Blog week ending 06.10.22

It has been a fantastic, busy week in Pear Class.
 
In RWI this week we have been learning the sounds 'f,e,l,h and r'. We are really working hard to use these sounds and blend them into words using our magnet boards. Please continue to help your child to practise the sounds learnt at home. We will be assessing the children next week so that we are able to start to split into groups so that the children can progress at their own rate.
 
In our mathematical work we have been sorting  buttons and continuing to use the language similar and different to explain our groups. We have also been comparing amounts of groups using Autumnal produce. We played a game with a partner where we had to choose a number between one and five and represent that number using pine cones. We then had to decide whose plate had the more than the other on and whose plate had fewer than the other. We were then challenged to add or take away pine cones to make sure that we both had an equal amount as each other.  Lots of children can easily see and explain more than but less than is more tricky and although children can see when they have the same amount they find it difficult to work out how they can make their groups the same. Try working on this over the weekend using a pile of Autumn leaves on your walk – can you make piles of leaves and ask them to make a pile that is equal to yours, has fewer than yours or more than yours?
 
 
This week for our topic learning, we have been looking at the early sings of the season Autumn and learning all about seed dispersal. We enjoyed reading the story The Tiny Seed and we discussed how seeds are spread through the wind or from animals storing or eating them and then pooing them out! We know that plants need soil, water and sunlight so they are very clever by having seeds that can spread far and wide, so that they don’t have to compete in one area. We went on a walk of our school grounds looking for seeds such as maple keys, acorns, conkers and berries. We used playdough to create a ‘scene for our seeds’ and explained to each other what happened during seed dispersal.

 

Alongside this, we have been celebrating Black History Month by learning about famous role models both past and present who are BAME and have made positive contributions to the world. We spent lots of time discussing how we would feel if we were treated differently and excluded from things based on how we looked. We role played sitting on a bus and telling some children they weren’t allowed to join us. Those of us not able to sit on the bus felt very sad and excluded. Throughout this month we will continue to share with the children lots of famous BAME role models to celebrate those under- represented in our society. 

 

This week our role model was the artist Alma Thomas. We explained how she was a special artist because not only did she make fabulous art work, but she was the first black woman to have her art displayed in a famous art gallery which was a real achievement because black women especially did not usually get the chance to have this recognition. We explored colour mixing with primary colours and used Autumn pictures as a stimulus to talk about how the colours we see in Autumn are warm colours. We then used rubbers to print with colour to recreate our own version of Alma Thomas's paintings. They are hanging in our hallway so please do take a look!

Later in the week, Pear class have been starting to understand that some people are Christians and Christians believe that Jesus and God are special. They have been finding out about the Christian celebration of baptism and exploring what happens when a Christian is baptized. They have been finding out about the Christian belief that God loves everyone and that He has everyone’s name written on the palm of his hand. As a follow up activity for this, the children drew around their own hand and wrote their name on their palm. We will continue to explore Christianity alongside other world religions as the year progresses. Children will begin to understand that people have different beliefs, opinions and thoughts and that we are all special.

We are very kind friends in Pear class and as a result, we were able to help solve Jigsaw Jenie’s problem. When a (pretend) friend was not very kind to her at all, Pear class were brilliant at helping her to think of ways to feel better and at suggesting ways for Jenie’s friend to behave in a nicer, happier way. Pear class can discuss the importance of ‘gentle hands’ and helped Jerry Cat 'Paws for thought'.

 P.E this week saw many slithery, slippery snakes in our school hall! Pear class have been thoroughly enjoying our ‘gym in the jungle’ sessions! We thought about the way that snakes moved and used a range of apparatus to move over and under- just like snakes! We also thought about how snakes can hide under rocks, wriggle through tunnels and curl around trees. So that we were warmed up and ready to be super slithery snakes, we enjoyed lots of fast paced warm up activities; the traffic light game, moving forwards, backwards and sideways and  playing the ‘rock pool game’. Pear class impressed us with their excellent listening skills and enjoyed a fun-filled end to the session with parachute games.

Our Charanga music session this week saw some beautiful dancing to the song ‘Sing a rainbow’ by Peggy Lee, complete with rainbow scarves. The children thought about how the music made them feel; some saying it made them feel calm, some children felt relaxed and others felt happy and even “colourful”. Pears were great at finding the pulse of the song and then clapping along to the pulse of the song ‘This old man, he played 1…’ They then shared and performed their fantastic renditions of the song.

 Another fantastic and fun-filled week in Pear class!

Have a lovely weekend,
 
Mrs H-S and Mrs T