Zooming Zog and Friends

If you remember our elf gave us a couple of presents before Christmas- a copy of the book Zog by Julia Donaldson and a toy Zog as well. Click on this link to see the full post

We were all very excited when we came back to school after Christmas because we’d seen Zog on the television during the holidays. We began to talk about Zog and what we knew about him. We read the book again and watched the animation. Everyone loved Zog so much we decided to try and learn the story for ourselves. Miss Parker helped us make a story map which helped us remember what came next. We also made sure we remembered to use the repeating text, “Now that you’ve been shown, you can practise on your own”. Can you remember the words and tell your grown up? 

When we were outside some of us had a go at learning to fly like Zog had done. It was a little bit risky but we talked about how to keep ourselves safe and look after our friends.

Some children also helped Zog out by helping him free animals, people and other objects which had got frozen in the ice. We had to try and work out the best way to free the objects in the quickest way. Can you remember how to melt the ice quickly? 

You can see what we said about it in our Floor Book and also see some conversations from the rest of the week.

When we watched the animation of Zog we also talked about how some of the other Julia Donaldson books which we’d been reading had been turned into animations as well. the children loved reading the books and watching the animations.

When we were watching Stick Man we made an important discovery: the animations had been made by humans. Even though we were watching them on the computer a person had to make it first. We wondered whether we could be animators too. We found out that we could.

Miss Parker found a programme which meant we could be animators called 2Animate on Purple Mash. We collected some ideas about what our animations could look like and after trying some as a class we made some of our own looking at the books to check. We had to work together in teams to make sure our animation was a joint effort.

Parents/ carers- your child has now been given their own password to use Purple Mash at home. Can you remember how to make an animation and show your grown ups? 

All week we had been reading more and more Julia Donaldson books. We couldn’t believe how many books she had written. Can you remember some of the other books that Julia Donaldson has written? There is a clue here! Have you read them all? Don’t forget to look in the library if you’ve not read them all. 

We decided that we wanted to find out more about Julia Donaldson. You can see some of our questions in the Floor Book here.

You can also see what we found out and also how we found it out. Some of our questions were answered by reading Julia Donaldson A Biography, some them we asked Google and some of them we answered by asking Siri when some children suggested this as a possible way of finding out information. We did talk about making sure we stay safe when using the internet and Siri or Alexa.

We had such a good time learning about Zog and then animation and then Julia Donaldson. Miss Parker and the teachers loved seeing the children’s ideas flow from one week to the next developing into the next focus. The following week we asked if Julia Donaldson was the only author and started to look at different authors whose books we might like. The children keep returning to Julia Donaldson though- she really is a favourite 🙂

The teachers were all really impressed by the children’s writing in the Floor Book and how their confidence is growing all the time at writing more independently. Well done everyone!

What have we been learning? 

• to retell stories we have heard. 
• to make animations using 2Animate. 
• to investigate what happens to ice. 
• to think about how things get onto the computer and tv screens we watch
• to find out about an author by asking questions. 
• to use books and computers to find out information.

How you can continue the learning at home? 

• Visit the library and find some Julia Donaldson books to read together. 
• Use your Purple Mash password and try to make an animation or picture of your own. Don’t forget to save it and let us know its there. https://www.purplemash.com
• See if you can find out about a different author- Which books have they written?

 

 

Our First Library Visit

Today was very exciting as we went to visit Manor Top Library for the first time. We all had to be super sensible because it meant going out of school and up past all the busy roads on Manor Top. We had to use the green man to help us cross the road and make sure we stopped at all the kerbs to check for cars.

Here we are walking to the Library…

We were all very excited to see the Library. Some of us had been before but not everyone had.

When we got into the Library we all took our coats off and found a special mat to sit on. We had to think about our behaviour in the Library and what might be the same and different to being in school. Everyone listened carefully when we knew we had to be quiet. We also remembered to walk around the Library and look after the books putting them back carefully when we’d finished with them.

Then Miss Parker and the teachers let us look at the books. We had a great time looking for the ones we thought looked the best. We were lucky so many grown ups came with us so they could help read the books with us. Some children found books they’d read before at home or in Nursery, some children found new books which they thought looked interesting for them.

We were sad when it was time to go back to school but we will get to visit again soon. Next time we can hopefully take a book home with us.

A BIG, BIG thank you to all the parents/ carers who came with us to the library 🙂  We love when you come to the Library with us. Look out for the next date in the classroom if you would like to come with us next time. 

What have we been learning? 

• to cross the roads safely. 
• to adapt our behaviour to different places and if we meet different people. 
• to enjoy looking at books for pleasure and looking for our favourites to read. 
• to spend quiet time looking at books on our own and with friends and grown ups. 

How can you continue the learning at home? 

• make sure your child has a FREE Library Card so they can bring a book home the next time we go the Library. Ask in class for a form to complete, 
• visit the Library with your child and look at the books together. 
• enjoy books together everyday.  A book at bedtime is an important part of your child’s bedtime routine. 
• talk to your child about staying safe near the roads and make sure you always model good behaviour near the roads because your children will copy what you do, even if you tell them to do differently. 

A Gingerbread Man Hunt

There was a strange message when we came into school the other Friday morning. We weren’t sure who it was from so we decided to follow the clue and see if we could find out more. First stop was the school library. When we got there we found another clue. We all had to do good listening and see if we could finish the rhymes to help Miss Parker work out where to go next.

After a few clues we’d worked out that it was the Gingerbread Man that had left us the clue and we had to be really quiet so we didn’t let him know we were coming. By the time we had finished we’d been all round the school, including the MUGA outside and past all of our older brother and sisters classrooms upstairs, and met lots of important people, like Mr Sieczkarek and Miss French. Following the clues meant we’d been upstairs and downstairs, inside and out. When we got back to “the room that is best”, we found the Gingerbread Man had left us a special treat to say well done.

The following week we did lots of learning about the Gingerbread Man. We checked that everyone knew the story and what happened at the beginning, the middle and the end of.  Some children enjoyed retelling the story in their own words. Some children enjoyed trying to write it on a BIG story map like they’d seen Miss Parker do.

What have we been learning? 

• Where places and people are in our new school. This is particularly important for the children who came to us from different settings. 
• The purpose of reading to find out more and help us solve problems. 
• To remember a familiar story and retell it in a variety of ways. 

How can you continue the learning at home? 

• Retell the story of the Gingerbread Man and other stories your child is familiar with. 
• Ask your child to retell stories in pictures and using words. 
• Point out to your child when you are finding something out by reading or reading for pleasure to help them understand why reading it so important. 

Fantastic Football

We have been LOVING the World Cup in Onyx Class since it started. There are lots of children who are interested in football and they are embracing the opportunity to learn key skills through the topic of football.

We watched some of the highlights and talked about the scores in our Maths learning. We added to our classroom provision and played our own football matches of finger football. We loved when Miss Parker brought some football magazines and were motivated to read and find out about our favourite players.

In our literacy we thought about stories which were about football and wrote some of our own.

We wrote stories altogether and we wrote our own stories in our books.

Photos of stories to follow.

We’ll continue to keep watching the football I’m sure. We’re all keeping our fingers crossed England continue to do well

What have we been learning?

• To add scores together to find out how many were scored altogether.
• To recognise the numbers on players shirts.
• To use our fingers with control to ‘kick’ the football.
• To make up stories which include our favourite footballers.
• To write our own stories.
• To talk about our favourite footballers.

How can you continue the learning?

• When looking at football scores, work out how many goals were scored altogether. Can you write the number sentences?
• Make up your own stories using a beginning and middle and end. It doesn’t need to be about football.

Escape from the Volcano

Everyone had been talking about volcanos and playing a game called ‘Escape from the Lava’ for ages so we decided we should learn about volcanoes in class.

Miss Parker found a book which told us a bit more about volcanoes. Can you remember what it taught us?

We also watched a video that lots of us had seen at home. You can watch it again here. Can you tell a grown up how an island grows?

Then we watched some videos of some real volcanoes and found out there were volcanoes erupting right now while we were in school. We thought about how we would feel if there was lava coming towards our homes. Miss Parker told us about when she went to an volcano but thankfully it wasn’t erupting when she was there.

We thought how we would help the people in Hawaii escape after they wrote to us asking for help. We came up with a few suggestions.

There was lots more role play and children wanting to experience what it was like to be near the lava. Outside was a popular place for this and the children loved building bridges and other ways to stay safe. They used our loose parts in all sorts of imaginative ways and even added water to be lava.

 

As the children were so engrossed in making up stories we used this to practise our writing skills. First we had to THINK IT and decide what we wanted to happen in our story. We drew a story map to help us remember it.

Then we had to SAY IT for each sentence so we could remember what to write. Then we had to WRITE IT. We worked hard to sound out the words and think of the letters we needed to write. Here is the beginning and the middle of the story.

When we had written it we had to READ IT to see if we’d done a good job. Can you see the ticks and crosses on our writing? We used the sentence hand to make sure we’d remembered everything putting a tick if we had and a cross if we hadn’t. On Wednesday we forgot our capital letter but on Thursdays we remembered them.

from Sparklebox.co.uk

Do you think you could write the end of the story? You could write it on paper and bring it to school or put it in a comment below or an email.

Our learning about volcanoes went over two weeks because we were all so interested and there was so much to learn and do. We decided we wanted to make a volcano of our own and see if we could make it erupt. It took us all week to make. We started with a bottle and some masking tape.

Then we had to use papier-mâché to build the shape of the volcano. It took a long time because we had to wait for it to dry in between.

 

Everyone enjoyed helping with our volcano which was good because there were still more jobs. Next we had to paint our volcanoes. First we painted the mountain and the grass before we added the lava. We used one of our volcano books to help us think what the volcano should look like.

 

Finally our volcano was ready and it was time to watch it erupt. Miss Parker used bicarbonate of soda and white vinegar to create the lava inside the volcano. Everybody loved it and said it was well worth the wait.

We loved learning about volcanoes.

What have we been learning?

• To find out about volcanoes using videos and books.
• To find out where volcanoes are using first hand experiences and technology.
• To build our own volcano and watch it erupt.
• To role play what we think it would be like near a volcano which is erupting.
• To make up stories about volcanoes.
• To think how to stay safe near volcanoes and send our ideas to Hawaii.

How can you continue the learning?

• Watch the video above and talk about how the volcanoes grow.
• Use Google to find videos of real volcanoes and watch the lava flow (Make sure before doing any Google search with children that you have the appropriate safety measures in place)
• Continue the story above writing it either on paper or typing it.