Class R has had a busy Term 3 so far. Our topic 'People who Help us' has enabled us to invite many of our local heroes to come and talk to us about their jobs. From the traditional police and firemen to audiologists and vets. We have loved getting to know a wide range of jobs and are very grateful to all those who have come to support our learning this term.
Cook pot cook!
Class R have been reading the story about the magic porridge pot that wouldn't stop cooking. We have loved using our measuring knowledge maths to weigh oats.
We made our own porridge in the slow cooker - it was deemed the best they had ever tasted! We tried a variety of different toppings, learning to chop fruit safely and fold our napkins as if we were in a restaurant. We practiced asking our friends for toppings, passing and sharing around the table.
Worms
When we were clearing out our mud area we found lots of worms. We read the story 'Yucky Worms' to learn more about our wiggly friends. The children thought about how we could make a home for the worms. After some research we found instructions to make a wormery.
Capacity
As pancake day fell in half term we decided to bring it forward a week to help make our learning meaningful. We learnt about capacity and how different containers can be full or empty. We extended our learning to looking at measuring jugs to measure milk for our pancakes. The children cracked the eggs, measured the milk, mixed in the flour and created the perfect batter. In the afternoon we tasted our pancakes, squeezed the lemon juice and then enjoyed a 'Pancake PE' session outside enjoying the warmer weather!
Dinosaurs
We have begun our term learning about dinosaurs. We have had an exciting delivery of dinosaur eggs, so we have made some nests to help them stay warm and cosy until they hatch!
Our Maths this week had been looking at length and height, so of course we have been measuring the many dinosaurs in our setting to see which is the longest!
Book Week - Little Red Riding Hood
Always an exciting week at school. We have loved dressing up, sharing books with lots of children in different classes, going on a fairytale walk and finding out who the masked readers were. The children have been reading Little Red Riding Hood in drawing club and we've tried our hand at creating wolves with charcoal!
Phonics
Here at Saltwood School we teach Phonics through the ELS phonics scheme of work. This term the children are securing Phase 3 sounds.
You have received the sounds chart last term for Phase 3 and sounds cards for any sounds your child needs help with. We are practicing these sounds orally, blending them in words and beginning to use them in our writing.
If you need to download another sheet please find them here:
We were very excited to hear that our eggs were ready.. We had waited patiently for two weeks, but today was the day!
The children in Class R each had an egg; we used different resources to try and crack open the eggs. We worked together when it got tricky, and helped our friends. As they had been in their eggs for so long, the children decided they needed to be cleaned. They set up a cleaning station to wash them. We used different materials to then build homes for our dinosaurs and some even went for a swim in the water tray.
As we had been learning about dinosaurs and the habitats that they would have experienced, we were then also fascinated by volcanoes. So, the following day we created our own volcanoes using a range of different materials sources from around our classroom. We then mixed bicarbonate of soda and vinegar to create a 'volcanic' explosion, which the tiny dinosaurs loved to dive into.
Easter in Class R
We have had a busy end to our Spring Term; we have loved the sunshine that has allowed us to have even more time outside and make the most of our environment. We have learnt the story of Easter and through lessons, worship and exploring we have a really secure understanding of what happened to Jesus at this time. We tasted hot cross buns when we learnt about the importance of the cross. We acted out the scene from Palm Sunday and thought about forgiveness. The children have all done some amazing writing this term linked to our Easter theme. We thoroughly loved creating Easter Gardens, where the children learnt the significance of each part of the garden, and learnt how to make their own crosses from willow branches. We decorated eggs, made spring chicken hats, rolled eggs and of course, had egg and spoon races! We wish all our families a very Happy Easter.
Earth Day
To celebrate Earth Day today we talked about our favourite places to visit outside - the beach was definitely the winner! We talked about how we can help our planet by recycling things and talked about how paper can be recycled. We made collages of the world and talked about where we live and other large continents. In the afternoon we created 'seed balls' which the children will be able to take home and spread flowers into a special area.
Growing
This term we are learning about growing in Spring. This includes plants, animals and minibeasts; we are looking at life cycles and bringing real, exciting experiences into our classroom! We began this week with reading the story of Camille and the Sunflowers, we drew our own version of Van Gogh's Sunflowers and planted sunflowers for our outdoor area. Farmer Catherine came to Saltwood to talk to us about life as a farmer, she brought triplet lambs for us to feed and a bag of ewe's wool. We were so fascinated by the wool, the feel and smell! We developed our fine motor skills this week by making our own felt balls!
Cricket
We've been really lucky to welcome Tom from Kent Cricket into school this term. We had such a great time in our two sessions with Tom, learning new games for our PE lessons. Improving our throwing aim and batting skills.
Courageous Advocacy
Back in September the children, their families and school decided together that we were going to support Hedgehogs as part of our Courageous Advocacy project. We have been waiting patiently to for National Hedgehog week to be able to really celebrate all things spiky! We have had the pleasure of inviting Gavin a local carpenter and Nature enthusiast into our classroom to tell us all about Hedgehogs and give us a mission - to design a hedgehog house. We teamed up with Class 4 and at the end of term had an amazing day using a huge array of junk modelling gear, and collaborative working to create some impressive hedgehog home models. Gavin and his wife Hilary then kindly came in to discuss each and every design with the children. What a lovely way to end the term.
Pirate Day
On Monday we had the most fabulous day learning about Pirates. We dressed up as pirates and attended Pirate School to learn how to be a pirate. In fact we had so much fun that our activities and learning continued through the week. We made our own telescopes, gold coins, pirate boats and swords!
Saltwood
