As part of our theme on ‘Who lives in a home like this?’ we carried out a science challenge to find out which materials made the best waterproof roof. We used Lego, Duplo and magnetic bricks and then compared them with a roof made of leaves and sticks. Before starting, we spent a few minutes talking about what we expected to happen and how we could make the investigation a ‘fair’ one.

The continuous provision in our setting reflects the extended learning on habitats. Play dough, pipe cleaners and dried pasta were used to make bees and honeycombs, and puzzles with animal pictures led to discussions on habitats. We have also been creative in our use of recycled materials, using paper towels and bottle corks.

We are making good progress in our Phonics learning. The games for tuning into sounds is enabling the children to begin to distinguish the initial sounds in words and to play with alliteration. In our oral blending game, the children are getting better at solving what an object is before being shown.

We have focused on the concept of comparison for maths this week with lots of opportunities to generalise the ‘one more than/one less than’ relationship between sequential numbers to five. They are beginning to apply this understanding for example singing 'Five currant buns in a baker's shop'

It was another great day at Forest School. Despite the inclement weather, we had a good day starting with a scavenger hunt, den making and then art with leaves and twigs. The children are benefiting a great deal from learning outdoors and exploring natural surroundings.

To support this term’s theme, we learnt a song called ‘home’ at our music session with Mrs Carlton.
Finally, we had a go at doing chalk drawings of bluebells on blackboards.

We started Holy Week with a visit to church to study The Stations of the Cross. We followed the 14 stations to remind us of the events that led to Easter Sunday. The children listened and asked very good questions. We were very impressed with the discussions that followed which the children themselves had shared without adult input. It has been a valuable experience for all the children to watch Year 6 re-enact the Passion Play every day this week. This has helped to consolidate their learning and to support our RE curriculum;

Celebrating

- Visiting our parish church to discuss where various special occasions take place. 

Growing

- Viewing the Stations of the Cross.

- Using artwork depicting the Passion, with the children explaining what it means to them.

- Watching the Passion Play by Year 6.

Afterwards, we walked to the Emily Jackson Care Home and took part in Easter craft activities with the residents. Everyone enjoyed taking part. including the Little Vinnies from Year Six!

We have been very industrious making enough playdough to sell at the Talent Fair. The children were so competent at organising themselves, especially when they carefullu wrote out the 50p labels to stick on each package.

Our term ended with a parade in front of the whole school, showing our Easter bonnets and singing our Easter Songs.

We bade farewell to Mrs Hayden and to thank her for her wonderful care and support in our learning. She will be

We cut up apples and covered them in different liquids; water, vinegar, lemon juice, milk, orange juice to see what would happen. We checked on them every hour and by the end of the day, we recorded the results. We saw that the apples in lemon juice stayed almost the same compared to those in milk which turned the apples brown.

We made cakes for our Mother’s Day tea afternoon.

Understanding the World ( science)

Continuing our learning on growth and change, we repotted the ‘baby’ spider plants. On tipping out the rich soil, we noticed a number of worms which we examined closely. We also talked about how the plant grew from a 'baby' plant to a ‘mother’ plant and the full life cycle. We discussed that a plant needs water and light for it to grow, The potted plants were then given to our mums for Mother’s Day.

It has been an eventful week with our World Book Day, KCSP Science Day and Mother’s Day tea afternoon. It was wonderful to see so many mums in school.The children were perfect waiters and waitresses and did a great job taking orders, writing ‘t’ for tea and ‘c’ for coffee.

For our music lesson with Mrs Carlton this term we learnt how you can show a story through music with quiet and loud sounds when singing. We also learnt The Seed Song' and 'Wonderful Love' which we sang at the Mother's Day tea afternoon.

The British weather has followed its usual characteristics this week by being very changeable! Monday’s winds beckoned us outside with our paper kites which we made by cutting out ‘rhombus’ shapes. We decorated them in and used hole punches to attach a string. We learnt about forces by understanding that, by holding our arms above us, it enabled the wind to blow the paper higher. We reinforced this learning by playing games with a large parachute for our PE lesson. The story for the day was ‘Rosie’s hat’ in which it had blown away in a gust of wind only to reappear as a nest in a tree many years later. We also listened to the poem by William Wordsworth, ‘I Wondered Lonely as a Cloud’ and recited, ‘Daffodils Finger Action Rhyme’

Having looked at the features of a daffodil more closely on Tuesday, we had a go at doing still life drawings with pencils. We then used paints to represent our observation of the daffodil’s form and colour the following day. Mixing two primary colours, we made the colour green and talked about the shades of dark and light green.

The children’s communication and language development is increasing this term.They are enjoying listening to longer stories and have good recall. They have a wider repertoire of rhymes and can talk about familiar books. In particular, they have shown an interest in books such as; The Awesome Night Sky, Giraffes Can’t Dance, Handa’s Surprise, The Girl who stole the stars.

This is complementing their personal, social and emotional development as they play with other children, extending and elaborating play ideas and making stronger bonds with their peers. We are seeing a greater interest in playing board games because of a growing ability to find solutions to conflict and rivalries.

In their physical development, the children have been using large-muscle movements to wave streamers, negotiate an obstacle course, and move across a climbing frame.

In literacy, we are continuing to develop phonological awareness so that they can: 

- spot and suggest rhymes 

- count or clap syllables in a word

- recognise words that have the same initial sound.

In maths, we have been working hard on being able to show ‘finger numbers’ up to 5 and linking numerals and amounts. For example, the children can now show the right number of objects to match a numeral up to 5.

We have continued to explore how things work in our theme on ‘Toys’ by making a pasta ‘catcher’ with recycled materials. In child initiated activities, they have been busy exploring different materials freely to develop ideas about potential uses and what to make.

As it was a lovely sunny afternoon on Thursday we took the opportunity to take a walk to Sevenoaks Town to look at the local area and to identify some of the buildings drawn in our maps ‘Walking to School’. We also talked about the shapes of any landmarks they saw along the way.

Lastly during our busy week, we enjoyed performing the nursery rhyme, ‘ Hickory, Dickory Dock’ during our poetry morning.

We have started our theme on Toys this term and have made our first toy using recycled materials. The children constructing a racing car has involved learning in many areas of their curriculum;

Maths

We;

• Used a paper towel roll for the body of the car and learnt about 3D shape cylinders.
• Counted four yoghurt tops for the wheels.
• Chose a number for our racing car and wrote a numeral.

Physical Development

We;

Developed our small motor skills by sewing on the wheels using a needle and thread

• Rolled plasticine and made a figure for the driver.

Literacy

We;

• Acquired new vocabulary, such as ‘needle and thread’, ‘plasticine’ and ‘steering wheel’.

• Looked at a variety of non-fiction books on toys, vehicles and wheels.

Understanding the World

We;

• Explored how things work. The children were provided with mechanical equipment to play with and to investigate, such as wind up toys, pulleys, sets of cogs, and pegs and boards. Children were also encouraged to bring in their favourite toys to show.
• Discussed the different features of toys and catagorised some as toys with wheels; some that we push or pull; toys that have to be wound etc.
• Talked about the science and engineering of the mechanics that make toys move.
• Observed the differences between modern toys and older toys.

Expressive Arts and Design

We;

• Joined different materials and explored different materials freely, developing ideas about how to use them and what to make.

Happy New Year and a warm welcome back on a chilly January! The sudden snowfall this week brought a lot of excitement. The children had fun scooping up the snow to make a snowman and finding out how freshly fallen snow sticks together to make a snowball. It also created a blank canvas for their mark making.

For Art, we made swirling patterns and mixed paints to creat shades of blue. We then made pictures of a ‘Starry Night’ in the style of Vincent Van Gogh.

Starry Night in the style of Van Gogh

For our work in RE, we revisited the Nativity including the arrival of the Wise men and Jesus’ baptism. The children then took turns to carry out a baptism and recited the words ‘In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit’. Fr Vispin’s visit on Wednesday afternoon helped the children to understand the significance of celebrating Christmas.

We have been guiding children to make sense of their physical world and community by drawing their journeys to school. We transcribed their ‘Understanding of the World’ and extended their geographical knowledge by introducing new vocabulary and making important links between features, places, events and people.