Stanford Junior and Infant School
Living together - Learning together
On this page you can see updates over the term of our activities and learning.
We thoroughly enjoyed the story ‘Giraffes Can’t Dance’ performed through music by MAPAS. There were lots of actions and we learnt all about the different types of musical instruments including ‘percussion’ and ‘string’ instruments.
R.M “The shakers were a percussion instrument.”
O.B “I liked the big taiko drums.”
E.S “I liked the giraffe song when he learnt to dance.”
S.C “I was chosen to play a percussion apple, I had to shake it in time with the music.”
J.M “A bow is made from a horse’s tail!.”
The children in their individual classes have been thinking about Remembrance day, what it means and why we wear poppies. Today we joined collectively for our Remembrance assembly to observe 2 minutes silence thinking about those who have sacrificed their lives for others during times of war. After this some Year 6 children shared poems they have written about the wars.
The Sunflowers met Pippa Goodhart and enjoyed a really exciting story time.
They had the opportunity to ask her lots of questions. This is what they found out:
Pippa has been writing children's books for over 25 years!
She has written a total of 120 books so far!
She became interested in children's books when she worked in a bookshop.
Pippa told us how her books were made in a factory and how she works with different illustrators.
We really enjoyed her catalogue style book called 'You Choose.'
Winnie the Pooh needed a new umbrella. So The Sunflowers tested lots of different materials to find out which material would be the most suitable to use to make him a new umbrella.
A- We put water on to lots of different kinds of materials to see which ones were waterproof.
A- I predicted that cardboard would be waterproof because it is thick and strong. The water took a while to soak through, so I was nearly right.
L- Plastic was waterproof because the water didn't soak through.
S- The water just sat on top of the plastic, so I thought that would be the best material for Winnie's umbrella.
T- It was funny testing Miss Hartley’s waterproof things.
A- I predicted that plastic would be waterproof because when I go to Morrison’s and it’s raining, my shopping stays dry inside my plastic bag.
The Sunflowers invited their parents and grandparents in to school for a special reading breakfast. They enjoyed reading together and tucking into some lovely breakfast snacks. Some children selected books from the class book corner, some children decided to read their reading book and other children brought their favourite books in to share. We had some lovely feedback too:
'Very enjoyable. I have really enjoyed this morning and look forward to another. Thank you.'
'Fabulous. It was lovely seeing all the children excited about reading and I think everyone enjoyed all the yummy treats. Well done to all the staff.
''Very much enjoyed coming to read with my daughter and see her new classroom. Her reading has come on in leaps and bounds. Thank you for the snacks!'
There were spooky spiders, ghoulish ghosts and perfect pumpkins at our Halloween activity event after school.
L.B "I made a ghost with a scary face."
A.D "I liked making a mummy with white strips. I did it by myself."
E.W "I made a spider, I had to twist its legs."
A.V "I enjoyed the hotdog."
In Science, the Sunflowers have been learning all about seasonal changes and looking at signs of Autumn. For Golden Time today, they all made these lovely autumnal leaf hedgehogs.
W- It was the best lesson ever!
A- We collected so many leaves. I liked looking at all the different colours.
J- The Autumn leaves were everywhere outside.
Mrs. Brady- The Autumn leaves were everywhere inside too! Happy Half-Term Everyone. Don't forget to go on your own nature walk with your family to find other signs of Autumn.
Today we had a visit from a lady who works for Chartwell's School Meals. She read the story of the Hungry Caterpillar and told us all about healthy food choices.
J- I liked it when we tried all the food.
B- I tried lots of new food.
L- I tried cress.
O- I made a caterpillar, then I ate it!
O- I made a sun out of carrots, sweetcorn and a wrap.
M- I liked the grapes. I shared some of my food with my friends too.
The Sunflowers have been enjoying some yoga sessions and making African animal shapes with their bodies.
A- I liked doing the lion because I could stick out my tongue and look fierce.
M- The butterfly was a nice one to do because my legs moved like wings.
B- The snake was my favourite one.
T- I was a very strong mountain.
G- The giraffe pose was very tricky to do. I have been practicing it and can do it now.
W- I like yoga because my Grandma does yoga too.
L- I loved being a flamingo.
T- I had to concentration really hard and listen to the instructions.
Sunflower Class know how important it is to look after their mental health. They discussed the different kinds of feelings people might have. They soon realised that some feelings can make you feel good and some feelings can make you feel bad.
O- We all put on yellow clothes.
T- We collected £26.00 for the charity.
C- If you feel sad, you should talk to people.
T- If we are upset we can talk to staff, mums and dads and grandparents.
As today was World Mental Health Day the children have been thinking about how we can promote positive mental health and what we can do to help us to control our emotions if we are experiencing negative emotions.
In Year 1 they looked at a book called Little Beauty where a gorilla goes through different emotions. The children talked about the different emotions and thought about whether the gorilla had done the right thing to help himself. In
Year 2 the children coloured in hearts and then thought about what they could do if they wanted to feel calm.
Thank you for all your kind donations of food which have all gone to the Harbour Place charity. Many thanks also to Mr. Stevens and Mrs. Mawer who came along to help us celebrate.
Our Harvest Festival was a joyful celebration introduced by our head boy and girl and Star anise class performed a poem. Rev. Philip Stevens came to say a prayer and give thanks for the food at harvest time. Thank you to everyone who contributed to our celebration, the donations of food will be sent to the homeless charity, Harbour Place.
Sunflowers and Seedlings entertained their parents and friends at the Stanford Centre today.
They enjoyed singing 'If You're Happy and You Know it!' The Sunflowers also performed a new version of 'Aiken Drum' with different kinds of food for the man in the moon's clothes.
F- We wanted to sing for our parents.
W- We raised money for poorly people who need special nurses.
A- We enjoyed a drink and a cake too.
The Sunflowers enjoyed a special day where they learnt all about giraffes; where they live, what they eat and what they like doing.
They explored giraffes in lots of creative ways too. They shared stories about giraffes, played with giraffe toys, made masks, created giraffe dances, painted and collaged giraffes, as well as making dough and plasticine models.
L- I could make plasticine giraffes with black spots.
A- I loved making a giraffe out of paper. It was tricky cutting the body parts out and putting it altogether.
A- I made a giraffe drinking dance in P.E.
C- I liked looking at my friend's special giraffe toys.
O- I liked painting. I did a tall giraffe.
T- I saw giraffes have different colours and patterns when I looked in the giraffe books.
The children have been looking at the Maasi tribe in Art - at all their colourful clothing and jewellery. They wanted to have a go at making a Maasi headband- so here they are!
Look at all this wonderful home learning! We are looking forward to seeing a lot more this term!
This term, we are looking at these words.
Every day we have a spelling lesson. To help you improve at spelling, log on to The Spelling Shed and play all the exciting spelling games!
The children enjoyed exploring some of the exotic fruit from the story.
J- The pineapple was sweet and juicy.
M- The mango was slippery.
T- Mrs. Christie used a special tool to make pineapple rings.
H- There was a stone inside the avocado.
G- The passion-fruit had a nice smell.
L- The pineapple is spiky.
G- The avocado smells fresh.
A- The mango feels very heavy.
The new Sunflowers have had fun exploring their new classroom, toys and equipment . They work very co-operatively, they can share and they all work very hard. Well done everyone!
The new Sunflowers have made a super start in Year 1. Well done to everyone!
