Puppets 

This week the seashells received a letter from the little Princess, she was trying to act out a puppet show of sharing a shell but her puppets kept breaking. She asked for our help to make some puppets from the story. We looked at some pictures of puppets and discussed what they were made out of including; tissue boxes, sticks, card, wooden spoons, and socks. Then we made our own. We used lots of different materials and thought about how we could attach them to our base.

Week 6 - Counting

This week the Seashells had a special task from Pirate Pete. He left us a treasure box of jewels. We worked in our groups to sort the jewels and count them with the help of Polly Parrot. The Seashells remembered to count one at a time, say one number name for each item and to say the numbers in the right order. We used 5 frames to help count and compare the jewels.

Forest School

Day 2 -Baking with pears

On day 2 of our outdoor learning week the weather was not very nice so we did some activities inside using some things we had collected from the forest.

In the morning, we made some pear muffins. First, we talked about how to get ready for a cooking or baking activity such as washing hands, wearing aprons, covering the table and tying long hair back. We looked at the recipe and explored the ingredients, including smelling the cinnamon. We also looked at the equipment that we needed.

Each group had a task to do. First, the whales measured out the ingredients using spoons and cups. Next, the dolphins peeled the pears carefully with vegetable peelers. We kept the peelings for another activity in the afternoon. After that the sharks mixed the dry and wet ingredients together using a wooden spoon. Next, the turtles put the paper cases into the time and put spoonfuls of mixture into each case. Finally, the seahorses made the topping out of sugar and cinnamon and sprinkled it on top. Miss Baron put them in the oven and once they were cooled we ate them, they were delicious!

Composting

In the afternoon, we learned about composting. We watched this video:

Then we talked about the different things we might put in a compost bin including the pear peelings and apple cores from the morning snack. We watched a second video which showed us how to make a composter out of a plastic bottle. We tore up some newspaper, and mixed it with some soil. Then we sprayed it with water and added some organic materials like the peelings. We covered them with a dark cloth and left them on the windowsill. Over time they should turn into compost which we can use on our flower beds.

Week 5 - Forest School

Day 1 

This week we will be spending lots of time learning outdoors in the secret garden.

On Monday morning we talked about what we might find at forest school. The children came up with lots of good ideas like bugs, leaves, trees, mud and sticks. We got dressed into our outdoor clothes and set off to the forest. When we got there we sat on the benches and used our senses to explore the area. The children heard birds, the wind and children playing, and talked about lots of things that they could see. The children then went on a walk to explore the forest further. We looked for fruits and seeds.

Next we had snack. As we didn't have any water outside, we used wipes to make sure our hands were clean. Finally, we listened to the story of the very busy spider.

Nature detectives

On Monday afternoon the Seashells became 'nature detectives'. They worked in groups with a team captain (they carried the clipboard) and a deputy (they carried the basket). They had to collect natural objects from the forest in their baskets to match the colours on their hunt sheets. They had to listen to each other and take turns. They were amazing!! They found all sorts of objects including red berries, brown sticks, yellow flowers and orange leaves. Everybody worked so hard in their teams! Well done!

Week 4 - RWI

This week we started our RWI lessons. Every day we will learn a new sound. With Fred Frog's we will learn to recognise sounds and then blend them to read words. After carpet time we have lots of different activities to do that help us with our sounds, including:

• Chalking the sounds on the tarmac outside
• Making the sounds with the blocks
• Writing the sounds in sand and with pens
• Swatting the sounds with fly swatters
• Sound puzzles
• Initial sound games
• Tracing and threading

Week 3 - In the garden

This week we made the most of the beautiful weather. We spent lots of time outside exploring our garden areas. We made sure the plants had lots of water. We were very independent at filling the watering cans. Lots of weeds had grown over the holidays so we used the trowels and our hands to pull them out. We remembered to wear gloves to protect our hands, some of us even put them on ourselves. There were several wheelbarrows full of weeds by the time we'd finished! 

Miss Baron's Mum visited us (she loves gardening!) she helped us to finish the weeding and bought us some bulbs to plant for the spring. Whilst we were weeding we found lots of different mini-beasts including worms, shield beetles, ladybirds, bees and snails.

 Week 2 - Ourselves

This week we talked about similarities and differences. We used mirrors to look carefully at our faces. We looked at hair colour, eye colour and skin colour. Then we made paper plate faces.

First, we chose the colour of for the skin. Next, we added wool for hair and felt for ears. We used pom poms for eyes and pens to draw features like mouths or freckles. Some children added other collage materials for hair accessories or glasses. After that we wrote our names in coloured pens.

Come and see our faces on the display in the classroom!

Our first week

We had a fun first week:

• We did lots of circle time to learn some routines and rules that will keep us safe in school
• We went on a tour of the school
• We had lunch in the hall
• We drew pictures for our peg labels
• We explored our outdoor area
• We wrote our names every day
• We shared our about me bags with the class

 Welcome to Seashells Class

Hello everyone, a warm welcome to Seashells Class blog. This is the place to find out about what is going on in class. There will be information posted weekly to keep you updated with all the learning, fun and events happening in Seashells class. There will be photos, blurbs, links and sometimes videos that you can share and talk about with your child. We hope you enjoy viewing it together!