Wow! We  have an amazing new floor in F2.
Mrs. Braun and I took the opportunity over the half term, to do a little re-organising and clearing out. It was great - we managed to create much more space in F2.

I loved the positive 

comments from the children

 when they arrived on Tuesday morning - they were so incredulous...

" Miss Jones, did you do all this??"
"  I love the new classroom, you must have worked very hard!!"
"We really like our  new classroom!"

Lots of discussion took place between them and then they all went off exploring the new areas we had created. It just goes to show how observant and appreciative the F2 children are, doesn't it?

Many thanks to Aiman, our caretaker, and his colleagues for all their very hard work over the half term.

Well what an amazing morning! 

We let our butterflies go in Sylvia's Garden after watching them grow from caterpillars,

 They were flittering and fluttering inside the net as if they couldn't wait to feel the sensation of flying for the first time.

 As they flew out, most of them rested briefly on the bushes. 

A couple of them just flew straight out and disappeared into the distance. 

The butterflies were very thoughtful and left each child a thank you letter in the bushes. 

After reading the letters, with the help of Mrs.McCormack, we said a prayer asking God to look after the butterflies as they searched for somewhere to lay eggs and start this amazing  cycle all over again.

It is a lovely project, with so much to explore. We have looked at symmetry ,life cycles, the features of an insect and have learned some new vocabulary. So well Done F2 - Great work.

Dear F2 Families

Wild animals are always a very popular theme in Early Years and so we decided to look a little bit closer at life in the Jungle during the last few weeks of term.

We completely transformed our reading tent  - we covered  it in green material and paper , adding bright  tissue flowers and trailing vines from the ceiling - it looked great! We researched  jungle animals on the internet   - snakes, caiman, monkeys, gorillas etc.. and looked closely  at patterns on snakes. The children got busy colouring in snakes and making patterns with unifix. This topic created a lot of mark-making interest which is  something we constantly strive to promote.

The children loved looking at their books by torchlight in the Jungle - it can be very dark in , with little sunshine getting through all the foliage and fauna. 

Your children are so inquisitive and love finding out about all sorts of things - we had a great 2 weeks.

F1 and F2 did a Giant Litter Pick for our school and the local environment. We talked about  the dangers to animals, people and the landscape when we choose to drop litter. Please see our RESPECT x 5 display board as you enter school - there is more to look at.......

We get all sorts of visitors come and see us. One afternoon, Batman arrived to tell a story to F1 and F2 during their snack time. It was great fun! - hope he comes to visit again soon.

...and a visit from a Royal soldier who guards Buckingham Palace...

And lastly, many thanks to Kei in Year5/6. 

F2 wrote to Kei , asking him if he would bring his BMX Bike into school.

 Kei  takes part in BMX competitions.

Kei brought his bike and all his kit, gloves, helmet, vest etc..,  that he needs for protection as it can be quite dangerous on the muddy tracks. Thank you Kei - it was really interesting. Hope you like our Thank you card - it is ready to give to you.

This term we have an exciting book week and a Mothers Day Celebration performance to look forward to - so busy, busy, busy as usual...

God bless and best wishes  

from Mrs.Dye and the Early Years Team

.

Robin Hood Week - a medieval banquet

We had a fun day at our medieval banquet.

First, we were given a tour of the castle by a servant,  Mitzy (Mrs.Dye).
Mitzy explained  the different parts  of the castle i.e the moat, the port cullis, sleeping quarters, castle kitchen etc..

 Mitzy served the visitors with  food and refreshments. She also provided medieval music and Samantha treated us to an impromptu dance - it was lovely!

Some of the children took it upon themselves to be Kings and Queens too - ordering poor Mitzy about - she was exhausted by the end of the day!

Suddenly, we were under attack and had to defend the castle - the children were very good shots with their 'bows and arrows' and the invaders soon ran away - hurray! 

During the feast, we received a letter from Prince John who had kidnapped Robin Hood.

 Mitzy and all the children set out to find him. We searched high and low . Then ,just as we were giving up, we found him in a box in the corridor.

The following day, Mrs,Cook (Year 3 and 4 teacher) very kindly brought in her real bow and arrow to show the children.  One of her hobbies is archery, and the children were very interested and listened very well. 

Hello to all F2 children and families

I hope you are having a good week together.

I have been away for a few days painting and decorating a flat. (that was my job before I became a teacher  -  I still love it though, very theraputic.)

The children settled well into F2 last term and we enjoyed  many topics.

Just thought I'd share a few photos and highlights - hope you enjoy them....

We follow the children's interest in Early Years, and Aeroplanes became a hot topic. Captain Elisha took his turn flying for  Newbold Airways. 

This topic introduced  many new ideas and vocabulary. 

It also encouraged excellent team work and negotiation in the children's self initiated play.

 They were able to explore mathematical concepts such as distance and speed.  

All the children became engaged  - making and serving play food and drinks

to the passengers and creating stories around the aircraft e.g needing to fix it as it had broken down.

                                          Newbold Airways cabin crew delivering  a high standard of service - Well                                            done.

We talked about parts of an aircraft and some of the children labelled their own aeroplane.

This topic was very motivating and great fun.

During Harvest Festival week we read  Farmer Duck. This motivated a lot of physical digging in the outside area and I would hear the children calling to each other 'How goes the work?' which is a repeated refrain throughout the story by the lazy farmer who leaves all the work to the poor overworked duck. Don't worry, the animals chase him off the  farm and he is never seen again.

 Another brilliant story where we could explore what is fair and not fair. We looked a bit more closely at where milk and corn came from too. (Amazing fact- Kelloggs cornflakes was invented by a Seventh Day Adventist - John Kellogg in the 19th Century.)

We also reads The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson. This motivated the children to design and make some lovely models of the Gruffalo out of playdough and various materials-

 we also made a Gruffalo Pie!
!

The children like cooking and it is a brilliant vehicle for measuring and strengthening fingers plus many more learning opportunities.
(Elisha, I haven't forgotten that you want to cook Supernoodles!)


Look forward to seeing you all next week and ready to start a very busy and exciting christmas term.

Please let me know if you have any problems receiving Tapestry.

Until then
God bless
 from Mrs.Dye

Hi to all of F2 and their families...

Thought you might enjoy these photos from our trip to BirdWorld yesterday.

We travelled up by coach to Farnham. 

As usual, the children were so well behaved -  not distracting the driver and letting us know when they did not feel so good  - Well Done!

There were so many interesting birds to look at from all over the world 

but...

 the first animals we saw were in the Underwater World

...2 crocodiles and  lots of  fishes.

After that we saw many beautiful birds from all over the world-  including Flamingoes, Penguins, Pelicans, Hornbills, Owls and Parrots  (the Parrots  were so noisy! they made us jump!)

Four huge Herons kept flying over our heads during Penguin Feeding time - it was quite exciting.

A Barn Owl

A Blue and Yellow Parrot called Noddy  from the Brazilian Rainforest. Noddy could quack like a duck and moo like a cow - he was very funny.

Pelicans

After lunch the children had time to play in the parks where they could get very close to the birds....

Goodbye BirdWorld - time to get back back on the coach.

We had a lovely day and ...

Thank you 

to all the parents who came and helped - it was much appreciated

x

Welcome back to the last term of Reception.
Hope you have all had a good week.

I thought you might like to see some photos -  highlights from  last term...

We watched the little caterpillars change into Pupas

After about 2 weeks, the pupas cracked open and  and out crawled 4 beautiful Painted Lady butterflies. 

It was the first time I had actually seen this happen, how fantastic! - previous years, they emerged when we were not at school to witness it. 

We let them go in Sylvia's Garden next to Newbold Church Centre. 

The Butterflies left a Thank you letter for every child. We found them hidden in the bushes.

After the butterflies had flown away, all the children offered a prayer-  thanking God for the butterflies and asking  him to look after them.

It was a really lovely project. What an amazing and mysterious world we live in.

So this last term, I will be preparing the children for transition to Year 1 with particular  focus on writing.

As always, please come and see me if you have anything you would like to talk about.

God Bless