Maple Class - Term 4 week 1
Date: 28th Feb 2025 @ 6:29pm
Welcome back to the second half of the Spring term. It has been lovely to see some sunny weather which meant that Maple class have been keen to get outside. This term our key question is I wonder how things grow? This week our book focus has been Olivers Vegetables by Vivian French and we have been focusing on thinking about the foods we can grow.
In Phonics this week we have learnt the digraphs or (as in torn, corn) and ur (as in fur, turn). We have been practicing writing words and captions containing these sounds. We have also been going over our level 2 and 3 Tricky words.
In maths we have been comparing numbers, identifying groups that are the same, have more or fewer and have been using the language of comparison. We have also been thinking about the sequences within a day, and the order we do things in. When getting ready for Forest School we thought about what we need to do after the register and the order we do it in – go to the toilet, wash our hand, get our waterproofs from off the peg, put on a jumper, fleece, hoody and/or coat, take our shoes off, put on our waterproofs and finally our wellies, ensuring our waterproofs are over the top of our wellies. We also discussed what we do on a typical school day including when we first get up in the morning and when we get home from school. Great discussions were had as well as acting our routines out with the dolls house.
We continued to practice for our Samba Drumming performance on the 17th March at Cheltenham Town Hall. This week we thought about starting and stopping, keeping a pulse, response playing and playing number breaks. We are all doing brilliantly and our drumming teacher, Lee, is really impressed with us.
In Forest School on Thursday afternoon we had great fun digging out our raised beds, getting rid of all the weeds including all the roots. We also all planted some broad bean seeds – we can’t wait to see them grow. We had a good tidy up in the area including collecting and throwing away any rubbish that we found. Thursday lunchtime also saw Mrs Duffey and Mrs Cordell start the Ampney Crucis lunchtime gardening club. Each week 6 children from Maple will be able to take part and this will be on a rotation basis so all children can attend, if they wish. This week we planted our strawberry plants, that a parent had so kindly given us, into our new planter in the Maple garden. During Explore and Learn we also planted dried peas, so we have started plenty of growing this week.
In RE this term we are thinking about why Christians put a cross in their Easter Garden. This week we thought about Palm Sunday, made palm leaves and acted out when Jesus came into Jerusalem and he was greeted with waving palm leaves and people throwing their cloaks onto the ground.
PE this week saw us start a term of cricket and netball. We will be looking forward to seeing their skills progress over the 7 weeks.
We all did amazingly well at completing our five challenges this week – all children completed all of them, they were writing a shopping list of items containing graphemes we have learnt, comparing groups of seeds, creating texture in paint, planting seeds and digging the raised beds using garden tools.
Things the children have said they have enjoyed this week:
Della – planting the broad bean seeds
Woody & Ralph – I enjoyed listening to the school choirs song on Mythical creatures
Daisy, Szymon, Frankie, Felix – I’ve enjoyed digging in the garden
Bunny – I’ve enjoyed planting
India – I enjoyed doing the observational drawings of carrots
Alice & Felix – I enjoyed pulling the weeds out
Sophie – I enjoyed painting our bean stalks
Ocataviah – I enjoyed making the palm leaves
Leone – I enjoyed thinking about Jesus and the cross
Have a lovely weekend and enjoy the sunshine. Don’t forget to sign up for parents meeting.
