w/b 9.3.2010 This week, we loved exploring weight in maths and enjoyed using the balance scales. We learnt about our senses and focused on sight and hearing. One of our favourite things to do was talk to each other through telephones we made! We thought about why our hearing was important for road safety and showed what we had learnt through our play.

w/b 2.3.2020. This week, the children have investigated textures in art, learnt about medicines and how to stay safe, how to safely use PE equipment and thought carefully about being a good friend, like the characters in Rainbow Fish.

World Book Day - 5th March 2020 Today all the children came to school dressed as their favourite characters. They looked amazing and there was a lot of role play going on in the classroom. Throughout the day, we read three different Rainbow Fish stories including: The Rainbow Fish, Rainbow Fish to the Rescue and Rainbow Fish and the Big Blue Whale. We explored the character's feelings and discussed what the Rainbow Fish learnt about being friendly and resolving conflicts. We enjoyed making our own class Rainbow Fish, with lots of colourful scales, and a special shiny scale with advice on how we can be a good friend in the classroom.

28th February 2020 - This week was Spring into Fitness Week and our School Trip to Milestones for the Lego Space Mission. On our school trip we completed two trails discovering all the planets in the solar system. On return to school, we changed our classrooms into Space Museums and have been making models and signs to display in them. As part of Spring Into Fitness, we have had a visit from a dentist teaching us how to keep our teeth healthy. We have also been doing cosmic yoga, the daily mile and exercising with our year 6 buddies.

14th February - For the last two weeks our Epic Explorers topic has taken us into space. We have been reading lots of space stories such as Man on the Moon, Aliens love Underpants and Whatever Next. We have made a class space rocket and vehicles that move. We have also been making up our own space stories. In maths we made rockets using 3D shapes and explored subtraction with aliens and flying saucers disappearing into craters. At the end of the half term, we enjoyed a party in the woods where we had a go at cooking popcorn on the fire and played party games.

31st January - This week we have been thinking about our school value - Trust. We read the story of Little Red Riding Hood and debated whether she should have trusted the wolf. In our Forest School time we wore blindfolds and our partner had to communicate with us to guide us through different challenges in the woods. Our blindfolded partner could only trust us if we kept them safe and warned them about different obstacles. We also had a go at retelling the story of Little Red Riding Hood and some of us attempted writing it.

23rd January 2020 - This week our Explorers topic led us on a huge Bear Hunt. We have been outside recreating the Bear Hunt and we made friends with the Bear who was hiding in his cave. The have thought about making up our own verses and we have used instruments to create some of the sounds of the Bear Hunt. We have also been playing in the Bear Hunt sensory trays and mixing lots of potions. We have also made our own bird feeders in preparation for the Big Bird Watch next week.

17th January - This week, the children brought in their Chatterboxes and talked to each other about where they had explored on holidays and visits. They also explored adjectives to describe exciting places, looked at seasonal changes of trees in our grounds and had a super time investigating floating and sinking in the school pond.

10th January - This week we have launched our topic Epic Explorers. We have been exploring the story 'Father Christmas Goes on Holiday' and where he's been in the world. We used our sound talk to make speech bubbles for Father Christmas. We have also been exploring different types of weather and recording our own weather forecasts. In Forest School we had a letter from Santa telling us his holiday clothes had fallen out of his sleigh. We had to hunt for them in the pouring rain and had a great time splashing in the puddles afterwards. In maths we have been learning about time and sequencing the days of the week. We also had a go at using stop watches to help us time what we could do in one minute.

20th December - This week, the children performed their Nativity in St Matthew's Church. They sang beautifully to the congregation and remembered all their lines really well. This week we have also had a Birthday Party for Jesus. We played a range of party games and cooked marshmallows on the fire.

6th December - This week, the children have been busy practising for their Nativity! They have learnt all about the story of Jesus' birth and discussed how they celebrate their own birthdays. In Maths, the children have focused on subtraction. During Forest School, Puffins and Penguins loved following the holly trail and reading the story A Very Snowy Christmas.

29th November - This week, Year R thought about Creation in RE and took part in a P4C (Philosophy for Children) session to discuss their views. In maths, they learnt about the different coins we use and used money in their role play. In Phonics, Penguins and Puffins continued to build on their knowledge of tricky words and learnt 'he' and 'she'.

22nd November. This week we have been learning about the Hindu Festival of Divali. We created our own Divas and had our own Divali Festival in the Woods using a fire to symbolise the light. On Friday it was 'Your time to shine' day where we learnt how to keep ourselves safe at night on the roads. We designed our own high visibility coats with symmetrical patterns.

15th November 2019 - This week we have been thinking about kindness and anti-bullying in year R. We made a hedgehog hibernation house to help the hedgehogs and made signs for it. We considered how to be kind to each other and made stickers and cards for our friends saying what we liked about them. In Forest School we learnt how we can be kind to our woods and help look after them, some of us wanted to make posters to help. On Friday was Children in Need. We came to school in Rainbow coloured clothes and brought our teddies in with us. We played lots of games with our teddies including positional hide and seek. We have started learning some tricky words in phonics and have been busy counting lots of actions in maths.

8th November - We have been going Firework crazy this week. We have been making fireworks, drawing fireworks, adding fireworks, making firework safety poster and we turned our outdoor space into a Fire Station. In Forest School, we read Leaf Trouble and enjoyed hunting for different colour leaves and making leaf sticks. Today, we loved how our water tray had turned into an ice tray and made lots of amazing ice discoveries.

18th October - What an exciting week we've had in Year R! We have been thinking about real life superheroes and who we trust and have enjoyed very interesting talks from a vet and a policeman. We have continued to read the Supertato books and this week, in the meadow, thought carefully and problem-solved about how to rescue the evil peas that were stuck in the 'poisonous' jelly!

11th October - This week, we have been looking at the Supertato books which the children have really enjoyed! We have made supertatoes, created our own super vegetables, tasted and printed with them, found vegetables in the mudpit and the forest that had been captured by the evil pea, as well as using lots of evil peas for a resource in maths.

4th October - This week we have been learning all about Houses and Homes. We thought about the type of house we live in and who lives in it with us. We have read the Jolly Postman and been posting lots of letters in maths whilst we practise counting and writing our numbers. We have also been reading the Three Little Pigs and acting out the story in our role play area. We have been busy building lots of houses in many different ways, both in the classroom and in the woods to replace the ones that the wolf had blown away. This week we have also enjoyed performing our Harvest Song in the church as part of Harvest festival.

26th September - Penguins and Puffins had a super afternoon in the woods today! After reading the book 'Monkey Puzzle', the children loved finding the animals hidden in the woods! They worked in teams beautifully. The children also finished off decorating their crosses and enjoyed decorating sticks they had found.

Penguins - Weeks 3 and 4

Autumn 1 - Penguins' First Days at Otterbourne.