Back to Back, Face to Face

9th December 2022Rebecca Kendrew-Jones

This week in Class 2 we have been trying out a new strategy to help us ‘think, pair and share’. The children start this activity by standing back to back with a friend. I then ask them a question such as ‘how are you feeling this morning?’, ‘what are you looking forward to doing at school today?’ or ‘can you remember the tricky word we learned in phonics this week?’. The children have some silent thinking time and then when they hear me say ‘face to face’ they jump round and share their answers with their partner.

The children have engaged in this activity really well and it has had an impact on their ability to speak aloud about their thinking and listen carefully to others. Well done Class 2, you are working hard and getting smart!

Christmas Lunch 🎄

7th December 2022Rebecca Kendrew-Jones

Today we all enjoyed eating Christmas lunch together in the dining hall. There were lots of happy faces and full tummies 😋 Miss Tunney and Mrs Ponsonby were also in the festive spirit serving everyone their dessert.

Class Two’s Celebration of Learning

1st December 2022Rebecca Kendrew-Jones

It was so exciting for Class Two to take part in their first ever Celebration of Learning with their parents and grandparents this week. The children have worked incredibly hard answering this term’s expedition question ‘How Can We Care for the Bears?’. Why not check out our expedition website here where you can find out all about what we got up to…

https://sites.google.com/nortoninfantschool.org/caringforbears/home

We are so proud of our final product and hope you enjoy watching it as much as we enjoyed creating it.

The children certainly deserved to take home their own teddy bear as a lasting legacy of their hard work this term. Well done Class Two, I can’t wait to see what the next expedition has in store!

Building Bear Caves

9th November 2022Rebecca Kendrew-Jones

Today we had great fun building dens that we imagined were caves for bears – just like the one in our key text We’re Going on a Bear Hunt. Our visiting expert Chris demonstrated to the children the skills they needed to use and then set them off to work in three teams. The children worked collaboratively using garden canes, tie wraps, tarpaulin and stretchy tubes to create their caves. They were so engaged, enthusiastic and really enjoyed the physical challenge of building something together… even in the pouring rain!

Thoughtful Thursday

14th October 2022Elouise Chadwick

In our Crew time we thought about what kindness looks like. We decided to make it our mission to put a smile on someone’s face. We succeeded…

Mrs Smith loved her card and it made us feel good putting a smile on her face 😊

A book look with a difference . . .

13th October 2022Laura Parsons

Miss Tunney and I have had the most lovely day! We wanted to see and hear about all the amazing learning going on across our campus, so rather than sit in our office flicking through work, we invited the owners of the exercise books to share their work instead.

We have had children in our early years reciting We’re Going on a Bear Hunt with actions, students in key stage one sharing some fantastic knowledge about castles and how their expert visitor helped them towards answering their guiding question, lower key stage two being so enthusiastic about their core text, The Lion and the Unicorn and finally year five and six explaining how clear and specific critique has helped them to improve their work into versions they are incredibly proud of.

To all of those children who shared their learning with us, thank you. It was a real privilege to hear about your learning so far this year. You all spoke confidently and showed real enthusiasm for your expeditions and the beautiful work you are producing.

Mrs Parsons and Miss Tunney xx

If you go down to the woods today…

7th October 2022Rebecca Kendrew-Jones

We had a brilliant time on our field work visit to Austerfield Study Centre. After an exciting bus ride we arrived ready to start a day of outdoor adventures.

Our first activity was sharing the story Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

Afterwards we headed into the woods to create some woodland porridge. We collected leaves, sand, mud, stones and sticks and then added water to create our own recipes. Yum!

Next, we tried creating some transient art using natural resources to make Daddy Bear, Mummy Bear and Baby Bear faces.

Then we went on a scavenger hunt finding pictures of objects from the story and played a chasing game where we took it in turns to play the three bears.

After an active morning in the fresh air it was time for lunch followed by playing on the trim trail with Class 1.

In the afternoon we explored the story We’re Going on a Bear Hunt. We had great fun recreating the journey, especially stomping through the thick oozy mud! It was great fun finding the bear in the cave at the end!
After a final rainy walk through the woods it was time to head back to the coach. The children had a wonderful time exploring two of their favourite stories in the great outdoors.
We made some wonderful memories together.

Parent Workshop on Phonics

6th October 2022Rebecca Kendrew-Jones

It was fantastic to see so many parents at the workshops on phonics yesterday. We hope you found the session informative and a useful insight into how we teach children to read in school.

All parents of children in Reception and Year 1 have been sent an email today containing the information shared at the workshop. The powerpoint presentation gives more information about what phonics is, how we teach phonics lessons in school and the Year 1 phonics screening check. It also shares helpful tips to support parents in reading with their child at home. 

The presentation contains this link https://parents.fft.org.uk/ to the FFT Success for All Parent Portal. Here you will find further helpful information, videos demonstrating how to pronounce all phonemes and be able to access the Shared Reader e-library of books that children use in their phonics lessons every day. The school’s passcode to enter the portal is vyd5iy. 

We also included in the email some helpful handouts that support answering some frequently asked questions by parents. We hope you will find the sound cards, alphabet strip and list of alliterative and formation phrases useful at home.

If you have any other questions or queries, please do not hesitate to speak to your child’s teacher.

Thank you for your continued support,

Mrs Kendrew-Jones

Looking into the Past

4th October 2022Rebecca Kendrew-Jones

In case study one of our current expedition we have been reading the story Dogger by Shirley Hughes. As Dogger was first published in 1977 the children have been discussing the similarities and differences between the pictures in the book and our modern day world. We have particularly enjoyed playing with some of the old toys you see in the story including dolls, yoyos, flip books, cup and balls and spinning tops. It was great fun!