Blog 22 - 19th April

Click the link below for song words! 
Hello Apple Class and a very warm welcome to our new children and parents! Hopefully you have all received Apple Class Lets Get Learning, via email - which is our newsletter for this half term.
 
This week we have delved straight into our first topic of this half term which is 'Spring!' The children have been exploring, investigating, comparing and learning new words too! We have had such a busy week! Our motto in Apple Class is to always have 'busy fingers and a busy brain" and this week we have absolutely have done that! 
 
Firstly, the children were asked the questions 'how do we know it's Spring? What are the signs of Spring?' We spent a lot of the week discussing these questions, as we found that there are a lot of signs to tell us that it's Spring!
 
Following our discussions we started to look at and discuss spring photos. The children were encouraged to speak in full sentences to tell us their knowledge of Spring. 
 
Our outdoor learning this week has taken us on a nature Spring walk - looking for those signs of Spring that we have been discussing in the classroom! The children spotted buds and blossom on the trees, daffodils growing in the grass and the children noticed many more birds in the sky and in our school grounds. When the children got back inside, they had to draw something that they had remembered  seeing on their Spring walk.  Can you look for signs of Spring over the weekend? This is an ideal opportunity to reinforce and practise the key vocabulary from above.
 
Most parents really appreciate a little task that you can do with your child together at home. So here is a little suggested task for next week. This does follow on from our learning that we've been doing all week and it can easily be uploaded onto your child's learning journal:
 
Can you look for signs of spring where you live? Can you collect up to 10 Spring objects from your garden? (Aim for your child to do this independently and make sure that they are counting out loud and touching each item as they say a number.)  
 
If counting out 10 items is too easy, you can make this more challenging and extend their learning further by asking them to collect 2 flowers, 3 pebbles, 4 leaves and 5 strands of grass (or whatever you like). This can then lead onto some practical addition. We have 2 flowers and 3 pebbles how many do we have altogether?  If up to 10 items is to challenging - work on making a set of 5 items. 
 
Wednesday we welcomed our Musical Apples sessions. As always, there was lots of singing - we have been learning a new songs 'Spring is here.' I've attatched the song words for you to continue practising at home over the weekend.
 
 
Our core text this week has been Lulu loves flowers. 
 
Have a very happy weekend everyone. 
 
Bye for now, 
 
Mrs Farrar