Dressing Up Day!

Today we have come into school dressed up as all sorts of different characters. We've had gruffalos, superheroes, princesses, pirates, a knight, a cat and many more! We talked about our characters and thought of ways to describe them, then drew or painted pictures of our characters. It seems that Aaron the knight is going to be quite busy today as he has got lots of princesses to save!

This is what some of us said about our character:

"I'm a good pirate, I go on a ship with a map to find treasure." Olivia

"Little Red Riding Hood goes to the woods, she is going to Grandma's house, and she meets the big bad wolf." Fallon

"Knights save people. They use shields. They fight dragons." Aaron

"I'm the cat from Room on a Broom. I'm a good cat because I don't scratch." Maddie

"I'm a fairy princess. I've got wings. I'm kind." Brianna

"Superman is a superhero. He's strong. He flies." Matthew

"Spiderman is good. I fight baddies. I get spiderwebs. I'm good at climbing." Trystan


This afternoon Reception are going to be making up some exciting stories about their characters!

Symmetry

This morning we have been learning all about symmetry. We looked at pictures of butterflies and talked about how their pattern is symmetrical. Then we explored lots of ways of making symmetrical pictures, including using pegs and boards, drawing pictures on paper and using the symmetry tool when drawing on the iPads. We made lots of super pictures!

Hope made this symmetrical pattern with the pegs and a board.

Brianna used the symmetry tool on the iPad to draw this lovely purple butterfly!

 

Matthew drew this symmetrical picture using the iPad

Harry made this lovely butterfly picture on the iPad

Hope and Maddie drew some super butterfly pictures with symmetrical patterns

We also made some symmetrical butterfly pictures and were learning how to give and follow instructions. We had to follow the instructions carefully so we knew what to do. This afternoon we have been learning how to write instructions so that other people can make symmetrical butterfly pictures too!

Look out for some of our instructions tomorrow so you can make a symmetrical butterfly picture too!

Exciting writing

Today we have been exploring lots of different ways of writing. We used pens, pencils, chalks, crayons, rainbow crayons, colour changing pens and feather quills and ink! We also used playdough to make letters. We had question cards to help us talk about the ways of writing – Is it easy to use? Does it look nice? Is it easy to read the writing? We wrote on lots of different types of paper as well – paper, card, coloured paper and even multi-coloured paper! We talked about which things were easiest to write with and which ones we liked best. We all enjoyed writing with the quills and ink but agreed that it’s much quicker to write with a pencil because you don’t have to keep dipping it in the ink. We also did lots of writing on the iPads.

Later in the morning we were exploring lots of ways of writing messages. We wrote messages on post-it notes that we left for people around the school, messages in bottles that we left on the stairs and in Year 5 and 6’s classroom, and even on paper planes that we flew through Mrs Lilley’s classroom door!

Visit from a fairy!

This morning we came back from Collective worship and found a visitor in our classroom... A fairy had appeared when we were in the hall, with an envelope containing a letter addressed to us!

In the letter the fairy told us that she had just moved to Great Gaddesden from Fairy Land and was looking for a new home. She asked for our help and told us some things she was looking for in a home. She liked seeing flowers in spring and she wanted to be near some new friends. She also said she didn't like being cold at night and would need something she could use to make a cosy bed. We decided to go exploring and find some places where the fairy could live. We took clipboards and paper, pencils, sound buttons and cameras to record what we found, and binoculars and magnifying glasses so we could look closely at the things we found.

First we went to the bark area. We found daffodils that were starting to grow, leaves and moss the fairy could use for a bed, and a birdhouse she could live in. We looked at the trees and thought there might be birds and squirrels she could be friends with.

Then we went into the garden. There we saw a pond - but we decided this wouldn't be a very good place for the fairy to live, because she might not be able to swim! Also the water might be rather cold. We saw that there were flowers here too, and there might be birds and animals to be her friends. Rhys said there are snails and worms that she could be friends with, too. We also said that she could sleep on the grass. Hope found something that could be a chair for her, and Matthew found a birdhouse that she might like to live in.

Finally we went to the music room. This was warmer because it was inside and there was a heater, but there weren't any animals that the fairy could be friends with. There weren't any flowers growing there, but Matthew said that she could look out the window to see the garden. Aaron suggested under the piano, but Jamie thought it might be too dark. We thought she might like playing the instruments and hearing the music, and she would have lots to eat because our snack is kept in there!

This afternoon we wrote reports on all the places we had explored. First, we wrote one altogether about the music room.

Then one group worked with Miss Ayres and wrote a report about the garden...

While the other group worked with Mrs Waites and wrote reports about the bark area.

Then we shared our work with each other.

Where do you think would be a good place for a fairy to live?

Writing about the wonderful things God has created

This afternoon we heard the story of Creation and talked about all the things God made. First we talked about making sure the story was in the right order - we put the days of the week in the right order and then put 'first', 'second', 'third', 'fourth', 'fifth', 'sixth' and 'seventh' in the right order. The story wouldn't make sense if the days were all in the wrong order!

Then we talked about all the wonderful things God made in the world and how we could use interesting words to describe them. Instead of just saying "stars" we could say "the twinkling stars", or "the twinkling stars in the black night sky." We talked about the things we liked and how we could describe them. Next we drew pictures of the things we liked best of God's creations and wrote "I like...", explaining what we'd drawn and using interesting words to describe it.

In Reception, we like...

The shining sun (Matthew, Harry, Jamie and Lucy)
The crunchy snow (Olivia)
The lovely animals (Trystan)
The sparkling moon (Rhys)
The twinkling stars (Maddie, Grace and Hope)
The shiny moon (Ollie)

What are your favourite things in the world? How could you describe them?

Riddles

On Friday afternoon we were learning about riddles. We thought about the animals that had been on Noah's Ark and words we might use to describe them. We learnt how to write riddles and the rules we had to follow for writing our own riddles. We had to use the word "I" in our clues, start a new line for every clue and finish with "What am I?" We also had to give the trickiest clues first, and save the easiest clues until near the end so as not to give the answer away too quickly! Here are some of the riddles we wrote - can you work out which animals we are describing?

I have a big tummy.
I have big feet.
I have a tail.
I have tusks.
What am I?

-Hope

I have flippers.
I have a tail.
I play with a ball.
I live in water.
What am I?

-Maddie

I have claws.
I have big feet.
I can run fast.
I have legs.
I have spots.
What am I?

-Grace

I have fins.
I have sharp teeth.
I live in the sea.
What am I?

-Olivia

I have a tail.
I have a long neck.
What am I?

-Ollie

I have a tail.
I have feet.
I have skin.
I have sharp teeth.
I have curved toenails.
What am I?

-Trystan

Chinese New Year

Yesterday we were learning about and celebrating Chinese New Year. We learnt the story of how the first twelve animals to race across a river had the years named after them and that we are moving from the year of the Snake into the year of the Horse. We made Happy Chinese New Year cards and colourful dragon paper chains as well as trying some Chinese writing. We coloured some Chinese pictures, including a colour by numbers dragon, and used playdough to make some Chinese symbols. We also cooked and ate some Chinese food - stir fry and noodles. Some of us tried to use chopsticks to eat them - it was tricky!