Reception loved their first Huish Christmas dinner! We all looked very festive in our Christmas jumpers and enjoyed our festive roast, sharing jokes and pulling crackers.
Reception have been very busy learning our songs and dances for our nativity ‘Baarmy Bethlehem’. The children were very excited to try on their costumes for the first time!
Reception have enjoyed the brief flurry of snow today - what fun! We wrapped up warm in our coats, hats and gloves but we couldn't stay out for too long - it was freezing!
In classes 1 and 2 this week we have been learning about Diwali, the festival of light, and how it is celebrated. We watched a video showing a Hindu family’s celebrations. We made links to other celebrations we know such as Bonfire Night and Christmas. We were interested to learn about Rangoli patterns and how they are made. We had a go at using coloured rice to complete a whole-class Rangoli pattern. We read the story ‘Dipal’s Diwali’ and saw how diya lamps were used to decorate Dipal’s home. We made our own diya lamps and decorated them beautifully.
In Classes 1 and 2 in our PSHE lesson this week, we have thought about what we look like. We carefully felt our own faces, gently paying attention to particular features on our faces. We examined our faces closely in a mirror, thinking about the shapes we could see and how different features of our faces looked. We talked about how we are all different to each other and no two of our faces look the same and that it is important that we respect ourselves and others. In groups, we tried to assemble cut-up photos of ourselves from a jumble of eyes, noses and mouths which made us really have to look carefully!
Classes 1 and 2 have started their ‘Winter’ topic this term learning about some different celebrations that happen at this time of year. We have learned all about Bonfire Night and enjoyed making firework pictures using different techniques. We watched a fireworks video together and used musical instruments to create a very noisy fireworks soundscape! We enjoyed making our own sparklers using junk modelling materials.
This week, we have also been learning about Diwali and have made our own diya lamps using clay, paint and adding lots of sparkle. We have also created Rangoli patterns in lots of different ways.
This week we looked at the work of Andy Goldsworthy and learned about how he uses natural materials to create pictures and sculptures. We talked about Autumn and went on an Autumn walk to collect natural materials of our own such as leaves, pebbles and pine cones. Back in the classroom, we used our found objects to create Andy Goldsworthy inspired designs.
Classes 1 and 2 have been enjoying creating some beautiful sunflowers. We looked very carefully at some sunflowers admiring the intricate patterns and colours we could see. We have been learning about all the things that grow and are harvested at this time of year and have learned some harvest songs – Big Red Combine Harvester and Harvest Samba.
We are so pleased with how well the children have settled in to school life at Huish. They are now very familiar with the routines and have been very busy making new friends.
They have enjoyed a tour of the school on their ‘listening walk’ and have been exploring different areas such as the outdoor classroom and the Reception garden. Our topic this term is ‘All About Me’. The children have been talking about what makes them unique and making self portraits with paint and through collage.
We were so excited to try the delicious food at lunch time in the hall!
The children in Reception have thoroughly enjoyed learning about minibeasts over the past few weeks.
They have learnt lots of interesting facts about spiders, bees, snails and worms and were very keen to learn more through minibeast hunts in the school grounds. The children then worked together to construct a minibeast hotel from a range of natural materials found in the garden. We were all very excited to find that many minibeasts have already made their home in our hotel and are thriving!
Linking to our work about minibeasts, Reception have focused on the book ‘Superworm.’ After reading the story we drew our first story map to help us retell the story to our friends using vocabulary from the text.
To celebrate National Joke Day we challenged the children to choose and rehearse a joke to tell to the class. We all had lots of laughs listening to all of the jokes and were very proud of the children for their confidence when performing. Well done everyone!
In Reception for our People Who Help Us Topic and to celebrate National Nurses Week- we invited Nurse Catherine to come and visit us. She talked about her job and how she helps people and also how we can keep ourselves healthy. She then let us dress up as nurses with gloves and aprons- we had lots of fun!
In Reception we have been celebrating Local History Month by thinking about Huish Primary School over time. We looked at old photographs of the school and spoke to both pupils and teachers who had learnt and taught at the old school site. We discussed how school uniform has changed and how classrooms and lessons are different now. We went to look at the bell tower from the old school and the time capsule which is in our school hall now. We had lots of fun thinking about what children might have put in there!
The children in Reception had an amazing time visiting Reverend Graham at St John’s church today. We all took part in a treasure hunt around the church to find five hidden letters which would spell out a very special word. We learnt lots about churches along the way and got to see some very special features in the church including the pews, altar, lectern, font, organ and stained glass windows. At the end we unjumbled the letters s, j, e, s and u to spell….. Jesus! Reverend Graham explained why Jesus is so important to him and how people worship with him in church.
To increase their vocabulary, Children in reception have enjoyed dressing up as their favourite word and sharing them with the class.
We have been very busy in Reception with lots of Christmas craft projects. We have been making salt dough tree decorations, printing with pom poms to make wreaths and decorating felt candy cane holders. We have enjoyed decorating our class Christmas trees and looking for our cheeky class elves in the morning.
During Art Week we have been thinking about Autumn and the natural world around us. We had lots of fun exploring our outdoor environment, paying careful attention to the colours that we see at this time of year. We used this knowledge to help us to collage autumn leaves and paint autumn trees, which are now displayed in our classroom. We then learnt lots of facts about hedgehogs, which can often be seen during the Autumn months, and used paint and leaves to decorate our own pictures of them. To finish the week, we learnt about an artist who also enjoys working in his natural environment- Andy Goldsworthy. We explored his works, and taking inspiration from his designs, we used materials that we found in our garden to design patterns using leaves, sticks and rocks. The results were amazing and we showed great team-working skills during the process!
Reception children thoroughly enjoyed their trip to Yeovil library this week. All the adults were very impressed with how sensibly the children walked to and from the library- demonstrating their excellent listening skills.
We learnt all about how to join the library and also had time to explore the children’s area and sit and enjoy a book of our choice.
We have been learning about the Easter story and how Christians celebrate this special time. We painted Easter pictures and took part in a variety of Easter-themed crafts. We thoroughly enjoyed our Easter egg hunt and collected our eggs in our Easter baskets.
We were so excited to come to school today dressed as our chosen words. We shared our words with the class and explained their meaning. We then took part in a vocabulary parade on the playground with Year 1 & 2 where we got to share our costumes.
This week we enjoyed our very first school trip to Gore Farm, where we met Tessa and Stuart the farmers. We then had the chance to explore the farm- where we got to meet ducks, chickens, cows, turkeys and geese. We also learnt about tractors and had a ride on the trailer to the woods where we looked for wildlife including hedgehogs, rabbits, grey squirrels and badgers.
Alex, from the RSPCA Hedgehog Hospital, came to visit today to talk about British Wildlife and how the RSPCA rescue and care for wild animals in distress. We learned about the animals who the RSPCA might help and met Alex’s (pretend) pet hedgehog. She showed us how hedgehogs are cared for and returned to their natural habitat. Did you know a hedgehog’s favourite meal is cat food with bugs on it?! We found out about what to do if we see an animal we are worried about. We enjoyed making little hedehogs from modelling materials and sticks!
All the children have enjoyed connecting with others as part of wellbeing week. The treasure hunt with Year 3 was the highlight our week and our new friends helped us to read and find the clues. It was fun chatting to new people and getting to know other areas of the school. We have also enjoyed some mindfulness activities such as yoga and meditation as well as taking this week’s positivity-pebble spotting very seriously!
The children have thoroughly enjoyed our topic based on traditional tales. After reading the story of The Three Billy Goats Gruff, the children worked hard to construct bridges using a variety of materials. They also had lots of fun painting trolls and making models using playdough.
To link with our topic work we wrote speech bubbles for the goats and the troll, as well as longer sentences describing key events from the story.
Class 1 and 2 have been thinking about fairy tale creatures for Art Week linking to our ‘Once Upon a Time’ topic. As well as enjoying some collage and junk modelling, we have drawn charcoal ‘big bad wolf’ pictures and painted fairy tale forest backdrops for some bears which we drew carefully with pens.
To celebrate International Day, we learnt lots of new things about India. We looked at India on a map and looked at where it is in relation to Great Britain. We then looked at some of the animals that live in India- including tigers, elephants, cobras and river dolphins! We also looked at some important landmarks in India- including the Taj Mahal. Reception also enjoyed watching a Bollywood dance and then learning some dance moves to dance along. We had great fun! To finish our International Day activities we looked at pictures of peacocks- the national bird of India- and made our own 3D peacocks using a paper plate and paint.
On Wednesday we had lots of fun in the snow!
We have had a very busy couple of weeks in Reception in preparation for Christmas. Firstly a huge well done to all the children for their fantastic performances in the nativity play. We were very proud of you all. We have also been very busy crafting- making salt dough tree decorations, chocolate truffles and Christmas cards for our families. On Monday we all enjoyed the Reception Christmas party where we played games, danced, enjoyed a party tea and even had a visit from Santa. We were also lucky enough to have a visit from Nutty Noah, who put on a magic show for us- we all thought he was very funny!
The children have loved celebrating Children in Need today, dressing in their spotty clothes and enjoying a yummy cake!
The children have been very busy in class consolidating their understanding of numbers to 5. They have made 2, 3, 4 and 5 in different ways and solved problems involving numbers to 5, playing games such as guessing the number of cars hiding under the cup! We enjoyed solving problems in the context of ‘the teddy bears’ picnic’, using playdoh to feed the bears and practise our mathematical language!
We have been learning to write sentences using our ‘red words’ and our phonics knowledge to spell simple words. Our writing is looking amazing!
We have enjoyed learning about different Winter festivals. We looked at Bonfire Night and made beautiful firework pictures. The children made Rangoli patterns with coloured rice just like those celebrating Diwali do and we learned about Hanukkah, practising our fine motor skills to make our own Menorah. We also learned about Remembrance Day and used printing to make fields of poppies. With our Nativity approaching fast, we learned about the story of Christmas and have been rehearsing lots of nativity songs – the children are very excited to perform them!
We have been learning about Winter as our topic this term. The children have been learning about how to keep themselves warm in colder weather, discussing the type of clothing we need to stay safe and warm and practising doing tricky zips and buttons to build their independence.
Class 1 have done amazingly well in their first few weeks at school. They have been incredibly busy learning the new sounds ‘s’ ‘a’ and ‘t’ in phonics and writing these in their books. In maths we have been learning all about numbers 0 and 1 and have learned about The Zero Pond and King One. We have also been practising writing our names and getting to know each other through lots of opportunities to play and make new friends! We have really enjoyed lunch times in the hall and trying the delicious food that has been on offer.
Class 1 enjoy a foot spa and cake to cool down in the heat ?
Class 1 had lots of fun at Fun Sports.
Class 1 had a fantastic trip to Gore Farm. For a lot of us this was the first experience of going to a farm and going on a coach. The children learnt lots of facts about how a working farm works from day to day. We explored the life cycle of a chicken, duck and goose and we were lucky enough to hold these chicks. The children were able to look around the farm and meet the new calves and piglets. We enjoyed our picnic outside in the sunshine. In the afternoon, we went on a tractor ride around the farm exploring 4 different fields that were growing different crops. The children enjoyed collecting the barley, rapeseed and corn. We had a brilliant time on our trip to Gore Farm, we look forward to going again soon.
Class 1 & 2 have enjoyed learning about the life cycle of a chicken. We have been lucky enough to look after our very own chicks for the these past 2 weeks. We watched them hatch out into the incubator and once they’d fluffed up we transferred them into their brooder box. The children have been making sure the chicks have enough water and food everyday and have loved watching them grow. We will be sad to see them go.
As part of our topic on People Who Help Us we had a visit from nurse Catherine. She told us about the many places where nurses work. She showed us her uniform and some of the equipment she uses to care for patients. Nurse Catherine gave us all aprons, facemasks and plastic gloves to wear.
Class 1 had a fantastic trip to Ninesprings. We learnt lots about plants and minibeast. The children enjoyed making clay models of their favourite minibeasts. They then made miniature dens for their bugs to live in.
We collected leaves and did some leaf printing. We even had time to go to the park. We really enjoyed our first trip out in the beautiful sunshine.
Class 1 enjoyed their first World Book Day at school. We shared lots of our favourite books and discussed our favourite characters. We had lots of fun!!
Class 1 enjoyed making bird feeders. We went on a welly walk around the school to hang the bird feeders.
Class 1 enjoyed dressing up for Children in Need. We have raised lots of money! Well done Class 1!
We enjoyed learning about the importance of remember day and why this day is so important to remember those who lost their life to save our country. The children made a poppy and we put these together to create a class wreath. We laid our wreath next to the Huish flag pole to show our respects.
This term are topic is Winter. We will be learning lots of different things relating to winter.
This week we have started off with Polar Bears. The children have been learning lots of fun facts all about Polar Bears. We have discussed blubber and how that keeps the Polar Bears warm. The children have been very creative and made a very fluffy Polar Bear.
We have been very busy this week with all our learning! We are all very tired!
This week we have been learning m and d. Also the red words no and go! We can now Fred talk then words mad, dad, pin, in and am.
In Maths we have learnt numbers 4 and 5. We have also been looking at composition of numbers (How to make a number e.g 2+3 4+1 etc)
In our topic we have been on a wellie walk collecting autumn leaves and played a circle time game of passing the emotion around the circle.
Class 1 have been very busy this week learning new letter sounds, s, a, t, p and we have enjoyed starting Maths and learning numbers 1 & 2.
Our topic this term is ‘All About Me’ where the children learn what makes them ‘unique’. We have been discussing that we are all different, we look different, we like different things and we all have different families.
We have all had a great start at Huish Primary School. We have been exploring our classroom and outside area. We are beginning to make new friends and learn the routines of school.
Class 1 have been learning all about treasures in the garden as part of our summer term topic. We loved going on a bug hunt around the school to see what we could find. We found snails, woodlouse, ladybirds, butterflies, spiders and ants.
Class 1 have really enjoyed experimenting different types of solutions to make bubbles, we made bubble wands and tried make the biggest bubble possible.
Class 1 enjoyed learning about recycling and creating different models as part of their home learning.
Today we had a visit form Helen, the ‘Life Education Van’. We learnt about our bodies and how to look after them. She had a friend called Harold the Giraffe. He talked about his feelings and looking after his body. He went for a sleep over at his Grandparents house.
Class 1 have enjoyed making Gingerbread Men, they were delicious!
We have been learning the story of the Gingerbread Man and we have written instructions on how to make the biscuit.
Class 1 have enjoyed learning the story about Zog this week by Julia Donaldson. We have made some crowns like Princess Pearl and have written some amazing sentences describe Zog and Princess Pearl. We are looking forward to writing a shortened version of the story next week to go on our writing wall ?
We have loved watching the chicks grows! Class 1 have been brilliant at looking after them ? We will be sad to see them go on Friday.
We are very excited to welcome two new chicks into reception this morning!
We are looking forward to meeting the rest shortly ?
Day 1: we are very excited to welcome 10 new chicks into Class 1. We will be looking after them and waiting for them to hatch! We are very excited.
We have really enjoyed exploring our new garden this morning. We have been learning how to keep ourselves safe when playing out there independently, and how to look after it and keep it tidy.
We loved going on a Easter egg hunt! They were delicious.
This week in maths the children have been learning their numbers bonds to 5 & 10. They have leant a new rhyme to help them remember the number bonds to 10.
They worked practically, investigating different ways of making 5 & 10. They had to use the part whole model and a 5s and 10s frame to help them find the different bonds. They reordered their investigation on mini white boards to practise writing number sentences.
This week we have been scientists! We have been learning all about plants. We can now name all the different parts of a plant and start to understand how they help the plant to grow. We have all planted a sunflower, so now we are just waiting and observing to see what will happen.
Along side this, we have been exploring different science experiments including, colour mixing with skittles, making lava lamps and re-growing vegetables. We have been developing our observing skills and discussing what we can see. Class 1 have enjoyed science week! We cant wait for our sunflowers to start growing!
We really enjoyed celebrating our friends birthdays on Friday. As we all know we cannot have birthday parties at the moment due to current restrictions, so we thought it would be a lovely idea for the children to celebrate in school on the last Friday of each month. As we have only just started this, we have celebrated all the birthdays from the start of the 2020 academic year; September, October, & Novembers birthdays. We look forward to celebrating the December birthdays shortly.
Class 1 enjoyed exploring the Huish grounds and finding the perfect trees to put our bird feeders on.
This week we reception have been learning all about remembrance, we have made a beautiful wreath filled with the poppies we made, to remember and show our respect to those who have fallen. We watched a fantastic video on iplayer showing the children how the poppies grew, and we stopped at 11o’clock on the 11th to listen to the siren from Westlands and remember those who have sadly lost their life in the war.
On Wednesday we also took part on Earth Day, where we learnt how to protect and look after our beautiful planet. We looked at how pollution is ruining our beautiful world and what we can do to stop this. The children planted some daffodils and tulips in our garden, they have made bird feeders and painted our planet using our hand prints. Finally we read an amazing book by Michael Morpurgo called Grandpa Christmas, which the children loved!!
This week we have been learning all about number 5 and exploring patterns. We have also been learning new sounds, i & n and applying this to CVC words such as nap, sat, pit, nan. The children have been exploring the natural world by collecting leaves and creating autumnal animal art work.
Everyone has settled in really well. For the first two weeks we have been exploring and finding our way around the class room. We have been building relationship and meeting new adults. We have all enjoyed playing indoors and in the outside classroom, we have also painted ourselves as self-portraits, which will be displayed in the corridor. Finally, we have been introduced to P.E and have enjoyed learning to throw and catch a ball.
The children performed their assembly on Thursday, ready for you to view on Mothering Sunday. Their messages to you are also uploaded for you to see. We hope you have an enjoyable day.
How strong is an egg, really?
When we think of eggs, we think easily breakable and delicate. For the most part, that is true. But how are chickens able to sit on eggs without breaking them? Maybe an egg is stronger than we think!
We rested 4 eggs in glue lids so we could investigate how strong they really are! We needed to make sure we could balance books on top of them. We thought “What would happen if we stacked our reading books on top of 4 eggs?”
“Would they be able to hold the books or would they break?”
We predicted what we thought might happen and then placed the books on top of our 4 eggs to see the results!
We were very surprised! It took more than 30 books to break the eggs.
Egg shells MUST be really strong? We thought about why?
We enjoyed dressing up as our favourite book characters for World Book Day.
We shared our favourite stories and talked about the characters. We enjoyed “Buddy reading” with our Year 2 friends.
On Monday (Day 1) 10 Living Eggs arrived in our classroom. The lady said the eggs due date was Wednesday. We are looking forward to hearing chirping noises in the incubator!
On Tuesday (Day 2) we waited patiently… not too much sign of life apart form a small crack in one egg! A few eggs appeared to be rocking slightly and some ‘pipping’ away at the shell.
Will it be a boy or girl baby chick?
Will it hatch overnight we thought?
On Wednesday (Day 3) we arrived at school to discover 4 baby chicks has hatched overnight! We watched patiently on and off through the day and observed 2 more baby chicks hatch out of their eggs. In total 6 chicks hatched on their due date… we patiently await the arrival of the last 4!
On Thursday morning (Day 4) , there was more excitement in the classroom as the last 4 baby chicks hatched out of their shells.
On Friday (Day 5) we moved the 10 baby chicks out of their incubator and into their ‘Brooder box’ which is fitted with a light bulb to keep them warm.
At the weekend (Days 6/7) our teacher took the chicks home to look after them. They grew lots! They also began seeing what they could do… jumping, stretching and flapping their little wings! Of course they were eager for their food but also spent lots of time sleeping too!
On Monday (Day 8) the chicks came back to school. We were all really excited to see them again and spent lots of time looking in the brooder box. We also got to handle the chicks today. We talked about the importance of gentle hands and putting one hand loosely over the chick to prevent it jumping off our hand! It was such a treat to be able to handle them and be so close!
We have been learning about E’Safety through listening to ‘Smartie the Penguin.’
We learnt a song to help us remember how to stay safe on our tablets and only go on things we are allowed to.
“Before you tap and click, you need to stop and think, and tell someone”
We placed Gingerbread men in different puddles to see what effect the different liquids would have on him!
In one bowl we added water.
In another bowl we added oil.
In the next bowl we added orange juice.
In the final bowl we added vinegar.
We tried to make predictions about what we thought might happen in each bowl.
We worked in a small group and watched the effects of the liquids on the biscuits. We had to try and explain what we saw.
As part of our home learning we all made Gingerbread men to enjoy at snack time! Thank you grown up’s for all your help! They looked amazing and tasted even better!
We are so happy to have a transformed outdoor classroom to make the best use of the space we have and provide children with a rich varied space in which to learn. Whether it be construction, small world play, sand and water, role play or creativity in our writing and book area… we know there are lots of opportunities to learn here!
Roll on the Spring sunshine so we can enjoy it even more!
During Arts week this half term we have been learning how to weave.
We looked at different fabrics and attempted weaving to make a colourful basket.
We’ve also been developing our skills through collage; using tissue paper and scrunching it up to make ‘Smart the Penguin’ and using wool to collage a flower. Added to all the other lovely art we have doing this has been a pretty busy time! We have really enjoyed ourselves though!
Collage
“Stand in front of the bus”
“Stand behind the helicopter”
“Stand on a letter”
“Stand beside the tyre”
“Go under the arch”
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1st instruction “Between”
“Stand between the bus and the pencils”…
This proved tricky to understand!
2nd instruction - “Stand between the bus and the wall”
3rd Instruction – “Stand between the pencils”
We are just beginning to understand what between means!
We pretended we were on a plane … We had tickets, a drink and a sleep onboard!
When we arrived in Africa we learnt an African dance.
We learnt about the animals that live in Africa and made collages of Cheetahs, Elephants, Zebra’s and Giraffes.
We have been investigating how many letters are in our names?
We took our name cards and counted out how many letters were in our first names. We then had to represent each letter by a coloured cube. When we had made our cube bar we compared it with others on our table.
Who has the shortest name?
Who has the most letters in their name?
Whose names are equal in length?
As a class we compared everyone’s names making a table to show…
Whose name has more than 5 letters?
Whose name is 5 letters long?
Whose name has fewer than 5 letters?
We used lots of mathematical language…
more, less, fewer, equal, longer shorter
We used lots of mathematical language. We found out that most children in Class 1 have names that are longer than 5 letters!
We have begun buddy reading with Year 2! What a great way to share stories. We are looking forward to Year 2 bringing in more of their favourite books to share with us over the coming term.
We enjoyed a lovely visit to Yeovil Library at the start of our new topic “Once upon a time…” We learnt how you can use a Library and borrow books. We hunted for the main characters in the story ‘Where’s Wally’ around the Library and found all different types of books. We learnt about the key elements of good fairy tales and acted out the story of ‘The Paper bag Princess.’
We enjoyed a visit from a guest entertainer called ‘Nutty Noah!’ He shared songs, magic and laughter with us all in the hall. It was a real Christmas treat!
We visited The Methodist Church in Vicarage Street, Yeovil. We searched for the stars around the church and learnt about the Christmas story. We enjoyed lots of Christmas crafts and even some singing too. What a fun morning we all had!
Reception have been using the Peppa Pig app on their iPads to draw pictures. They drew Pudsey on Children in Need Day, a snail as part of Fibonacci work and, more recently, a Christmas Tree.
A big “Thank you” to all of you who came and got involved in our Christmas Craft workshop. The children had lots of fun bending pipe cleaners and threading beads in order to make their own individual Christmas wreath decorations. A lot of fun was had and it was a really successful afternoon due to the great turn out of willing parents, grandparents and helpers. Thank you once again for giving up your time to join us in school.
We were fortunate to have a visit from a Wildcat helicopter and pilots from 815 Naval Air Squadron at RNAS Yeovilton. They spent time answering our questions before taking off on the field!
What a memorable day!
With Christmas just around the corner we have been learning lots of Christmas songs and practising our Nativity play ’The First Christmas.” After a successful dress rehearsal we were very excited to perform in front of our parents today. Thank you to all those parents who attended our Nativity. It was lovely to have such a big audience and share all our hard work with you.
We have been learning about Advent. We looked at an Advent candle and talked about how Christians count down the day leading up to Christmas. We learnt about candles on Advent wreaths and talked about these candles being lit in the 4 Sundays leading up to Christmas. In Class 1 we made our own Advent calendar counting down the days leading up to the Christmas holidays. We are looking forward to opening one envelope each day to see what our friends have put inside them.
We have been looking at different ways of representing numbers. We were introduced to Tens frames and tried to find the numicon to match the quantity. We worked in pairs and small groups to represent our number in as many different ways as possible.
We have been thinking about Fibonacci. He was a man who lived long ago and was very clever with maths. He discovered some magic numbers that when put together make a spiral pattern.
We have found there are spirals in lots of different places and many in the natural world.
In class we had a go at creating our own spiral snail shells using watercolours.
We then tried making a spiral shape using crystals and shiny stones, trying to follow a curved line round and round.
We also looked at placing small circles on top of bigger circles to create patterns. We had a chance to make some lovely art work using pens and pastels.
Finally we rolled out clay to create a long sausage shape, which we coiled around to form a spiral. We really enjoyed our Fibonacci day.
In maths we have been comparing numbers and trying to use new mathematical language to compare groups of objects. We have been learning about the word ‘equal’
We learnt that ‘equal’ means the ‘same number’ and the ‘same amount’. To help us understand ‘equal’ we each had 2 small world figures. Our task was to put ‘equal’ beads onto each plate.
Another task was to work with a partner and turn over a number card. Using a ten’s frame we both had to count out the corresponding number of crystals / cubes and make our ten’s frames equal.To make sure groups are equal. It is good to count carefully to check they have the same amount
We ended our lesson by trying to make equal groups of children around the tables.
We have been learning about the word ‘less’
We were given 5 chocolate raisins to line up. To help us understand ‘less’ we were allowed to eat one at a time and say ‘I have 1 less’
We know 1 less than 5 is 4. It was lots of fun eating the raisins to make our line have less and less!
We played a game on the computer called… ‘Mucky Monsters’ where we had to find which hand had the most mucky monsters and which hand had the least.
We have been enjoying getting in role and acting out stories in our Dance and Drama lessons.
For children in Need we all came to school in Non school uniform. We helped to raise lots of money for children not as fortunate as we are.
We spent time learning about the importance of Remembrance. We all made poppies and stood still for and quiet for the 2 minute silence in the playground.
We enjoyed collecting the Autumn leaves from around the playground and turning them into fox pictures using pens and black paper. We were very pleased with our results!
This term we have enjoyed our ‘Movement to Music’ lessons with Mrs Clark. We have practised our bending, stretching and relaxation on a Monday morning and it has really set us up for our days learning. We look forward to continuing this after Christmas.
We have been inspired by stories such as ‘Where the Wild things are and Dinosaur Stomp!
We were inspired by Andy Goldsworthy to make some sculptures using natural art. We collected leaves and sticks and tried to create your own designs in small groups. Back in the classroom we used pebbles and stones to create individual art work too!
In the Autumn sunshine we have enjoyed playing in our new dinosaur garden!
We loved our first assembly! Chris Duke, the author of ‘Lucy’s Blue Day’ came to tell us all about his new book and we got to ask questions and talk about all the different feelings we have.
We made masks after reading the story ‘The Tiger who came to tea.’
We re-enacted part of the story in class and went home wearing our masks to see if our grown up’s had made tea for us!
In Music we explored the different instruments and all had a go playing a percussion instrument in time to the music.
We talked about the materials the instruments were made from and the different sounds they made.
What a busy first two weeks we have had in school! We have only just started staying for lunch but we have learnt so much and made so many new friends. We have all managed to put our belongings away and find our carpet spaces in the morning ready for registration and are becoming more independent every day. We are enjoying our school dinners, having fun on the scooters and bikes and loving being able to use our outdoor classroom in the September sunshine! We’ve started learning lots in our phonics lesson and have enjoyed exploring different media and materials such as pens, whiteboards, paints, play dough and sand. We’ve all also enjoyed our first P.E lesson and are looking forward to more fun outdoors over the coming weeks. Here are a few photos from our first few weeks at Huish.
We went to Gore Farm to learn about the animals that live there. We saw cows, calves, pigs, goats, sheep and lots of crops including wheat and barley.
The farmer took us around his farm and allowed us to give the calves their morning milk. They were really thirsty! After that we met the pigs and the goats who were really friendly. They wanted to find their food!
Just before lunch we met some of the farmer's baby birds. He showed us a 2 day old baby duckling and some baby chicks and baby hens.
We enjoyed a picnic lunch before walking down to the woods for our mini beast hunt. We were lucky enough to find loots of bugs hiding in the woodland.
We had a fantastic day at Gore Farm!
We have been enjoying our new outdoor area activities. We ride our bikes and scooters following the direction of the arrows and we stop at the zebra crossing.
Our Reception classes made the annual visit to Sock Farm.
Mr Snell showed us around the farm and we saw the milking parlour, the barn and the cornfields.
We saw cows, calves, pigs and piglets. Now we know more about where our food comes from and understand the meaning of “dairy”.
In our ‘Talk boost’ Group we have been having lots of fun making sandwiches. We had to talk about what to do first, next and after that in order to make a fantastic jam sandwich.
We took them home to enjoy! What a lot of fun!
We have been learning about the story of ‘The Little Red Hen’ We all took on different characters and used puppets to re-enact the story.
We liked pretending to be ‘the cat, the dog, the duck and the pig. We are beginning to use lots more expression in our storytelling.
We have been making our own bread in Class 1. We took some flour, water, yeast and salt and made a dough. We had to kneed the dough before making it into little roll shapes.
although it didn’t rise much we had lots of fun making it.
We have been hearing lots of different stories about ‘The Three Little Pigs.’ In our outside classroom we have been pretending to be the Three little pigs using masks. We have also been writing lots of lovely letters from the wolf to say ’sorry’ for blowing the Three little pigs houses down!
We are really enjoying our Buddy reading with Year 2.
After a weekend filled with plenty of rest the chicks have really grown! Today in school we took them out of their box to take a closer look at them. We were all really quiet and still so as not to frighten them and learnt that their different colours helps us to identify if they are boys or girls. The bright yellow chicks are the boys and the brown chicks are the girls.
We have really loved having them in school and will be sad to wave them goodbye at the end of the week. They are heading to a farmer who has plenty of space for them and we are sure they are going to be well looked after in their next new home too!
With all our baby chicks now hatched today the new little hatchlings enjoyed their first full day in their new heat box. This weekend they are heading home with Miss Edmonds to ensure they have plenty of clean water and food to help them grow bigger and stronger.
Another exciting morning in the class 1! All but one of our remaining eggs hatched overnight meaning we were greeted by lots of chirping and pecking in the incubator. With only one egg lefts to hatch we watched closely throughout the day for signs of cracking or movement in this remaining egg. We were not disappointed. By 11am the final egg had also hatched giving us a healthy 10 chicks to look after over the coming week. With so much activity today and so many chicks in the small incubator is was time to move the strongest ones to their new heat box and let them get familiar with their new home for their next week with us.
This morning Class One were very excited to discover that over night one of the chicks had hatched. As today was the expected day for the chicks arrival it did not take long before another little chick had worked hard to break it’s way out of it’s shell. It was obvious the baby chicks were exhausted after just hatching as they needed to spend a lot of time resting and gaining strength in order to be able to stand up and take their first proper look at the world.
We are keeping a constant eye on the incubator as another egg has a small crack in the shell so we don’t think it will take long before we see another new arrival!
What an exciting week it is in Class 1.
Linking into our Spring topic of ‘Birds’, Classes 1 and 2 are now proud carers of some Living eggs! Arriving early on our first day back of term, 10 eggs are comfortably ebbing kept warm in an incubator within the classroom.
There are no signs of movement at the moment but we know lots of growing is taking place inside the egg and can’t wait to see our fluffy new arrivals make their appearance over the next few days! We look forward to sharing exciting news about the chicks arrivals soon...Watch the space!
Reception have been taking part in the RSPB birdwatch this year. We explored the school grounds looking for different types of birds. We were lucky enough to spot a robin and also and recorded there are lots of seagulls around our local area!
Peter Littlewood from the Young People’s Environment Trust came to visit us.
He talked to us about ‘Birds.’ We learnt lots of new words and lots of interesting facts linked to our topic work.
We learnt about lots of birds– woodpeckers, sparrows, chaffinch, starlings and many more. Peter explained how woodpeckers have specially adapted heads to help them make holes in trees.
We thought about the birds we might find locally, perhaps at Ninesprings.
Lots of us had seen ducks and we learnt about how ducks have specially adapted feet to swim in the water. We heard about Coot’s and Moorhens too. We learnt about Grey Herson’s being really good fishermen. These birds have really long legs that can look like reeds sticking out of the water. They stand really still and wait for a fish to come near them. When they see a fish they swoop their head down to catch it.
Peter Littlewood taught us how to spot Kingfishers too. Kingfishers nest in the riverbank rather than in a tree. They are amazing hunters, great at fishing. They actually dive into the water and we looked at lots of photo’s of them on the screen.
Finally we learnt more about Owls following our work on ‘Owl babies’ this term. Peter taught us Owls are ‘predators’ as they hunt other animals. They like hunting mice and have sharp claws (talons) and sharp beaks.
We learnt so much! Thank you Peter for sharing so much of your knowledge and teaching us so much in such a short time!
We enjoyed celebrating Chinese New Year at school. We wore an item of red or pink clothes to school. We performed a dragon dance and learnt why these creatures are important to Chinese people. We then made lanterns in class, just like the ones they might hang in the streets of China at this special time of year.
We explored the school grounds covered in snow. We found the pond had frozen and the daffodils in our garden were covered in a blanket of snow. Lots of snow was beginning to melt but we enjoyed running across the school field and making footprints in the powdery snow.
Our feet got really cold but our bodies were wrapped up really warm!
We enjoyed a lovely morning at Gore Farm. We met Angela and Tessa along with the farmer who kindly showed us all the farm birds who live there. We met a turkey, some ducks, geese, chickens and hens. It was fascinating to hear how many feathers these birds have and hear all about the eggs the hens provide for the farmer. We walked across the fields down to the woods where we went searching for clues to discover the birds that live in the woodlands. We found pictures on posts dotted around the woods. There were woodpeckers and robins, a chaffinch, a blue tit, a great tit, a wood pigeon and many more. We learnt so much on our morning at the farm! We are looking forward to painting pictures of different birds in class.
We made bird feeders using lard, seeds, oats and breadcrumbs. We made this all into a ball and put it inside a small decomposable pot. We hung our bird feeders in the branches on the tree outside of our classroom.
What a fun afternoon we had at our Christmas party! After a morning making festive party hats we began our afternoon with some party dances. After lots of dancing, singing and pass the parcel we had a little time outside before returning to Class 1 for an afternoon tea party! We enjoyed sitting at our festive tables and eating yummy snacks. However, the highlight of the afternoon was a visit from Father Christmas! What an amazing Wednesday at school!
What a wonderful performance! We are so proud of all the children in Classes 1 and 2 for an excellent Nativity play this year. They sang with confidence and re-told the Christmas story beautifully to the rest of the school and their parents. Well done everyone!
Class 1 enjoyed their first Christmas dinner at Huish. With crackers, party hats, Christmas tunes and lots of smiling faces the Christmas dinner went down a treat… especially pudding!
Class1 enjoyed a visit to the Husky hut, all lit up with Christmas lights. We sang Christmas songs and played musical instruments to accompany ‘The Twelve days of Christmas.’ It was lots of fun and made us feel really festive!
We have had lots of fun exploring the dressing up clothes in Class 1 and enjoyed lots of imaginative play! We pretended we were on a bus trip… tickets please!
We had fun using the chalks in the playground… What artists we are!
With some lovely Autumnal weather we have been enjoying our outdoor playground. Our playground equipment has been well used this week and we hope to have it out lots more!
This term we have been fortunate enough to have Mrs Clark come and teach us for some movement through stories lessons. We listened carefully to her instructions and moved and stretched our bodies in different ways. We finish each session with some relaxation and always feel wonderful afterwards!
We have been energetic in our P.E lessons, developing a range of multi-skills including balance and ball skills. We have been developing our fitness through exercises such as star jumps and bunny hops. We are a very active year group!
We have been learning lots about our numbers to 5. This week we have been trying to add ‘1 more’ to some of the smaller numbers. We have been using crystals, jenga blocks and milk bottle tops to help us to see what ‘1 more’ looks like visually. We have had lots of fun adding ‘1 more’ onto our number each time.
We have had many a lovely afternoon play out in the October Sunshine this week. We are developing our moving and handling skills through riding our bikes, scooters and trikes and exploring the different games we can invent with the hula hoops, bats and balls.
What a busy first term we have had in school! We have only been in school 6 weeks but we have learnt so much and made so many new friends. The children have settled quickly into the Class 1 routine and are all making great progress already!. We have all managed to put our belongings away and find our carpet spaces in the morning ready for registration and are becoming more independent every day. We are enjoying our school dinners, having fun on the scooters and bikes and loving being able to use our outdoor classroom. We’ve already learnt lots in our phonics lesson and have met many characters from Ten Town. Thank you to all our grown ups who have helped us with our ‘Home learning’ too. Here are a few photos from our first term at Huish.
