We have found out about how the police, firefighters, dentists, doctors and the people at Russell House all help us and keep us safe. The children have been watching clips about what these people do and learning what they should do in case of an emergency. Form 1 know they should call 999 in an emergency and then tell the operator what they needed help with. They also learnt about fire safety and identified risks around the home to watch out for.

It was great fun talking to some of the people at Russell House that help us. Form 1 visited Mrs Tickner in the office, Mr McCarthy in the study and Mrs Wray in the kitchen. We ventured upstairs to learn all about how Mrs Yearley makes sure the school spends money carefully and discovered that she loves numbers! Mr Skinner visited the classroom and explained how he fixes and makes things all around the school and also drives the minibuses for lots of school trips. The children thanked each of these people for all they do and for making our school such a brilliant place to be.

In maths, the children have been learning how to subtract and practising their careful counting. We have looked at what happens when we take away amounts from a group, noticing that the number will always get smaller. The children have also realised that if you take the same amount away from the total of the group, you will always get zero, 4-4=0 for example. The children have learnt how to use the crossing out method to subtract amounts and recorded their answers in their maths books. The children have been learning to recognise the subtraction symbol and where this is positioned in a number sentence. 

Linking to learning about dentists, the children have been learning about oral health. They have been sequencing how to brush their teeth, looking at foods that are healthy and not so healthy for our teeth and having a go at using toothbrushes and toothpaste. The children were interested to find out that toothpaste can make silver really shiny and they enjoyed scrubbing the silver goblets we have in the roleplay area. They also loved brushing the class dinosaur's teeth as well as pebbles and shells. The classroom smelt very minty!

Form 1 have really enjoyed the roleplay area this week as it turned into a Police Station! They have been busy creating badges to wear and Wanted posters to display around the room. They have also been making lots of arrests, using magnifying glasses to look for clues and keeping Form 1 safe! The children also explored that their fingerprints are all unique and that these are helpful for police officers when they are investigating crimes. Using pastels and sticky tape, the children were able to see their own fingerprints and identify the whorls, arches and loops. We discussed that they are all totally unique and how special that was.

It was wonderful to share our Harvest Assembly with you all this week and Form 1 performed their songs brilliantly. It was great seeing the children take centre stage to sing our Pre-Prep songs, but they also really enjoyed joining in with some of the Main School choruses. I hope you enjoyed watching the assembly as much as the children enjoyed performing for you. 

In art this week, the children created some wonderful firefighter pictures. Using black pens, the children drew buildings, trees and cars. They then added flames for the brave firefighters to extinguish by using paint and pastels. The children used their colour mixing skills to create oranges and reds for the flames and remembered how to smudge the pastels to create a smoky effect. They look great!