Ash Class Inspire, nurture and challenge 

This week, alongside the rest of the school, we have been learning about World War One. On Monday the children found out about the causes of war through a role play activity. Joshua, the ruler, shared some sweets with his people, half the class. The other half were sad not to get any sweets and tried first to reason with the ruler, then ask politely and then finally gave up and snatched the sweets (after I had assured them that the normal school rules would be waived in the game!) It really helped the children see a little bit better what had happened, in very simple terms.

We have been looking at the work of heroic animals during the war, including Cher Ami, a pigeon, and Stubby, the only dog to have received a promotion to Sargeant. The children made their own pigeons, to carry their pigeon post, and wrote messages for their birds to carry. The messages were very thoughtful including messages of peace and sadness about the damage caused by war. Keep any eye out for the pigeons and our cartoon strips in class.

All week we are linking with Oak Class for our learning. The children will be engaged in different activities focusing on fine motor skills, STEM and art, all linked to the theme of WW1. The children are really enjoying the opportunities to play together in different role play situations and undertaking the challenges together. I have been proud of the ways that the children have supported their younger school mates and helped with their learning.

 

Finally this week we have been lucky enough to have Stacey leading our PE. The children were thrilled to have her expertise in their session and the joy on the faces was such a delight! I was able to learn a lot too!

 

I hope everyone is having a lovely restful half term and recharging those batteries. Nearly seven weeks of learning done and another seven or so ahead.

A few parents asked me about things they could do in the holiday to help with their children’s learning. Firstly I would emphasise that the break is, as I have said, much needed, so don’t feel that you need to do anything. However, if you think your child would benefit from a little challenge each day, you could try picking something from the list below to do each day.

Put a post it note on their door with a number on it. When they get up, can they tell you the number, can they say one more or one less? Ten more?

See how many numbers they can see on a walk. Can they say their name?

Counting objects. How many pieces of pasta on a plate, shoes on the shoe rack, pencils in the pot, windows on the building.

Group objects – animals, hair ties, pasta pieces, whatever you have. Can they explain how they have grouped them? By shape, by type etc.

Read daily, anything you like! And visit the Library if you can.

Practise naming the days of the week, the month, the season. Observe the changes when the clocks change at the weekend.

Any writing. Questions, exclamations, short sentences, descriptions of things they see. All mark making is good. See if they can remember how to write the letters a, c, d, which we have practised in class. They don’t have to do this on paper, we write with water on the playground!

Can they tell you a story – they know Goldlocks, Jack and the Beanstalk, Cinderella and may even remember the Billy Goats Gruff.

Have a fantastic week off, I am looking forward to seeing you all next week when we start some work marking the centenary of WW1. We will be working with Year R on some different hands on learning which will be brilliant! As we start our unit on Where we live and our houses and homes, we are excited about having an architect come and visit us, and about our new role play area which we have kindly had supported by the Petworth Bookshop.

Year 1 and 2 will be in the M&P Observer this week, after our visit to town. Please do have a look!

We have now done half a term! I am so proud of all the children have achieved in such a short space of time. It was fantastic to see all of you at the Parents Evening, thank you for taking the time to  come and see me.

Wednesday was a really fun day in class. We had a variety of characters turn up – Goldilocks, Reds Riding Hoods, Jacks, Wolves and many others. Thank you for supporting this endeavour! We themed the day around free flow activities that were based in story books, so the children were able to build beanstalks from the wooden blocks, construct carriages and bear houses from Lego, weigh and exchange animals for money like Jack and write letters, invitations and all kinds of things at the writing area.

It was fab seeing how the children’s imaginations took over and they ended up also building a goat bridge ( with a King Kong under it) and a post box to post all their letters in, among other things. In the afternoon they made paper plate masks of their favourite characters.

Whilst they were doing this, the fantastic Mrs Groves and our brilliant volunteer Mrs Durrant were busily making biscuits with the children, and helping them to make the final touches to our flower bed. This is a PPSA competition and the children have designed a bed based on creation.

We are nearly at the end of our first half term – the first in Year 1 for many of us – but that hasn’t meant the learning stops! The last three days of term have been chock a block with learning experiences! Today we have had a whole day of science!

Incorporating English, Maths and collaborative work. The children learned about their senses and worked out the different ways we use them in everyday life. They engaged with this whole heartedly and realised that in school they are constantly looking, listening and often touching.

They were then set the challenge to design and make some play boards and bottles to stimulate the senses of younger children in the learning community. They designed sensory boards using different materials, working out which senses would be stimulated and working together to come up with a design that they all liked. Unsurprisingly we had a lot of animal based themes!

Once they had designed their boards and some sensory bottles they had to write letters to the children from Oak Class, and Wakoos Nursery, inviting them to come and see what surprises we had in store.

After lunch (and in the midst of a very well attended open afternoon) the children worked together to make their sensory boards using a variety of materials. They practised self selection, investigating smell, touch, hearing and sight when choosing the materials, and they discussed as a group how to put the boards together.

Finally some of the children we had invited came into class and I must say, the children were wonderful, clearly explaining what they had done, talking confidently about their learning and engaging really well with the children. I should add, that throughout this rather busy activity, the children spoke beautifully to the visitors and explained what they were doing. They were fantastic! Lots of photos below.

Traditional story day tomorrow, I hope you will all enjoy seeing the children dressed up, as well as me…..it should be something special!!!

Ash Class have been out and about this week making themselves known to the people of Petworth. One local resident who saw us commented “what a group of little angels” so we must be doing something right!

On Tuesday we started our new topic with a visit to the town, investigating traffic patterns and visiting some local shops. We were delighted to be welcomed by Vicky at the Hungry Guest, Melanie at Augustus Brandt, Alex at Rugs of Petworth, Steve at the Petworth Bookshop and Sam at New Clarity jewellers. A last group went to the New St Bar and Grill.  The children asked all sorts of questions which our hosts gamely answered, and were allowed to tour the stores and even go upstairs at the restaurant. The children have been talking ever since about what they saw, so please do ask them about it. Today we were able to taste some of the brownies and flapjacks from the Hungry Guest which was definitely a high point for the children!

This morning was our Harvest Celebration and the children did really well singing alongside Oak Class. It was a new experience for me, and for them (going to the front to perform) and they did brilliantly even though they were very nervous about the full Church. Thank you for all your generous donations which will be donated to a local food bank charity.

This afternoon we immersed ourselves in the school grounds, designing our flowerbed for the PPSA planting competition. The children have come up with some complex designs based on their chosen theme of “Where in the World”  including ideas about the creation story, animals and flags of the world. We look forward to the spring and seeing the bulbs flowering!

We also completed our insect study for the Eco Council. Our representatives Amber and Joshua were on hand to help us record the insects that we spotted in the grounds, and identify them using a branching diagram. Attached is a photo of a caterpillar we found which will transform into a moth. Oak Class have kept it to observe its development!

On Friday the children had two visitors in class – rather unusual visitors too! Mrs Godden brought her baby, Riley, in, and Mrs Wiggs popped in with her daughter Charlotte. The purpose of the visit was for the children to be able to make some comparisons between the younger children and get an idea if how we change as we grow. Luckily Riley was very accommodating and showed us how she could crawl about, make noises and grab and chew. Charlotte demonstrated her ability to walk, wear shoes and express her own opinions about things! The children made some excellent observations about the similarities and differences between the two girls and were able to think critically about how many things they were now able to do which they had not been able to do a few years ago!

Many thanks to Mrs Godden for giving up her time to visit us, and for giving us permission to use photos of Riley in our work.

 

 

Welcome to the Ash Class blog! Initially we will use it to show examples of our fantastic work, and give you ideas for things you could do at home to support the children’s learning, but eventually we hope the children themselves will decide on their content.

The end of the first half term is racing  toward us and there is a lot planned for this time. We have our trip on Tuesday the ninth, investigating shops and facilities in Petworth and in Wednesday we will be going back through town to our Harvest Festival. The children have worked together to compose a verse to a song which they will be performing with Oak Class.

The last day of this half term, Wednesday 17th, will be our Fairy Tale Characters day. This is the idea of one of our pupils who wants to finish our current English topic with some drama, role play and fun activities based around the fairy tales and traditional tales we have been reading, so Princesses, Princes, Jack, Witches, Bears or Riding hoods – the children know lots now!

In class we are starting to finish our current blocks of work but are still beavering away! After reading Cinderella we have written adverts for our Cinderella shoes, and will be writing thank you notes and invitations soon. We will also be preparing some party food.

In maths we have been learning some new words – greater, fewer and equal to – and using them to describe numbers and quantities. The children did a hunt around the school describing what they had seen and using mathematical language to describe it. My favourite was “a greater number of children, than schools” which confused me momentarily until they explained that there was only one school and a lot of children!