Friday 27 April 2018

Plants

This half term we are learning all about plants! The children have learnt lots of scientific language and are now able to explain the process of germination using the correct names for parts of plants. Those of you who were in assembly I'm sure would agree that they have done a fantastic job!

The book we have been learning from is called 'from seed to sunflower' and it has helped us learn all about explanation texts.



We decided that now we are experts it would be a great idea to try and grow our own sunflowers, so these are now on the windowsill in class and we are keeping a close eye on them!





Thankfully, we have had some help from Emma's grandad who has given us this one and some top tips - thank you!


We have also begun another ongoing science project this week to do with plants. Last week, the children came up with their own plant questions. This week we decided we would put these to the test. Together, we decided to test these questions:



The children learned all about keeping our test fair and only changing the thing you were testing - in this case the amount of light, and in our other experiment the amount of water. We learnt that to be fair, everything else should be kept the same.





We have our own project books where we have decided which of the two experiments we would like to follow. We have made predictions about what we think will happen and talked about how we are answering our question. Over time, as the seeds begin to change we will record our observations.





Have you grown anything at home? 

Have a wonderful weekend!

Sunday 22 April 2018

Sunshine!

This week we have been very lucky with the weather and have taken the opportunity to make use of our wonderful KS1 outdoor area.

On Monday, we did some observational drawing and used nature as our inspiration. The children chose 2 natural objects and spent time observing them closely with magnifying glasses before sketching them in detail with a sketching pencil. We couldn't believe how much there really was to notice on a stick! Come and see our finished drawings on the washing line in class.

On Wednesday, we had an absolutely fantastic turnout for our weekly drop & read session (Wednesdays at 2.40pm - all welcome!) and it was so wonderful to see so many adults in our school enjoying time reading with the children in the sunshine.











On Fridays, we do an extended phonics session in preparation for the Y1 phonics screening and this week we made the most of the sunshine. The children moved around several activities, practising recognising and reading the sounds they have learnt in class. Here are the children in full swing!

Sorting split digraph sounds (a-e, o-e, i-e, e-e, u-e for example in made)





Spotting sounds (wh, ir and ue) in real and nonsense words







 Adult-led spelling



Finally,  during golden time on Friday, several little helpers were on hand to sort the outdoor area and make it look tidier for the summer, so you should see quite a difference when you are next out there! Keep an eye out for our sunflowers which we will be planting next week and have a wonderful weekend. 

Finley's party!

Our friend Finley will be starting a new school in September. To send him off, we decided to have a party! The children thought of some game...