Welcome to Ash Class

Ash Class is a mixed class of reception and year 1 children. Our teacher is Miss Bleakley, and Mrs Hartness is our HLTA. 

We are lucky to have our own outdoor learning area and enjoy playing outside come rain or shine! The ethos of our class is to develop happy, confident and independent learners who are willing to try their best and find success in their everyday learning. Every child is unique and we aim to tailor lessons to the individual needs of the children.

On this page you can find weekly updates about our learning and any special adventures we have been on. We hope you enjoy reading about our learning journey!

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Week Commencing 12th July 2021

In English this week  we have been learning about newspapers. We have been reading 'The Happy Newspaper' and we have started writing our own news articles for our own happy newspaper. We have been writing about sports day, our art inspired by Piet Mondrian and plastic pollution. In Maths we have been recapping money and shape skills. We enjoyed an outdoor shape orienteering session where we had to follow a trail of 2D shapes. In PE we have been trying to run for longer by keeping our speed the same. We have also been running relay races in teams. In our games session we continued playing bucket ball in our teams. We had to throw the ball and run around the posts as fast as we can. We have been getting better at teamwork!! Some children also enjoyed tri-golf club this week where they have been learning to chip the ball! Year 1 enjoyed an outside transition session with Miss Chhibber in which they painted self-portraits. They also learnt and played a new game together!

Reception enjoyed a transition session with our new Reception children. They painted their own portraits on paper plates and used wool to create hair. It's been a busy week and we are looking forward to counting down to the summer holidays next week! 

Miss B x

Week commencing 5th July 2021

This week we have enjoyed learning about Piet Mondrian and creating some abstract art inspired by his work. The children used straight lines to make squares and rectangles on their paper and then used primary colours, black and white to create blocks of colour.  We also enjoyed taking photos in forest school as if we were an ant. We thought carefully about what we might see if we were really small and the children took some fantastic photos using the ipads. 

In PE this week we continued our athletics session and were learning some techniques for running really fast such as using 'shark fin' hands and quick springy feet. The children showed great improvement over the session! On Monday they were also treated to as super session with Nick who held a football enrichment lesson!

In Maths this week, we have been learning to recognise coins and bank notes. We have been using coins to make different amounts and investigating different ways of making the same amount. For example, how many different ways can you make 10p? etc. Keep practising at home too! 

Week commencing 21st June 2021

Despite it being assessment week this week we have had lots of fun! Forest school has been a highlight of the week. We have been exploring hedgerows and counting the different colours, insects and plants that live in the hedges on the school field. We've had two great PE sessions this week too. On Wednesday, we had an athletics session in which we practised some throwing, jumping and running in preparation for sports day. On Friday Miss Bleakley taught us a tri-golf session and we started to throw and use a club to hit balls towards a target. 

In RE this week the children created a museum of Jewish artefacts. They carried out some simple research and created labels for the different items. Then they took turns to visit the museum or present their item to the guests. 

We have continued practising our letter writing this week when we did a piece of exciting writing- we wrote a letter to Mrs Whiting to persuade her to have a school pet! In maths this week we have been learning and recapping the names of 2D and 3D shapes. We have been learning about their properties and have practised recognising them quickly. 

We had a lovely afternoon on Thursday when the new reception children came to visit us from Puddleducks! We are excited to welcome them into Ash class! 

Week Commencing 14th June 2021

Another busy week in Ash Class! In English we have continued our unit based on Dear Greenpeace. We have continued exploring and writing letters and cards and have also been practising using punctuation such as full stops, capital letters and question marks correctly. We have been practising lots of SPAG skills! In Maths we have been learning about fractions. We have been finding halves and quarters of shapes and amount of objects. The children have picked this up really well and we will continue to practise next week! Most of Ash class have enjoyed another cooking club session. We make loaded potato skins and practised our knife skills as we cut up tomatoes and spring onion. On Thursday we enjoyed a DT day where we identified a problem and came up with a solution. We then designed and created a item that is 'top secret'- you will find out more on Sunday! This week we have also been exploring what makes a family and have been drawing what we think a 'normal' family looks like. We are going to unpick this further in the coming weeks as part of our Rainbow Flag work. Wishing you all a lovely weekend :) Miss B x

Week commencing 7th June 2021

This week in Ash class we have enjoyed learning how to play bucket ball in our games lesson! We also had a super PE lesson with Mrs Marriott in which we have started a new athletic unit. This week's session was all about jumping! In English we have been learning about writing letters using the book Dear Greenpeace by Simon James. We have been thinking about the features of letters and exploring different types of letters, including cards, thank you letters and more formal letters. In maths this week we have started learning about fractions and are beginning to find half or a quarter of a shape. 

We are loving cooking club and this week we made cinnamon rolls. They were delicious! On Wednesday we also had our first tri-golf club with Mrs Marriott! We loved learning to put the ball between two cones. 

In RE this term we have been learning about Christian and Jewish stories and have continued this through the week by exploring more bible stories and sequencing them in the old and new testaments. 

We have been growing lots of vegetables this term and are continuing to care for our sunflowers, strawberries, tomatoes and courgettes. Reception children had a special delivery of some oak saplings to care for during their time at KPA! 

Week Commencing 24th May 2021

We have been learning about and enjoying poems in English this week. We learnt part of a poem off by heart and performed it to the rest of the class. In maths we have continued learning to divide and we have been practicing making equal and unequal groups using objects. We did a quick using Plickers!

We enjoyed an extra PE session with Mrs Griffiths this week in which we practised using bats and balls and developed our throwing and catching skills! We also loved forest school this week. We were finding mini-beasts and comparing what creatures lived in different parts of the field. We found beetles, ladybirds, centipedes, blood spiders, red ants and woodlice. We also loved making daisy chains and are getting really good now!

We love visiting the school library to change our library books on a Friday!  This week  we enjoyed sharing our library books with our friends. This week we shared some more of our humanities projects and are really impressed with the work the children have put into them. They are proudly displayed in our classroom!

We are racing along with our phonics this half term. We have been recapping our sounds and have been working hard to learn our word wall words! Keep practising over half term!! Most of the children in Ash Class enjoyed a marshmallow and hot chocolate treat for reaching the top of our reading snake this week! Well done Ash Class- all your lovely reading at home is showing in class!

We loved making rocky road at cooking club this week! Yum! We chose the ingredients we wanted to included and enjoyed drizzling white chocolate on top! We are looking forward to more cooking and tri-golf club next half term!

Have a wonderful half term!

Week Commencing 17th May 2021

This week in forest school we have been exploring  the weather with our windy day bag! We loved twirling ribbons in the wind! It was so much fun! 

In English this week, we have been learning about blurbs. We wrote our own blurbs for our own Traction Man stories called Traction Man is at School! 

In Maths this week, we have been learning to share into equal groups and to share objects into a certain number of groups. We learnt a new symbol called the division symbol. We enjoyed sharing counters and objects equally. 

In science, we have been learning about plants. We have been identifying seeds and bulbs! We had to match the seeds and bulbs to the correct plants. We even learnt some new science words such as: germination, photosynthesis, tunic and basal plate. 

On Tuesday, we had an extra forest school session with Mrs Tickle. We went for a walk to a meadow in Kimbolton where we collected wild flowers and plants. We used them to make a picture which we have pressed and dried. We are looking forward to seeing what they look like. 

We love visiting the library on a Friday morning where we can change our library books!

A huge well done to everyone in Ash class who shared their humanities projects in school today! They are amazing and we are so proud of all the hard work they have put into them!

26th April- 7th May 2021 

It's been a very busy couple of weeks in Ash class. In Maths we have been learning to multiply and add groups of objects together. We have been building arrays to represent multiplication problems and have been working together to solve them. Reception have been focusing on becoming more confident with number and place value. They have been finding one more and one less, adding two small groups of objects and have been practising ordering numbers to 20! We have been working really hard on forming our numbers correctly- please keep practising at home!

In English we have been exploring Traction Man by Mini Grey. We have been writing our own story maps and using adjectives to describe the setting and the characters. We are also working hard to recap our phonics knowledge. Most of reception are currently recapping phase 3 sounds and any extra practise at home using your phonics packs would be fantastic! Year 1 are working on phase 5 and alternative sounds, again keep practising at home please. 

We have introduced our reading snake back into the classroom and the children are moving up the snake each day that they read at home. This is about focusing on reading often and encouraging more reading, as this has deteriorated since the last lock down. The children can earn a hot chocolate and marshmallow session if they read on ten days between now and the end of half term- keep up the super reading!

In science we have continued our plants topic and have now planted sunflowers, tomatoes, courgettes and peas. The children are working hard to look after them after completing a science experiment to investigate what plants need to grow! We are also looking forward to our strawberries growing so we can eat them at snack time!

In topic we have been learning about Mary Seacole and Florence Nightingale. We have been learning about the positive impact they had on hospitals and health care. The children have really enjoyed finding out about the condition of the hospitals during the Crimean War. It has sparked lots of conversations! We enjoyed interviewing a real life modern nurse recently too and asked her lots of questions about being a nurse. She was so kind and caring and we found out loads of new facts!

In PE we have continued cricket sessions with our coach from Cricket East. We have developed our ball skills and are now using a bat to hit the ball! We have also continued learning to skip following on from National Skipping Day. We are working through the bronze, silver and gold challenges and the children are loving trying to skip using a larger rope with several children jumping at the same time!

In forest school we have been learning about the names of different wild flowers and trees. We went on a tree hunt to try to name lots of the trees on the school field. We found an Oak tree and a Rowan tree and think we might need to plant an Ash tree ASAP! We have also been carrying out investigations to see which flower is the most common on the school field and have used the daisies to make daisy chains. 

It's been a busy few weeks!

12th-23rd April 2021

What a busy start to the new term we have had! It's been wonderful to have the children back and to get going with lots of new learning. In Maths we have been adding and subtracting using objects, a number line or knowledge of number bonds. In English we have started a new unit of work inspired by Traction Man by Mini Grey. We have been exploring the text through role play, using adjectives to describe action man and created story boards to help use retell the story. In Science we have been learning about plants and what they need to grow. We have planted our own sunflower seeds and have been caring for them. We learnt that plants need sunlight, water and nutrients in the soil to grow. 

We have been enjoying cricket sessions with our cricket coach on a Wednesday afternoon. We developing our ball control skills at the moment with lots of rolling, throwing and catching. It's great fun! We also enjoy PE on a Friday with Miss Bleakley. We have had a great team building session in which we had to use communication skills to solve a problem as a team. On Friday 23rd April we took part in a big skip for National Skipping day organised by HuntsSSP. We all learnt to skip and practised 3 different levels of challenge! We had great fun and even managed to get 5 children skipping over one rope!!

In forest school we have enjoyed spending time in the wild garden, exploring signs of spring and looking more closely. We used a hula hoop to identify a small patch of the field and then sketched it carefully using pencils. It's been a busy couple of weeks but we are loving being back in school!

Week Commencing 22nd March 2021

What a fab week! The children are settled back into school life and have been practising some key skills. We have enjoyed lots of time outside this week too! We had a fantastic reward day on Thursday to celebrate the end of term- we made rice crispie nests, went on an Easter egg hunt and watched a film. We also got to watch our teacher, Miss Bleakley, graduate her Masters in Education via zoom! We enjoyed our final PE session with Mrs Marriott this term on Wednesday. We have been devleoping out ball control skills and have made lots of great progress with rolling, throwing and catching! This week we have been designing and making pop-up Easter cards too! We enjoyed thinking carefully about our design and what Easter themed picture we wanted to make pop out of our card! Reception did some potato printing to make Easter chicks too! What a busy week!

Week Commencing 15th March 2021

What a busy week in Ash Class! We've been busy catching up on things we've missed over the term so far... playing with friends, enjoying forest school, chatting over lunch and having fun together!

W/C 8th March 2021

Welcome back! It's been a delight to have the children back in school this week! It's flown by! We started the week easing ourselves back into school life. We created our own class charter of rules which we all agreed on and spoke lots about our feelings. We compared how we felt being at home and how we felt being back at school and there was a huge feeling of excitement at being back together with friends again!

We enjoyed a super PE session with Mrs Marriott on Wednesday. We practised our ball control skills by rolling the ball with a partner and then building up to playing a game of battle ships using balls and cones! The children listened so carefully and had great fun!

Towards the end of the week we celebrated British Science Week. In Ash class we have been learning about the weather and seasons. The children shared what they had learnt about the weather at home and we spent time observing the weather and measuring the temperature and rainfall. We also created our own rain using shaving foam and coloured water after learning about the water cycle! The children worked really carefully using pipettes to drop water into shaving foam. The result was rain drops in a jar! 

We also enjoyed creating our own self-portraits inspired by Picasso. We explored the colours and style of painting he used and worked to create our own paintings. We then thought about having a growth mindset and wrote speech bubbles to remind us to have a growth mindset when we find something tricky!

On Friday we enjoyed a forest school session. We spent time looking for and photographing signs of spring. The children used ipads to photograph any signs of spring they could find on the Ash playground, sensory garden, school field and in the wild garden!

It's been a great week and a pleasure to have the children back!

Spring 1- Home Learning

We've had a very busy term of home learning over the last few weeks. We are incredibly proud of the children and all their hard work. Here are a few highlights...

We've been writing our own traditional tales, learning how to double and halve numbers, exploring the world around us, finding out how to keep ourselves healthy, comparing South America and where we live, enjoying celebrating Chinese New Year, building bird feeders, painting, cooking, listening to stories, writing newspaper articles, going on long walks, playing in the snow and lots more! 

Week Commencing 7th December 2020

What a busy week in Ash Class! This week we went on a virtual school trip to Chester zoo! We've been learning about animals, how they can be classified and what they eat. Our 'trip' to Chester zoo helped us to find our why animals are different colours. We had great fun!! In English we have been learning about the features of non-fiction texts. After a dinosaur egg appeared in the classroom we had to find our more about dinosaurs and record what we found out by creating our own dinosaur fact files! The children worked hard to remember finger spaces, full stops and capital letters. We've been learning some new dinosaurs names and learning about the meaning of new words such as 'extinct.' In maths this week we have been recapping our knowledge of comparing numbers using more than and less than symbols. We've been comparing larger numbers and identifying the number of tens and ones. We've been ordering numbers from greatest to smallest and smallest to greatest and Reception have also practised writing numbers and forming them correctly. Some children have been working in pairs to solve open ended problems and have practised reasoning and explaining their answers. Reception have been building numbers to ten using a range of resources such as numicon, multilink, bead strings and finding the numbers on a number line. We've also been filming and preparing our Christmas nativity this week so watch this space for our virtual nativity video coming soon! 

Ash Class have been learning about Christmas and advent this week with Mrs Whiting. They enjoyed an RE day where they learnt about the Christmas story by sequencing the main events and have been exploring how Christmas might be celebrated. 

The children have been enjoying orienteering and team building with Mrs Marriott this half term and have taken part in activities such as map reading, finding the orienteering markers and working in teams to solve problems. 

On Friday we enjoyed a visit to the school library where we changed our library books and shared some facts that we found out. We also enjoyed sharing a story from our Christmas book 'How Winston Delivered Christmas.' 

At forest school the children created star decorations using sticks. They collected sticks of a similar size and used elastic bands to create star shapes. They showed great resilience and determination as this was a tricky challenge! Well done Ash Class!

Virtual School Trip to Chester Zoo- 7th December 2020

We went on a virtual school trip to Chester Zoo where we learnt about animals and why they are different colours. We learnt about how animals are camouflaged according to their habitat and how this helps them to survive! We enjoyed joining in with the different challenges that were set!

wc 30th November 2020

We've been learning about non-fiction texts and their features. We have been exploring non-fiction texts about animals and have enjoyed visiting the school library as part of our weekly library sessions but also to find books about animals. In Maths we have been deepening our understanding of number and place value to 20 and have been strengthening our knowledge of how to find one more, one less and counting in 2, 5 and 10s. We enjoyed another OAA session with Mrs Marriott this week. We have been learning to read a simple map and to work in a team to follow a route between coloured cones. The children worked really hard and it is clear to see their team work skills developing. Reception have been working hard in phonics and are becoming more and more confident reading. They have been playing games such as splat, pairs and snap with their new phonics sounds and are learning to recognise tricky words by sight such as I, to, no, go, into, the. 

Remembrance Day 2020

We remembered all those who died in the wars with a two minute silence. We listened to the canon fire at Kimbolton Castle.

November 2020

It's been a busy month in Ash Class. We have been enjoying exploring traditional tales and have been role playing the story of Little Red Riding Hood. In Maths we have been learning to add and subtract single and two digit numbers to 20. We have been using multi-link, numicon and number lines. In RE this month we have been exploring Christianity and have been learning about what makes a Christian special. The children have also been exploring other religious festivals such as Diwali. We have been learning about the story of Rama and Sita and have been creating our own rangoli patterns in art by using pastels. In science this half term we have been learning about animals. We have been learning to classify animals according to their groups and what they eat. The children have been learning to use new words such as herbivore, carnivore and omnivore. In PE this half term we have been enjoying team building and orienteering with Mrs Marriott. We have been learning to work with a partner or a group to problem solve and are beginning to learn how to read a simple map.  

October 2020

We've been exploring a story called Naughty Bus in English lessons. We have been practising using capital letters, full stops and fingers spaces accurately within our own writing. We have been using adjectives to describe and wrote our own version of the story after lots of role play! In Maths we have been building our understanding of number and place value. We have been practising building numbers and using our knowledge of number and place value to ten to problem solve. 

Year 1 have been enjoying Balanceability sessions with Mrs Marriott this half term and have made some fantastic progress. Reception have settled really well into life in Ash Class and are now in school full time. They have been exploring the classroom, routines and making new friends! Our science topic this half term is Materials. We have been exploring the properties of different materials and have been designing hats for the Queen and testing them out to see if they are waterproof! 

September 2020

 It is wonderful having our reception children in school full time now and I am so proud of how well they have transitioned into school and the wonderful team reception and year 1 have become. This week in English we have started exploring a book called Naughty Bus. The children are loving role playing and exploring the story together. They recreated images from the text this week and thoroughly enjoyed making Naughty Bus drive through a plate of baked beans!! Naughty bus has been up to no good in Ash Class this week so we are keeping an eye out for any more of his antics! Reception have been working hard to write their name carefully and to hold their pencil correctly. 

In Maths we have been exploring numbers to ten in more detail and have been finding one more and one less than a given number. We are working hard on our number formation and understanding of place value to ten. Reception have been focusing on recognising numbers to ten and touch counting accurately. In Science we are learning about different materials and have been exploring their different properties this week. We have been practising using scientific words to describe their properties. 

Year 1 enjoyed another Balanceability session on Wednesday with Mrs Marriott and the whole class have been having fun in PE as we develop our coordination and agility skills. Along with Puddleducks, we enjoyed our Friday afternoon forest school session in which the children were creating art work inspired by Andy Goldsworthy. They collected natural objects and materials and created some great art work! 

Week Commencing 7th September 2020

What a fantastic start to the new school year! We have been so excited to welcome everyone back to school and it has been great to see the children so keen too! It's been a busy week in Ash class: We have been using a book called Here We Are by Oliver Jeffers to explore our feelings and thoughts about the world. Year 1 made an advert for planet Earth which you can see here: https://www.kimboltonprimaryacademy.cambs.sch.uk/here-we-are/  and we have also been using Google Earth to find our school. The children have been discussing things that they enjoy doing in school and have recorded their ideas. 

Year 1 had a fab first outdoor PE lesson on Friday morning in which they worked in teams to problem solve and had to work together to gather code words. A good challenge for our year 1 children! We have also visited the school library this week and year 1 have chosen a library book to take home. Please ensure these are returned on a Friday ready to be changed. These books are for you to share together at home and promote lots of lovely discussion. Your child will not necessarily be able to read it independently. 

On Friday afternoon, we had our first forest school session. We have been thinking about what makes our world wonderful and the children have been collecting 'wonderful' small natural things from the school grounds. This promoted lots of discussion and we enjoyed exploring the schools grounds, including our wild garden along with Puddleducks.

Year 1 have also been fantastic role models for our new reception children who have been in for a taster session this week. I was so impressed at how confidently reception all came in and how well they settled and explored our classroom and outdoor space. We are looking forward to welcoming them all in next week 8.50am-1pm. 

Enjoy a restful weekend!