Orange

Summer 2

Welcome back to Orange Class and we are looking forward to an exciting and sunny half term ahead. Our main class topic is now Under the Sea and the Orange Class team and children have been busy turning our classroom into an Under the Sea paradise with a sensory relaxation area, mermaids, whales and sparkly fish as well as floating jellyfish. During our topic we are hoping to visit some splash parks and sand areas so we can have some real seaside themed days out.

In Literacy we are reading the story, ‘The Snail and the Whale.’ We will be going on a journey around the world with our tiny snail and seeing all the magnificent things the ocean has to offer.

In Phonics we are learning how to name hidden sounds and make animals noises

In Maths we will be working on smaller/bigger and size ordering. Working with playdoh and talking about what we are doing and also talking about some properties of shape. There will be lots of practical fun activities as always.

In ICT we will be using a wii game called Endless Ocean to really discover what it would be like Under the Sea. We will be practising using drawing programs to represent what we have seen and write our names. We are also practising using a mouse.

Science will be pushing and pulling again and we will be focusing on identifying pushes and pulls and practically trying it out on different surfaces. In Gardening we are hoping the weather holds out and that we can get out all term preparing, planting and watching the Richmond Hill garden bloom.

Cookery will be making pastry pinwheels and we are hoping the children will love eating these as we do have a class of pastry lovers! We will still be using PECs and developing out cutting and spreading skills.

Summer 1

Spring 2

We are hoping for lots of bright sunshine in Spring 2 as we have lots of trips planned for our topic, ‘The Wheels on the Bus.’ Going out on transport spotting walks, looking old transport at Stockwood Park, seeing some canal boats on a canal walk and hopefully a trip on a miniature steam train at the end of the term.

In Literacy we will be reading a poem, ‘The journey to Grandpa’s house.’ This story will be a slight variation on the following story

specially re-written for Orange and Red Class so we can have lots of sensory fun with it! We are also planning to use soundbeam to write our own poems about our ‘Journey to the school bus.’ Watch this space! In Phonics, we will be drumming on anything we can get our hands on! Try giving your child some sticks at home and listen to the sounds you can make on things in and around your house.

We have also been learning how to work with playdough by doing, ‘Dough Disco’ where we manipulate playdough as a group to pop songs. Its a little like playdough aerobics! Whack it, ball it, roll it, squash it! We are all improving our playdough skills, as well as fine motor control, doing this every maths lesson.

This term we start swimming on Fridays and we cannot wait as Orange Class is full of water lovers! In ICT we will be switching in our unit ‘on/off.’ Science we will be exploring pushing and pulling, look out for Orange Class; on sledges, swings, slides, bikes and pushing around gym balls. Cookery this term is Pizza. Adding to our dough skills from Bread last half a term, we will be learning how to grate cheese and wash and cut some fruit and vegetables as toppings. Pizza is a firm favourite on a Friday lunchtime so we are hoping that that it will be just as successful handmade!

Spring 1- Round up!

Orange Class have had a brilliant half term. Please take a look at all our photos. We have also made a very special video retelling the story, ‘Going on a Bear Hunt.’ We travelled through swishy swashy grass, squelch squerch mud and even added in an extra part of our journey through the nee naw playground. Finally after a long journey we finally met a bear! Ahhhhh!

Making bread was a real success. We used PEC’s to request the ingredients, followed our recipes, kneaded our dough by bending and folding for a very long time and then left to prove. Every Wednesday afternoon we had a snack time with our freshly baked bread and all the children tried it. The loaves kept us full at every snack time for the rest of each week. Jam sandwiches have never been so popular!

There have been huge strides in independence this term with lots of children changing shoes and into outdoor clothes confidently. Also, some of Orange Class have been identifying their feelings and telling us why they feel that way. Really fantastic work!

Spring 1

Welcome back to Orange Class. We can see the children are well rested and ready to learn after a great break. We have a new face joining the children in Orange Class- Harry. The staff team would like to welcome him and look forward to lots of learning fun in the next term!

We have started eagerly by ‘Going on a Bear Hunt!’ Wading through ‘swishy swashy’ grass, getting stuck in ‘squelchy sqwerchy’ mud and getting trapped in a ‘hoo woo’ snowstorm! Do share the story below with your children to reinforce our learning. We are using vocabulary such as first, next and finally.

We are discriminating sounds in phonics. When you hear a dog, aeroplane, wind etc- listen and name it with the children.

In Maths we have been working on our vocabulary of in, under and on, smaller and larger/big and small, working with playdoh and sand, matching and tracing shapes and sorting. The maths song below is a particular favourite of the children!

Science lessons have seen some Monsters come to Orange Class. We are exploring paper by tearing, scrunching, screwing, waving, folding and bending it. This week we made some crazy Monster hair by tearing paper! Keep an eye out for our half terms paper creations.

In Topic we are learning about, ‘Under Our Feet.’ We have a fantastic beauty studio set up in class to role play hand, hair and feet treatments. We have been matching shoes to weather, making and designing socks and sock puppets and coming up we will have lots of sensory activities not for the faint hearted! Feet in jelly, rice, pasta, water, shaving foam, paint and slime! We will also be experiencing hot and cold in our role play igloo in the latter half of the term.

In Cookery we are baking bread. Our first batch was a huge success and almost all the children tried it. Variations such as olive, tomato and cheese bread are coming this term. In ICT we are watching talking stories and looking at videos of ourselves to see if we recognise ourselves. In circle times, we are learning about the emotions; happy, sad, ill, tired and excited.

We are looking forward to a great term ahead. Keep watching this page for photos of our adventures.

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Autumn 2

Orange class are already having a great time this half term and have lots of exciting things planned.

Barnaby Bear has been taken to the park, a Birthday party and met lots of people around school. We have lots of fun trips planned for the half term including visiting a museum, a church and Ashridge forest. Barnaby and  Orange class can’t wait for all his adventures!

In Literacy, we have been reading the Gingerbread man and done lots of fun things like dressing up and chasing each other around and making Gingerbread playdoh. We have also made a fantastic display which you can see here. Further, there is a link to the song that we have been singing in class.

Lots of children are making excellent progress in writing or recognising their names- well done for all the hard work children!

In Maths, we have been sorting, matching, learning new words like on, in and under. Orange class have had lots of sand play filling, pouring, sieving and mixing to mention just a few ways that we have been using it.

We are becoming expert muffin bakers- although most of the children only like to eat the chocolate ones!

In Science we are learning about animals and later in the term we may have some special doggie visitors to our class.

In ICT we are using touch screen and in PE we are doing gymnastics- stretching and rolling. Orange class is a real musical place with songs for morning, afternoon, maths and action songs throughout the day. In music lessons we are stretching our lungs singing with Aga. We have seen real progress in music with children singing and joining in actions most of the time every day.

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Autumn 1

Welcome to Orange class. We are looking forward to a fun filled year ahead! I am Selina and I am new to Richmond Hill School. I am an experienced teacher who has come from a small village school to your vibrant large school, and am having a great time so far! We have been enjoying ourselves getting to know each other in Orange class. We are mostly a new team in Orange with Nikki as our TA2 and Emily as our TA. We have been really lucky to have kept Jenny, who knows some of your children already. She has already been amazed at how grown up the children have become over the holidays and their fantastic progress.

Chloe, Nabiha and Zak are residents to Orange class and joining them this now are Tawanda, Raian, Subhaan and Zoya who have all come from different schools around Luton. We welcome old and new faces to this school year.

Our topic this half term is ‘People who help us.’ We have already looked at our families and our school. Later in the term we will be looking at policemen, firefighters, doctors and nurses, hairdressers, dentist and shopkeepers.

In literacy, we are reading the Gruffalo and later this term we will be looking at Owl Babies. It would be great if you could read these stories at home as well. Orange class are very familiar with the Gruffalo, making growling sounds and singing this song every time we have a literacy lesson.

During maths we are playing shop, so any money work with pennies, shop role play and real life shopping would really help us all learn about money and counting.

In science we are learning about sound and in ICT we are learning about switches. We have lots of exciting walks planned for the half term to stretch our legs, learn about our local environment and practice being safe outside of the school. Every week we are cooking yummy biscuits and you may have some avid biscuit bakers by half term!

We will keep this page updated with pictures and details of all of our exciting work. We are all looking forward to a fantastic 2014/2015 in Orange Class.

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Orange class have loved reading the Gruffalo!

To finish off our learning on the story, we went for a walk with mouse to the deep dark woods. A truly frightening place for a small mouse. Along the way we found a hungry fox, a hungry owl and a hungry snake.

We outsmarted the forest animals by pretending that we were having tea with a scary creature called the Gruffalo, so fortunately they didn’t gobble us up.

Just when we had breathed a sigh of relief… out of nowhere… appeared a terrifying Gruffalo! After much screaming and running around, we outsmarted the Gruffalo too and made it safely back to class. What an adventure!

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Autumn 1 - Recap

Orange Class have had a wonderful half term. Our Topic has allowed up to visit many places and do lots fun activities!

We have been to the firestation, sprayed water out of the hoses and dressed up like real firefighters. We have been to the hairdressers and had our hair washed, brushed and dried. A policeman visited us in school and we got to put on his sirens, sit in the back and even wear his hat! We have been to the shops and bought items to cook with. In school, we have had some brilliant role play; looking after the babies, working at the post office and shopping at our shop.

In Literacy, while reading Room on the Broom, we have loved being witches! We have made decorated hats, glittery magic wands and bows for our witches hair. Richmond Hill School are getting used to seeing Orange Class whizzing around on broomsticks. And our favourite piece of Literacy Art and Craft is our enormous dragon collage.

Maths has seen us doing lots of fun sensory and kinesthetic activities. We have been working with playdoh, sand, shapes, toys. Rolling, counting, sorting, sharing, building, playing shop, hide and seek to name but a few.

Orange class have had some real independence developments over the term. Some children have been writing their names, gaining in independence with class routines, huge develops in personal care. Developing verbal and non-verbal communication. Well done children! We are all so proud of you!

We have done loads of cross curricular cookery and crafts- making halloween sound shakers, delicious biscuits including toffee apple ones, making owls and gruffalos, funky hair on our pictures and making shape fire engines. The classroom looks fabulous as a celebration of all the children’s hard work.

We also have an excellent new team member in Orange class- Hollie. She has bags of enthusiasm and has been getting stuck in with all the activities. She particularly loves crafts and bouncing around on the trampolines and space hoppers with the children!

Next half term we will be lingering with the story, ‘The Gingerbread Man.’ Our topic is,’Where is Barnaby Bear. We have lots of educational visits planned and Barnaby Bear will be getting well and truly spoiled by Orange Class. Have a great restful holiday and look forward to more fun learning next half term.