Willow Class
Willow Spring term
Sian Peel (speel) on: Willow Class
Willow class have been very, very busy over the spring term. Just read on to find out what we’ve been doing.
In RE this term, we have been learning about Christianity, during these lessons pupils have been encouraged to look at photographs of churches, explore artefacts and listen to stories. In one lesson, we also baptised a doll, which the students named “Ann”. What an enjoyable time they had, role playing the baptism, all watching the process and eagerly awaiting their turn.
Our focus on maths this term, has been 2d shapes, time we have been learning about them by engaging in a range of activities, for example, shape songs, shape sorting, puzzles, finding shapes in the sands, drawing around shapes or going free style. In time we have been sequencing the days of the week by using symbols.
In literacy this term, we have been exploring a spring verse and after listening to it a few times, were able to indicate what came next. We were also really good at finding the correct image or word linked to the verse. We are currently exploring the book ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ and we are becoming experts at using our skills to predict what came next in the story by using signing or pictures.
In geography, we have been learning about Egypt and the Pyramids, which also had an historical element too. We investigated how Egyptian people built the pyramids by watching short films, it looked like extremely hard work. Our pyramids were much simpler to make, because we used triangular paper, PVA and sand, we made them to embellish our unique background scene on our display board. We had a go at making 3D pyramids by using the ‘build a den’ resources to make our models, it was quite tricky and needed lots of concentration.
In DT we also made moving pictures by creating a desert scene and moving camel, many of the pupils demonstrated lots of curiosity, using both hands to move the camel forwards and backwards across the picture.
Our geographical experiences didn’t stop there because we are ‘Junior explorers’ of our amazing world and we used are knowledge to orienteer the school. This was fun, we explored school by looking at all the different rooms/classrooms; we even had a treasure hunt activity. For this we were given clues on the doors, and we had to show the staff where to go next, we were blown away by the skills and memories of the pupils. They had great fun!
We hope you have a lovely Easter break.
Willow Class
Autumn Term
Sian Peel (speel) on: Willow Class
Willow class has had a brilliant first half term after the summer holidays. Pupils have been getting to know their new peers, seeing old ones again and settling into their new routine.
All the children have been enjoying this term’s topic ‘Music from around the World’, this has given the children opportunities to experience different musical styles. They have explored and engaged well with different instruments and were encouraged to play along to the music.
Some of our pupils access sensory circuits each morning to support their readiness to learn, this is new to some pupils and others have been doing a sensory circuits for a while. This helps them to regulate and be ready for learning in their school day.
Celebrating the harvest festival children took part in the lower school assembly and tasted lots of different fruits. Leading on from the assembly we had a Harvest Hoe down, pupils from lower school took part in dancing, apple bobbing and other fun games.
Our journey through the mountains, deserts and seas
Sian Peel (speel) on: Willow Class
During the Summer term, we have been focusing on the theme ‘Mountains, Deserts and Seas’. We have explored the theme across all subject areas and our Music lessons have been a real highlight.
We focused on yodelling while we were in the mountains. We listened to some famous Swiss yodellers and we tried yodelling using boom whacker tubes.
On our travels to the desert, we listened to Middle Eastern music and played along with guitars and maracas.
We then listened to rhythmic sea shanties with strong beats whilst we played drums and tambourines.
Mountains, Deserts and Seas.
Sian Peel (speel) on: Willow Class
This half term has been another busy one for Willow! We've had great fun exploring mountains, deserts and seas and discovering the animals that we might find there. We have had great fun investigating texture, sound and smells relating to different habitats. This half term we also enjoyed "Pupil Voice Day" - a day dedicated to doing lots of fun activities as voted for by our school council. In Willow we had a fabulous time making "Silly Soup" out of lots of wild and whacky ingredients and we joined in with some Bollywood dancing in the hall.
The Colour Monster
Sian Peel (speel) on: Willow Class
In Willow Class this term we have been reading The Colour Monster. The students have explored a variety of emotions and created their own books.
Each page was made to represent a different emotion and created in a different way. This included using bright yellow paint and sparkly tinsel for happiness, pipettes to drip tears of blue paint for sadness, and rolling a spiky ball in hot curry scented red paint for anger.
The books the students made are absolutely beautiful and so they then took the opportunity to share these with students from Maple Class, who came to read with them.
Class 4 Welcome Back!
Class 4 Welcome Back!
Laura Walton (lwalton) on: Class 4 Welcome Back!
In Class 4, we have had a wonderful time settling into our new class group. Our theme this term is 'Music around the World', so we have been having lots of fun travelling the world through sensory stories and exploring different music. Autumn is such a special season and we have been discovering how nature is changing through nature walks and lots of exciting activities.
