They absolutely loved having the venue all to themselves and sharing in roleplay games with their friends. The children made the most of all that was on offer, enjoying pretending to be vets, hairdressers, postmen, firefighters, superheroes and builders to name just a few! A big thank you to Mrs Peng who kindly invited the children. 

Form 1 have enjoyed beginning a new topic this week all about rockpools! We started by learning more about what a rockpool is, how they are formed and what this seaside habitat looks like. The children watched a video clip looking at the different creatures that could be found in rockpools. We identified sea anemones, fish, crabs, starfish, limpets and sea snails. There was lots of descriptive vocabulary being used to discuss the different animals and the children commented on the similarities and differences between these creatures and those we had learnt about during our minibeast topic. 

In literacy, the children have been focusing on furthering their independence to write without support. After listing carefully on the carpet, the children then set off to work on their individual activity as a whole class. The children wrote simple a sentence about a hermit crab and they were challenged to remember finger spaces, full stops and to use a capital letter. Later in the week, the children enjoyed the story Sharing a Shell by Julia Donaldson. We focused on speech and discussed how we can show speech in a story using a speech bubble. The children came up with some great suggestions for the different characters and we shared our ideas together. During their focused activity, the children cut out a picture of their favourite character and wrote a speech bubble to accompany it.

In maths this week, the children have continued to learn to tell the time, focusing on half past. This was quite tricky but the children enjoyed the challenge and they were all able to make various half past times on their little clocks.

On Wednesday everyone dug deep for Demelza and donated a pound towards this very special charity. Everyone enjoyed a delicious Krispy Kreme donut for an afternoon snack and there were, of course, lots of sticky fingers but very happy children! In the afternoon, the children caught up with some planting (that they missed out on last week due to poor weather) for Environmental week. The children visited the science lab and selected the seeds that they wanted to plant. They had fun filling their plantpots with soil and adding their seeds. 

Form 1 have enjoyed being creative this week and we started an art project to make our own little jellyfish. First the children had to mould the clay to create a bowl like shape, this was very tricky as the clay was rather hard to manipulate at first. Once they had the correct shape, the children turned their ‘bowl’ upside down and added texture and patterns using the various clay tools. We were sure to make a hold through the centre of the clay as this is where the wool tentacles will be threaded later. Later in the week the clay had dried and they were ready for the children to paint! They added colour using special pearlised paint, making sure to cover all of their jellyfish. To make the tentacles, the chidlren chose different coloured wool and cut it to the same length. With a little help to secure the wool, they threaded this through the hole in the top of their jellyfish. 

On Thursday, Form 1 enjoyed French Day and everyone came dressed in blue, white and red to mark the occasion. I think they all looked wonderful! In the classroom, they enjoyed playing in the French Bakery and made croissants, baguettes, pain au chocolat and crêpes using play-dough. Lots of french flags were painted or coloured and they loved adding art straws to their flag so they could wave them around. Some children built fantastic models of the Eiffel Tower in the block area and thought carefully about the shape they were trying to create. The children learnt about France, its landmarks and the food and drink that originate from there. Lots of children said they enjoy pastries, bread and cheese at home. However, there were not many keen to try escargot! At lunchtime, the children tucked into their baguettes followed by an icecream - delicious!