Our first week back!

Date: 9th Sep 2016 @ 1:48am

As we draw nearer to the end of the first week of the Autumn term, I am pleased to say both the children and I are settling into our new routines. We have had a really busy week. The children have shared recounts about the exciting activities they undertook in the holidays. They have also been learning how to use oil pastels to create an abstract portriat of themselves for display.

The week has been spent learning about different aspects of the Stone Age, with the children exploring the role play area and associated activities. The activities range from weaving, parietal art, composition of fact files, postcards to home about life in the Stone Age, to quizzes and scientific challenges. 

During the week we have done some authentic parietal art: making our own pigments from sedimentary rocks and spit and painting animals on rocks with the pigments. The children really loved this and the art work is superb!

Keeping on the Stone Age art theme, the children undertook a sorting activity where they selected the criteria by which to sort some Stone Age art images. Some children chose to sort the art according to whether it was monochrome (black) or polychrome (many colours), others chose to sort it by sculptures and cave paintings,

Today we were learning about timelines; why we need them and how to sequence and order key events in the Stone Age era. The children had to be detectives and seek out clues from the information given, matching and ordering periods and pictures to produce a timeline. Some of the pictures were missing and the children had to trade their spares just like people traded goods in the Neolithic era. The children then proceeded to design their own time line; selecting key events and drawing and explaining what happened in that period. It was a tricky challenge, but I was so pleased with the effort, perserverance and determination the children demonstrated!

The children have also been writing some beautiful prayers for our reflection area; based on the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Plus we have been sharing special things about ourselves: things we treasure. These have been put on display so we can all get to know each other a little bit more. Thank you so much to those parents/carers that have sent in special items for the display.

Today we even had our first bingo raffle, to select who will take home Sergei our class meerkat. The activity is based upon a book called "Meerkat Mail" and is about Sunny a meerkat who leaves home in order to find some peace and quite. Unfortunately, Sunny is in danger when he's alone, so Sergei goes in search of his son with the help of class 3/4. The children have a journal and can select anywhere in the world to research and investigate. They write their findings down in the journal. The activity is designed to encourage children to develop a greater sense of the world around them. Obviously they are extremely excited about this particular project and it would be lovely if you could share the activity with your child. Lewis was the lucky winner this week and has got Sergei until Monday, when we will draw the raffle again. We are all looking forward to hearing about where Sergei searched next and learning some facts about the country!