Spring is coming !

Welcome back everyone,

This week we have been thinking about Spring.  We have been talking about changes in the weather and we have noticed how light it is getting in the afternoons and evenings.  We have spotted lots of changes in our school grounds with daffodils springing up everywhere.  We have been learning how to take care of our environment and we are always careful not to pick the flowers from our gardens unless we have been asked to.  We have read non-fiction books about Spring and about how plants grow and we have found out that seeds can travel in the wind, sea, or on an animal or even by sticking to our shoes when we walk !

Jamie-Lea looks at the roots with a magnifying glass

We have made lots of pictures of flowers and gardens.  On Monday we used pencil crayons to do some fantastic observational drawings of flowers and plants.  On Tuesday we used water colour paints to create our own flowers and on Thursday we made amazing sunflowers using real seeds and crepe paper.  Look how carefully we worked - Mrs Young was very pleased !

Indianna loves to draw - she did an amazing observational drawing (it was so good I thought Mrs Ball had done it !)

 

 

Abigail made a super red rose - look at that good cutting !

 

 

Austeja made a fabulous plant picture - she put the roots and the stem and flower all in the right place 

We have welcomed Daniel back from China this week - he has told us all about his exciting trip to see his grandparents.  He told us about the lovely food he ate and that there were lots of tall buildings in China.  He even bought every child in Grasshopper Class a special Chinese Lantern back - so thank you Daniel.

On Wednesday we planted our own seeds - sunflowers.  We had to be careful to give the seed everything it needed: soil to give it nurtrients, water, light and warmth.  We will be watching our seeds closely to see how quickly they grow and when they have grown a little we will be bringing them home so that they can grow into really tall sunflowers.

 

Reece and Lexi plant their sunflower seed

 

 

Jordan plants his seed carefully

In maths we have been learning to count in 2's and 5's.  We know that we learn to count in 5's so that we can count lots of things a lot quicker.  Why not practise at home?  You could practise counting sweets, biscuits, toy cars .......... anything really.  But remember to put them into groups of 5 first.  We have also been thinking about capacity.  We have had lots of fun filling cups and pots up and emptying them and making sure that we all know the vocabulary we need eg full, empty, half full and half empty.  You could practise this in the bath perhaps?  See if you can decide which container holds the most water and which holds the least.

Lexi and Sophie counting in 5's

 

Chase and Lennon fill up their containers

Mrs Young, Mrs Ball and Miss Cannell are really impressed at how well most of the Grasshoppers are writing their name.  Most children are now writing their first name and surname beautifully on all their work so well done !  If you are still struggling then keep practising.

On Friday Diggory will be going home with Lennon for the weekend.  Lennon has tried hard with all his learning all week and always listens carefully on the carpet and joins in.  So well done Lennon - have a nice weekend with Diggory (remember to bring him back on Monday !).

Have fun Diggory !

Remember it's parents evening next Thursday (6th March) from 2.30 so make sure you sign up for an appointment please.  Mrs Young would really like it if everyone could attend.

Bye for now.

Grasshopper Class

Pet week

Hello everyone,

This week we are learning about pets and the difference between pets and wild animals.  We have talked a lot about our own pets and talked about how we have to look after them to keep them safe and healthy.  Lennon has told us all about his chickens that live in a hut that his daddy made and Sophie has talked a lot about her horses down at the yard and how she looks after them.  She even told us about her poor daddy who has to shovel up lots of poo !  It's ok though because Sophie says he has special gloves to wear.

We have painted our pets and we have made lots of pet pictures by cutting and sticking.  We made some fantastic goldfish bowls and we had a go at making a home for a pet from junk modelling material. 

 

Lennon painted all three of his chickens !

 

 

Reece made a pet mask

 

 

 

Noah painted his dog

 

Chloe makes a home for her pet

 

In maths we have learnt about how to collect information using a pictogram.  We found out what our favourite pet was in Grasshopper Class (a dog) and we found out that only 3 children would like a guinea pig.  We then made our own pictograms by asking our friends and recording their answer on our own pictograms.

 

Lexi working on her pictogram

 

 

Jordan asks Lennon what his favourite pet is

On Tuesday there was a school disco and lots of Grasshoppers came along to join in the dancing and the games.  They all had a lovely time - why not come along to the next one we have?

This week we have been finishing off our phase 3 sounds and although we are doing really well please keep practising at home.  The phase 3 sounds like 'ear' and 'air' are really tricky to remember along with all those tricky words.  To help you practise over half term we are sending home a card with 2 sets of phase 3 tricky words on - perhaps you could play snap or a matching game or even see if you can add a few more words and make up your own sentence?  Remember to keep practising your reading too !

 

Sophie is learning her tricky words

 

 

 

Mackenzie and Jessica-May made up a great game together with the fish

On Thursday Miss Cannell and the children got busy making peppermint creams for our bake sale on Friday. The school is trying to raise money for the PTA.   It was a bit messy but great fun ! 

Noah mixes the ingredients together

 

 

Abigail kneads the icing sugar

 

Yum ! Grasshopper Creams !

 

Enjoy your week off next week - I think we have earned it !!

See you soon

Grasshopper Class

Dear Zoo

Hello Everyone,

This week we have been reading the book Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell.  We have been learning about describing words and have had lots of practise at using description to talk about our friends and lots of different animals.  We then wrote to our local zoo to see if they could send us a pet just like in Rod Campbell's book.

Well the first day they sent us a SPIDER - we obviously couldn't keep that because Mrs Ball is terrified of spiders !  So we had to send him back and ask for a pet with fewer legs.  You will never guess what they sent us on Tuesday - an OCTOPUS (I don't think the zoo can count because we counted 8 legs again).  We couldn't keep him because he needs lots of water to live in so we had to send him back too.  On Wednesday they sent us a SNAKE - now I know that Jamie-Lea knows a lot about snakes so we thought we might be able to keep him.  But he did look a bit fierce and had huge fangs so we sent him back too.

 

 

A Spider ?  We sent him back !

An octopus ?  We sent him back !

 

A snake ?  We sent him back !

 

On Friday we were feeling a bit fed up but when we went to the office for our delivery we had a lovely surprise.  Inside the pet carrier was a cuddly puppy - we've decided to call him Diggory (Jessica-May thought up the name)  and we are definately going to keep him.

Diggory the Puppy arrives in Grasshopper Class !

Once he's settled down he will come home with a different child every week to spend the weekend with you.  He has a special diary so that you can record what he has been up to and when he comes back each Monday we will look at the diary altogether.  I wonder where he will go first?

In phonics we have almost finished all of our phase 3 sounds - our reading is getting much better but remember the more practise you get the better reader you will be - so do keep reading at home please.

 

Chase completed the alphabet jigsaw

 

 

 

So did Lenon !

In maths we have been learning about flat (2D) shapes and solid (3D) shapes.  We have learnt the names of lots of shapes and we have talked about the properties (eg a square has 4 straight sides, a cube has 6 flat square faces etc).  We have made shape pictures and completed shape puzzles.  There is a lot to remember - why not go on a shape hunt at home?

 

Jessica and her shape picture

 

 

 

Alexus has fun with shapes

Geoffrey, our giraffe, got in a terrible muddle when he had a go at naming the shapes but Grasshopper Class are good teachers - and he's getting much better at remembering all the names now.

 

Abigail, Lexi and Chloe help Geoffrey to learn his shapes

We have been learning about zoos this week and why we have them.  We have looked at lots of non fiction books to find information.  We learnt about people killing elephants to get their tusks (ivory) to sell for lots of money.  We know that zoos can keep animals safe and try hard to stop animals from becoming extinct.  We have made lots of different zoo animals this week - have a look at our brilliant photos.

 

 

Mackenzie making an animal enclosure

 

Lexi and her fabulous lion's head !

Indianna finding out about pandas

Jami-Lea even brought in a real snake skin on Thursday !  It was from her nanny's snake and we all really enjoyed looking at it.  Thank you Jamie-Lea !

 

You can't see the skin - but I can promise you Jamie-Lea and Mrs Ball are holding it.  Just look at Noah's face !

Well that's all for this week - see you next week !

Grasshopper Class