Nursery this morning have been sharing their love of reading by talking about books that they like to read. Crew Leaders have routinely modelled how to hold a book correctly, highlighted key features of the book including the title, blurb, pictures and words. The Children responded by sharing with their Crew what they think the words tell us? “Words tell things”, “A story” and “facts”. We all took time out to enjoy our own stories or share one with a friend. To close the session we finished with our daily nursery rhyme.
To raise awareness of Anti-bullying Week and to highlight how we are special and unique, Nursery took part Odd Sock’s Day! We all wore our bright and wonderfully different socks to school and talked about their patterns and pictures as part of our Monday Crew. Beautiful work to support and Be Kind to one another.
Nursery have been taking part in Maths Week England. Starting with todays challenge of making Triangular Art. Each child decorated their own triangle, thinking about the shape of a triangle; how many sides it has, how many points it has and that it is a 2d flat shape. The children did careful counting to three to check these key features.
Our second stage of the challenge was to make larger triangles… I wonder how many of our small triangles will we need? The children had a go at arranging the shapes to make a triangle. I then modelled, if we use three, we can make a larger triangle. The children followed instructions and copied to help make a larger piece of floor art.
Can you guess what we have created using triangles?
Great work Nursery, you have been Exploring Elephants, Persevering Parrots and Challenge Chipmunks today! Bring on the next challenge.
This morning in maths we reminded ourselves of what a Rangoli pattern is and why we see them around Diwali time. They are to welcome Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of wealth.
We then used our 2D knowledge to analyse some patterns before completing them.
Class Five have got involved in Odd Sock Day today. It is a day when schools, workplaces, and individuals join together to show that it’s okay to be different.
We used our early work time to design some funky odd socks too!
Over the past week Nursery have also been learning about the Hindu festival of Diwali, celebrated as “The Festival of Light”. We had an Expert Visitor come into Nursery to read our key text “Chapatti Moon” by Pippa Goodhart and model how to make Chapatti’s with the children after our first attempt to grapple with chapatti making didn’t quite go to plan – it is harder than it looks! The children had lots of fun making their chapatti with Mrs O’Donnell and used their listening ears to carefully follow instructions.
Just look at our beautiful work….
Nursery were also immersed in lots of different provision throughout the week to demonstrate how Diwali is traditionally celebrated. We learned lots of new vocabulary, such as Diva’s, Rangoli, Mehndi, Nann, Poppadoms and Spices. The children had lots of fun exploring, experimenting, tasting and creating.
Brilliant learning Nursery, celebrating other traditions and cultures! You have been Go For It Gorillas, Persevering Parrots and Teamwork Tigers.
On Friday 10th November Nursery learned about and celebrated the tradition of Remembrance Day. They watched a short video about the meaning of the day and why we wear poppies as a mark of respect and remembrance. The children learned that the poppies were the first flower to grow on the fields after the war. Teachers modelled how to make our own poppies using loose parts and also how to create a field of poppies, using paint and an apple to print in provision. Just look at our beautiful work!
For snack we also made our own Poppy toast. We used our fine motor skills to spread the jam. The children were encouraged to think about the shape of the toast and why we were using Strawberry jam to decorate it? Some of the words the children used were; “Because it’s red”, “Because it’s red like a Poppy”, “same colour as the flower”, “because it’s yummy!”
To draw our celebrations to a close we read a story called “Thank you for the Little Things” by Caryl Hart to inspire and encourage the children to be thankful for the duty and service of the fallen and our current serving servicemen and women. Finally we watched a beautiful, poignant and child friendly animation about the tragic effects of war lived through the eyes of animals, which the children empathised with and received well. Some of their words were “Sad”, “Upset”, “Scary”, “They’re hiding”, “Frightened of the bangs”, “Like fireworks”, “Foggy”, “Cloudy”, “Poppies grow”, “Soldiers hat”, “Happy again” and “it’s safe now”.
Students from XP Doncaster were very lucky to be able to welcome Flying Scotsman home today as guests of Doncaster Council. They had the opportunity to see this iconic engine up close and meet so many people who have made this special visit happen.
They were also able to hand copies of the newly published book ‘Rail CIty’ to those who had so kindly contributed to it … but more on that next week!
Final Product Preview: Beautiful Sewing at Norton Juniors!
XP Gateshead: Unheard voices of WWI
Last year, Y8 at XPG recorded a radio broadcast of unheard voices from WWI. They did this to honour the sacrifices of those who are sometimes forgotten when we remember the victims of WWI.
We are proud to share that this broadcast will be played on Memory Lane Radio on Saturday 11th November at 11am (their Armistice day slot!) Reuben visited the studio with Mrs Downes and was interviewed about the project. We will share a link to this interview in the coming days.
Be sure to tune in tomorrow to hear this beautiful work on the radio!
This week the children in Class 2 have been learning all about Diwali. We read stories and information books about the Hindu festival, moulded clay to create divas, dressed up in traditional clothing and took part in a rangoli pattern competition. We also tasted some festival foods such as naan bread, poppadoms and mango chutney. We had great fun and learned so many interesting facts about Diwali.
