will let you know the details of the visits and full transition.

Father’s Day Fun!

We all had an amazing time on Monday afternoon when we invited all of our dads to school to celebrate Father’s Day. We were allowed to invite any other male member of the family if our dads couldn’t make it but this time mums had to stay at home.

We had such a good time with our dads on the MUGA and ‘park’. Some of us preferred to stay inside the Foundation Stage area and play with our dads there. It was great to see our brothers and sisters in Nursery and Key Stage One as well.

A huge thank you to everyone who came and made our afternoon so successful. We had a total of 49 dads, uncles, grandads and big brothers there  across the whole of FS and KS1!

Day 100!!!!!

We have been counting to Day 100 since we first started full time school way back in September. Can you remember our first days at school? Have a look at the blog post from when we started school. Click here to see it. We’ve all done a lot of growing since then and have got a lot cleverer!

We have been putting a straw in our pockets every day since then and marking it off on the hundred square. You can see when we first started on one of our first ever Mathematician of the Week blog post. Click here to see it.

Everyone was very excited that the day had finally come. We’d been planning our promised party for a couple of weeks now!

We did have to do some counting though. We found the easiest ways to count to 100 was to count to ten ten times. Can you see the different ways we have counted in this way?

Some children even measured the KS2 corridor using their steps. They had to predict if they thought there would be 100 steps from the Studio all the way to Miss French’s Office at the other end.

When we found out the steps gave us different measurements we learnt about a metre stick which turned out to have 100 centimetres on it. We’d found another 100! Children had to find objects which were longer or shorter than a metre and record them in their book.

Come back later and see some photographs of our books. 

We had great fun making photographs of ourselves look like we were 100 years old. What do you think you’ll be able to do when you’re 100? 

Come back later and see some of our pictures. 

We’d been busy during the week getting ready. Jayden thought we need decorations so got busy making some in the Workshop. We also made some special Day 100 Crowns which meant we had to do lots of counting.

 

When it got to Wednesday it was time for our party 🙂

Miss Bibby came through from Nursery with a surprise for us. The Nursery kids had been making pizza for their Pizza Day and sent some through for us to have at our party. You can see more about their Pizza Day here.  Thanks Nursery, we thought your pizza was yummy!

We’d thought about the other things we wanted for our party and decided that it couldn’t be a proper party without a chocolate cake and musical statues!

There was one last job to do… we needed to say well done to the rest of the school for their 100 days in school this year. We went to visit every classroom and took them a certificate. They were the same certificates that we got one of each to say well done to us!

What fabulous Day 100! Now we’re interested to know if we will get Day 100.

Don’t forget your Day 100 Homework to bring a collection of 100 items from home. We’ll be putting them on the wall in the classroom for everyone to see. 

What have we been learning? 

• To count to ten confidently and count out that many objects. 
• To count in tens to 100 and know what this looks like. 
• To complete challenges and answer questions. 
• To measure in different ways and think about which is best. 
• To think about ourselves as old people and talk about what we might be able to do. 

How can you continue the learning at home? 

• Try some of the activities at home like counting pennies in towers or throwing the dice. 
• Count out objects in your home, for example, how many stairs are there on the way to bed? 
• Count the days until you do something important, like go on holiday, a special visit or until your child’s birthday.

 

Shake Rattle and Roll with the Music Man

We’ve been very lucky over the last couple of weeks because Martin the Music Man has been to visit us.

He brings his guitar and other instruments to play with us and we sing lots of songs. Can you remember any of the songs we have been learning? Maybe you can sing them at home as well. 

Martin will be coming for 10 weeks in total so we’ve got lots more to learn. We’re going to be doing some different music activities as well as the singing.

Don’t forget there is also the Shake Rattle and Roll Music club after school on Mondays with Martin. It is open to any child in Foundation Stage and their brothers and sisters (it doesn’t matter if they are older or younger), the only condition is that parents have to stay with the children. It is held in Nursery 3-3.45pm every Monday. Just let us know if you’d like to join in as well.

Fabulous Frogs!

We’ve been very lucky this year in Onyx class as we had some frogspawn arrive in our classroom way back in April.

It was very exciting after Miss Parker spotted some frogspawn in her pond and asked if we’d like to have some in school. Everyone said yes of course! Everyone already had a good idea about what would happen to it.

We watched our frogspawn as the tadpole began to hatch and thought what we might like to learn more about.

As we continued to watch the tadpoles grow we got an email from Miss Hulme and Diamond class in Nursery. They wanted to know if we could teach them more about our frogspawn and tadpoles. We decided that we would make them a book but as we find out lots of information on the computer that we’d make an ebook on the iPad for them. We had to find out some more information first so we knew we were teaching them the right things.

You can read our book for Nursery here. If you look at the book on the iPad it even has videos of our tadpoles in it. Please ask to see it in school.

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Everyone was very excited about the tadpoles and waited to see if they were frogs yet. Some of our parents and carers even stopped off each morning to see what was happening.

Finally after waiting a really long time our tadpole started to get legs at the front then the back. Eventually they turned into frogs! Can you see they still have a little bit of their tails left? 

We shared our learning with our parents and carers in our floor book and some parents commented on how they’d been continuing the learning at home. We love to hear when this has been happening.

Unfortunately we couldn’t keep the frogs at school forever. Miss Parker had to take them back to the pond where they came from so they could continue to grow. Maybe next year they’ll be the ones to lay the frogspawn and we’ll have some more at school.

 

What have we been learning? 

• To watch animals and see how they move and change over time. 
• To learn information from different sources and transfer this to telling others.
• To care for living creatures and make sure they are fed and the water is clean.
• To talk about our observations of living creatures.
• To describe the life cycle of a tadpole/ frog.
• To be patient!!!

How can you continue the learning at home? 

• It will be too late for this year now but next Spring do the same as Corey’s mum and look for Frogspawn in the local ponds. 
• Talk about life cycles- How is the frog lifecycle the same as the butterfly? How is is different? 
• Can you find any books at the Library (school or Manor Top) which have information in about life cycles? What else can you find out about? 

 

Run, Run, As Fast As You Can….. A Look Round School

Once we were all in school we had a visit from the Gingerbread Man! He left a note then ran off round the school so we had to go after him. It was an excellent chance to go and have a look round, especially for the children who hadn’t been in our Nursery.

We followed him to the Library upstairs, the Office, the Hall where we have dinner and back to Nursery to see Miss Hulme. We’d still not caught up with him so after that we had to go back upstairs to the staff room, outside and to Mrs Ainsley’s office. He told us to go to “the classroom which was best” and everyone straight away said our classroom! Thankfully when we got there we found him and he’d brought us some treats.

We had such a good time searching for the Gingerbread Man that we didn’t even realise we were learning where all the different places were in in our school.