Squirrel Blog

• Friday 11 November 2022 The Dot We have looked at the book The Dot to help us with our creativity. On Monday, Mrs Newbery gave us all a sheet of paper with a dot on it and asked us to mark make on the paper. On Tuesday, we used different medium (stickers, crayons, paints and felt pens) to decorate three different sized dots. On Wednesday, we used bottle tops to make pictures and to experiment with colour mixing. On Friday, we used cotton buds to make patterns on dots. We will be continuing our creative streak next week.
• Tuesday 8 November 2022 Fireworks, Fireworks, Fireworks!
• Sunday 6 November 2022 Going Round in Circles
• Sunday 6 November 2022 Phonics Fun This week we took our phonics outside and had a word relay. We had to take it in turns to read a word and then run to the end of the playground to find the matching picture card.
• Friday 4 November 2022 Explosive Fun A little bit of fun before the magic of Bonfire Night!
• Friday 4 November 2022 On Sudden Hill We have continued our work on the book, ‘On Sudden Hill’. We have learned lots of new vocabulary and have had a go at talking and writing sentences. we have really impressed Mrs Newbery with our writing.
• Tuesday 1 November 2022 Diwali Day
• Monday 31 October 2022 Halloween On Monday, we had our Halloween Day. We came in fancy dress and took part in lots of fun activities, including spider’s web threading, potion making, hammering golf tees into pumpkins, a cauldron toss and a themed phonics hunt.
• Thursday 20 October 2022 Wind chimes As part of our work on the seasons and weather, we have made wind chimes out of cutlery, sticks and beads.
• Tuesday 18 October 2022 Boxes! Boxes! Boxes! As part of our work on the book, ‘On Sudden Hill’, we worked in groups to turn an empty box into something new. We worked well together and created some amazing rockets, racing cars and tractors. We used our creations in our play.
• Monday 17 October 2022 Make that Shape! In PE we have continued our work on shapes and have learnt a straddle and pike shape to add to the tuck, straight and star shapes we learnt last week. We have performed these on the low apparatus and some of us have had a go at some partner work.
• Friday 14 October 2022 Space Adventure Our PE lesson today took us on an adventure into space. We moved in different ways to explore the moon before finding some mystery eggs. The eggs started to jiggle and we had to move them around our bodies to stop them from cracking. We learnt that there is much less gravity on the moon so you can jump higher. We practised jumping side to side, forwards and backwards and over craters.
• Thursday 13 October 2022 Pebble Families We used pebbles to make pictures of our families. We had to think carefully about the height of our family members and select appropriate pebbles. we think they look amazing.
• Wednesday 12 October 2022 A bird's eye view As part of our work on maps, we made models of houses and arranged them along a road to make a street. Mrs Stemp took a photograph of it from above and we used the photograph to play games. Houses were removed and swapped and we had to say which ones they were.
• Monday 10 October 2022 All in a Spin! We played the 'Washing Machine Game' to help us learn how to make straight, tuck and star shapes in gymnastics. Each item of clothing in the washing machine represented a shape. Once we knew the shapes, we practised them on the mats before getting out the large apparatus. Mrs Newbery challenged us to make the different shapes in as many different ways as possible. As you can see from the photos, we completed the challenge successfully and are becoming great little gymnasts.
• Friday 7 October 2022 Kites and Planes We loved running around in the wind with scarves and ribbons and wanted to go out again in the afternoon, so Mrs Newbery suggested making kites and paper aeroplanes. We learnt how to fold paper and use a stapler and were amazed when we turned a small rectangle of paper into a long kite tail!
• Thursday 6 October 2022 Sensory bottles and Shakers As part of our work on the senses, we made shakers and sensory bottles. We experimented with lots of different fillings for the shakers including stones, pasta, rice and beads. We each chose the filling that we liked the noise of best and used our shakers to accompany the song Old MacDonald Had a Band. The sensory bottles were great fun. We added water to the orb beads and watched them expand before adding them to a mixture of water and clear glue. We have really enjoyed watching the beads move slowly through the liquid and have found it very calming. We made extra ones to keep in the classroom.
• Wednesday 5 October 2022 Doctors Role Play We have been looking at people who help us and got out the doctors role-play to help us understand the work they do. We also talked about phoning 999 in an emergency. We worked on developing our empathy at the same time as having fun.
• Tuesday 4 October 2022 Outdoor Maths We took our maths outside and had fun hunting for the hidden number representations in the Quiet Garden. Once we'd found them all, we sorted them into groups. We also played a beanbag game and had to say how many landed in the hoop and how many landed outside.
• Monday 3 October 2022 Large Apparatus We were all really excited when we were told that we were going to get the large apparatus out, as we love to climb. We explored the apparatus and challenged ourselves to go higher. Mrs Newbery was really impressed with all of us and we can't wait to go on it again.
• Friday 30 September 2022 Phonics This week we started our phonics work by learning the sounds s, a, t, p. We took part in lots of different activities to help us recognise the letters. We identified lots of words that begin with the sounds and by the end of the week we were reading cvc words.
• Wednesday 28 September 2022 A sense of smell This week we have been looking at the sense of smell. We had to guess what was hidden in bags by smelling them. We were very good at recognising lemon, lime and mint. We enjoyed investigating the fruits during our COOL Time activities.
• Monday 26 September 2022 Faces This week we have been looking at our faces. We have made faces using printed features, natural materials and have drawn self-portraits. We have learnt the names of all of the different parts of the face including eyebrows and nostrils.
• Monday 19 September 2022 Our First Week We have spent time getting to know each other and learning the classroom rules. We have learnt a rhyme to help us remember to pack away. We will continue to practise sitting still and listening in a group over the next few weeks. This is a key skill for learning.
• Tuesday 13 September 2022 Group 2 First Full Day We have had a fun day playing outside in the sunshine. We have played chasing games, counted sea creatures, played in the role play house, built obstacle courses and got to know each other better. We have also practised spelling and writing our names, tapped out syllables on the bucket drums, coloured and played in the sand and play dough areas.
• Monday 12 September 2022 Group 1 First Full Day We had a fun filled first full day. The weather was warm, so we played outside in the mud kitchen, in the role play house and in the water. When we went inside, we practised our names, played with the toys on the carpet and spent time getting to know each other.
• Friday 20 May 2022 Fun with maths We have beenlooking at teen numbers, positional language and shapes over the last twoweeks. We have listened to the story of Mr Gumpy's Outing and have made our own boats outside. We have added different numbers of people and worked out the totals. Back in the classroom, wehave added1, 2 and 3 to a number, raced to tenandmadeup First, Then and Now stories using minibeasts. We have also experimented withtangrams to make different pictures and shapes.
• Thursday 19 May 2022 Rosie's Walk We have been looking at the story Rosie’s Walk. We have built farm scenes, drawn maps, used a story map to retell the story and written wanted posters. We have made a class version of the story – changing the characters and the setting. We have all drawn our own story maps and started to write our own version of the story. We have also looked at the different products we get from animals and have revised the names of baby animals (kid, lamb, calf, foal, piglet, cubs, kittens, fawn).
• Friday 13 May 2022 Dinosaur Fossils This week wehave been finding out all about fossils and the work of palaeontologists. We have chipped away at stone eggs to revealdinosaurs, made our own Plaster of Paris fossils, learned about Mary Anning and her discovery, and made salt dough ammonites. We ended the week by learning about the different theories on why dinosaurs died out. We have used our new found knowledge to write descriptions of dinosaurs.
• Wednesday 4 May 2022 A Mysterious Discovery There has been great excitement in Squirrel Class this week following the discovery of a large egg in the outdoor area. We thought it might be a dinosaur egg. To make sure that it was safe, we wrote signs asking people not to touch it and to be quiet around it. There was no sign of the mother, so we decided to build some traps to catch her without hurting her. It worked because on Wednesday night one of the neighbours heard a screeching sound and contacted the Natural History Museum. Two of their palaeontologists drove up to Spooner Row to collect the mother and baby and take them back to London to look after them. They were so pleased with how well we had looked after the egg that they left us a toy dinosaur. We have called him Spikey.
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