The theme for World Poetry Day this year is: Poetry: A Bridge for Peace and Inclusion and as a whole school we decided to focus on the word ‘inclusion’. Each class over the last week have been busy becoming poets and choosing a theme for their very own class poem! Each class has written their own fabulous poem and thought of an activity which matches the theme of their poem. Some examples of the themes of the poems included; nature, Vincent Van Gogh’s Starry Night artwork, waves and kindness. On Thursday every class took part in a Poetry Parade! We visited each classroom, read each class poem and completed the activity. By the end of the parade, we had collectively created; a graffiti wall representing our school, our own representation of Van Gogh’s Starry Night artwork, a colony of bumblebees, a whole school caterpillar and watched a live webcam of an osprey nest including our own observational drawings. We also had some team games challenges and dances to complete in other classes too!

It was a great way of sharing the importance and fun of poetry whilst also taking part in some fun activities. It was also super exciting to do these activities in all nine of the different classrooms! Each class now has their own poetry book in their classroom with our very own poems in them! Look out for these poems on a Poetry Display in our Library.

This week in Bumblebee, Caterpillar and Dragonfly class the children have been busy continuing their learning on the traditional tale The Gingerbread Man. The children were excited to make and bake their own Gingerbread people. They carefully weighed out the ingredients and used their senses to explore different smells, textures and tastes. Once the Gingerbread people were cooked, the children loved decorating them and making each one unique with their chosen design. 

The children very kindly made an extra Gingerbread man for Mrs Wytchard to enjoy on her lunch... however, there was great excitement around school when Mrs Wytchard’s gingerbread man went missing! The children followed clues that were left around the school and they helped create “Wanted” posters to try and find him! It was lovely to see how engaged the children were when creating their wanted posters. The children drew pictures of him and wrote words to describe what he looked like and how he smelt! 

This week, the children have been learning about transport and discussing what a vehicle is. They thought carefully about their favourite vehicle and explained why they liked it. Some children challenged themselves to write a sentence about their favourite vehicle, extending their ideas by using the word “because”. The children have been working hard this week to plan their chosen vehicle. They carefully thought about the details their vehicle would need and discussed which materials they could use to create their model in 3D. We were very impressed with the care and time the children put into creating their super vehicles! 

In maths, the children have been exploring 2D and 3D shapes. The children had a go at exploring tangrams, creating pictures with shapes sponges and creating 3D models using reclaimed materials. The Bumblebees, Caterpillars and Dragonflies have been talking about how shapes look, learning the names of different shapes, and describing their features. The children enjoyed identifying shapes in the classroom and discussing the differences between flat 2D shapes and solid 3D shapes. 

On Monday 11th May our Early Years children went on a school trip to Windsor as part of their learning this term about 'Journeys'. To prepare for the journey our Bumblebees, Caterpillars and Dragonflies learnt about landmarks in our local area, map reading and different ways to travel. We started our journey at school and boarded a coach with maps of the local area. The coach then took us on a journey around Maidenhead and we spotted local landmarks before travelling on to Windsor. We walked across Alexander Park and boarded our boat. Captain Nathan took us on a trip down the Thames before returning to our starting point to eat our lunch. During the boat trip, the children had to see what they could spot along the river Thames and they used a tally chart to count how many they saw altogether! The children excitedly talked about the places that they recognised and everyone had a fantastic day with a particular highlight being their packed lunch! After our visit, the children enjoyed sharing their experiences by writing sentences about what they saw, liked and loved. They also created detailed drawings inspired by the trip.

Thank you to all the adults that helped make the day a success and our brilliant Bumblebees, Caterpillars and Dragonflies who were all fantastic role models for our school, we are so proud of you all!

Our Early Years children took part in a painting workshop with Amanda from Norden Farm Arts Centre. The workshop called 'Our Town Map' helped us to launch our Summer Term project 'Journeys'. The children worked collectively using colour and shape to produce Bumblebee, Caterpillar and Dragonfly Towns. They were extremely proud of their creations and are looking forward to sharing them in our Early Years Exhibition next term.   

This term for our project 'We're Going on an Adventure!' we have looked at some explorers who have been on adventures across different continents. So far we have looked at Sir Ranulph Fiennes and Karen Darke. We have loved learning about their lives and the amazing things they have achieved - it has inspired us all!

We have loved guessing where different fruits are grown around the world and discovering the journeys they have made, learning about their food miles. We then thoroughly enjoyed making our own fruit sticks following an algorithm to ensure we placed the fruit in the correct order.

We have also been busy applying our Sticky Knowledge of primary and secondary colours to designing and painting our own flags.

We have continued to learn about the five groups of animals: mammals, birds, fish, amphibians and reptiles and thought about the special characteristics that enable them to be classified in one of the groups.  We have also been thinking about the way that animals adapt to their environment, such as the symbiotic relationship between clown fish and sea anemones and how different types of frog are either brightly coloured to warn off predators or how they can camouflage into their surroundings.

We have also been enjoying learning about Judaism in RE and we have been learning about the importance of Shabbat. Miss Dexter came to tell us more about this and even bought in some Challah bread for us to try! We all thought it was delicious! 

During our maths sessions we have started having ‘Fun with Fractions!’, learning all about halves and quarters of objects, shapes and quantities.  We have proved that two equal parts make a whole (halves) and four equal parts make a whole (quarters) and shown our understanding in different ways.

In outdoor learning we have been planting some tomato plants! We loved using grow bags to plant them and are eager to see how they will continue to grow!