Willow Class

World Book Day

Look at our amazing World Book Day outfits - don't we all look fabulous? What an action-packed day we have had!

In the morning, Mrs Watson visited our classroom and read 'The Tiger who Came to Tea' . Following this, we made our very own friendly, hungry tigers from paper plates. 

In the afternoon, after our P.E session, Mrs Moore invited us into Elm and she read 'Mrs Honey's Hat' and we designed and decorated our own hats.

Phew! What a wonderfully busy World Book Day!

Art and Music Afternoon

On Wednesday (6.3.19) KS1 enjoyed art and music afternoon with Mrs Owen (Tommy's mum). The very talented Mrs Owen played three pieces of music on her violin: 'Mussette' by Bach; 'Bouree' by Handel and 'Humoreque' by Dvorak. As she played, the children were asked to close their eyes, envisage a scene or place and think how the music made them feel. After a class discussion, the children were invited to paint their perceptions and interpretations of the music.

The children really enjoyed listening to the music and expressing themselves through their painting - isn't the artwork fantastic?

Scottish Shortbread

As part of our 'Around the World' topic, we have been looking at countries within the United Kingdom. This afternoon, the children have been finding out all about Scottish cuisine and traditions. In particular, they were most intrigued about the story of the Loch Ness monster, which resulted in a great class discussion on whether Nessie was fact or fiction!

We also enjoyed a wee tasting of Scottish Shortbread!

Balanceability

Today the children had the opportunity to showcase and practice their balance skills on bikes on the playground. They received lots of useful tips and advice on balancing, bike riding and general bike safety. Look how great they did!

Medieval Banquet

Wow! What a fantastic way to celebrate the end of our 'Kings and Queens' topic! The children have had so much fun today. We have truly embraced the medieval spirit!

The children have taken part in lots of medieval themed activities today: medieval dancing, food tasting, played some traditional medieval games and even made some medieval crafts.

Well done everyone - your costumes looked amazing!

Football Skills

Willow have enjoyed their Football Skills session with Emma Dennis this morning. The children learnt dodging and ball control skills and were then able to apply these skills in 8 aside matches. Well done Willow - some fantastic team work!

Friday Afternoon Reading

Willow class decided to make the most of the beautiful sunny weather this afternoon! We took our reading books up onto the field and took it in turns to read to our reading partners. What a lovely way to start the weekend!

Science

As part of this term's Science topic, the wonderful Willows have been looking at plants. We had great fun on a 'plant scavenger hunt' up on the school field where we found and identified a variety of common wild plants.

We also discussed plant reproduction and talked about the different ways plant seeds are dispersed.

Happy Easter!

 Wow! Look at Willow's Easter bonnets - they all look absolutely AMAZING!

Thank you for you continuing support. I hope you all have a wonderful Easter and a well deserved rest!

Easter Scavenger Hunt

We all had great fun this morning hunting for clues in our Easter scavenger hunt! The children very cleverly found ALL the clues hidden around the playground and managed to work out the secret sentence. Well done Wonderful Willow!

Right Respecting Schools

Today, we have been learning, that unfortunately, not all children in our world have the right to safe, clean water.

We learnt that some children in Africa have to miss school on a daily basis to make the long journey on foot to collect water for their family. Often (as was the case in the video clip below), children have to walk as far as 4 miles to find water. And then, the water is dirty and dangerous for people to drink. Drinking this dirty water can make people very ill and sadly sometimes results in death.

We investigated ways to make dirty water cleaner through sieving and filtering - the process that many African families carry out on the dirty water they are forced to drink.

Animals and Humans

As part of this term's Science topic, we have been learning about the basic needs of animals and humans. We have been discussing how to look after pets and animals and finding out what animals need to survive.

Today ( 23.3.18), James Pannell and his dad very kindly brought in their pet chickens and told us all about how to look after them and what they eat. The children really enjoyed stroking and handling the very friendly, happy chickens! 

World Book Day Celebrations!

What a busy day we have had today celebrating World Book Day! The children looked amazing in their costumes and it is obvious a lot of effort was made in putting the outfits together.

We read the story of Stick Man by Julia Donaldson and then the children made their very own stick men which we used to act the story out. Don't the stick men look fabulous?

A HUGE thank you again to Grandad Pete (Annabel's Grandad) who not only brought lots of sticks in with him, but also very kindly gave up his afternoon to help the children make their stick men.

Christmas Flower Arranging

Well what a lovely afternoon we've had today making our Christmas table decorations. The children used both maths skills and creative skills to measure, cut and arrange the greenery with great care and attention. It was so lovely to see them all so engaged and really enjoying themselves. I'm sure you'll agree the table decorations look absolutely AMAZING - good enough to sell in a shop!

A BIG thanks to Tonicha ( Maximus's mum) for donating materials and explaining so well to the children how to arrange the greenery effectively. And thank you also to Hilary (Harry's Grandma) and Peter and Gail (Annabel's grandparents) for helping out too - I just couldn't do crafts like this alone!

I look forward to seeing photographs of the decorations on your tables on Christmas day!

Great Fire of London Theatre Workshop

What a fantastic morning we had in our theatre workshop with Steve from 'Partake'. The children dressed up in period costumes and re-enacted, mimed and danced the events of the Great Fire of London. It was soooo much fun - as you can see from the photos!

Tree Planting with the Woodland Trust

What a great afternoon we all had tree planting with Nic and Lynne from the Woodland Trust. The children absolutely amazed me with their super teamwork and fantastic behaviour.

The children listened so attentively to Nic's instructions and as a result, the trees were planted TOTALLY independently by Willow Class!

I hope the children take you up onto the bank on the playground to show you their hard work.

It will be an incredible experience to watch these trees grow and flourish alongside your amazing children!

Thank you to Julie (Eben's grandma), Pete and Gail (Annabel's grandparents) and Cheryl (Holly's mum) for helping to supervise the children, although I think they would all agree that the children managed perfectly well on their own!

Gardening

 What a lovely gardening afternoon we had on Wednesday in the autumn sunshine!  The children worked really hard in their groups weeding and clearing leaves to get the ground ready for our tree planting at the end of the month.  A big thank you to Peter and Gail Makings (Annabel's grandparents), who very kindly came in to help out too!

The trees have been donated by the 'Tree for Schools' project which is run jointly by the Woodland Trust and Greenwood Community Forest and the tree planting will take place on Friday 24th November. Willow Class are very excited!

A Visit From Eastwood Fire Brigade

What a fun, informative afternoon we have spent with Eastwood Fire Brigade. We have learnt lots about the job of a fireman, fire safety in the home and keeping safe on Bonfire Night. We also talked about the Great Fire of London and discussed why the fire spread so quickly and why that wouldn't happen today.  

We had a tour of the fire engine too and got to sit up in the cab - it was very exciting!

A BIG thank you to Luke, Andy, Sam, Scott and Darius for taking time out of their very  busy  schedules to help make our learning so exciting and fun!

Diwali Celebrations

What an amazing day we have had celebrating Diwali - the festival of light.  The children have been really busy making rangoli patterns with coloured rice, making diva lamps, Diwali cards and tasting a wide variety of Indian sweets.

'Diwali ki Shubhkamnayein' everybody!

Willow's Harvest Festival

Today ( Thursday 28th September) Willow class went up onto the field in the sunshine to harvest the the apples and pears. We had great fun working cooperatively picking and collecting the fruit. We picked TWO huge bags!

After all our hard work, we returned to class and had a sample of the fruit we had picked - it was DELICIOUS!