Stanford Junior and Infant School
Living together - Learning together
On this page you can see updates over the term of our activities and learning.
Our annual activity day, to raise school funds, was organised by the current and new Year 6 team this year. It was a fantastic day had by all, with all the pupils enjoying the wide variety of activities and stalls, from Candy floss to Tin can alley. We are currently counting the final amount raised... keep looking to see the final total!
We are delighted with Pumpkin class who performed a wonderful class assembly today all about their history curriculum – we learnt lots of new facts about Queen Elisabeth 1 and Queen Victoria. The group were smiling and were proud to represent their class in front of the audience. Thank you to the parents and carers who attended and to Miss Perrin for organising the event.
Y2 had an enjoyable visit to Gainsborough Old Hall which linked into our current learning about famous kings and queens.
Gainsborough Old Hall is a beautiful building situated in the centre of Gainsborough.
First we went into the Banquet Hall which was very impressive.
Our guides told us about some of the history of the hall.
Lord Thomas Burgh III was a friend of Henry VIII. When Henry VIII married Catherine Howard he went of a tour of England to show off his new bride. One of his stops was at Gainsborough Old Hall. He brought thousands of servants, guards, soldiers and courtiers with him. The most important 100 went with him to Gainsborough Old Hall. Those who couldn’t be accommodated in the Hall had to set up camp in tents around the building. Henry VIII loved having banquets and parties so we re-enacted one of these events.
First we were given parts to play and we had to put on costumes.
Henry VIII – Kye, Catherine Howard – Amelia, Lord Thomas Burgh III – Alfie, Frances Vaughan (Thomas’ wife) – Ruby and their children Robert & Elizabeth – Finlay & Emily.
Even the adults had to join in!
Then we went into the kitchen to start preparing the food. The guides explained what the different areas of the kitchen were used for.
Before we could start we had to get the fire going by using flints……come on Mrs Cook! We’re hungry!!
They appointed Gracie to be in charge of the kitchen and Tilly to be second in command and then we were all set to work.
Gracie and Tilly kept control in their office. They were very bossy!!!
Don’t you think we did well?…..a banquet fit for a king!!
We then went up to the bedrooms to see where the king may have slept.
This ‘luxury’ room had all the ‘mod cons’ we enjoy today.
‘Comfy’ sofa, heating and entertainment area
office
‘en- suite’ wash facilities
mini-bar
and a ‘portaloo’.
The children had lots of fun exploring.
Outside the bedroom was a gallery where they could relax and where the children would play.
Then we looked at the room where Catherine Howard would have slept. It was much smaller,
but it had a ‘modern’ indoor toilet!
‘Catherine’ seemed very impressed!!
Then we looked around the Hall and saw some costumes. We were surprised by how short everyone was in the Royal party.
At last it was time for the banquet! While Henry ate the room was guarded closely.
At the beginning of a banquet the royal hand washers would clean Henry’s hands (Kye was ticklish so this was really funny!). The wine was brought forward for the king but the royal food taster had to check it first. Yes that will do nicely!
The royal pudding maker would bring out selections of puddings for Henry to approve…if he didn’t like them she had to make another one quickly!
At last the servers could bring out the food. The swan was so heavy Mrs Graham had to carry it!
The people were served in order of their importance.
Musicians played while everyone ate.
Then it was time for the entertainment.
Sorry Mr Leech but don’t give up your day job! Some of your jokes weren’t funny!
Jugglers
Dancing
Henry and Catherine had a lovely time so noone was worried about having their heads chopped off!
We had such a lovely day. It was really interesting and the children had lots of fun.
Last term Barley class wrote letters to local companies to see if they could help the school in our quest to raise funds to buy a new Maths resource called Numicon. Dave Godfrey came into school to show us how to use the Numicon equipment and Bar Models effectively in lessons.
Pumpkin class tried using the equipment and strategies to work out number problems involving finding the difference. The children loved using the equipment and found using practical equipment and Bar Models made the word problems easier to visualise and work out. Looks like it was money well spent!
Seeing as it has been very hot recently we thought we would take advantage of the weather and take our learning outside.
First the children were asked to look at the containers and place them in order from largest to smallest.
Then the children were asked to consider the water inside the containers and place the containers in order from most water to least. This was really tricky as the containers were different sizes. There was lots of discussion taking place as the children tried to judge the water.
Finally the children were asked to use measuring cylinders and accurately measure the water and place the containers in the right order looking at their measurements.
In science we looked at the importance of hygiene to prevent germs and bacteria from spreading. We conducted an investigation to find out how the temperature of water and the use of soap effect how well we can clean our hands. First some children coated their hands in oil and flour and they were given a limited time to wash their hands. One bucket had cold water only, one cold water and soap, one with warm water only and the last warm water and soap. To ensure it was a valid result we repeated the experiment with some more children. The cleanest hands were the ones using warm water and soap. We then looked at how to clean our hands properly.
The children loved getting messy!
As we have been learning about Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, we thought we would look at how the people dressed in their reign and compared it to the clothes we wear today. In Tudor times costumes were made from natural material, were quite expensive and took weeks to make. The people were laced into their outfits and would wear the same outfit until it practically fell off them. Trousers were not invented and men wore hose (long socks) and breeches (shorts). The children would dress in the same style outfits as their parents.... and small boys would wear dresses until they were 4!
Elizabeth I would only have a bath once a month....and in those days that was often! People used to carry flowers and wear heavy perfume to cover the smell. Yuck!
Now we have synthetic materials with velco, buttons and zips. Clothes are far cheaper; we change our outfits more often and hopefully have a bath more often too!!!!!
We had some modern day versions of Tudor costumes to try on. Don’t they look great?
As a part of our PE lesson we had a team race where we had to get from one side of the playground to another but we could only stand in the 3 hoops provided. This needed teamwork as the children had to help each other jump into the hoops, keep each other from 'falling' out of them and pass the hoops along. It also required communication skills as they had to talk through what they were doing and encourage each other. Once they had done this the task was made trickier by only allowing the children 2 hoops. The children really worked well together and had great fun.
The children have had lots of fun creating algorithms. Algorithms are clear sets of instructions that digital devices use to operate, they need to be precise, step-by-step sequences for the program to work.
They can sequence a set of instructions to move digital characters, look at some instructions and predict where the characters will move and they can debug instructions to find out where errors are and correct them.
If you would like to try this at home then look for code.org on your search engine.....and if you are not sure what you need to do I am sure your children will guide you! Have fun!
Callum from Grimsby Aquatics Swimming School led our school assembly today on the theme of ‘Water Safety.’ Keeping yourself and other safe is very important to us at Stanford and this links with the work we do on Internet Safety, Fire Safety and Road Safety etc.
We learned about Sarah and Philip Stanford who are very significant people in our school’s history.
We listened to Mrs Brumfield and Mr Lingard who are part of the Stanford Trust.
We were all ready to listen and learn.
Mrs Brumfield and Mr Lingard were very impressed with our learning behaviour.
We looked at the original school building.
We compared it to our newer school building.
We looked at artefacts linked to our community and made links with other dates and times in History.
We were proud to sing our school song and to say our school prayer. We celebrated the anniversary of our school and even sang Happy Birthday.
At the end of the assembly we received a very special gift! Every child in our school received a shiny five pence piece which is from the Stanford Trust. It made us think about Sarah and Philip Stanford.
Phil White on the road with Radio Humberside visited Stanford today! Pupils sang the school song beautifully, discussed our engaging curriculum and talked about the litter picking we do! Community members met with Phil about Laceby in Bloom, the Stanford Trust, the work of the Parish Council and the history of Laceby. The pupils really enjoyed finding out more about mobile radio stations!
At first the children were asked to be critical thinkers and answer these questions:
What does a queen do?
How does a queen live?
What is the job of a queen?
The children thought that a queen wears fancy dresses and shoes, lives in a palace, sits on a throne, has servants and doesn’t really work.
The children then learnt about the Celt warrior Queen Boudicca. The children were asked to act out her story using freeze frames.
Once there was a queen called Boudicca who lived with a king and their two daughters.
The Romans invaded England because they wanted the gold, silver and tin in the mines to make jewellery and armour. The king made an agreement with the Romans and they lived peacefully.
Many years later the king died and he left a will leaving half his kingdom to Boudicca and half to the Romans. The Roman Emperor didn’t believe Boudicca should have this as she was a woman so he had a plan.
The Romans came and took everything from Boudicca. She wasn’t very happy.
Boudicca raised an army to fight the Romans. At first they won but the Romans were better fighters and had armour to protect them so they were defeated and the Celts lost the battle.
Boudicca didn’t want to be a prisoner and to be sold as a slave so she drank a deadly poison and died.
Although Boudicca was a Celt queen she is counted as one of the first British queens and has a statue in London.
The children really enjoyed the story and the acting. At the end of the lesson the children compared the life of Boudicca to their original ideas of a queen. The children then decided that a queen didn’t have to have nice clothes, palaces and servants. The children thought that Boudicca was a great queen because rather than sending others to fight she joined in and fought, which they decided was a queen’s real job….to protect her country.
Can I learn about a significant event that happened beyond living memory?
Can I use a range of tools and materials to create a Tudor-style house?
Can I design a costume for a Tudor person?
During the recent Hook Day the children worked hard to make Tudor houses and design costumes. Their work has been used to create a wonderful display about the Hook Day and the Great Fire of London. The children were ‘dressed’ in their designs and can be shown trying to work together to put the fire out.
Today our assembly was led by Sara and Shona from the Humberside Fire and Rescue Service who talk to us about Fire Safety. We learnt about smoke alarms and which rooms to put them in around our homes. Then we were told what to do if someones clothes caught fire and to 'STOP, DROP and ROLL'. Can you tell a grown up the rhyme? 'Get out, Stay out, call 999'
At Stanford road safety and healthy choices are important to us. Pupils and community members help make our monthly ‘Sticker Days’ a real success. Well done to all the families who chose to walk, bike, or scoot to school. We really appreciate the families that choose to park safely either in the Stanford Centre or nearby car parks to ensure congestion at Stanford is reduced. Pupils really enjoy the fresh air in the morning and knowing they can come to school safely. Thank you for your support especially to the Governors, Community Members, Parish Councillors, Connor ( Head Boy,) Abi (Head Girl) and staff who give their time to support this event and help give out the stickers!
Ryan: It all started in a bakery down Pudding Lane in London.
Finlay H: The Great Fire of London started in September 1666.
Cerys: The fire lasted for 4 days.
Bailey: The fire spread because the wind blew the flames.
Maisy: The houses caught fire easily because they were made of wood.
Joe: The houses were too close together. I know that lots of people were injured.
Leo: They used leather buckets and water from the River Thames to put the fire out.
Charlie W: They used big long hooks to pull the houses down.
Joshua: They ended up blowing the houses up with gunpowder to stop the fire spreading.
Gracie: I was surprised that only 16 people died.
Darcy: People escaped in boats on the River Thames.
Katie T: We looked at how people dressed in the 1600s.
Jacob: I designed some clothes like the people wore in 1666.
Maisy: I liked designing the dresses for the dolls.
Tilly T: Samuel Pepys was famous for writing about The Great Fire of London in his diary in 1666.
Monty: Samuel Pepys used a quill which was a feather and he dipped it in the ink.
Olivia H: I enjoyed writing with a feather.
Kajithra: We coloured in a portrait of Samuel Pepys and wrote like him with a feather. I liked doing this.
Tilly T: I liked learning about Samuel Pepys because he hid his cheese in the garden.
Beau: My bread was soft and it was easy to make.
Cole: We used flour, water and yeast.
Elissa: We baked the dough in the oven.
Bailey: I liked baking, especially kneading the bread.
Maddie: I liked learning how to make bread from all the ingredients.
Olivia H: We made houses that looked like the houses in 1666.
Anthony: We painted cereal boxes.
Azem: Flour and sugar went into the paint to make it lumpy.
William: The roof was made out of straw.
Daisy: I liked making the houses because we had to do lots of different things to make it.
As a part of our Easter celebrations the children paraded around the playground and school wearing their Easter bonnets. The children have been very creative and there were some wonderful hats! Don’t you think they look great?
A huge well done to our Design an Egg competition!
1st place: Charlie
2nd Place: Daisy
3rd Place: Amelia
Mrs Cockerill and Mrs Maskell, who help lead the Seekers Club in school, visited to lead an assembly about Passover. The pupils were engaged and listened well to hear all about the symbolism of different foods and objects. This helped pupils develop higher ordering thinking skills and reflected on what is important to them and reasons why.
Well done to all the pupils who took part in the Easter Service today. Thanks to Rev Stevens for visiting school to lead the service. Pupils listened well and were able to explain the story. Pupils were able to consider how spring blossom represents new life and how this links to the Easter story. Pupils sang beautifully and reflected on the importance of the Easter Story with great maturity.
Great fun was had by all at the FS and KS 1 Easter Disco – hot dogs, sweets, prizes, dancing, games and an egg to take home!
If you were unable to attend our recent meeting please see the notes, below. If you have any further questions then please contact Miss Whiting or Miss Perrin who will be happy to help.
Thank you to the members of the after-school club for donating their lovely baking to raise funds for Red Nose Day. The pupils enjoyed developing their baking skills too and there were lots of happy customers.
The KS1 Choir performed at Grimsby Auditorium for the Infant Singing Festival. The concert was led by members of The Garsington Opera Company and many of the children's parents and family members came to watch. The songs were centred around and enchanted fairy story.
Katie- I liked singing. My mum came to watch.
Angel- I liked singing on the big stage.
Amelia- I really liked the 'I am looking for a witch' song.
Lacey- I loved singing the butterfly song.
Alfie- All the costumes were great.
Lily- I danced with the butterfly and the opera man came to look at the butterfly.
Mrs. Brady- The children were mesmerized when they heard the opera singers singing their arias.
Mrs. Groves- It's not every day the children get to perform with a professional opera company. I think they did very well to learn the songs.
Mrs. Wink- The behaviour of all the children was absolutely superb!
Mrs. Brady and Mrs. Groves would like to thank Mrs. Drury for making the beautiful butterfly prop, the children's parents for organising the wonderful costumes and for Mrs. Wink for her help throughout the day
Zoe from Firefly Ceramics came to school today to bring in the clay flowers that we have made. They look so different now!
As well as making the flowers the children made their own leaves. These have now been painted, glazed and fired and the children were able to take their leaf creations home. Aren’t they beautiful?
Each class in the school have made flowers and plants to reflect their class name. They have been used to make a fantastic display near reception. Can you tell which one belongs to each class?
We thought carefully about questions that we could ask, just like real scientists.
We were very excited to meet the animals.
Year 2 scientists have excellent listening skills.
The first animal that we encountered was the African tortoise.
We observed carefully.
Some children were even brave enough to touch.
The next animal was an African pygmy hedgehog.
This animal is a nocturnal carnivore.
Hedgehogs have spines or quills. When they are handled carefully they don’t spike or hurt you.
Then it was time to meet the bearded dragon who comes from Australia. Their habitat is hot. Their thick skin protects them from the strong sunlight. When they are threatened by predators they blow up to three times the size and their spines stick out.
We met an African millipede which is the biggest millipede in the world. They are herbivores and they have no bite of sting. They suck rotten fruit and leaves.
Some of the children were extremely brave and and handled a Mexican redrub trantula. They are carnivores. They eat insects and small mice. They kill their prey with venom that comes out of fangs that measure more than half a centimeter.
Pole cats are carnivorous creatures. They are very flexible so that they can move quickly around their burrows. They live in a temperate climate.
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The monitor lizard has hard skin. It uses its tongue to smell and taste the air. They are carnivores and have sharp claws to tear meat apart. They eat rats, mice, chicks and other small animals.
West African python is a constrictor and has more than 10 000 muscles. They swallow their food whole.
In English we have used story maps to plan our writing. We used pictures to represent our ideas and then we made notes of words we could use in our writing. We used our story maps to tell our stories to our partners before we start to write them.
We have been looking at position and direction in Maths. First we learnt how to remember the order of the compass points. We came out with phrases like ‘Never Eat Shredded Wheat’, ‘Naughty Elephants Squirt Water’ and ‘Never Eat Squashy Worms’. We then went outside and played a game where we had to run in different directions, which was a lot of fun.
After that we linked this knowledge with our science, geography and English work. We had a map of a savannah and a jungle and we had to choose the correct type of habitat for different animals. We then had to plot a safari route so that we could visit each animal in a jeep. After that wrote instructions for the visitors so they knew where to go and which animals they would see.
We have been learning about making patterns with shapes. Some of us used 2D shapes to make patterns of our own. Can you tell what the patterns are?
A team of sports specialists came into school and we were able to try archery and sword fighting. In the archery we had to use co-ordination to aim at the targets. It was really tricky trying to hit them.
With sword fighting we had to move forward to ‘attack’ our partners. The first one to touch their partner scored a point. We had to be careful where we aimed to make sure our ‘swords’ only touched the protection pads. It was fun launching our attack!!!
We have been writing instructions for how to get around Fairyland. To do this we need to use imperative verbs to say how we should move around the different obstacles. A group of us went outside to see if we could move around the playground in different ways. We had lots of fun and we collected a bank of words that we could use in our writing. 
A Valentine's craft session after school brought children together of all ages to learn new skills and produce beautiful craft items. Many thanks to all the staff for their help and to Mrs. Drury for all her wonderful craft ideas and hard work!
Megan (age 8)- It's really good and it helped people to improve their sewing.
Betsie (age 6)- It's nice sewing.
Olivia (age 5)- I like doing lots of crafts.
Katie (age 6)- The love heart making was tricky.
Emma (age 7)- I made a Valentine's box. The cutting was hard, but the decorating was easy.
Ruby (age 9)- I was pleased with my card. I liked making the hanging heart.
Sam (age 6)- I enjoyed being with other people and having a drink and a biscuit.
The children have been learning about how they can keep themselves safe around trucks and lorries.
We were lucky to have Hargreaves Industrial Services come with a lorry so the children could look around it. The orange lines marked were the drivers cannot see as they sit so high up. Miss Perrin tried sitting in the driver’s seat and the children could not see her and she could not see them. The children had lots of questions to ask about the lorry and we decided the safest thing was to keep as far away from them as possible and stay on the path with an adult.
On Monday 30th January, 4 children from Pumpkin Class were chosen to represent Stanford School to record valuable data for this year's RSPB Big Birdwatch. We were lucky enough to have mild weather with reasonably clear skies. We were wrapped up very warmly for the hour of observation. The birds were very 'chirpy' and we were able to locate and identify them through their bird calls.
Bayley "The binoculars are really helping me try to find the birds."
Sam "I have seen a few birds and I have seen a robin."
Amelia "I am having so much fun because I am like learning about nature."
Children worked in pairs to complete the counting sheet. Each pair had a bird identification sheet, a pair of binoculars, a recording chart & a comfy cushion! After half an hour Miss Lucas came round with Birdwatcher Biscuits for sustenance. The children were all very enthusiastic and observant, and they were openly grateful for the opportunity to be part of this experience.
We were lucky to have two opportunities in school to learn about different animals.
First we were visited by a nurse from the PDSA. She told us how we can look after animals and keep them healthy and safe. The children were surprised by some of the things they learnt, especially that carrots are not good for rabbits as they have a lot of sugar in
In the afternoon we were able to see owls who originate from different parts of the world. The children were amazed by how different the owls were and each owl had a different character. The children were really interested in the stories behind how the owls had come to be in captivity and had some wonderful questions to ask!
In Pumpkin class we have been learning about music. We have learnt that music is written on 5 lines called a ‘stave’. The names of the notes changes according to their position on the lines.
To help up remember this we say this
Every
Good
Boy
Deserves
Fun
We have also been learning about the beat/pulse of music and how long different notes last.
We have started to play the Glockenspeil.
When we are learning a song first we learn the pulse by clapping.
Then we sing to learn the notes.
After that we get to play on our instruments.
So far we have learnt 2 notes E and D.
If you look closely you can see the music on the screen.
On our Hook day we came dressed as explorers and animals from the rainforests of the world. Everyone looked amazing!!! (Thanks Mums and Dads for some creative ideas!!!)
First of all we all admired each other’s costumes and we had a fashion parade. Everyone had to talk about what they were wearing and why it was appropriate for a rainforest.
Can you guess what everyone has dressed up as?
This term we will be looking at the book ‘The Rainforest grew all around’. We chose 3 pictures from the book and worked as a team to create them. Don’t they look great??
As well as recreating pictures from the book there was a receipe for Rainforest Cookies. These are made from different ingredients that can be found in the rainforests. We went in groups to bake some of these. They tasted delicious!!
Finally we had a visitor in school. Jack Douglass came to this school a long time ago. He had the chance to visit a real rainforest on a trip. He showed us photos from his travels and brought in equipment to show us what was needed for such an expedition. We were all amazed when he told us about some of the animals he was lucky to have seen……even huge spiders (eeek!)
What a fantastic day!!!
This term we have been looking at ways we can balance and travel. Today we had benches out so we could experiment with different ways of travelling and balancing in high and low positions on them.
We had to support each other when we were balancing and getting off the equipment. Everyone was really sensible and supportive of each other.
We used our wonderful outdoor area to help us learn.
We looked for different living things and evidence that animals had been in the area.
Look carefully at the pictures. What can you find? Can you explain your thinking?
Who might this home belong to?
Can you see signs of life?
Which creatures might you find here?
We all looked very carefully and recorded our findings.
We think that this is an animal home. What do you think.
Today we had the Key Stage 1 Christmas performance. The children have worked really hard for weeks to make this a special event!
The children were amazing. They were word perfect, loud, clear and thoroughly entertaining! The singing, dancing and musical accompaniment were outstanding. What a performance!
We would like to thank all the parents for their help and support with the fabulous costumes and with helping the children to learn their lines. We hope you all enjoyed yourselves and here are some photos to remind you of this wonderful performance!
As a part of our learning about road safety awareness, we were asked to make a poster using photographs. We had to create a ‘freeze frame’ and think of a slogan to go with our pictures.
Glow so you show!
Don’t run!
Stop, look, listen, think!
Do you think we have got the message across?
The classes have been set a challenge to ‘grow a £1’. The children had to design a product for sale to see how much profit we can make. We decided to make sock snowmen.
First we had to fill a cup with rice.
The we had to put a sock over the top so we could tip the rice into it.
When the top was tied up we had to shape the snowman and make a head and body.Then we had to add the hat, scarf, buttons and decorations.
Don’t you think they look amazing?
We were really proud of our work team.
We invited parents in to buy them and sold them at the Christmas Fayre. We managed to sell every single snowman! Didn’t we do well?
This week we have been focusing on Road Safety. We had a sticker day where stickers were given to children who had walked to school. We also had a special visitor Mr Cullum. He came to talk to us about how we can be safe on the roads.
As a part of our Anti-Bullying week classes got together to look at what bullying means and how we can stop bullying through ‘the power of good’.
Pumpkin class enjoyed working with Seedlings class, especially as some of us have younger brothers and sisters in Seedlings. We looked at different situations to decide if people were being bullied or not. We then had some time to work with each other, being good friends, sharing and being kind to one another.
Zoe from Firefly Ceramics came to school to help us with our pumpkin flowers. They were now dry enough to paint and they looked so different!
We had to be really careful as they were now like pot and could easily break. We painted them yellow and orange. It was tricky making sure that everywhere was covered so we had to be really careful and work in pairs.
Look at the difference!
We can’t wait to see the finished product!!
As a part of the topic’s home learning some children have made caves. They have put a lot of effort into designing both the outside and the interior design of the cave. I am amazed at how creative they have been….and their parents too.
Mustard and Pumpkin enjoyed singing their times tables together this afternoon to rock music.
Well done to all the children in Stanford for their contributions towards Children in Need day. The amounts for each team have been totalled and are as follows:
Blue £61.85
Green £47.84
Yellow £56.60
Red £61 79
A huge thanks to parents and children for supporting this event. Each class went in turn to place all their loose change onto a Pudsey Bear of their team colour. We have not, as yet, calculated the amount given, but will send a text as soon as we know. Please look at the photos. A brilliant effort!
The children had a busy week reminding them about anti-bullying, what it is and what to do about it. We shared some of the activities they were involved in in our Friday morning Assembly. Some of the activities included acting out scenarios, designing super heroes to combat bullying and a rap. All the classes collaborated with another class at some time during the week. This has really reinforced the importance of anti-bullying. Well done Stanford!'
The class representatives displayed the school’s poppy art work at The Knoll, Cleethorpes as part of the Armed Forces Events locally. Remembrance Day is a thought provoking time and the pupils have shown great reflection and maturity
To celebrate the 100 years since Roald Dahl was born, Mrs Wink and her team organised a fantastic, interactive workshop of exciting activities linked to the Roald Dahl stories for Foundation and Key Stage One children to enjoy.
We are so lucky to have some additional playground equipment in the Key Stage 1 playground for the children to use. A part of the grassed area was dug up and large tyres have been installed for the children to play on. The insides are colourful and bouncy so the children can jump from one tyre to another. To keep the children safe a special surface has been put around the tyres. The children found the whole process fascinating and couldn’t believe how quickly the area changed. After just one day we had a lovely area to play in. It’s now one of the most used areas in the playground!
We were really lucky to have Sunita come into school to help us make rangoli patterns. It is used in Diwali to make homes look bright, cheerful and welcoming. Rangoli patterns use bright colours and are symmetrical.
We used stencils and coloured in the gaps using chalks. We had to make sure that we talked to each other to make sure that we were all using the same colours. As we had worked so hard Sunita suggested we use glitter to make them even more fabulous. Look how much fun we had making them!
Look how beautiful the rangoli patterns are!!
Key Stage 1 had a Harvest Festival in school and we really enjoyed performing in front of our parents. We were able to perform our Pumpkin Poem and song to our parents and enjoyed singing the Harvest Samba. A lot of food was donated to help others. We loved performing in front of everyone!
Zoe from Firefly Ceramics came to school to help us make clay flowers. Each class have made flowers to show their class name so we made pumpkin flowers.
First Zoe showed us what to do and we had to watch and listen carefully.
Then we had to roll out the clay to make it nice and flat.
Next we cut out the shape of a pumpkin flower and some leaves.
They we had to decorate them.
We made some beautiful flowers.
Of course we didn’t mind getting messy.
We can’t wait to paint them when they are dry. Keep watching for more pictures of our pumpkin flowers!
For the McMillan Coffee Morning Pumpkin class were really excited about performing our Pumpkin Poem and song. We made art work to go with our song and thought about actions to help us remember the words.
We were really excited about performing to our parents, who all seemed to enjoy our singing and performance poetry. We had a cake and drink and enjoyed chatting with everyone who had come to help raise money for a good cause.
We have been learning about how history was recorded before books.
The cavemen drew pictures on the walls to show what their day was like.
Cave painting often had hand stencils on the walls like the cave below which is in Argentina.
We decided to make our own cave paintings to put on the walls. We looked at examples of cave art and tried to draw our own pictures.
We drew around hand templates with chalk and smudged them so they looked like the examples on the cave walls. 
When we had finished we scrunched the paper up to make it look like the cave walls.
What do you think? Isn’t it wonderful!!
We have some brand new play equipment in our playground. We already love having fun with our friends but now we will be even happier.
We have a soft new surface that will protect us if we fall and it will also help to keep us cleaner. Did you know it is made from recycled tyres?
Today got off to a healthy start as we ran a mile round the school field before lessons.
Our hook day this term is linked to our Science learning investigating different materials.
We worked in mixed age groups as we love to learn from one another.
Our first stop was Poppy Class.
We listened to a story called the ‘Paper Bag Princess’.
Some children acted the story out. Azim was a nasty Prince. Miss Whiting said that his acting was so good that he might choose to be an actor when he is older!
We felt so sorry for the Princess that we thought we ought to teach the Prince a lesson. We decided to dress her beautifully in a dress made from just paper.
The Prince would want to marry the Princess now, however she quite rightly decided to find someone who would be much kinder to her.
We enjoyed making her dress and had a go at making different types of clothes from paper.
We thought about what was good about paper clothes and we also thought about why this material wasn’t usually used.
This is what some of the children had to say;
‘If you put water on paper clothes they go all soggy.’ Said Gracie H.
Finley G. added ‘if you put it in the washer they would get all ripped.’
Alfie V said ‘the clothes were comfortable because they were flexible however if you wear them you may get ichy or you might even get paper cuts.
Bailey M. added ‘If your Mum and Dad made a fire then you might catch fire.’
Azem thought about the positive saying ‘It wouldn’t be expensive if you used recycled newspapers because they are free.’
In Pumpkin classroom we investigated which materials float and which materials sink.
We decided to investigate whether materials float and how strong they are when they are wet.
We decided on 3 investigations.
We tested whether materials floated when they were placed on the surface of the water.
Emma said ‘Some of my predictions weren’t right and that made me feel surprised.’
We looked at whether they were buoyant and floated to the top when submerged.
We put materials on the water and investigated how many cubes they could hold to see how strong they were.
We discovered that you could not look at the material alone and judge whether it would float and that a lot of factors were involved. Such as the weight, the size and the combinations of materials in an item e.g. a feather would float but a pipe cleaner wouldn’t as it had metal in it. We also found out that air had a huge part to play in whether items could float or not.
After we had investigated out materials we looked at the material we had collected and tried to make boats out of them. Kajithra made a boat just out of one sheet of paper by folding it.
It was great fun investigating the water and materials, and as it was so hot we didn’t mind getting wet at all!
Mrs Brady helped us to investigate magnets.
We put them together to see what happened
Jayden said ‘I found out that a blue and a red end of a magnet attract.
Beau added ‘When you put two red ends of a magnet together, they repel.’
Mrs Brady helped us to make fish using lots of different materials. We then tested each of these materials to see if they were magnetic.
These children explained their learning.
Olivia H. said ‘We stuck different materials on to a fish.’
Holly added ‘We had a fishing rod and we put it over our fish and if a material was magnetic, it would stick (attract).’
Leo had worked really hard, he said ‘I found out that a 1p wasn’t magnetic because it didn’t have the right kind of metal in it. A paper clip was magnetic though.’
Mrs Brady was astounded! Then we investigated all sorts of items from around the room.
Daisy said ‘The metal part of the scissors was magnetic.’
Joshua added ‘I found a 2p was magnetic.’
Theo was surprised when his prediction was wrong. ‘I thought the plastic glue stick pot would be magnetic and when I tested it, it wasn’t.’
Mrs Graham worked really hard with a group of children who used their sense of touch to describe different materials. Mrs Graham helped us to think carefully about the scientific words. In the afternoon our brand new Head Boy and Head Girl came along to help with our learning too. They were very good at explaining things. We enjoyed learning with them and getting to know them.
We had great fun at our hook day and can’t wait to carry on learning even more about Materials.
Welcome to Pumpkin Class. We have had a great start to the year and everyone is keen to learn!
Children are already bringing in their home learning and are showing such an interest in the lessons.
We have started to learn about the prehistoric period. We learnt that this was the period of history before books were written. We know about history from this period because archaeologists had found things in the ground. We decided to be archaologists and see what we could find in the ground. It was really tricky as we had to use brushes to clear away the dirt so we didn’t break anything. When we got back to the classroom we looked at our finds and thought about what they told us about life today.
‘Archaeologists’ looking for treasures buried in the ground.
We used brushes to clear the ground away from things that were buried.