European week

We are enjoying finding out about Wales, our country for ‘European week’. Actually, we have discovered that Wales is in fact a principality, as it is governed by a Prince. Prince Charles is the current Prince of Wales.

First, we have been studying the physical geography of Wales. We have used the basic geographical vocabulary to refer to the key physical features of Wales.

 Then, we explored the human features of Wales.

We have used an atlas to find a map of Wales and to locate the capital city of Cardiff.

The Welsh legend of King Arthur has fascinated us and we have acted out the scenes of when Arthur pulls the sword out of the stone and when he receives the sword Excalibur from the lady in the lake.

We have enjoyed learning some welsh phrases too.

We have worked hard to gather ten facts about Wales and enjoyed sharing these in our whole school assembly.

The Pennine Moonraker

We had a fantastic time on board the Pennine Moonraker barge in Uppermill. Mr. Lund gave us a detailed historical talk about the canal. Mrs. Corrigan took these beautiful photographs.

Giants

Lorimer brought in the story of David and Goliath, which has stimulated much discussion about what can be classed as a giant. Our shared thinking time explored giants of the animal and plant kingdom, as well as giants which no longer exist, because they are extinct.

Following on from our work in the outdoor classroom creating giants’ potions and drinks we have been learning about capacity in maths. We have been exploring the concepts of empty, full, half full, half empty, nearly full and  nearly empty. We really enjoy splashing in the water when it over flows!

The update on the school pond is, we have tadpoles!

Several of us visited Wales during half term, which links in nicely with the forthcoming whole school ‘European week’, (week beginning 13^th June)as we are going to research and find out as much as possible about Wales, our chosen country.

We will soon be celebrating the Queen’s 90^th Birthday.

Jack and the Beanstalk

The children have settled back into the school routine really well after the Easter break. They have approached their learning with enthusiasm.

On Monday we found a large set of keys and through shared thinking time we discussed who they belonged to and what they were used for. We have tried to imagine what kind of door the keys open, into which kind of building and to think about the story behind the door.

Many of us believed the keys belonged to a giant which led us onto discussing a familiar story which involves a giant : ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’. We realised we already know quite a lot about this story!

We created a story map.

To our amazement a beanstalk appeared in our classroom. We decided to extend it by making our own beanstalks.

Evelyn had an idea. She thought we should try and make a potion or a drink for the giant. So we set about gathering ingredients from outside, filled up buckets of water and gathered pestle and mortars and other containers and assembled them around the new mud kitchen the parent support group have bought for the Foundation Stage. We were involved and concentrating as we designed and created our potions and special giant drinks. Some of us wrote down lists of ingredients whilst others followed verbal instructions shared by their peers.

We have also been drawing what we think the giant might look like!

Next week we shall be looking at giants in the animal kingdom as well as further exploration of the story of Jack and the Beanstalk.