Visitors from Outer Space

Last week the Foxes and Otters had another unexpected visitor. As the Otters were rehearsing their lines for the Christmas play a very confused and startled alien stumbled into the room.

We were very surprised and asked our visitor to tell us who he was. When the alien started to talk we were shocked that he had a similar voice to our very own Mrs Sturrock. Eagle- eyed Mateo noticed that he not only sounded like Mrs Sturrock but he was wearing the very same watch. Lucas told us that all aliens must be from Scotland. Cameron pointed out that Scotland isn't another planet.

Our alien visitor found this conversation very funny and told us that Mrs Sturrock must be very beautiful. He introduced himself and told us why he was here. His name was Mango Fandango from the faraway planet Wango. He had heard that we were putting on a Christmas play and had only just got here in time to watch it. His alien friends were on their way in their much slower spaceship. They would take an hour to get here.

The Otter children were very worried. They knew that our Christmas play wasn't happening on that day at all. They had to quickly think of a way to let Mango know that he had the wrong day and quickly get the message to the other aliens before they landed in the staff car park.

We decided that the best way to give all of the information to the aliens would be to write invitations. We remembered writing invitations to Otto's birthday party and knew 
that if they wrote them properly the aliens would have all of the information that they needed.

In their talk partners the children listed everything an invitation would need and helped me to write an example. I was very excited by our surprise visitor and kept making very silly mistakes like writing from the right hand side and forgetting finger spaces. I was very glad I had some expert writers at hand to calm me down.

The children were incredibly busy writing their invitations and even taught Mango how to write like humans do. He was very interested in our finger spacers and particularly liked the way Jack stored his on the end of his pencil until it was needed. He even helped Christopher to count the number of words in his sentence.

After writing our invitations we were a little concerned about how to get them to the spaceship before the other aliens landed and felt disappointed that they had wasted a long and tiring journey to  Earth. Luckily, Mango Fandango told us that aliens spaceships have a very high-tech laser system which allows them to beam up important mail, all the children had to do was close their eyes and picture the aliens and they would receive the message.

With that, Mango Fandango left for her very own private spaceship with the promise that he would be back on the right day now that he had all of the information. Wednesday 3rd December, 09:30, in the school hall.

When Mrs Sturrock came back from her meeting with Mr Chapman she was extremely jealous that she hadn't got to meet this visitor from outer space. Now she knows how I felt when I never met Mummy pig!

Maybe you too will catch a glimpse Mango Fandango when you come to watch our Christmas performance.

The Foxes had their own unexpected alien visitor too... this time it was Splodge from the planet Plodge...who looked remarkably like Mrs Balmer!

Neela and Yasmin come to visit

Yesterday Mrs Gill came to visit Foxes and Otters together. She brought with her a special visitor, Neela. Neela had come to look around her school but some children hadn't been very nice to her, they had said mean things because she looked different to them.

Foxes and Otters were shocked to hear this, they always try really hard to be kind to each other. They told Mrs Gill not to worry they would make her feel happy again. Kerron told her she would look after Neela. Gigi said she would play with her and Mia told Neela she looked beautiful.

Neela was wearing a beautiful dress that her Grandma had sewn by hand and sent it to her all the way from India. It was a little bit big but the children told her she would soon grow into it.

Mrs Gill was pleased to hear this, she knew she could rely on FS2 to be kind. We all told Mrs Gill something we would say to Neela that was kind. There were lots of offers of people to play with her and lots of people wanted to take her to their house for chocolate cake, muffins and ice cream!!

Neela chose to sit next to some of the kind people she could see in the classroom as they would help her to feel happier.

Neela is still in Foxes class as she is having such a lovely time listening to the children being kind and watching them do kind things. Unfortunately, Mrs Gill had another friend who was also feeling hurt after the older children had said unkind words to her. Mrs Gill took Yasmin down to Otters class where she is seeing lots of kind actions and hearing lots of kind words.

Foxes class later chose to write down some of the kind things they had said and we have put them into a special kindness box- just in case other children need to hear kind things.

Well done Foxes and Otters!

Self service play dough station

A new area opened in Foxes classroom this week. We now have a self service play dough station. Here the children can make their own playdough.

The children have measured the ingredients and then used their funky fingers to mix and knead the dough.

Foxes class have written instructions for their friends to follow.

This area is VERY messy! Yumiko and Archie have shown that they are excellent at tidying up, they have shown their friends how to sweep flour off the table and into the bin without making even more mess.

We must apologise for children coming home with flour on their uniform, all the children do wear aprons when using the playdough station but the temptation of playing in soft flour has sometimes meant aprons have been put on too late!

The Great Otter Sewing Bee

For the last two weeks if you had ventured into Otters class you would have seen a busy hive of children sewing, threading and cutting. Our classroom had been transformed into our very own version of the recent programme, 'The Great British Sewing Bee.'

This all stemmed from Lucas' interest in all things fabric! Since September there has been a intriguing box of multicoloured threads, assorted buttons and shiny, sharp needles waiting to be discovered. Lucas excitedly opening the needle tin and exclaimed in delight that he remembered sewing in FS1.


For those of you that have been following the blog for the past year you might remember the
infamous Superhero day of last year's Otter class where a donated bag of fabric found itself cut up
and made into capes and "power cuffs". Well that box of fabric had another outing on the day Lucas found the needles. Many other children persevered with threading the needles and watched as Lucas showed them how to push the needle through the fabric.

Mrs Lewis was treated to a very trendy, robot shoulder bag complete with a red, ribbon handle, chosen just for her and painstakingly attached with a very neat running stitch.

Seeing how much Mrs Lewis loved her shoulder bag started an explosion of threads and material and soon I had to think of a way to capture this sudden fascination within the classroom and extend the children's learning.

This is where the Great Otter Sewing Bee came in. The sewing box was moved from the smaller funky fingers table and placed on a table of its own. With it, was an assortment of materials, needles and ribbons all waiting to be transformed into something brand new and original.

This week we have seen more bags....including a teeny tiny bag made for a fairy by Finlay and a dark, black vampire cape made by our seamstress Kerron. I have observed very technical talk, creative problem solving, tricky fine motor skills (I haven't been threading any needles) and incredible perseverance at this table and have been incredibly impressed with the children's design skills.

I am looking forward to seeing where this will take us this week...I am hopeful that this new fascination will last until our Stay and Play on the 27th November. That way, you will have extra help when creating your wonderful Christmas play costumes.