Colour Mixing!

A wonderful afternoon of awe and wonder! After predicting, testing and observing what happens when we mixed blue and purple paints, each child then thought about what would happen when we mixed blue and yellow.... Would it make purple too? Would they stay blue and yellow? Would it just look mucky??! One paint-splattered teacher later, and we had green!

The children then used colour mixing as their inspiration for the afternoon. Some headed outside to find leaves and tried to make their own paint colour to match the shade of their Autumn leaf; others got busy with layering issue paper. Some children chose to mix coloured water droplets over a salt and glue base, carefully observing the new colours that were made out of their original combinations.

We Are Writers!

Phonics today was filled with excitement, as we started learning how to hold a pencil/pen to form the letters of our name correctly!

If you want to help your child with their pencil grip, this is how we do it...(apologies, I am no hand model!) 

Hold up two fingers, like two bunny ears:

Give your bunny a nose with your thumb:

Pinch together your ears and nose:

Now you're ready to pick up a pencil (keeping those other two fingers tucked in)!

Small but Important

In preparation for Harvest, this year, pupils at Shire Oak have been thinking about 'small things that matter'. Reception had some great ideas....from batteries that help us to make things work, to grapes that help keep us healthy! We also thought about how we are the youngest year group, but every single one of us is important.

All of the children were able to suggest a reason why they might be important...from being kind and helping to feed the fish, to helping someone when they are sad.

To represent this, we headed outdoors and thought creatively, to make our own mini-me's from natural resources. We think our stick people and collage faces look great!

Pizza!

Reception had a fantastic day yesterday, on our first school trip! We were really smart and sensible walkers as we set off to Pizza Express in Headingley. The children learnt a bit more about food hygiene, carefully washing their hands before starting our cooking. Each child was given a piece of dough to stretch into shape by hand. They loved the feel of the soft, smooth dough between their fingers! After spreading tomato sauce over the top and a sprinkle of buffalo mozzarella, they were ready for the oven!

Back at school, we learnt all about healthy eating, thinking about what would make a healthy pizza or a less healthy pizza. We then had a go at choosing items to go in a healthy lunch box. We decided that a little bit of different things was better than too much of one type of food!

Learning is Messy...

Saw this and thought of us!

Fun With Phonics!

It was great to see some of you at yesterday's phonics meeting for parents and carers....I hope you found it useful and informative! If you were unable to attend, please don't worry at all. I will be on the playground on Monday morning with some hand out packs, so do come and grab one/feel free to ask any questions. In the meantime, here is a link to a video which explains a bit more about why we teach the 'pure' sound, as opposed to adding an -uh sound (eg "mmmm" rather than "m-uh"). Hope it sheds some light!