Ash
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ASH CLASS 2021.2022
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!
SUMMER TERM 2022
Weeks Commencing 4th and 11th July 2022
We've had a really busy couple of weeks! We have enjoyed welcoming our new Reception pupils for taster sessions and have already built some good relationships with them! We enjoyed taking part in sports day on Friday 8th July- it was a huge success and the pupils did really well at earning points for their teams! We had lots of laughs and giggles watching the dress rehearsal of the Rowan Class play 'Aladdin Trouble' this Wednesday! They were amazing!
In between all of the fun we have also been working hard in English. The children wrote fab instructions after learning about imperative verbs and command sentences! This week they also write super imaginary recounts as if they were our pet snail Achi-Cheri (as he has had to go and stay with Mrs Tickle for a while). The children imagined he had gone on an adventure inspired by The Snail and the Whale. In maths we have been consolidating our learning on coins and shapes. In addition, the children have also been learning to use a ruler to measure and draw lines in centimeters. In history the children have been learning about Nelson Mandela. They carried out some research and then presented their learning in their own way- they produced great posters and mind maps! This week they have been using role play to explore what life was like with the Apartheid in place in South Africa. They showed great empathy and understanding! The children had another super PE lesson with Mrs Griffiths on Thursdays and enjoyed a lovely calm forest school session with Mrs Tickle last Friday. They were using nature to create collage pictures! I'm so proud of all the children's hard work over the last couple of weeks! Well done Ash class!!
Week Commencing 27th June 2022
This week in Ash Class we have continued learning about and writing our non-chronological reports about giraffes. The children have learnt about the features of reports and have written their own fact files about giraffes! They know so many giraffe facts! In maths we have been learning to tell the time. Reception learnt to tell the time to the hour and half past which was amazing! Year 1 have learnt to the hour, half past and quarter to and quarter past. They enjoyed a big telling the time challenge where they had to read the times written on their friends! In Science this week we have been observing our cress experiments and have been using our 'working scientifically' skills. The children designed their own experiments last week and carried them out this week and have been recording their findings! It's been great to see them so engaged! We have also been learning about the weather and the children recorded their own weather reports! We have been developing our mouse control skills in computing and the children have been creating their own digital artwork- it's amazing! The children enjoyed another fab PE session with Mrs Griffiths on Thursday and are gearing up for sports day next Friday! Our pet snail Achi-cheri has gone home for the weekend with an Ash Class pupil and we are looking forward to hearing all about what he's been up to on Monday! Enjoy the weekend!
Week Commencing 20th June 2022
This week in Ash Class the children have been showing off all the fab learning they have done this year by completing some quick quizzes! Alongside this, we have continued learning about plants in Science and the children have designed and set up their own experiments such as 'Will plants grow if I water them with tea?', 'Will seeds grow in sand?' and 'Will seeds grow if they are immersed in water?' I can't wait for the children to discover the outcomes of their experiments over the next couple of weeks! In maths this week the children have been learning about money. They have been recognising amounts, adding coins to make specific amounts and investigating all the different combinations of ways to make the same amount. In PE this week the children played rounders and Mrs Griffiths was really impressed with them! In computing we have continued learning about using a mouse to click and drag. The children used this skill to complete some coding activities! We enjoyed a lovely afternoon of forest school with Mrs Tickle on Friday in which we explored the mini-beasts on the school grounds. We enjoyed listening to the story of the old lady who swallowed a fly!!
Week Commencing 13th June 2022
What a fab week! We have been learning about non-fiction writing in English this week and the children have been identifying features and preparing to write their own non-fiction reports about their chosen animal. In Maths we have been learning to recognise, compare and add coins. This is something to continue at home as many children were really unfamiliar with real money! We had a fabulous trip to Woburn Safari Park on Tuesday where we saw so many amazing animals! We drove around the drive-through safari, took part in 2 workshops, had lunch in a shady spot, enjoyed watching the penguins swim and even had time for an ice lolly! On Wednesday the children wrote some super recounts about their day! Reception recorded some questions they wanted to find the answer to about some of the animals they had seen! We enjoyed another super PE lesson with Mrs Griffiths and are really developing control with bats and balls. As part of a DT project the children designed and made photos frames for a special person- they are lovely! On Friday we had a peaceful and calm forest school/ art session in the shade where we practised our sketching skills. Another busy and lovely week :)
Week Commencing 6th June 2022
Welcome back from half term! We hope you enjoyed the break and celebrating the Queen's Jubilee! It's been a busy week here in Ash Class. Year 1 children have been working hard in phonics as we recapped their key sounds and skills. They completed the phonics screening check this week and were amazing! In English we have been continuing to develop our comprehension and spelling skills and have been learning about using un- to change the meaning of words. In Maths we have focused on number and place value to 100! We have been counting, ordering, comparing and partitioning numbers to 100! In Science this week we have been learning about some common trees in our local area. The children explored and identified the trees on the school field- they were great! We have also been developing our writing skills this week and have been writing a recount about our celebrations for the Queen's Jubilee, including our lovely tea party as school. The children can talk confidently about what they need to include in their writing to make it amazing and now we are working on editing and checking our work to make sure it is accurate. We enjoyed another fab PE session with Mrs Griffiths on Thursday! It's been a busy busy week!!
Week Commencing 23rd May 2022
As always, we've had another busy week in Ash Class! We have been writing letters to the Queen and painting her portrait! In maths we have been learning about position and direction and have been working hard to use maths words to describe the location of certain objects. We have enjoyed looking after our new pet snail this week too! Achi-cheri LOVES cucumber!
We've been working really hard in phonics to recap and consolidate our phonics sounds and have particularly been focusing on split digraphs and non-sense words this week! We had a big celebration on Friday afternoon to celebrate the Queen's Jubilee! We enjoyed sandwiches, juice and cakes together with Puddleducks and sang the national anthem! What a busy week!
Week Commencing 16th May 2022
This week in Ash Class the children have finished writing their own stories based on The Leopard's Drum by Jessica Souhami. Their writing was amazing and blew me away!! In Maths we have been learning about fractions. The children have learnt to find halves and quarters of shapes and amounts. In geography this week we have been learning about countries in Africa. The children carried out their own independent research to find our about Kenya and Egypt. They considered similarities and differences and recorded these in a venn diagram. I was really impressed with their independence with their research! In Re we have continued exploring Jewish and Christian stories and have recorded what we already know before moving on to find out more! In forest school this week we were introduced to our new class pet- a giant African land snail. All the children were able to hold the snail and learnt about how to care for it. They even got to hold the snail! We voted to name the snail and the children decided on Achi-cheri after a character from The Leopard's Drum.
Week Commencing 9th May 2022
What a super week in Ash class! The children have blown me away with their writing this week! They have planned their own stories based on 'The Leopard's Drum' and have starting writing the beginning of the story. In maths we have been exploring division by sharing into equal groups and the children have started to link their knowledge of multiplication and equal groups to their division problems. In music we have continued to explore music along the theme of imagination and the children have practised accompanying a song using the glockenspiels. In science we have been learning about plants and the children have been exploring, naming and learning about the functions of different parts of a plant. In art they have finished their African Tribal masks which look fantastic! In PE the children took part in a table tennis session which looked like great fun! It's lovely to see their skills develop and improve! We've enjoyed lots of time outside this week too and the children were fab as talking about our class rules and routines as we welcomed 2 new children into Ash class. Looking forward to another lovely week next week!
Week Commencing 2nd May 2022
As always, we had another busy week in Ash Class! In English we have continued our unit based on The Leopard's Drum by Jessica Souhami. We have been describing the characters using adjectives and have been creating new characters ready for next week's sessions. In maths this week the children have been developing their understanding of multiplication and have been using manipulatives to create groups of objects and arrays! Reception have focused on making equal groups and even had a go at solving simple multiplication problems using objects too!! In music we have started a new unit with the theme of 'imagination.' The children have been learning to sing a new song about imagination and even used glockenspiels to accompany the music. In art we have been learning about patterns and colours used on African tribal masks. We enjoyed watching videos of the masks being used in tribal celebrations. In PSHE we have been reading a book called Saving the Butterfly by Helen Cooper and continuing our discussions about refugee children and the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child. As part of this work the children created gorgeous butterflies using symmetry. In forest school we enjoyed making tribal necklaces using leaves and string. We had to work hard to thread the leaves carefully without breaking them!
Weeks commencing 18th and 25th April 2022
What a great start to the Summer Term! The children have been introduced to our new geography and history topic- Amazing Africa. They have been recording what they already know about Africa and recording what they would like to find out. They came up with some super questions. In science we have started our new unit about plants. Again, we recorded what we know and what we would like to find out. The children are already really knowledgeable about plants so I can't wait to challenge their thinking! In English we have started exploring a new book called The Leopard's Dum by Jessica Souhami. The children have started to explore the characters, moral of the story and the sequence of events. In maths we have started learning about making equal groups and adding equal groups in preparation for learning about multiplication next week. The children have also been developing their editing skills and have edited their writing about what they would do it they organised a birthday party for the Queen. I've been so impressed with their beautiful and careful writing! We enjoyed using our art skills to create sunset African savanna pictures. They look amazing! In forest school/ science this week we have been observing closely and drawing and labelling leaves and flowers. The children did a super job! What a busy couple of weeks!
SPRING TERM 2022
Week Commencing 21st March 2022
We have enjoyed celebrating careers week this week! We started the week by watching a Rocksteady concert on Monday morning which was amazing! The children were fantastic and have obviously been working really hard. We were then visited by GenR8 who shared a short performance with key messages about friendship. On Tuesday we were visited by Mrs Traynor who talked to us about all her careers and this was followed by a talk from Carrie-anne from Polygon who spoke about her role creating online learning content to a company who restore buildings that have suffered fire and water damage. On Wednesday we had a zoom call with a nurse and then a talk by Mrs Duncan who spoke to use about being a Scientist! On Thursday, Mrs Gilks spoke to us about being a teacher and head teacher and we had another fab PE session with Mrs Griffiths! We were also visited by the local Kimbolton Fire Fighters who spoke to us about being a fire fighters and the qualities you need. We also tried on some of their equipment and used the hoses! On Friday we were visited by Mr Brown who spoke to us about being a farmer and the job that farmers do. We even got to sit in his tractor! On Friday afternoon we also had a zoom call with a local vet and got to ask lots of questions! What an awesome week!
Week Commencing 7th March 2022
Another busy week in Ash class! We have been writing instruction in English and learning about time connectives and imperative verbs! We made jam sandwiches to help us write instructions for how to make a jam sandwich. We worked hard to edit our writing too! We created a museum of Jewish artefacts to share our learning about Judaism. We had a fab Exciting Explorer Forest School day at Great Staughton Primary Academy on Friday. We 'visited' planet Earth, the desert, Antarctica and Space as part of the day and completed a range of activities to deepen our understanding of what an explorer is. We also celebrated World Book Day this week and had a day full of reading activities and sharing our favourite Julia Donaldson books!
Week commencing 21st February 2022
In English this week we have been learning about instruction texts. We explored the features of instruction texts such as recipes and we learnt about imperative verbs! In Maths we have continued to consolidate our understanding of numbers to 50 and recapping how to find one more and one less. We also worked on some problem solving and reasoning questions. In DT this week we continued our unit based on making toast. We used spinners to create a specification and practised making toast to meet the specification. We got to try different toppings! Yum! In PE this week, we developed our team work skills by playing throwing games! We had great fun! We enjoyed our weekly visit to the school library to change our library books and shared what we had learnt from them! In our exciting writing session the children wrote reports about the human body. They amaze me everyday with their knowledge of the human body! In PSHE we had a discussion about the different religions we learn about at school. We recorded our ideas by writing sentences and drawing pictures! In forest school on Friday we went on a hunt for signs of spring and used this to inspire some spring art work! What a busy week!
