Summer 2

What a great year it's been in Green Class! Back in September, when a new set of children arrived to join us, with their new set of challenges, and personalities, the year ahead was clearly going to be a busy one! 

As always, we had challenging expectations for our pupils and looked forward to getting to know them. And as usual, it seems as though, through the year, they've taught us as much as we've taught them. Every single one of them has made great progress, and we are very proud of them.

Thank you to all you parents and friends for the support you've given us, and for putting your trust in us to care for, nurture and develop the children you love so much, and who have become part of our family too.

We leave you with some photos from our Vet's surgery role play and our pirate topic. Do be aware that you will still be able to access all the photos on this year's Green class page in the future (should you get nostalgic - I know I will!) , by accessing it through the archive link right at the bottom of the 'class pages' index. page.

As many of you know, I will be retiring at the end of term, after 22 years at Richmond Hill! But I will still  be popping in now and again, and following your children's progress with interest. Thanks again from me, Dil, Chandan and Elaine - and have a lovely summer.

Sarah

Summer 2 Update

We are looking forward to an exciting and busy last half term of the year.

Our topic is Treasure Island, and we'll be doing lots of activities based on Pirates, treasure, sea and sand. We've already made our pirate hats!

Our story for the first few weeks, is Shark in the Park. A couple of children know this book from past classes, but they seem very excited to come across it again.

We are making our own telescopes like Timothy Pope's, and will be taking them to the park so that the children can look for sharks. Little do they know it yet, but they might well find an inflatable one in all sorts of strange places!

Summer 2- Treasure hunt!

After making our egg box treasure chests, we went on a treasure hunt! The children found all sorts of jewellery hidden in the area outside the classroom, and lots of rings and tiny jewels in our sand tray. They really enjoyed filling up their treasure chests with their finds!

Summer 2- Little helpers!

I seem to have a couple of new assistants. The children have been taking a lot of notice when we put up displays in the classroom or corridor. While we were drawing and colouring some pirate related things the other day, two of them decided to complete our treasure island display themselves. We left them to it, and they put lots of thought into how they arranged things. They didn't need us at all!

Summer 2- Shark in the Park!

Today we went to Wardown Park with our home made telescopes, and just like Timothy Pope, we discovered that there was a shark in the park!

He kept appearing in all sort of places!

The children really loved the activity and behaved very well - even if a couple of the telescopes did get thrown into the pond!

Summer 1 Update

In Green class, we are very aware that it's easy to help our children TOO much. With that in mind, at least once a month, we give the children a task that we don't help them with at all. We sit with them to give them verbal encouragement, but we don't interfere. It's harder than you might think, to stand back and not give a helping hand!

 But we want the children to get that buzz of achievement. To be able to look at a finished product and know that they did it all by themselves. And importantly, sometimes a child will demonstrate that they can do something that we didn't realise they could do!

Yesterday we looked at a picture of the fat, very hungry caterpillar. I showed the children the resources we were going to use, and we made an example as a group, so that they really understood what it was they were going to do. Then we provided them with the art materials and a blank piece of A3 card, and left them to it!

We are really proud of what they did. They were so focused and so intent on the task - and SO proud when they had finished. I'm sure you'll be proud of them too.

This half term, our topic theme is The Very Hungry Caterpillar. The book itself is a popular one that some of the children are familiar with. It's colourful and enjoyable, and we are going to extend their interpretation of it by studying life cycles in science. We will have some class caterpillars and watch them develop into butterflies.

Our other core subjects will also be built around the book. In maths we will look at the concept of time, and the days of the week, as well as making caterpillars of different lengths and talking about long and short.

In PSHE we will look at the foods that the caterpillar eats in the story, and whether they are healthy or not. And of course, we have lots of lovely ideas for art and craft, around caterpillars and butterflies.

As I write this, we are looking forward to our trip to Whipsnade Zoo, where we will visit the butterfly house.

Spring 2 Update

We're coming to the end of our royal topic, and the children have continued to enjoy the activities within it. They've searched for jewels in the sand tray, made two different crowns, painted themselves as kings and queens, and used chalks to shade a photo of the Queen, as well as making crowns out of playdough. This really tested their fine motor skills, as they picked up and put in tiny beads (it was even harder for them to pick them out again!). 

It's been a fun half term, and we look forward to coming back after the Easter break to our new topic - 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar'. Stand by for lots of activities about life cycles and healthy eating!

Spring 2

We are really enjoying our new topic for this half term. Our theme is 'Kings and Queens and all things Royal'.

We started out by looking at castles. The children sponge painted some castle walls which we are using to make the doorway into our classroom look like a castle entrance! They've enjoyed playing in a pop-up castle tent, and most of all, they enjoyed a group session with a Construct a Castle set. We were really impressed with the way they used the component parts co-operatively, and clearly had a vision about what they wanted to create. I hope you enjoy the photos from this activity.

We had a great time in our drama room, pretending to be Kings, Queens and knights. We had out pop up castles, lots of dressing up clothes, and very royal music and castle scenes in the background.

Again, the amount of interaction between our children was a real pleasure to see. They played imaginatively, and co-operated together both verbally and non-verbally. We adults were able to just stand back and enjoy (and of course, take photos for you). A lovely session.

Truck art

We were really excited to head for Jade room and add our two decorated boxes to the pile, to make our truck. The children were really focused on exploring and arranging the boxes, and totally engaged in the project. When some of their friends from last year, who are now at our new East site, turned up to join in, it was a lovely surprise. It was so nice to see our children recognise them (and in some cases, their last year's teacher) and be so delighted to see them, greet them and play together again.

In cookery, we made a classic Victoria sponge for the school bake-off competition. We thought ours was the best entry, even though we didn't win!

This week we will be making crowns in our topic sessions, and looking at knights and shields the following week. There will be lots of opportunities for the children to dress up and enjoy role play.

Our story this week is Peace at Last, by Jill Murphy. We will be finding out about sounds in science this half term, so this book about Mr Bear not being able to get to sleep because of all the sounds around him, fits nicely into our curriculum, as well as being funny. It has a repeated phrase for the children to join in with - "Oh no", said Mr Bear, "I can't STAND this!"

Spring 1 Update

We've all really enjoyed our 'Come Dine With me' topic. The children have experienced and cooked dishes from Italy, India, China and the USA, as well as our favourite traditional English recipes. They particularly enjoyed using Jill's pasta machine to roll and cut their own tagliatelle, and whizzing up milkshakes with the hand blender. Some of the adults learned a thing or two about other cuisines as well.

As we reach the half way point of the academic year, we've been able to look back to where we were in September. It's been rewarding to see just how much the children have progressed. Every single pupil has developed, particularly in communication, which is always a priority for us. It's lovely to hear previously quiet children wanting to share information or experiences with us, or being able to make their needs known more effectively. 

But the most rewarding thing of all is how much they interact  now. They all really like each other, and want to engage and play together. This is such a huge thing, and it's lovely to see them co-operating in games that they've invented for themselves. Their verbal and non-verbal planning and interaction is fascinating to watch. They each have their roles, and the co-operation is amazing. It's been a very satisfying half term.

Spring 1

Welcome back, and a Happy New Year to the Green class families and friends.

Our topic for this half term is called 'Come Dine With Me'. We will be exploring cuisines from around the world, and finding out about cafes and restaurants. Our cookery will be based on food from England, China, Italy, India and the USA! At the end of the topic, our Rainbow room will be turned into a role play cafe.

In science, we will be looking at different materials -  how they feel and how they change with time. Se will be making some play food with salt dough and clay, as well as being especially aware of how our cookery ingredients change when they're cooked..

Our literacy story for the first couple of weeks, is called 'The Elephant and the Bad Baby'. The bad baby takes food from various shops and cafes, but his mummy invites all the owners for tea, and makes them pancakes! It's a lovely rhythmic story, and if your children start saying "rumpeta rumpeta rumpeta. ALL down the road", that will be where they heard it! "

We had lots of fun with chopsticks! First the children practised using pom poms and pipe cleaners, then they tested their skills by picking up slices of banana.

Finally, we graduated to trying to eat noodles with chopsticks! It was a lot of fun, and developed their fine motor skills along the way.

In DT, he children also made a plate of 'chow mein' using string for noodles, and felt and card for the vegetables. They really enjoyed arranging and sticking it all onto their paper plates.

With the new half term, we have a new topic. It's called 'Over the Rainbow' and has a strong focus on colour.

Each week we will be working and enjoying exciting and sensory activities about a single colour. This week is Red week,and we have already been exploring the school and classroom environments to find things that are red. 

Yesterday we proudly shared our display picture of Brown Bear, Brown Bear on Twitter and we received 2 replies.

The first one was from the Carle Museum, which is dedicated to the author Eric Carle (who wrote the story) and the other reply was from MacMillan Kids Books who are celebrating the story being 50 years old! You can see both replies below.

The children enjoyed making the monsters from our colour monster song. 

Handling playdough is really valuable activity, increasing the children's hand and finger control, and also having quite a calming and therapeutic effect. They rolled spheres and squashed them to make the body, then rolled thin 'sausages' for the arms and legs. Some of the children then became very focused about adding detail such as facial features, and all were able to identify the colours. It was a lovely session.

Introducing the Tuff Spot!

Welcome to the Green class page of our school website. My name is Sarah and I am the class teacher,  assisted by Dil, Anita and Chandan, The children in Green class this year are Demi, Jaelan, Jasmine, Mustafa, Teddy, and Saniyah. 

Mrs Wishy Washy

The children are really enjoying our story about Mrs Wishy Washy. Today they made their toy animals roll, jump or paddle in the mud. They then put them into their tubs of soapy water and washed them clean... before muddying them up again!