Yesterday Class 1 went to the woods again, this time to collect sticks and use them to talk about measures (length).  They were set the following tasks: To find the longest stick they could find and see where it measured up to on themselves.  Then they collected more sticks and ordered them from longest to shortest.  Some children were given extra challenges to find a stick as long as their arm, 2 sticks the same length and a stick that was 20cm.  They all worked really well together.

Today we used the sticks to make them look like beanstalks using a  range of materials. The children all made a fantastic effort.

Today Class 1 went to the woods and listened to the story ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’.  They then worked with a partner to mime one scene from the story for the other children to guess the scene.  They all worked really well and thought carefully about using good body language and facial expressions.

As you may have noticed, we have been busy ‘sprucing up’ the outdoor area outside Class One.

Our flower bed areas have received a lot of attention recently. Mrs Orrell has been very involved in helping Class One decide upon what to plant in the flower beds and provided Class One with a list of suitable shrubs and plants for the first flower bed, nearest the main class gate. Class One spent time looking at pictures and finding out about a variety of shrubs and plants and decided that ‘colour’ was important, to add vibrancy to the flower bed. We decided that we liked ‘Ceanothus Blue Mound’ and ‘Camellia Japonica’. These, along with several other varieties of shrubs and plants have been planted by children in Class One and Mrs Orrell, for us to enjoy and look after.

Here is a plan of the ‘Class One Shrubbery’:

The bed furthest away from Class One is our vegetable and herb garden. Here you will see that a range of vegetables and herbs have been planted and some have also flowered again from last year. Here is a plan of our Vegetable and Herb Garden:

These plans will be displayed above the beds so that children can try to identify the plants, herbs, flowers, vegetables and shrubs.

A big thank you to Mrs Orrell, FoBs, parents and staff for helping to supply equipment for and develop the area outside Class One. Also, a big well done to Class One children who have worked hard to weed, prepare and plant the flower beds. We have lots of work ahead to make sure everything is well cared for.

We are grateful for the donations that have been coming in to help us develop other areas such as the mud kitchen and water area. Please keep bringing in any equipment that you think may be useful.

Mrs Conde and Mrs Thomas.

As part of our RE topic this term Class 1 have been looking at special places around them.  Today we went to a special place in our local community – Bicton Church.  The children first of all looked at all the parts of the church and found out what they are used for – e.g. font, altar, lectern, pulpit, pews….  Then they spent some time exploring the church and sketching some of the parts of the church we discussed.