Welcome to Spring Class!

Spring Class are taught by Miss Gelderd, Mrs Moulding, Mrs Lloyd and Mrs Postle. This is our Early Years class so the children spend their very first year at our school in Spring Class. If you look below, you will see some of the wonderful learning Spring Class have completed this year.

Birthdays!

This week in Spring Class, we have been looking at birthdays. We started off the week by reading 'Kipper's birthday' by Mick Inkpen. In this book, Kipper was preparing for his birthday party but a mishap with his birthday invitations meant that his friends were late to his party! In the back of the book, we found an invitation. This invitation was from our very own Pete the Penguin, inviting us to his birthday party. 

The children worked together to write lists of things we might need as well as making decorations and cards for the special day. The children even had to help Pete write his invitations as too much dancing at the Pantomime on Tuesday caused Pete to have a poorly wing, stopping him from writing them himself! The children also baked Pete some birthday cupcakes. We had to make sure we followed the recipe correctly and all the children had a go at weighing out ingredients and mixing them together. 

When Friday came around, the children all came to school in their own party clothes. At the party, we played lots of games including musical statues, pass the parcel and passing a balloon up and then under in teams. The children enjoyed dancing to some music before coming together and singing Pete a happy birthday. The children were then able to eat the cake they had made and Mrs Postle very kindly brought in Jelly for us to eat!

In phonics, we have continued to practice the sounds we have learnt already. All of the videos are in posts below.

In maths, we have been looking at composition of numbers up to 5. The children have explored this using a variety of practical resources, including crocheted currant buns and 5 frames and counters. 

Thanksgiving

This week in Spring Class, we have been looking at Thanksgiving. We watched a video about a boy called Caleb, who was about celebrate his first Thanksgiving with his family. It told us all about the history of Thanksgiving and how families prepare for the celebration. Here is the link to the video if you would like to watch it at home https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/watch/my-first-festivals-thanksgiving . 

In class, we have been participating in lots of Thanksgiving activities, including making our own turkey pictures from leaves, as well as Thanksgiving lanterns. We have shared all of the things we are thankful for and written these on the back of leaf rubbings we have made. On Thursday, we all dressed up and participated in a parade. After this, we tried a very special pumpkin pie, that was very kindly made for us by Mrs Bush.

In phonics this week, we have learnt some new sounds, as well as revisiting sounds we do not know as well yet. Please see the links below: 

ng: https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/qVMG1iBM/tnLsVgnz 

nk: https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/y7AvnGMd/YRlfva3s

Next week we are looking at birthdays and we will be celebrating Pete the Penguin's birthday on Friday 1st December. If you would like to share a picture of your child celebrating their birthday, please send them into school with one or alternatively, please email the school office with your child's picture and we can print these off for you. The office email is adminoffice@hbt.hants.sch.uk . Thank you and we hope you have a lovely weekend. 

Percy the Park Keeper

This week, we focused on the author Nick Butterworth. He is very well-know for his story series of 'Percy the Park Keeper'. To begin our week, we looked at the story of 'The Lost Acorns'. In this story, it is Autumn and Percy is planting bulbs ready for Spring. Whilst doing this, we comes across Squirrel who has lost her acorns. Percy, along with the help of Mole, manage to locate them! To introduce the story to the children, we first looked at some items from the story. We had a pair of wellies, a flat cap, a mug as well as a squirrel, badger, fox and hedgehog. I asked the children where they might have seen some of these animals before in a story and many made the link back to 'The Foxes Hiccups', which is another Percy the Park Keeper tale. 

During the week, the children participated in lots of lovely activities linked to the story. These including a character hunt in our outdoor area and planting our own bulbs ready for the Spring. We changed our outdoor play house into Percy's hut and the children also painted pictures of their own woodland creatures. 

In phonics, we have been learning the following sounds. Please see the links below for more information: 

z: https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/UielQo3L/WyJlfsVn

x: https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/mtHQZ0HD/FXDxCRVL 

th: https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/sBtqMmVl/4so5uwZt

ch: https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/agi8SmNQ/GEBsGmvb

qu: https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/SFNYTMYm/AY1W6fbA

Diwali and Remembrance Day

Continuing on with our topic of 'Come and Join the Celebration', Spring Class have been looking at Diwali this week. We watched how Jessica and her family prepare for Diwali and how they celebrate this special time with their families. https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/watch/lets-celebrate-diwali is the link, if you would like to have a look at home. 

The children have participated in lots of Diwali themed activities, including making Rangoli patterns with Numicon, different shapes and also coloured rice. The children also made their own Diya lamps, using clay. Once these have dried, we will paint them. 

At the latter end of the week, we looked at Remembrance day. We talked about why we see lots of poppies at this time of the year and what these represent. We also looked at some animals who have helped during the war and the children enjoyed drawing pictures of them. All of the children made a print of their hand, which we have used to make a poppy hand wreath. The children also enjoyed collaging their own poppies, using tissue paper.  

In Phonics, we have learnt y, w, v, sh. The Links to these sounds can be found below:

y: https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/QI18pTPh/AuBVz10o

w: https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/2w5X8S4b/x34fFXmf

v: https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/E3pzqzEP/RCd8TbJA 

sh: https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/RDIzZldo/097FeuuO

Bonfire Night

Our topic this term is 'Come and Join the Celebration'. In our first week back, we looked at Bonfire Night. We first watched some of the fireworks from New Years Eve in London 2022. We talked about the different colours we could see, as well as the different sounds fireworks make. Next, we looked at the history of Bonfire Night and why celebrate it on the 5th November every year. We looked at 'The Firework Poem' by James Carter and ended our week talking about firework safety and how we can keep ourself and others safe during firework celebrations. 

The children enjoyed a variety of firework themed activities, including making their own night time firework pictures as well as their own rockets. 

In phonics, we have learnt the sounds l, h, r, j. The links to these sounds can be found below:

l: https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/YKA42UOL/wmvu7kxn

h: https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/4elKN4y1/mOZKUz8B

r: https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/KEJTe14l/kYSf4Q1w

j: https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/sXofCCet/hE6dZIG6 

Autumn 1: All About Me

This half term, our topic is 'All About Me'. In the first few weeks, the children brought in their 'all about me boxes' which they shared with their teachers and their peers. This was a lovely opportunity to get to know the children and find out all of the lovely things they like. The children have also drawn their own self-portraits as well as making paper plate collage faces of themselves. They have enjoyed drawing pictures of the people who are special to them and talking about this to adults. 

Just before the Harvest Festival service in St Peter's Church, we went for a walk with Summer Class to explore the church and it's grounds. We also went for a walk around Hurstbourne Tarrant and learnt a little bit about the history of our village and school.

Towards the end of the term, we took a look at the season Autumn. We read a number of beautiful autumnal stories including 'Pumpkin Soup', 'The Leaf Thief' and 'The Very Helpful Hedgehog'. The children enjoyed exploring autumnal vegetables, including finding out what is inside a pumpkin as well as finding out facts about hedgehog and making hedgehog bread. 

We have been very busy with our phonics this half term. The links to the sounds we have been learning can be found below.

m: https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/vZ2ZYZrb/WlaajOwJ

a: https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/Gcvh3CBJ/npBb66vP

s: https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/SXoKsDTd/uWo0Noyv

d: https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/JlXISvH2/1SjkhYcn

t: https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/x2WIz0JW/lt7Z1Qhs 

i: https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/8Pp6wOLv/wqjgzTcm 

n: https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/8Pp6wOLv/wqjgzTcm

p: https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/ZqlTuqYw/p5xsl2v7

g: https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/yVXlAWOV/TIFLLRdv

o: https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/yVXlAWOV/TIFLLRdv

c: https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/yVXlAWOV/TIFLLRdv

k: https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/1n6upyQ9/MpwW0RWN

u: https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/WIS9Vbhm/0pPQKbz6

b: https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/PLWO9Lvb/jwUgoX1f

f: https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/9ztgLDWw/OaGhhThu

e: https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/Ft3cI22P/9UQBWuIc

Spring 2- Topic Overview for Superheroes

In Spring Class this half term, we are looking at Superheroes. Within this topic, we will be looking at fictional superheroes and real-life superheroes such as Doctors, Nurses, Police officers and Firefighters (there are many many more!). Towards the end of the term, we will be changing our focus to the Easter story. Some of the focus texts that we will be looking at are:

- Supertato by Sue Hendra

- Funnybones by Allan Ahlberg

- Various non-fiction books about people who help us

The children have voted, and we have changed their indoor role play into a school. Our outdoor role play is a supermarket, which links in with our first book Supertato.

Spring Class outcome will be on Tuesday 28th March at 2.30pm. 

Spring 1- The Season of Winter

For the last few days of half term, we have looked at the season of Winter. We discussed what Winter looks and feels like, what we should wear when it is Winter and what months of the year Winter falls on. The children then went on a Winter walk, looking for signs of Winter in the school grounds.

One of the days, we looked at a book called 'A Little Bit of Winter' by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell ("A Little Bit of Winter" by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell - Read Aloud Time! - YouTube). This story is about a forgetful rabbit and a hedgehog who is just about to hibernate. The hedgehog asks the rabbit to save him a little bit of Winter as he has never seen or felt it before because he sleeps through it every year. The rabbit makes a snowball and wraps it up in leaves to stop it from melting and then he is able to give it to the hedgehog when he wakes up.

I gave the children all an ice cube in the morning and a cup. I asked them if they could use different types of materials to try and keep their ice cube as frozen as possible. The children used materials like cotton wool, feathers, leaves and newspaper. I asked the children to put them either inside or outside and in a place that they thought would keep the ice cube frozen. Towards the end of the day, we brought our cups back in to see what had happened. We found that the children that had used cotton wool and kept their cups in the shade, kept their ice cubes the most frozen. The children were all able to talk about what they had done and discuss what they might do differently next time. Great investigating Spring Class! 

Spring Class Outcome 7th February 2023

Spring 1- The Gingerbread Man

Our last focus book in our 'Huff Puff and Gruff. Once upon a Time' topic was the Gingerbread Man. The children really enjoyed this book and were able to join in with the familiar words and rhymes in the story.

Spring Class enjoyed making their own gingerbread men. The children were able to remember making porridge for Goldilocks and the Three Bears and knew that we needed a recipe to help us make our gingerbread men. They all helped weigh out the ingredients as well as stirring and binding the dough together. The children enjoyed decorating their gingerbread man with raisins and then they were ready for the oven. Luckily none of our gingerbread men ran way! 

Throughout our time looking at the Gingerbread Man, the children enjoyed joining in with a range of activities including putting on a puppet show with the characters from the story, exploring gingerbread playdough and writing what they would say to the Gingerbread Man if they were trying to catch him. The children also enjoyed creating their own version of the Gingerbread Man by dressing up and changing some of the characters in the story. Great work Spring Class! 

Spring 1- Little Red Riding Hood

After lunch one Monday afternoon, Spring Class came in to find our board taped up with crime scene tape. A letter had been left for the children from a detective asking for their help. Someone had stolen items from a very well-known traditional tale, and it was up to Spring Class to find the items and return them back to the story. Spring Class followed the clues, that took them around the school (using their magnifying glasses to help them), and they managed to retrieve all of them. Spring Class worked as a team and found that they belong to the story of Little Red Riding Hood.

During our time looking at Little Red Riding Hood, the children have taken part in a number of lovely activities including painting their own pictures of the characters from the story, pretending to be Grandma and writing speech bubbles about what she might say to the wolf and of course a lot of dressing up as the characters! 

We have also looked at an alternative story called 'Little Red', which has a very different ending to the traditional story we all know and love. Super work on this book Spring Class, well done! 

Spring Term 1- Goldilocks and the Three Bears

To begin our new topic of 'Huff, Puff and Gruff. Once upon a Time' we have looked at the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. All of the children were very knowledgeable about the story already and were able to join in when we read the book. During the week we drew our own story maps, to help retell the story as well as following Mummy Bear's porridge recipe to make our own porridge.

Throughout the week, we have also read a number of alternative Goldilocks and the Three Bears stories, including 'A chair for Baby Bear' and 'Goldilocks and Just One Bear'. When we looked at 'A Chair for Baby Bear', we decided that he might need a new cushion, so the children have been exploring a number of fillings that may or may not be suitable. The children found that feathers and scarves were soft and comfy but Lego and blocks were hard and uncomfortable! 

We have also had a number of Goldilocks and the Three bears themed activities out in the classroom, including porridge playdough, oats with different sized bowls and spoons, and a small world three bears house with characters to retell the story. The children have also been very creative and painted pictures of their own bears, as well as making stop signs to remind Goldilocks not to go into the three bears cottage!

We have had a wonderful week, well done Spring Class!  

AUTUMN TERM 2

COME AND JOIN THE CELEBRATION