Arrrrrrr!

Today we had a surprise visitor to Otter class! William came dressed as Peter Pan, he is often dressed up as Peter Parker (Spiderman) so his new name didn’t take too long for us to remember!

Our new whole school topic is ‘Deep’. As our children have shown a BIG interest in all things pirate this year it didn’t take us long to find a way to incorporate them into this term’s learning. We will be learning through the stimulus of Peter Pan. The children are already hooked and as can be seen by William’s attire this morning they are already directing their own learning and finding ways to link their learning to the popular story.

Keep checking back to see all of the exciting things your children will be doing over this half term. It is only Tuesday and we have already had some wonderful writing and beautiful pencil sketches of seashells. I know that all of the adults in FS2 are just as excited as the children for this pirate themed four weeks.

Happy Easter

We had to say goodbye to three of our wonderful otters today and one of our fabulous foxes. They are all leaving Herford to join brand new schools and make lots of lovely new friends. Tully summed up everyone’s feeling when she said ‘’this is a happy and sad day, I don’t want to leave my otters but I’m excited to go to my new house and school.’’ Xander said that he would keep looking at our class blog to see what we have been getting up to.

It may have been the last day of term today but we had a very industrious morning. Erin made her very own ‘afternoon story’ book at home and had brought in to share with her friends. Every afternoon I read a meditation story to the Otters class and Erin had included all of the repetitive language in her own version. ‘’close you eyes and stay very still, imagine you are a…..’’ ‘’wiggle your fingers and wiggle your toes, have a big stretch and open your eyes.’’

Lots of the children thought that they would like to make their own version and busily got book making. The hole punch and treasury tags were out again! This seems to be our favourite joining technique at the moment.

We hope that you all enjoy a very restful Easter break and come back ready for our new whole school topic of ‘Deep’. We will be learning through pirates and Peter Pan.

Don’t forget to leave your comments on any blog posts that you read, we enjoy reading them with your children.

Happy Easter

Miss Sullivan, Mrs Savage, Mrs Gent and Mrs Moran

Super Otters...

 Let me tell you all about our spontaneous Super Hero/Otter day!

Yesterday William saw me move a large plastic bag from my cupboard. Being very inquisitive he asked me what was inside it. I explained that Tully and Finlay’s Mummy had very kindly donated lots of old fabric to our FS2 classes.

He didn’t let me pass without sneaking a look and couldn’t resist a feel of the different materials. Soon enough they were all tipped onto the floor and William was making himself and his friends laugh by putting an old pink sleeve on his head and declaring that he was ‘’Super Boy!’’

 Well, the mention of superheroes had everyone’s attention and soon enough there were children all over the fabric thinking of ways to attach capes. Paper clips worked very well, as found out by Jack.

 

My Easter activity soon went out of the window, as the scissor skills they were going to practice by cutting Easter shapes had been replaced by the much more engaging and complicated task of cutting eye holes in masks and creating Super hero badges and ‘’Power belts.’’

Joining materials were sourced from the junk modelling table and we soon had all kinds of creative ways to attach Super Hero paraphernalia. Hole punches and treasury tags were used to create a ‘’Power cuff’’ that slid over a wrist. Problems kept appearing, thinking of ways to keep a paper belt up proved incredibly complicated. We eventually agreed that stapling to our school jumpers was not the best idea. Super Boy did take a lot of convincing!

All the while, Wyatt had found the Avengers pencil case and pen and had decided that it was pertinent to take a Super Hero register. The sound of ‘’Good Morning Super….’’ was heard over the top of ‘’Whizz, zooms and Kapows.’’

Tyler had heard the commotion, and seen the zippy flashes of capes flying past Foxes class and wanted to join in the fun. He quickly made a costume and zoomed outside…where he plotted ways to ‘save’ the bewildered FS1 children.

 Zoe made a Super Hero unicorn to ride on and Erin and Rowan rode around the playground on their ‘’Superbikes’’ with their capes billowing out behind them. (They were very safe superheroes and made sure that they stopped at the zebra crossing.)

  

In the classroom there was a very serious discussion happening between three superheroes as to how to build the tallest marble run.

Super Boy was showing me his superhero ‘’stunts’’ in the corridor.

The Superhero frenzy lasted all day, a glance into Otters class would have shown you a very busy horde of Superheroes all making belts, badges, headbands and capes.

The skills I had wanted to teach today had all been covered but in a completely child directed way. I couldn’t have planned for the engagement today. Thank you to Tully and Finlay’s Mummy for the spark that started it all!

Repeating patterns

Today we used our learning about repeating patterns to decorate an Easter Egg. Some of us incorporated some of the pointillism skills we had practised after learning a little bit about Australia. Most of us chose to use felt tip pens but some did remember how to blend colours using colouring pencils. All of our funky fingers exercises have certainly improved our pencil grips! Miss Sullivan was very impressed with the way we controlled our pencils and pens today.

William’s egg was very interesting, he cross hatched his lines to make a unique pattern. This skill was also explored in his funky fingers learning this morning when he crossed elastic bands over one another to create a ‘’star.’’

Thomas showed great skill at drawing straight lines with a ruler…he was so careful and precise that the other children asked him to draw theirs too.

Farewell Grandpa's teeth

Annabel, Jack, Felix and Steven went to the post office to send back Grandpa’s teeth. As they were signing out Mrs Ski asked them where they were going! We told her that she needs to read our blog. She looked very surprised when we said we had to post some false teeth to England.

We spotted the sign that pointed in the direction of the post office.

Steven knew where to go he told us that he had been there before.

We had to tell the friendly man in the post office what we were sending. We all told him that Grandpa’s teeth were wrapped up safely in our big brown envelope. Miss Sullivan wrote on a sticky label that Felix stuck to the back of the envelope. We bought a stamp that Annabel attached to the front of the envelope. Now the parcel was ready to send. Steven handed over the money and collected our change and we all walked back to school. We crossed the road safely bu using the zebra crossing.

Annabel asked Mrs Gent why she was wearing a pink bumbag! Mrs Gent explained all about first aid kits and keeping safe when leaving school!

The further adventures of Grandpa's teeth...

Malindi had a dentist appointment yesterday afternoon…guess who she wanted to take with her?

That’s right! Grandpa’s teeth had another adventure. This time they didn’t need their passport…just their military ID as they went over the road to the other camp. 

I think Malindi and Grandpa’s teeth had a very exciting afternoon. What do you think? They both got a sticker from the dentist for staying still in the dentist’s chair. Malindi said she nearly fell off and told us that her head was upside down!

Grandpa's teeth...

When I travelled back to the UK for an Excellence in Early Years Conference, I was passed a very beautiful box while eating my (delicious) lunch. Inside was a pair of false teeth! Alistair Bryce Clegg an Early Years consultant has his own blog; it was here that I saw the chance to collect his dear Granny’s old teeth to inspire some excellent learning in our FS2 setting. Just like our much loved class toys Otto and Basil, these teeth get passed from setting to setting so that good practice can be shared by lots of early years professionals. Here is how these teeth were introduced to your children (if you haven’t already heard all about them!)           Miss Sullivan

During snack time a mysterious box was placed in the middle of the table, this was ignored for a while in favour of a photograph of a dancing penguin! Katie was the first person to notice it, she carefully opened the box only to be shocked that it spoke to her! The words ‘’Oh no, where are Grandpa’s teeth? ’’ floated out to her as she reached in and pulled out a sheet of paper. Beneath the sheet of paper were four talking tins. Archie noticed that they were numbered and played them in order. We listened to a very funny poem about a Grandpa whose false teeth one day jumped out of his mouth, chattered out of the cat flap and travelled to exotic countries sending postcards from afar.

The poem is called Granddad’s wayward teeth and is written by Gareth Lancaster.

Katie spent some time reading the poem as she finished eating her banana. Edward commented that her banana was a very ‘’healthy choice’’ and that if she kept eating fruit her teeth wouldn’t jump out of her mouth like Grandpas! (much to Katie’s relief!)

Imagine our surprise when from the nearby talk sofa we heard Aaron exclaim in delight that there was something new on the shelves. Katie ran over…’’Is it Grandpa’s teeth?’’

Yes!!

Aaron decided that they weren’t clean and they quickly disappeared off to the sinks for a wash ‘’No toothbrush!’’. He was followed by lots of squealing FS1 children.

Mrs Gill was caught up in the commotion and was soon swamped by lots of chattering FS2 children explaining what they had found. Mrs Gill explained that false teeth had to be glued onto your gums. ‘’Not pritt stick though’’ said William A.

We all gathered back together on the carpet to listen once again to the poem, we discussed our own holidays and where we thought the teeth might have sent postcards from. Zoe thought that perhaps they had gone to Norway. Miss Sullivan showed us two postcards that were hiding in the bottom of the box. They were addressed to Grandpa but had no photograph on the front. We had to go on a hunt to find them!

One of the postcards was from Nepal…Marwin, Sophie and Aditi excitedly told us that they had been there. ‘’Kathmandu is the capital city’’ shouted Aditi. The teeth had written that they had enjoyed eating momos. We had all seen them before in Marwin's lunchbox.

The other was from Australia…Archie and Katie told us all about their holidays there. The teeth had been surfing and seen a shark. The teeth weren't scared beacuse they had ''gnawing gnashers'' too.  

We split up and followed clues to find the missing photographs so that we could send the postcards onto Grandpa for the teeth.

We found some very interesting objects on our hunt.

An Aboriginal painting,

A traditional Nepalese dress.

The children who were searching for the photo of Nepal found themselves sat under the prayer flags in our quiet garden talking about the tallest mountain on Earth. Can they tell you what it is called?

We all ended up in the library where there was a big pile of atlases waiting for us. We spent some time looking at the contents page and index to find the countries we were looking for.

William D noticed that Nepal was much smaller than Australia. We discovered that Nepal is bordered by countries called China and India. ‘’My aunty has been to China’’ shared Annabel. ‘’It’s just like the Magic Paintbrush Story.’’ said Kenola.

Lots of the boys were particularly interested in the flags.

When we got back to the classroom there was lots of excited chatter about the two countries we had learned a little bit about. We shared our objects, paintings and photographs with the other children in our class.

The learning didn’t stop there! Throughout the afternoon the children made links between their new knowledge and their own experiences. Marwin found Australia on our map of the world puzzle and then made a didgeridoo out of rolled up tubes of paper.

The next morning we had a very lovely surprise. Marwin and Sophie brought in their very beautiful Nepalese clothes and wore them for us all to see. They answered lots of questions. Katie brought in her photo album of her holiday in Australia and a very cuddly koala. Katie and Aaron spent a very cosy afternoon looking through photos together while sat on our talk sofa. Aditi showed us the Nepalese flag and told us that she wears these clothes on special occasions. She wore a red skirt and dress with beuatiful red bangles. 

Some of us decided to create our very own spotty, dotty pictures just like the painting from Australia.

We even looked through some of Miss Sullivan's holiday photos. We saw a photo of a baby kangaroo and noticed that the trees and plants in the rainforest didn't look like the trees and plants we see in the woods here in Herford!

We decided that we should write postcards back to Grandpa seeing as the teeth's postcards never made it! We included lots of detail about both countries. I think you will agree that the children worked very hard during their independent writing time and produced some wonderful writing.  

If only we could visit Nepal and Australia ourselves! Think how much we would learn then.

 We sent the teeth back to Grandpa with our postcards. Now he knows all about his teeth’s adventures and what they got up to once they escaped out of the cat flap. We wonder if he will write back?

Goodbye Grandpas teeth. Thank you for visiting us. Let us know if you visit any more countries.

From the Otters and Foxes.