Owls have dived right into their ‘Splish, Splash, Splosh topic’ uncovering the mystery of the missing sea creature in their classroom at the beginning of term. They found clues around the classroom to what could have happened and used this as inspiration for their writing. The children have been working hard in Science to understand what happens to our bodies when we exercise. The children used words like ‘endorphins, respiratory system and dopamine’ to describe the changes in our bodies.
Thank you to everyone for coming along and supporting the School Sports Day on Friday, we hope you all enjoyed it. Congratulations to everyone for trying their very best and a big well done to the Blue Team for winning the Sports Day Trophy this year!
Robins had a wonderful first few weeks at Forest school last term. They made dragonflies out of elder beads, used hammers to do leaf bashing to make hungry caterpillars, whittled sticks to make bees, sawed wood to make flowers, made fairy kings and aliens and cooked popcorn on the fire. Their tree climbing skills were very impressive and they loved looking for minibeasts – it was wonderful to see them so happy playing in the mud!
Robins have started off their Space topic this week with their Wow Day! We went on an adventure to space and looked at the different planets in our Milky Way Galaxy and found out if the planets were made of ice, rock or gas. We looked at Star Constellations and designed and created our own, built rockets and explored the moon sand. We acted out our story “Whatever Next” when the bear goes to the moon, using our story prop box. We went on adventures in our Space Station and carried out an experiment for bubbling planets using soda powder and vinegar. We are looking forward to continuing our space theme over the next couple of weeks.
This week Declan Brooks, a BMX Freestyle Bronze Medallist from Tokyo 2020, visited Houghton Conquest Lower School to share his Olympic journey with the school children. He shared his inspirational story of a quiet boy from Portsmouth who found a passion that led him to the Olympic podium!
Declan’s Olympic Inspiration morning was all about encouraging children to follow their heart, work hard and dream big. During Declan’s visit, he delivered a whole school assembly followed by a trick display and classroom visits to meet all children, let them hold an Olympic medal and answer any questions.
Robins started off the week with their Pirate Day where they created their own treasure maps, pirate hats and telescopes. They sang some pirate songs and played a phonics treasure game. They panned for gold and made pirate ships to predict and test if they were going to float or sink. They went outside to have a treasure hunt where they had some clues to read and follow to the next number to find their pirate treasure – chocolate lolly. They also explored the pirate ship and learned directional language to navigate around the playground. They all looked like super pirates and had a fabulous time.
They also showed enjoyment making their chocolate crispy cakes where they looked at the different states of chocolate, i.e. solid and liquid. We spoke about hygiene, order of recipes and wrote instructions on how to make their cakes in their literacy lesson.
Doves – We have been sawing, whittling, playing in the mud kitchen, tree climbing, building dens and cooking marshmallows and popcorn on the fire. The weather has been very cold for this time of year so we have wrapped up warm and had hot chocolate every session. A few children have come up with their own ideas and made little tables from wood biscuits, a few also made a pair of loppers out of willow sticks and nails. They are a very ingenious and crafty group!
Owls – We have done lots of swinging and spinning in circles in the swings, swinging on the hammock and tree climbing. Some have built their own swings too. We have made owls out of wood biscuits and used all the tools as well as cooked marshmallows and popcorn on the fire. We even had snow this term, followed by freezing rain so we celebrated by making snowmen and drinking hot chocolate under the cover outside their classroom.
ScootFit, a professional scooting company, have been visiting the school today and the children have loved it! All classes have participated in a ScootFit session on the playground, gaining confidence in their scooting skills.
This week the children are celebrating Science Week in school. Today we had a performer from Shooting Star’s circus come in to do some workshops with the children. He used various circus skills and linked these to the Science we see in everyday life, such as forces. Whilst juggling, we spoke about the forces at work: push, pull, twist, gravity and friction. He demonstrated this by dropping two objects of different weights off the ‘Leaning Tower of Pisa’ to show that weight did not matter. The children loved trying to spin plates and focus on the forces at work themselves.
