Last Tuesday, we held our second annual Cardboard Challenge Day, this time based on dinosaurs in keeping with our current topic. In Reception, we chose to create a dinosaur scene, working together to make a volcano, nest of dinosaur eggs, a friendly dinosaur and some baby dinosaurs. The children amazed us with how well they worked together and the results were amazing. It has also inspired lots of children to choose to make baby dinosaurs of their own both at home and school. To finish our day, we had Shadow the T-Rex come to visit us all the way from Blackgang Chine. Unfortunately, Shadow did not make good choices and kept whipping his owners with his large tail. The children enjoyed this experience immensely and we know from many of you, it is all they talked about on the journey home. It is not every day a dinosaur walks in to your school hall! Macbeth and Measure for Measure classes were given a special treat today as we went on our very first school trip! As our topic this term is dinosaurs, what better place to go than Dinosaur Isle in Sandown to see all the fabulous learning experiences that they have to offer. We were lucky enough to get to explore a wide range of bones, fossils and ammonites, as well as a dinosaur skin. The children loved this hands on experience and the enthusiasm in the room was incredible. Afterwards, we were allowed time to explore the Museum, playing with a robot dinosaur and doing some fossil hunting of our own amongst other things. The wet and windy weather meant that we didn't make it onto the beach, but nevertheless, a great learning experience was had by all. An extra special THANK YOU to all the grown ups who came with us to help. On Friday afternoon, we were lucky enough to have a visit from two ladies who work at the Cats Protection. They talked to the children about the traffic light system that they use to determine how friendly a cat is feeling towards humans and the children played a game related to this. We also learnt about how cats are tagged with microchips and listened to the story Ginger finds a Home, all about Ginger, who finds a new family to live with. It was a very interesting visit and it was lovely to hear comments about how well the children in both classes listened and participated. We were very proud of them. On Wednesday, we celebrated Diwali day. We began the day by taking part in some Indian dancing with our visitor, Mary. We used our hands to symbolise animals and the children, who were all enthused to take part, listened beautifully. In less than half an hour they had mastered an Indian dance, and to demonstrate their engagement with the task a video has been linked to you on Tapestry. It will make you very proud! For lunch, we had traditional Indian dishes and we are finishing the week by making Diva lamps to help Rama and Sita find their way back home. It has been lovely to see the children so engaged in learning about a culture different from their own. This week, we had the Owl and Falconry birds that are often at Robin Hill visit Reception at school. The children met five birds in total and learned lots of new facts about the birds. We were amazed to learn that an owl with yellow eyes prefers to hunt during the day. Afterwards, Measure for Measure class got to hold a Harris Hawk and Macbeth class held an owl. The children have since shown a real interest in learning about birds and we have now added learning opportunities to the environment to support them in their bird exploration. This year, Macbeth class are buddies with the Year 3 children in Hamlet class. To get to know each other, we decided to have a shared reading session. The Year 3 children brought down stories to read to us and then we shared some of our reading books with them. It was lovely to make friends with some of the older children and Miss Hopkinson also really enjoyed seeing how well one of her old Reception classes have progressed with their reading. We are looking forward to doing more lovely activities with Hamlet class over the year and sharing these with you.
It was non-stop towards the end of last half term, but a definite highlight was an afternoon with some rather famous visitors. Reception and Years 1 and 2 were treated to a visit from Officer Ditty and Professor Poet from the Cbeebies show The Rhyme Rocket. We had a fun-filled afternoon of singing and dancing whilst learning all about rhyming words.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/shows/rhyme-rocket
Just before half term, Macbeth and Measure for Measure classes had another visitor. Theo and Travis' Mum brought in their brand new puppy, Honey. The children found out all about how Theo and Travis are helping to look after her and even got to stroke Honey. She was very well behaved during her visit and is going to pop back when she has grown a bit more so we can see how she has changed. |
AuthorThe children in Esio Trot and The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me classes will be sharing their learning through this blog. Archives
June 2017
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