Hola!

Pedro the parrot and Mrs. Wharton have been teaching us how to speak Spanish. They are impressed with what we already know as you can see from our prior learning mind map. Pedro has been telling us all about Spain. Pedro likes our classroom so much he doesn’t want to go outside at the moment, because of the cold weather. So, we have decided to make him a nest inside. He is delighted by this idea.

Following on from what Jack said about birds getting their food from the bird feeders in gardens, we decided we would have a go at making some bird cakes, which we could hang up in our school grounds, to feed the birds during the winter months. We followed some instructions and worked collaboratively, taking turns using equipment and mixing in the equipment. We are planning to make more next week.

In the outdoor classroom we have been exploring gradient and slope using a large metal ball and a bamboo chute. This has connected with our work around the story of ‘Little Lumpty’. We tried to work out how to get ‘Little Lumpty’ (metal ball) down from a high wall. We had access to a variety of outdoor equipment including the bamboo chutes. An added challenge was given too. We were asked to work out how to transport ‘Little Lumpty’ slowly!

Some of us designed a slide which had a crate at the bottom to catch ‘Little Lumpty’ to stop him from rolling away.

Isla and Oscar discovered that if you straighten the bamboo chute and keep it flat ‘Little Lumpty’ would move very slowly.

We have extended our skills with handling tools to aid our construction of structures. We have hammered nails into batons of balsa wood with precision and created pictures in the tap and shape.

William brought in his dad’s spirit level and we have used it when building our walls. We have found it tricky building walls with the little trowel and mortar.

We have been practising our measuring skills in class.

We have been ordering letters of the alphabet and generating simple words using the lego phonics during guided reading time.

Inspired by our work on ‘birds’ we have been producing some wonderful paintings.

In P.E. we have been involved and concentrating as we climb, balance and jump.

We are looking forward to next week. It may snow!