Stanford Junior and Infant School
Living together - Learning together
On this page you can see updates over the term of our activities and learning.
This term, the Sunflowers are exploring Peruvian weaving with Mrs. Bennett.
They have found out how to use a loom and create their own patterns with wool.
EW- I am enjoying weaving and have got the hang of it.
JS- I like the patterns I've made.
OB- Once Mrs. Bennett showed me how to do it, I could do lots of weaving on my own.
PR- You have to weave the wool in and out.
Mrs. Brady would like to thank Mrs. Bennett for preparing the looms and for teaching the children this wonderful skill.
Well done to all the Sunflowers who recited two poems and two songs at the Community Thank You Tea.
Mrs. Griffiths visited Sunflower Class and gave a very interesting and interactive talk about lots of different old toys and games. She told the children how her Grandad and Dad used to make her toys out of wood when she was little. The children had fun exploring many toys, including; a diablo, a yo-yo, tiddlywinks, jacks, a spinner, a whip and top, cats cradle, marbles and a space invaders game. She also demonstrated how toys could be made from paper, such as a fortune teller and a paper plane.
Mrs. Brady would like to thank Mrs. Griffiths for sharing all her wonderful toys and games. Everyone learnt something new today!
The Sunflowers enjoyed meeting the author Matt Goodfellow today who shared his love for writing poetry with the children.
OL: The poems were so funny.
EH: Matt showed us actions and we joined in.
OB: Matt moved in funny ways. He changed his voice to a deep voice, a whisper and a funny voice.
LA: He told funny stories about his family.
CR: My favourite poem was The Zany Zoo!
Matt worked with the class and together they wrote this wonderful poem:
We are superheroes
When we play outside
We climb on the trim trail
When we play outside
We gallop like horses
When we play outside
We spin all around
When we play outside
We're dinosaur babies
When we play outside
When We Play Outside!
The Sunflowers are busy finding out about old toys.
They have been looking at these lovely old toys that Mrs. Brady's mum played with when she was little.
JS- Sooty doesn't feel very soft and he has lost some fur.
CJ- Sooty looks like his neck has been mended.
RJ- I think Sooty's head feels hard. It could be stuffed with sawdust.
PR- The doll is called Rosie. Her dress is all dirty which makes her look old.
OB- Rosie's hair is not very soft like my new dolls. It feels rough.
The Sunflowers will be asking their parents and grandparents about the toys that they played with when they were little. We would very much like to borrow any old photographs or old toys for our class Toy Museum!
Well done to all the Sunflowers for successfully completing their colour run today and for raising money for this very worthwhile charity.
OL- I ran fast around the playground.
FR- The NSPCC is a charity that looks after children, we are helping children that might not have a home.
LC- I think everyone did very well today. We all did it in a quick time too.
Emma from the NSPCC came to talk to us about the work the NSPCC do, show Buddy, the 'Speak out' mascot and introduce a fundraising sponsored event.
The Sunflowers have been busy learning their Year One words this week, even outside!
Sunflower Class had a wonderful day finding out about Paddington Bear. They read about him. They wrote about him. They drew pictures of him. They listened to stories and sang a song about him. They even made their own marmalade and marmalade sandwiches!
A- I enjoyed making marmalade sandwiches and colouring Paddington posters.
T- I liked eating marmalade sandwiches.
C- We dressed up as Paddington. Even Mrs. Brady dressed up as him!
O- I loved listening to all the stories. I could answer lots of questions too.
S- I liked learning the Paddington song.
L- I loved spreading the marmalade. It was very sticky.
F- It was a brilliant day. I loved it all!
The Sunflowers had great fun at their party.
E- I liked playing pass-the-parcel.
L- My favourite food was jam sponge cakes.
O- I loved the Christmas tree shaped crisps. B- I just enjoyed everything.
J- I liked dancing with the children in Seedlings.
O- I liked playing musical statues and musical bumps.
F- It was so exciting when Father Christmas came!
P- Santa gave us all a present. M
rs. Brady would like to thank Mrs. Bennett for making all the lovely snowmen. A big thank you to Mrs. Christie, Mrs. Bennett, Mrs. Wink and Miss Brown for all their help at the party. The children had a wonderful time!
Stanford School have enjoyed their Christmas trip, watching Cinderella! A great time was had by all
The Sunflower's have made some wonderful robin cards and Sunflower calendars. They are very proud of their work.
The Sunflower's all wore special jumpers for Christmas Jumper Day and they managed to raise £19.50 for Save the Children. Well done everyone.
Sunflower and Pumpkin classes performed 'A Present for the Baby'.
The story was about Baby Jesus who just wouldn't stop crying and nobody knew what to do. Even the most elaborate gifts that a King, a Queen and a Nobleman brought him couldn't make him happy. It wasn't until a little boy with a very special present (a kiss) managed to calm the baby and stop him crying.
IB: Everyone's done very well.
JO: It was tricky to learn words.
MH: I liked to hear everyone's singing.
PB: My favourite song was 'Just a Kiss.'
LS: I enjoyed doing all the actions to the songs.
CR: I liked the 'tra-la-las' in the choir song.
AM: The Grand Song was my favourite song.
LC: The story told us what is important at Christmas time.
Inspired by the African Savannah: The Sunflower's wrote this exciting poem about lions.
There's a...
Den- hider
Family-prider
Enormous-roarer
Cub-chaser
River-drinker
Daytime-sleeper
Hunters-growlers-stalkers-chasers
Beware the lions
If you're a zebra!
The children have been learning about all the nocturnal animals who live in the African Savannah.
Together they composed an exciting poem about bat-eared foxes. Well done to F for writing the poem beautifully and to L for performing the finished poem.
Sunflower Class made some lovely snowmen and candy canes out of recycled materials and sold them at the Christmas Fair. Many thanks to Mrs. Drury for her help and expertise! The children made £70!
What a fantastic Christmas Fayre - thank you to all those who supported it and to the pupils for showing their enterprise skills through designing, making, evaluating and selling their products. Well done everyone.
Sunflower Class have enjoyed sewing lots of lovely felt robins with Mrs. Warton. They look wonderful on our Christmas hoop.
H- I liked sewing the red chest on.
S- We had to glue a button eye on.
F- I liked sewing with Mrs. Warton, she showed me how to do it.
P- It was nice to spend some time with Mrs. Warton. She really helped me.
J- We created a pretty decoration for the hall, for everyone to see.
L- We need to thank Mrs. Warton for sewing with us and we should thank Mrs. Drury too for putting all the robins on our hoop for us.
The Sunflowers have been enjoying reading lots of stories from Africa this term. They have learnt lots of interesting facts about the different kinds of animals that live on the Savannah.
They are currently enjoying a new story called 'One Day On Our Blue Planet... In The Savannah' by Ella Bailey and it was this story that inspired them to write this special whole class poem called 'Daytime in the Savannah.'
Well done to everyone for sharing their thoughts and ideas. Well done to E for writing the poem beautifully and well done to T for performing the poem so well!
This term Seedlings and Sunflower classes have joined together to share some traditional stories with each other. Children explored the characters in the ‘Three Little Pigs’, ‘The Enormous Turnip’, ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ and ‘The Little Red Hen’. Children acted out their favourite part and thought about the moral in each story. Finally, we chose one story to retell to our partner.
“If Little Red Hen shares the bread, then the other animals might help to make it next time.” C.J (Y1)
“I liked Little Red Riding Hood when she visited grandma. I like visiting my grandma.” B.A (F)
“I think the hen should eat the bread on her own, she made it.” C.P (F)
“She shouldn’t share the bread because they haven’t helped her” O.B (Y1)
“I liked working in different classrooms.” F.R (F)
“I enjoyed The Enormous Turnip because it was about lots of people working together.” L.S (Y1)
“I liked working with Seedlings class, I would like to make friends with them.” T.B (Yr1)
Well done to Sunflower Class who all dressed up today in spotty clothes or as Pudsey Bears to support Children in Need. They had fun icing and decorating biscuits. Thank you for all the donations: we managed to raise £24!
Sunflower Class have found out why we celebrate Bonfire Night. They have enjoyed making a Guy, painting firework pictures and retelling the story of The Gunpowder Plot. They particularly enjoyed finding out some gruesome details!
Do you know why we eat toffee apples on Bonfire Night? Do you know why Guy Fawkes is remembered? Do you know who was the King of England in 1605?
For more interesting facts and information visit: www.theschoolrun.com/homework-help/guy-fawkes-and-bonfire-night
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.
F- We put water on to lots of different kinds of materials to see which ones were waterproof.
O- 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.
J- 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.
P- It was funny testing Mrs. Brady's umbrella!
B proudly showed her wonderful drumming to Sunflower Class.
Mrs. Groves said she was very impressed, as B could keep a steady beat as well as play the different techniques with her drumsticks. Mrs. Groves teaches drum lessons on Thursday lunchtimes.
If you are interested in learning to play the drums, please see Mrs. Brady for more information.
Mrs. Warton gave a special talk to Sunflower Class today all about her trip to Africa. She told them all about her exciting safari trip and showed lots of photos of all the different kinds of animals she saw. The children learnt about the different landscapes in Africa and also about the climate.
C- I really liked the pictures. It was kind of Mrs. Warton to share them with us.
L- I liked the picture of the lion because I hadn't seen a real lion before.
H- I was interested in the hyena. I can do it's laugh.
T- I liked the ostrich picture because I know they can run fast.
F- I enjoyed looking in Mrs. Warton's guide book at the leopards.
Mrs. Brady- Thank you to Mrs. Warton for such an interesting talk. The children will be able to write lots of exciting safari adventures now!
The Sunflowers are improving their counting and adding skills this week. They are working on: Counting two groups of objects and finding out how many there are altogether, writing number sentences and solving problems using addition.
For home learning they can sing along and add with the pirate!
The Sunflowers enjoyed a special musical workshop with local drummer; Mrs. S. Groves. The children made music with junk and shared their learning with family and friends. Their instruments included; plastic bottles, biscuit tins, chocolate plastic tubs, plastic pipes, metal buckets, chains and even an old dustbin lid! They learnt special rhythms, which they spoke, clapped and played on their instruments.
Mrs. Brady would like to thank Mrs. Groves for teaching the children and would also like to thank the Music and Performing Arts Service (MAPAS) for the loan of their junk instruments.
To link with their work on Africa, the Sunflowers learnt some special African animal yoga.
E: It was tricky to balance.
F: My favourite animal shape was the butterfly.
S: I liked doing the lion because I had to do a silent roar.
J: My balance has improved and the yoga helps me to get strong arms and legs.
Can I read 32 or more words in this term's phonics check?
Well done to all these children who could read 32 or more words!
The Sunflowers discussed how important it is to look after our mental health. They discussed what they could do if they were feeling sad, stressed or worried. They each made a special wristband with the name of a person who could help them (at either home or at school) and they showed them in assembly.
The Sunflowers have been enjoying learning all about Africa. In Art they explored African shapes, colours and patterns and created these colourful Maasai headbands.
The Sunflowers have been learning about Christopher Columbus and how he navigated his ships using a compass. Today they navigated their way around the playground using their own compasses.
Key Stage One went to St. Margaret's Church to celebrate the Harvest. They sang Harvest songs, presented Harvest gifts and looked at all the colourful fruit, vegetables, corn and flowers that were on display all around the beautiful church. Mr. Stevens told the children all about Harvest. They said prayers to thank God for the food they have to eat and they also reflected on how their Harvest gifts will help others
Freddie: We all went to the library and sang songs to our parents and friends.
Charlie R: I liked the cakes we got.
Jasmine: We sang I'm a Dingle Dangle Scarecrow.
Many thanks to everyone who joined us to support this very worthwhile cause.
The Sunflowers have been getting to grips with the school's computing scheme 'Purple Mash.' So far, they have learnt to log in, create an avatar and save a picture they have decorated.
Ella- I can type my own password in.
Lewis- I coloured a butterfly and typed it's name as Kathleen.
Lily- I made a beautiful butterfly. I like Purple Mash games.
There are lots of games and fun activities on Purple Mash, that can help the children to further their learning across the whole curriculum. These can be explored at home.
The Sunflower's used their senses to explore the exotic fruit mentioned in the story. They thought of interesting adjectives to describe the fruit.
Evie- I like the passion-fruit, it was smooth and squashy.
Harrison- The pineapple was heavy with spiky leaves.
Bale- The green avocado had rough skin.
Radian- The mango was smooth and was red and green.
Charlie J- The banana felt soft. I could see yellow, green, brown and black.
Oliver- The banana was sweet.
Bella- The mango was very juicy.
Alfie- The avocado was green and soft to eat.
Henry- The passion-fruit was fizzy and like fruit juice.
Poppy R- The pineapple was juicy and sweet.
The new Sunflowers really enjoyed dressing up and pretending to be scarecrows.They had a great day making scarecrows, listening to scarecrow stories, singing scarecrow songs and even doing some special scarecrow maths!
Joshua- I liked making my own little scarecrow.
Ollie- I did a dot-to-dot ABC scarecrow.
Olivia- I liked pretending to be a real scarecrow outside.
Poppy B- We made a big scarecrow. It will go outside and scare all the birds away.
Lincoln- In the story of The Lonely Scarecrow, he looked scary, but on the inside, he was really friendly.
