Emerald

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Summer 2

This term we are learning “how does your garden grow”. We already have a lovely display of a tree and the growth of a sunflower. We have grown cress in little individual garden boxes. On the purple mash programme there are some nice interactive activities where pupils can click and drag plants and seeds into a garden picture and when they are watered, they flower.

We hope to visit a garden centre or park, as well as a water jet park in Leighton Buzzard. In July we will be going fruit picking.

In the area outside of class, we have started to create a garden scene with chairs and a shed, fake grass etc-any contributions welcome! A lot of the ideas and work we are doing for the topic comes from Alison, who teaches in Emerald class on Thursday mornings.

Sheila

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Emerald class update June 2015

We had a very busy last half term and really enjoyed the circus topic. We visited a big top tent at Stock wood Park and performed a show to parents in the hall. We enjoyed practising skills eg stilt walking, balancing, roly polies on mats etc. In the show we were acrobats and wore special outfits with sashes. We also enjoyed the Oxford Reading Tree book “Hey presto!” about magic and acted out a similar story.

When we went to the ELearning centre, we filmed a magic show. We dressed up as clowns, magicians and Aliyah was our princess. You can view the video on the Richmond Hill TV site.

Summer 1

We enjoyed our 2 trips out in the minibus last term. We had a walk in Ashridge where we experienced the peace and tranquillity of the countryside. We met other people walking their dogs and we found a fallen tree that was easy to climb! We also walked across an open field and followed a footpath through the woods. Our second trip was to St Albans where we drove through the town and sat in a busy McDonalds. On both occasions Emerald class behaviour was excellent! 

We are also very happy to be swimming every Friday morning and this will continue throughout the summer term.

This term our topic is the CIRCUS and you will already be aware that we are having an entertainer to show us some circus skills. We hope to put on a show at the end of this half term and Emerald class will be practising balancing and acrobatics for this.

We will also be visiting the E-Learning centre where we hope to make a film. We thought it would be fun to create a magic show and hopefully the cameraman can make it look like we have disappeared or performed some clever tricks or illusions!

Sheila Pobjoy

Spring 2

This half terms topic is Town and Country and we will be comparing the two and listening to sound effects. We hope to visit St Albans and Ashridge to experience these different environments.

In ICT we shall be using Purple Mash activities to create sounds and musical sequences. As Easter approaches, we look forward to some “egg-citing” activities, such as an Easter egg hunt and egg-jarping-a new experience for me! Parents will be invited to join us at the end of term for tasting some Easter treats-hope to see you then! 

Spring 1- Round up

Since January, we have been reading 2 books in Literacy- The Rainbow Fish and Monkey Puzzle. The class enjoyed watching the stories on youtube, as well as looking at the actual big books. Our display in class is based on the characters from The Rainbow Fish. The Monkey Puzzle story is about a baby monkey being asked “Is this your mum?” when shown various animals. It helped to encourage saying yes/no answers and we enjoyed playing a game which involved running to find the yes or no flash card.

In Numeracy we have been working on concepts such as big/small, same/different and we have been sorting objects by colour, shape, size etc. We have also been making patterns and sequences using pegboards.

Our topic has been Pictures, paintings and photographs. We have used an ICT programme called 2 simple to create pictures based on various artists eg Mondrian, Picasso etc. Alison is in Emerald class on Thursday mornings and set up various activities, encouraging techniques such as printing, spray painting, dabbing – work has been displayed both in class and in the corridor.

Jamal started in Emerald class at the beginning of term and is a very welcome member of class. He has settled very quickly and is gradually remembering the names of his peers!

All pupils are looking forward to swimming after half term. In PE we have been learning dances to music – “wiggly woo” is one favourite as well as the twist! We also attempted some Scottish dancing.

Spring 1

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Autumn 2 - Recap
 

The first term already over and we have been very busy. We enjoyed all the Christmas activities and performing the Hansel and Gretel production. Prajith sang a solo before we all joined in with the Emerald song “Presents big, presents small…..” to the tune of Jingle bells. We made Christmas hats and costumes designed as presents. Some pupils also enjoyed going to the St Albans pantomime of Jack and the beanstalk.

We also had our first trip in the minibus and went to Frosts garden centre at Woburn Sands. Although we were unable to see Father Christmas, we had a drink and chocolate treat in the café while watching the ice skating. We also saw the Christmas lights and decorations-there was a huge reindeer at the entrance.

The pupils were very motivated by the snowman and the snow dog DVDs at the end of the term and used lots of verbal language and symbols to comment on the stories. Alison, a previous class teacher  at Richmond Hill, continues to come to Emerald class every Thursday morning and she created a lovely display based on the “Owl Babies” story. Also on Thursday mornings, Emerald do gardening with Vicky and many parents enjoyed having the pickles sent home.

In ICT we were working on typing and finding letters on the keyboard. The pupils enjoyed writing using the Communicate In Print (symbol programme) and listening to their writing played back. Liam decided to use the number keys, wrote every numeral to 100 and was very motivated by listening to the computer count to him.

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Autumn 2

Since half term we have begun a new topic called “Let there be light!” We made day and night pictures for the display outside class and also used a programme in ICT which involved choosing which animals were awake in the daytime and which were awake at night! Alison continued the night time theme by making some very effective firework pictures with Emerald class too- by spraying different coloured paint onto black paper!

We have just finished making a gingerbread house in the classroom, which we can also use for role play as there is a tea set on a small table inside with 2 chairs. When we read the Hansel and Gretel story, we are more interested in the sweets on the outside of the house than the witch on the inside! We also made a gingerbread house in cooking and enjoyed eating the sweets and icing!!

So far in Numeracy, we have been concentrating on money- recognising and sorting coins, counting 1p coins to 10p and using coins in a play shop. We have also been working on prepositions and using symbols to show whether an item is on, in, under etc. They also enjoyed pushing the wooden train over and under the bridge and joining in with action songs eg “5 little monkeys jumping on the bed”, “speckled frogs” and “10 in the bed”.

Finally we have started going on a power walk before breakfast on Tuesdays and all the pupils have enjoyed the exercise! This links in nicely with Hansel and Gretel walking through the woods and following the pathway to the gingerbread house! Enjoy the photos………

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Autumn 1

I`m Sheila, the new teacher in Emerald class, supported by a wonderful team of Jayne, Alesia, Leanne and Jodi. I am so happy to be part of Richmond Hill school and have had a really warm welcome from staff and parents.

We have soon settled into our new classroom. Oakley often prefers to work at a work station where he can focus and complete lots of work. Jake has been eating different foods both in class and at dinnertime. Liam enjoys the book corner where he often goes when he has completed his work. Aliyah is very good at cutting and sticking activities. Sohail, Prajith and Luca sit on a table together and have really worked well as a group.

“What a load of Junk” is our topic and we have been learning about metals, wood and paper. We have a wall display of junk metal instruments using foil -  triangles, cymbals and shakers. We hope to create a pots and pans band!

Our Literacy book is “The Scarecrow`s hat” which is all about animals with different materials. Once we are more familiar with the story, we will be acting it through role play. We use a programme called Colourful Semantics to create sentences with symbols. The “who” word is orange, the “what doing” word is yellow and the “what” is green eg “the badger is holding a stick”. This also helps pupils know which prop they need. Dingle dangle scarecrow is a popular song in Emerald class that we all join in with!

You may have already recognised that Emerald class were in the photos on the home page last week, using the beebots- a very popular session! Moving the beebot forwards is fine but turning it 90 degrees is proving to be more complicated, even for the teacher! The children loved it when Sheila pressed the wrong arrow. So we are definitely learning together!

Enjoy the photos.....

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