Star of the Week!

Last week, Lucy and Mia were both awarded 'Star of the Week'. Congratulations and well done to both of you!

Good to be Me!

We reflected on the story of Noah's Ark and reminded the children that God had chosen Noah because he was such a 'good' person. 

Then we told them that there was a very special person we would like them to see, and invited them to take turns and look inside the 'mystery box' - "It's me!" (there was a mirror inside!)


We talked about how special everyone is in their own way and that we can all be proud of ourselves and our friends. We passed the 'happy' face round the group to share our thoughts and ideas:

I feel happy and proud to be me when . . . 

"I make things; I can make butterflies" (Mia)

"I keep trying and trying to climb a tree and now I can" (Oliver BH)

"I go swimming and swim without my life jacket. And when I go to baby ballet and practise my dancing" (Isabel C)

I am proud of . . . 

"My daddy - because he's fun" (Jaydn)

"Cherry - she is kind" (Georgia)

"My friend Megan - I love her!" (Theo)

The children then drew their self-portraits in their 'Good to be me!' picture frames.

We would love to hear about what you, or somebody you know has done that made you feel proud - post us a comment and let us know! 

Growthability!

This half-term's Darwin principle is Growthability/Good to be me. 
We hope the following will be a useful insight into what it is all about!

Growthability from huntytelford

Billy's Beetle

Billy has lost his beetle. Who will be the one to find it? 

As we had been thinking about lots of different animals on Noah's Ark this week, this seemed a great story to share as our next book from our focus author Mick Inkpen!

Click here to visit our story blog and find out more!

All Aboard!

It was lovely to all be back together again after the half-term break, and we talked about the weather we have been having recently.

We thought about what might happen if it kept raining, and asked the children if they knew a story about this . . . 

Erin P was able to tell us about Noah's Ark:

"It rained so much there was a huge flood. They ate and they played in the ark. Noah built the ark because the flood was coming. God told him."

We decided to create our own ark for our new role play area . . . 

We used sponge rollers to paint the ark

What do you think we used to paint the sea?

It was fun sticking on different colours for our rainbow

Can you see which animals we made?




Now we can enjoy dressing up as Noah and the animals, sort and count the animals, and sing songs or share story books about animals!

Have you got any favourite songs or story books about animals? We would love to hear about them. Post us a comment and let us know.

Muddy Artists!

We have been artists in our Forest School area today. We used the trees as easels and made mud to paint with. We painted the trees and daffodils around us; using charcoal to add detail to our paintings.   

 What do you think of our paintings?

Star of the Week!

Prior to the half-term holiday, Cherry, Sienna and Oliver BH were all awarded

 'Star of the Week'. 

Congratulations and well done to all of you!

Kipper's birthday

We enjoyed finding out about Mardi Gras, and thought about other celebrations that people have. This book about Kipper's birthday by Mick Inkpen seemed to be the ideal choice for our next story!

Click here to read some of the comments from the children following the story!

Happy Mardi Gras!

We have been having lots of fun this week finding out about Mardi Gras!

Mardi Gras is actually Fat Tuesday in French. Other names for this day include Shrove Tuesday and Pancake Day. Lots of us were going to have pancakes for our tea as it is a common tradition to use up all the  eggs, milk and butter in the kitchen prior to Ash Wednesday when some people fast for Lent.  

We have been using the colours of Mardi Gras - purple, green and gold - to create our own hats, necklaces and masks to wear for our own 
Mardi Gras parade . . .

We hope you have enjoyed looking at our wonderful designs!

Music Making at Forest School

We had fun thinking of different ways to make musical sounds today. We used saucepans, water, sticks , rocks and stones to  make banging, clinking, clanging and clonking sounds.

Can you think of any other items that would make good musical sounds?

Star of the Week!

Our 'Stars' for last week were Zoe, Grace 

and Theo.

Congratulations and well done to all of you!

King or Queen for a Day!

Having talked to the children about Kings, Queens and castles, we thought it would be fun for the children to imagine what they would do if they were . . .

King for a day . . .

. . . or Queen for the day

Here are some of their responses:

King Finley - "Read stories, build with the wooden blocks"

Queen Alesha - "Play hide and seek with Megan in the big castle"

King Oliver L - "I'd like to do painting in the garden. I would paint a farm - pigs, cows, kittens and cats and a donkey"

Queen Georgia - "I'd like to paint in the castle. I'd paint a flower, a red one for mummy"

What would you like to do if you were King or Queen for the day?

Post us a comment and let us know!

Kings, Queens and Castles!

We have been enjoying 'There was a Princess long ago' this week - and afterwards spending time exploring our own great castle in the school grounds!

We talked to the children about their current knowledge of castles, and this is what a few of them told us:

"Castles are big with windows. 

They are far, far away!" (Ella)

"A dragon sleeps in a castle, he goes 'Rrrrrrrr'- fire comes out!" (Eli)

"I've been to the Queen's Palace. There was soldiers and they were marching. The Queen wasn't there because her car wasn't there." (Zoe)

"I got a castle at my house. They are dark, really, really dark inside." (William)

Finley drew a great picture of a castle 

And Grace drew a wonderful King!

Have you visited a castle? 

Post us a comment and let us know all about it.

Lullabyhullaballoo!

Last week we came across the Giant from Jack and the Beanstalk when we read the story of 'Who's been eating my porridge?' (Nick Ward). This led to us talking about the castle that he lived in.

With this in mind, we thought the children would enjoy this next book from our Mick Inkpen collection, the story is about the little Princess who can't get to sleep. 

Click here to see what the children thought of the story!

Star of the Week!

What a lot of 'Stars' we had last week! 

They included Alfie, Cherry, Oliver L, Kendra, Boyan and Alesha.

Well done and congratulations to all of you.