Emerald

Summer 1

This term we are learning about life cycles. We have caterpillars in class and we are keeping diaries, recording how big they grow and taking photos of them. They are now cocoons and we are looking forward to them becoming butterflies. We also have tadpoles to look at. Emerald class are very motivated and interested in the changes that are taking place in the class.

We have some trips planned for this half term: Whipsnade Zoo trip on May 4 to see the butterflies. Also on May 12 Luca, Prajith and Oakley will be joining pupils from Year 3 and 4 and taking part in a caterpillar dance at the Library Theatre.

In Literacy we are reading story books about dinosaurs. We also have toy dinosaurs to use to role play with the stories. The children have enjoyed dressing up in dinosaur costumes and we have laminated photos of them and made them into puppets. 

Unfortunately swimming is finished for Emerald class now. It was a session that we all looked forward to on Tuesdays. Pupils particularly enjoyed swimming at Inspire pool and became increasingly confident in the water.

New sessions that we have introduced this term include electricity in Science, Tuck shop on Tuesdays and phonics Monday to Wednesdays after break. We continue to brush teeth every afternoon. 

We will let you know how these sessions go!

Spring 2

We had an enjoyable end to last half term. Year 3/ 4 classes held a food market in the hall for parents to come and taste food from different countries. Emerald class represented Indian food and we served curry, poppadum, bhajis and samosas.

Also last half term, we had a successful trip to Pizza Express, where we were shown how to make pizzas (including the base!!).

Swimming has become a favourite activity for most pupils on Tuesday mornings, but we only having swimming until the end of March. It has been much better at the Inspire pool because the water has been deeper and all pupils have had more space to actually practise swimming.

The new topic is “Kings and Queens” and we have been finding out about the Royal family and landmarks in London. We have made castles in ICT and crowns in art with Alison.

We have 2 trips planned- Stockwood Discovery Centre and Stopsley park, where there is a play castle.

Our new book in Literacy is “The King`s socks” which the children are all enjoying!

Sheila

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Spring 1 

We had a lovely end to the Autumn term with 2 Christmas trips and our Year 

band show of “A Christmas Carol!” We made up a new song “Hey Mr Scrooge, be Happy it`s Christmas time!” to sing, and Luca tried hard to be nasty Scrooge!!

The children enjoyed our Literacy book “Mrs Rainbow” and on Tuesdays came to  school wearing the colour of the week for assembly. They were very motivated  by work on black and white when we made shadows with objects and drew our silhouettes.

This half term our topic is “Come Dine With Me!” We have a café set up in the 

corner of class and already the pupils have been enjoying role play. Last week we concentrated on English foods- Breakfast and afternoon teas. This week we are  pretending to be in Italy and making pizza! On Friday we are visiting Pizza 

Express.

This term we are swimming and we are going to the Inspire pool! All the children seem excited about this! 

Our new Literacy book is “Barry the Fish With Fingers!” (You can read the story on youtube). We have some large cardboard characters of Puffy and Barry, the fish in the story, and we have been copying the actions that they do eg blowing, knitting, tickling, painting etc. Hope you enjoy the photos.

Sheila Pobjoy

Autumn 2

Last half term we really enjoyed our big book “Room on the broom”. We sang a song to help tell the story and dressed up as the characters in the book. This half term we are looking at a variety of books about colour eg The green queen, Mrs Rainbow. Nearer to Christmas we are reading “A Christmas carol” and hopefully acting it out.

Our new topic is OVER THE RAINBOW and we will be looking at a different colour each week- this week was orange week. We have a colour basket in class and collected orange objects. We also dressed up in orange clothing for assembly. The next  weeks are yellow, black/white, blue, purple, red green. We want pupils to wear the coloured clothes on Tuesdays.

We have had some successful Friday trips on the minibus- using outside gym equipment, practising road safety at zebra crossings and McDonalds. This week we started our Expressive Arts session and we built a bonfire with sticks and used pretend flickering tea lights to make the fire look real. It was a chance for pupils to participate in their own way with less direction. We have also started using the massage in schools programme.

In Maths we have been covering various topics including temperature, measurement and the beginnings of addition using dice and dominoes. We are also using the red work Ipads in our Maths sessions to motivate them to complete different activities.

Hope you enjoy the photos

 Sheila

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Emerald pupils are all happy to be back at school and have quickly settled into a routine. Harun and Raian have joined the class as Aliyah and Sohail have moved up to Yr 5. Deirdre, Beth, Lorraine and Julie have joined Carol and Sheila – the new Emerald class team.

In Literacy we are enjoying “Room on the broom” story and you will find there are various puzzles and books in the shops about it leading up to Halloween. You can also watch the story on Youtube. Now that the children are familiar with the sequence of events in the story, we have begun to act it out! We also have made up a song to sing as the story progresses!

In Maths we have been using dice and ladybirds with dots and are practising counting accurately, so that we can begin to combine two amounts for addition activities. We have also been using play dough in Geometry and Measure sessions, encouraging pupils to make shapes and roll out different lengths.

The topic is “Champions” and we are learning skills to keep us fit and healthy, as well as experiencing activities that involve one of the 5 senses each week. In the first week we learnt about brushing different areas of our mouth eg back, front, top, bottom. We now regularly brush teeth every day after lunch play and all the children are much more thorough with their teeth cleaning. We also have learnt about germs on hands and how we need to wash hands with soap and warm water.

We enjoyed a visit to the outside gym equipment next to St Albans park and managed to dodge the showers by having a picnic lunch on the bus and an ice cream in the café, when we were not exercising!

Harvest time is fast approaching and we are learning the song “Cauliflowers fluffy” to perform at the Harvest festival. Lucy visits our class every Monday afternoon to teach us new signs, so we hope to be able to sign and sing! She also plays games with us, asking if we are “happy” or “sad” and encourages us to sign if we want “more” or whether we “like”/”not like” the toys she brings.

In the mornings we encourage pupils to comment on how they are feeling and they place their name on either the symbol for happy, sad, ill, tired or excited. They also ask the adults “How you feeling?......eg Deirdre” and they respond to staff by placing the adult names on the symbols. The interactions that take place during the morning circle times are lovely to see.

Sheila