The children started the week by watching a video all about a little girl and her family preparing for the festivities. It was lots of fun learning about the Chinese zodiac and which animal's year the Form 1 children were born into. Some of Form 1 were born in the year of the dog and the other half were born in the year of the pig! Hearing all about the race the animals took part in to decide on their order was also interesting and the children considered if they had any of the qualities that their animal portrayed in the story.

In literacy, the children wrote a sentence about which animal's year they were born in and drew a picture or copied the Chinese symbol of their animal to accompany their work. Fabulous writing is emerging as the children continue to develop their phonological awareness and their confidence to apply this in their writing grows.

On Tuesday, we took part in Safer Internet Day. We discussed how fun the internet can be and the sorts of things they enjoy doing online. Playing games, watching films or favourite programs were shared as well as solving puzzles, using various apps and learning about animals and the wider world. The children then learnt all about the importance of always telling an adult if they see anything that they are not sure about online and to tell someone if something online upsets them or makes them feel uncomfortable. All the children were fantastic and very responsible, demonstrating that they understood they should only ever play games or watch things that their adults have said are safe for them. We also discussed not talking to strangers online and that not everything on the internet is suitable for children. The children then drew onto paper tablets and phones the things they enjoy doing online and how to stay safe.

In maths, the children have been learning how to measure length this week. They continued to use either cubes or rulers to measure and compare the length of different objects. The children had fun measuring their shoes to find out the length and then comparing them on a class chart. We talked about each person's length of shoe being represented by one red square and we all agreed it was much easier to interpret the information once it has been represented in this way.  The children then got to work completing a measuring activity in their maths books using rulers or cubes and recording all their findings.

To further learn about Chinese New Year, Form 1 made their own stir fry! The children chopped mushrooms, peppers, baby corn, sugar snap peas and grated carrots. Using the special safety knives, the children worked carefully to prepare the vegetables and discussed the importance of washing their hands and the vegetables before setting to work. Once all the chopping had been done, we visited Robin's kitchen and cooked the vegetables and noodles in the wok. A tasty Kung Po sauce was added and the children had fun using chopsticks to try their creation. Everyone thought it was pretty delicious but possibly a tiny bit spicy.

The children have been delighted to see how well their beans from last week are growing and each day begins with the children checking on their beans, watering them if needed and comparing their progress. We even used our measuring skills to measure some of the beans plants! Mrs Leigh has kindly said she will look after the children's beans over the half term while we are not in school, so who knows how tall they will be on our return.

Form 1 have also enjoyed learning how to represent numbers 0-10 using Chinese characters, they are pretty tricky but everyone had a very good try. They have also made red Chinese lanterns using card, drawn dragon pictures using pastels and string and made hanging spiral dragons out of paper. The Chinese Restaurant role play has also been very much enjoyed as the children have had fun writing down orders, preparing the food in the kitchen and pretending to be customers enjoying a meal out.

It has been a great end to the first half of the term and I am sure the children will enjoy a very well earned rest in the coming week!