Science is fun

Hello everyone,

Just a short blog this week as we have only had 3 days.  It's been Science Week this week and the theme was 'Inventions and Discoveries'.  We have had great fun thinking of lots of inventions.  The children thought it was hilarious that a toilet is an invention.  Bailey was horrified when he realised someone had to invent toilet paper.  "What did we do before the invention of toilet paper?"  Good question Bailey !  We also made our own inventions:

 

AJ invented a 'Free Maximiser'?

 

 

Bailey, Hayden, Lara and Charlie worked on their invention together

We found out all about the invention of the train on Monday.  We looked at some steam trains and some of us had been on a steam train for a ride.  We looked at the Eurostar and The Bullet and used Google to find out where the Bullet runs - its Japan.  We painted our own trains and also did a great rocket experiment.  We made the rocket go faster by attaching a balloon to the side of it.  Hayden worked out that it was the air rushing out of the balloon that made it move so fast.  Well done Hayden - I think you might be a scientist when you grow up?

On Tuesday we found out all about the invention of the television.  The children were amazed that we used to have to switch channels by hand.  We made our own remote controls too.  We did a great fizzy drink experiment.  We put 5 mentoes into a bottle of normal lemonade and watched it explode.  We then put the same number of mentoes into a bottle of diet lemonade.  We found that the diet lemonade made the best explosion. 

 

3......2.......1.......

 

Blast off

On Wednesday we invited all the parents in to see what we have been up to - it was amazing to see so many of you there and we hope you enjoyed our experiments. 

We looked at the invention of the electric light bulb today and found out that we used to have to use candles.  We had the wires, batteries and light bulbs out and Mrs Young challenged us to make the light bulbs light up.  Charlie Gibson managed it all on his own - well done!

 

Whilst the parents were here we did a slime experiment with corn flour - that was great fun - why not try it at home !  We played in it all day and made hardly any mess (honestly).

We had a school competition running for the best invention.  Sidney invented a fantastic pen and flower holder and Bailey invented a car cleaner.  Both inventions were great and both boys got a certificate.  Bailey won the prize but well done Sidney aswell.

We also had an Easter Egg Competition in school and lots of people entered from our class.  Lara won from our class and AJ was the runner up - congratulations !

Have a happy and relaxing Easter.

See you soon

Grasshopper Class

Party Time

Hello again,

This week we have been thinking about birthdays and parties.  We have talked about parties we have been to and we have written about parties - watch out for our birthday display going up outside our classroom as it will have lots of fantastic writing on it and I'm sure you will be very impressed.

We have also been designing our own party clothes and lots of us took a long time deciding how to make our outfits - the end result is definitely worth waiting for !  We have been reading a Big Book all about growing up too and have been thinking about what we can remember about when we were smaller.  Mrs Young, Mrs Ball, Mrs Harvey and Miss Carter all brought in their baby photos and they were really funny !  Mrs Young's were so old they were in black and white.

 

Alan made a party outfit

Lara and Emmie worked together to made a really long paper chain

In maths we have been doing lots of problem solving with a party theme - so we have been pretending to make play dough cakes and work out how we can share them out, we've been counting pretend cherries for the top and sharing out pretend sweets.  It's been great fun and it's a good way to practise your adding and taking away.

Chloe, Holly and Jessica having a picnic

Tomasz and Hayden at a party with Elija

This Friday it was Alfie, our Class dog's birthday.  He was 5 and we gave him a surprise party.  We have been busy all week making cards and decorations and we have made some yummy chocolate crispy cakes to eat aswell. 

Dylan making cakes

Thomas and Tony hard at work in the kitchen

 

 

Sienna and Gracie making crispy cakes

 

Alfie loved the party - we gave him a car as a present and we made a lovely card for him too that Jazlyn got everyone to sign.  He was a bit upset that he didn't have a hat but Dylan said he could borrow his.  Later on in the afternoon Bailey made Alfie his own rabbit hat so that he didn't feel left out.  We ate our crispy cakes and played Alfie's favourite party game - musical statues.  I think we all had a lovely time - especially Alfie.

 

Mrs Ball brings in the cake

 

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Enjoying our crispy cakes

 

 

Alfie enjoying his crispy cake

 

 

Alfie in his new hat made by Bailey and shoes made by Lara

 

Phew what an exciting week - next week is Science Week and we are going to be inventing things - we can't wait.

 

Have a good weekend

 

Grasshopper Class

 

 

 

 

Archie's visit

Hi everyone,

This week we have been learning all about shapes.  We have learnt some new 2D (flat shapes) shape names -pentagon, hexagon and octagon.  The 3D shapes (solid shapes) we have been looking at are cube, cuboid, cylinder, pyramid and sphere.   Why not look round your house for some shapes? Lara did a great job searching for shapes in class today - well done Lara.

Thank you to all those parents who are helping with learning the new tricky words and phase 3 sounds. I've noticed a big difference in the last week.

We have also been thinking about growing up and all the changes that happen from being a baby to being the grand old age of 5.  We have looked through our celebration books and seen how we have changed since September.  We can do loads more now than we could then - writing, reading, cutting out........We also noticed how much we had grown. We have been thinking about parts of our body and trying to label them.  We had a go at labelling AJ.

On Thursday we had a visit from baby Archie.  The last time he visited he was only 6 weeks old and he couldn't do much.  Now he is 6 months old and he can almost sit up, he can laugh and smile and he can even blow raspberries!  We asked lots of questions about how he had changed and his mummy is going to bring him back in the summer to see us again.  Well done Eysan and Elifnur for thinking of some great questions to ask.

                                                          Miss Young and baby Archie

On Monday we had a theatre performance - The Hobbit - it was great fun.  Friday was Red Nose Day and we had to wear something funny for money.  Have a look at our great pictures from the day:

Bailey with red hair

 

Princess Eysan

 

Lara, Jazlyn, Holly and Bronwen

 

Thomas and his red nose

 

Miss Carter as Minnie Mouse

 

Charlie and Emmie in their pyjamas

 

We raised £250 at our school so well done everyone

 

See you all next week

 

Grasshopper Class

 

World Book Day

Hello everyone,

Sorry there was no blog last week - it's lovely to be back !  Last week we won On Time Turtle so well done Grasshoppers for getting here on time.  This week I've just heard that we have won Attendance Ted again - that's the 4th time we've won (a record for a Reception Class) so very well done to everyone for coming to school every day.

This week we have continued to think about how things grow and whether things are alive or not alive.  We learnt all about how a bean grows and we have planted our own bean in Grasshopper Class.  We are going to watch it grow and write our own book about it.

                                                       Bailey helps to plant our bean

We have also been busy planting a secret surprise for Mother's Day so we hope you like it?

The weather has been a little better this week so we have managed to get outside a lot more.  We have had the water play out and Bailey managed to invent a puddle making machine - it worked very well and we almost had a tsunami machine on our hands at one point !

                                                           Bailey and his puddle machine

                                                            Holly works as part of a team

Hayden and AJ made up their own ball game with the cones and had great fun taking turns to score points.  Bronwen spotted some daffodils that looked a bit thirsty and set about giving them a much needed drink too.

 

 

In PE we have been learning to balance.  We learnt that our EARS are very important to us when we are trying to balance.  We made up lots of different balances using 1,2,3,4 and even 5 body parts.  Have a look at our funny photographs:

                                                               Good balancing Alan

                                                     Gracie balancing on her tummy

                                             I can't see who this is - but the balance is good

On Thursday it was World Book Day and we looked at stories and books from the author Nick Sharratt.  Did you know that he not only writes the words but he does the illustrations too.  We really enjoyed Ketchup on your Cornflakes and Moo Cow Kung Fu Cow - they were really funny.  We had a competition to see who could make the best cow and we had another competition to see who could design the best octopus (from the book Octopus Socktopus).  Did you know that Nick Sharratt did the drawings for Tracey Beaker aswell - he's a very clever man.  This link will take you to his website if you want to have a look at what else he has written:

Nick Sharratt website

Thank you to all the parents who came along to Parents Evening on Tuesday - it was lovely to see so many of you.  Your help at home with reading, phonics and number work really does make a huge difference to how well your child does in school.  So thank you again.
maths games

Thank you also to all the mums who came along to Story Time on Friday - I hope you enjoyed the stories we had chosen for you?

Enjoy Mother's Day on Sunday - have a good rest.

See you next week.

Grasshopper Class