Class Blogs | Norton Infant School

Diving into Case Study Two!

14th May 2026Elouise Chadwick

This week, we launched into Case Study Two by exploring the exciting question: Who would you see having adventures at sea?

The children arrived at school dressed as people they might spot in or around the sea, and what an exciting start to our new learning journey it was! We met pirates, sharks, sea explorers, turtles, mermaids and many more adventurous characters. The costumes and role play ideas really helped to immerse the children in our expedition learning.

Throughout the day, the children dived into imaginative storytelling and role play, creating exciting sea adventures together. They explored different characters, settings and problems their stories might include, using lots of wonderful language and creativity.

To finish our hook day, each child created their own story plan for an exciting sea adventure tale. Every story is completely different and full of imagination — from Sonic at sea to magical glitter and sharks that bite ! We cannot wait to begin writing and developing these stories over the next few weeks.

Uncovering a big problem

14th May 2026Elouise Chadwick

As we began Case Study One, we arrived at school to discover a shocking sight — plastic had been scattered all across our tables and learning environment! The children were quick to notice how messy it looked and shared that it made them feel sad and worried.

This sparked an important discussion about plastic pollution and how plastic in our oceans can harm sea creatures and their habitats. Through a think-pair-share activity, the children talked thoughtfully about the problems plastic can cause and worked together to create an anchor chart full of their ideas and learning.

We also read the beautiful and thought-provoking book The Odd Fish, which helped us reflect on the importance of caring for our oceans and environment. We wrote some great sentences too.

Inspired by our learning, the children have each brought in a plastic bottle from home ready to transform into a large piece of land art. We are so excited to share our creative environmental project with you next week!

Hooking into our ‘Sea Explorer’ Expedition

14th May 2026Elouise Chadwick

Children in Class 1 were hooked into our summer expedition by reading ‘Commotion in the Ocean’ written by Giles Andreae. The colourful cast of sea creatures provided the perfect stimulus for children to make their own sea creatures. They used a variety of mediums, including paints, oil pastels and sketching pencils to create some beautiful art work that was proudly displayed around their learning environment. As we joined in with the lively verses in the text, children became familiar with the different creatures that you find in our oceans. Each EYFS crew took a sea creature from the story and used non fiction texts to explore each creature further.

Staying Clean & Safe – Looking After Ourselves and Others

13th May 2026Laura Parsons

This week in our Key Stage 1 community meeting, we explored another important part of our guiding question: How can I be the healthiest version of me? Our focus was on hygiene and how simple daily actions—like washing our hands—can help keep us healthy and protect the people around us.

Understanding Germs

We began by thinking about why we wash our hands. The children shared great ideas, which led us to talk about something we can’t see but that is all around us—germs!

We explained that:

Germs are tiny and invisible
They can make us poorly
They spread very easily from person to person

To help bring this idea to life, we described germs as being like invisible glitter—they can quickly travel from our hands onto surfaces and other people without us even noticing.

Stopping the Spread

Through a short role-play, the children explored how germs spread and how we can stop them.

We acted out what happens when someone sneezes into their hands and then touches objects or other people—and quickly realised how easily germs can travel. We then practised a better way: sneezing into our elbow, helping to keep those around us safe.

We also compared handwashing habits, thinking about who is making safe choices and why.

When Should We Wash Our Hands?

The children shared lots of important times when handwashing matters, including:

After using the toilet
Before eating
After coughing or sneezing
After playing outside

It was fantastic to see how much the children already know about keeping themselves clean and safe.

Why Hygiene Matters

We talked about why these small actions are so important:

They help keep us healthy
They protect others around us
They stop germs from spreading

We linked this to our wider school community, reminding the children:

When we look after ourselves, we are also looking after everyone else.

Making Safe Choices

To finish, we played a quick game of “Safe or Not?”, where the children used thumbs up or down to show whether actions were helping to stop germs spreading. This was a fun and effective way to reinforce our learning.

Our Key Message

We reminded the children that small actions can make a big difference. Simple habits like washing our hands properly and sneezing into our elbow help to keep everyone safe, healthy, and ready to learn.

We were so impressed with the children’s understanding and engagement during this session. Ask your child what they remember about stopping germs—you might hear about “invisible glitter”!

Thank you for your continued support.

Hooray for Fish!

12th May 2026Sarah Winkley

Last week the children had been focusing on our super sounds phonics story “Hooray for Fish!” by Lucy Cousins. We had been thinking about rhyming words within the story and linking the patterns on the fish to our maths work. The children have consolidated their understanding of repeating pattern and have had fun creating their own patterned fish to continue to immerse and decorate our environment with.

During our last expedition the children enjoyed an escape room delivered by an expert visitor, so we recapped on our learning during that session to activate their learning and I constructed a phonics based escape room where the children had to match pictures to uncover a letter shape. They then used the letter shapes to build a simple CVC word linking to our expedition of the where the sea meets the shore to be able to escape from a shark!

Harry Saves the Ocean!

12th May 2026Sarah Winkley

Our second exciting text of our continuing first case study; “How can we help save the ocean?” is “Harry Saves the Ocean” by NGK and Sylvia Fae. This week the children entered Nursery to their beloved beach role play area, being trashed by more plastic pollution! This consolidated all of their prior learning from last week as the began to think rubbish in the sea and as you can imagine the children were so disappointed, sad and angered! This time the children had the skills they needed to be able to help problem solve the solution and were very happy to help recycle the rubbish and plastics into the correct recycling bins.

This week the children have been exploring the properties of 2d shapes and have been thinking about how they could use the shapes to create pictures of sea creatures. Here are some photos of their beautiful work.

The children have also been writing lists of all the rubbish and packaging which they have found in the sea, by hearing and attempting to write initial sounds. They were working so hard on their listening skills and produced some beautiful mark making and letter shapes with support.

“Oh that’s rubbish!”

12th May 2026Sarah Winkley

During our first week of case study one “How can we help save the ocean?” Nursery were outraged to discover that someone had been into Nursery and thrown rubbish, mainly plastic, all over our environment. The children were totally hooked into the case study immediately and shared some of their thoughts about how could we play and thrive in this environment? How did all of the rubbish make us feel? “Sad”, “Angry”, “Messy”, “Cluttered”, “Dirty”, “Shocked”, “Fuming”, “Cross”, “Upset” were some of the words that the children used.

They then drew faces using different emotions to share their feelings. Some children attempted to write initial sounds of feeling words.

This led to us introducing our first key text “The Odd Fish” by Naomi Jones. A story about a fish who finds a lonely “odd fish” (a plastic bottle) who hasn’t got a family of it’s own and they go on a journey to find the odd fishes family, only to find more rubbish. We consolidated our learning by immersing our water tray and sea creatures in plastic. The children attempted to help the animals by putting all of the rubbish into a bin.

On “Wise Wednesday” the children went on a gallery walk to observes real life pictures of creatures trapped, stuck and tangled in plastic. From this the children were guided to created an anchor chart of all the reasons why plastic is not good for our seas and the environment.

As part of our thoughtful Thursday Crew we thought about ways in which we could help the creatures, by thinking about getting rid of the plastic and rubbish properly. The children were introduced to recycling and were shown how to sort materials and put them into the correct recycling bins. The children each had a turn at this and did a great job.

Sleep & Feeling Ready – Supporting Healthy Routines in KS1

6th May 2026Laura Parsons

This week in our Key Stage 1 community meeting, we explored another important part of our guiding question: How can I be the healthiest version of me?

Our focus was on something simple but powerful—sleep—and how it helps our brains and bodies feel ready for the day ahead.

Why Sleep Matters

We began by thinking about how it feels when we are really tired. The children shared lots of honest and relatable ideas—feeling grumpy, slow, a little bit silly, and sometimes finding it hard to concentrate.

This helped us understand an important message:

Sleep helps our brains and bodies get ready for a new day.

Tired vs Well-Rested

To bring this to life, we acted out two different learners:

One who was tired—yawning, not listening, struggling to focus
One who was well-rested—standing tall, smiling, ready to learn

The children quickly noticed the difference and were able to explain why sleep helps us to be focused, kind, and ready for school.

What Happens When We Sleep?

We talked about what sleep does for our bodies in a simple, child-friendly way:

Helps our brain grow and learn
Supports our mood (less grumpy!)
Gives us energy
Keeps our bodies healthy

We described sleep as a way of recharging our brains—just like an iPad charging overnight!

Building Healthy Bedtime Habits

We then discussed what helps us get a good night’s sleep. The children shared some fantastic ideas, including:

Having a calm bedtime routine (such as a bath or story)
Turning off screens before bed
Going to bed at a similar time each night
Creating a calm, quiet space

It was lovely to hear how many children already have positive routines in place.

A Moment of Calm

We finished by practising a simple breathing technique to help our bodies feel calm and ready:

Breathe in slowly
Hold
Breathe out gently

This is something the children can use at home as part of their bedtime routine or whenever they need a moment to reset.

Our Key Message

We reminded the children that sleep is one of the best ways to help us feel ready for school. When we are well-rested, we can learn better, feel happier, and be the best version of ourselves.

We were so impressed with how thoughtfully the children engaged in this conversation. Why not ask your child what helps them feel ready for school—you might discover some great ideas to try at home together!

Thank you for your continued support.

Being the Healthiest Version of Me – Healthy Eating Community Meeting

29th April 2026Laura Parsons

This week, we came together for a Key Stage 1 community meeting as part of our guiding question: How can I be the healthiest version of me?

During our time together, we focused on how the food we eat helps to keep our bodies strong, healthy and full of energy. To get us thinking, we began with a simple question—holding up an apple and a piece of chocolate:
“Which one helps our body grow strong?”
The children quickly recognised that while some foods are better for our bodies, we can still enjoy a balance. This helped us introduce an important message: healthy eating is about balance, not restriction.

Learning About Healthy Foods

We explored the different types of food our bodies need:

Fruits and vegetables help keep us healthy
Carbohydrates (like bread and pasta) give us energy
Dairy helps build strong bones
Protein supports growth and repair

The children enjoyed sharing their own ideas, talking about the healthy foods they already love and eat at home.

Healthy or Not?

We then played a quick game of “Healthy or Not?” where children responded to different foods using actions:

👍 Hands on head = healthy most of the time
👎 Hands on knees = sometimes foods

This was a great way to reinforce that some foods are everyday foods and some are sometimes foods—and that both have a place in a balanced diet.

Reflecting Together

We spent some time thinking about how healthy foods help our bodies. The children shared brilliant ideas about how food gives us energy, helps us grow, and keeps us feeling good.

We also linked this back to our wider learning:

If we want to be superheroes in our community, we need strong, healthy bodies!

Making a Healthy Pledge

To finish our community meeting, each child made a simple, personal pledge about how they can make a healthy choice:

Eat more fruit and vegetables
Drink more water
Try a new healthy food

This moment encouraged the children to take ownership of their choices and recognise that even small changes can make a big difference.

Our Key Message

We reminded the children that being healthy doesn’t mean being perfect. Instead, it’s about making small, positive choices each day that help our bodies grow, stay strong, and feel their best.

We are so proud of how engaged and thoughtful the children were during this session. Ask your child about their healthy pledge—you might even be inspired to make one of your own!

Thank you for your continued support.

Class Six Are Artist Extraordinaires 🎨

28th April 2026Lauren Gate

Last week we dove head first into our art case study. We spent the week working with different mediums to create a range of different pieces of artwork from our sea creature outlines. We started the week with pastels, making bright, colourful pop-art style pieces of art.

On Tuesday we moved onto sketching, we spent a lot of time thinking about tone, shading and creating patterns with our sketching pencils.

On Wednesday we worked with watercolour pencils. We spent a lot of time thinking about which colours work well together, how light/ dark we should make our colours and how we can effectively blend our colours together.