Merry Christmas!!

I hope you are all having a wonderful Christmas... I'm sure Father Christmas was good to you all!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

It’s the last week of term already, where has the time gone! All the children have had a wonderfully festive week at school and are all looking forward to ending it in our carol service this afternoon!
We started the week with our nativity dress rehearsal on Monday afternoon, the whole school came to watch KS1 and we certainly didn't disappoint!  The children took to it so well, and it really started the week for the whole school with festive cheer!
On Tuesday we had our main performance…I couldn't be more proud of all the children for everything they have done in the lead up and on the day.  They have worked so hard, concentrated well and taken their acting to a whole other level that I don't think any of the staff were prepared for!  Most of all though, they have had so much fun throughout the whole process and made it a wonderful experience for everyone involved.
On the day itself the children were just amazing, they all new exactly what they needed to do and made the lives of the staff in the wings very easy for being so calm, quiet and knowing their cues!
I have never been so impressed with children learning their lines and adding bits and pieces that we hadn't thought of.  I hope you will agree that they brought such emotion to all their rolls and that the nativity was heart melting!
Thank you so much to everyone who was involved with helping, in the lead up with making costumes and on the day, helping to get the children ready.
Weren’t the shepherd costumes amazing?! Thank you so much to Cameron Roffey’s mummy for organising them!
On Wednesday we had our whole school pantomime trip, it’s just wonderful when the whole school can get together as one and do something which involves everyone.  The pantomime was a special treat as it always is and the children laughed and booed their way through it!
‘Hugo and Sara went up on the stage they got bags full of goodies.’ -Sophia
‘We liked the boo bit.’ -Romily
‘The people were singing a song and the ghosts kept patting them on the shoulders and making them go argh.’ -Cameron
‘Oh we have to do it again then wont we, whoopsie.’ -Karl, Sophia and Romily
After the Pantomime we had a lovely lunch of fish and chips on the beach, we were lucky as Wednesday was a beautiful day with lots of sun, albeit a little cold!
All this week we have been making Nativity diorhamas using shoeboxes and making our characters out of clay, they have turned out beautifully and should hopefully all of come home to decorate your houses with!
Thursday was our Christmas lunch, year after year our lovely kitchen staff outdo themselves and this year was no different! All the children had a lovely time pulling crackers with their friends, singing Christmas songs and eating Christmas turkey!
Today we are having a fun day of handing out Christmas cards and having a Christmas party/leaving party for lovely Etienne.
Thank you to everyone who has brought in cards, goodies and presents and making our last day so much fun. You all make me feel so special, Thank you so much!
Hopefully we shall see you all this afternoon at our Carol service in the church, we saw it yesterday in rehearsals and believe me you are in for a treat…just wrap up warm!
As I mentioned above, today is Etienne’s last day, we will all miss him and wish him lots of luck and happiness in his new school.
Last of all I would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas, and hope it is filled with lots of love and happiness and a very Happy New year!

It's beginning to look a lot like CHRISTMAS!

A sneaky peaky...

Coming up this week...

Tuesday, 9th December - KS1 Nativity 2pm (really hope to see you there!)

Wednesday, 10th December - Pantomime trip: "Snow White', Marina Theatre Gorleston

Thursday 11th December – Christmas jumper day. Please come to school in your festive best. £1 donation to charity. (School uniform with a Christmas jumper.)

Friday 12th December 3pm. Christmas carol concert – St Andrews Church. Children are dismissed straight from the church. (Please let me know if this is a problem for you.)  No bags needed in school on this day.

Toys Toys Toys

It has been another fantastic week at school, despite having a few of my children absent.  Although if you are reading this children, we have missed you!!
Well, so much is going on at school at the moment… where to start….
We have been looking at sketching techniques and the Year 1s wanted to draw their favourite toys.  I have been very impressed with the amount of detail the children have included and how artistic the sketches have turned out!

Now with the Christmas Fair this week and all the excitement ahead, we have been imagining being Toy Manufacturers, just like Father Christmas’ elves.  So much creativity has been magically flying around our school recently, that we have been inspired to design our very own toys too!  The ideas exploding and the special features endless…..

Toys and Magic!

This has been a very magical week in Year 1… The children entered the classroom on Monday morning to a crime scene!  There were footprints and upturned toys, there were paint splodges and lots of mess!  The children became detectives for the morning, trying to search for clues and figure out what had happened in their classroom.  After lots of thought the children came up with the idea that it was the toys coming alive when they go home that had caused the havoc.

The children went home to have a think about what their toys at home get up to when they are not there!

This week some Year 2 girls brought us the book Old Bear.  They had heard our topic was toys this half term and had remembered that they read Old Bear when they were in year 1.  We started reading the book and drew our own Old Bear pictures.

This week we have started writing our own wonderful books all about toys.  We have been doing lots of prep work and imaginative inspiration in the last couple weeks, working closely with Year 2 in preparation for writing our stories.  The children have had lots of wonderful ideas and are having lots of fun making their own books!

This week we have been creating pictures that we think our toys would create!  We have been able to use any material that we can find in the classroom and have come up with some lovely ideas.  Maya made a collar for her My Little Pony using loom bands and Sophie thought her toy would like to paint a picture of its hero…Pudsey Bear!

Individual photos were today, I'm sure you will all get a beautiful picture of your child, looking very smart in their uniform.  You will have had a slip with the photographer's website details if you would like to place an order.


Have a lovely weekend :)

Apologies for delayed post...

Hello everyone,
I do apologise, that post had been published, but not to the correct place so it didn't show up on our blog - eek!  It might be old news by now :)

A quick reminder that tomorrow is individual photographs at school, so please dress your angel in their smartest attire.  Also, Year 1 were buzzing this afternoon as they left the classroom... apparently, they have got wind of a toy adventure that will be taking place amongst their toys tonight!  Please have a little chat over breakfast/ in the car tomorrow morning about what might have happened in their playroom/ bedroom tonight.  And if any of you feel particularly creative and 'notice' anything different in the morning... (dare I say any more on here?!!)  I can't wait to hear all the stories in the morning!!

At the Going Down of the Sun…..

Remembrance Day and Poppies
This week has been very poignant to Year one,  we have been discussing the importance of Remembrance day.  On the 11th November the whole school came together for a special assembly where we were told about what happened 100 years ago to the day and why we celebrate it.  (Did you know that Sunny Hill, Thorpe House Langley Prep as it was known in the war, was a convalescent home?) We all gathered at the front of the school just before 11am, our Headmaster laid the last ceramic poppy in our ‘field’ and Bibi in Year 2 laid a purple poppy, which represents all the fallen animals in the Great War.  Please do make a special effort to see them before they are taken down, they are a remarkable sight and we are very proud, as a school, to have been involved in remembering and respecting all our fallen soldiers in such a way.
Cerys had a very important day, she was incredibly brave and stood up in assembly, in front of our whole school community to tell her peers all about her great, great grandfather who fought in the war.
We have also been creating typography poppy poems.  The children have been thinking of words that make them think of the Great War and creating, using colour and art work a beautiful poem.
 

Nativity Rehearsal
It isn't too early(!)  It is that time of year again…where does it go?  The children have been hard at work learning their lines and polishing their performances, it is lovely to see Year 1 and 2 come together and work so brilliantly towards something.  Please, please work on your lines at home (and Scottish accents shepherds) so that we can work on their wonderful acting skills at school!

Christmas Cards
It really isn't too early!!  The children  have been hard at work this week making their very own Christmas cards.  They have all painted a Christmas scene and these will be turned into Christmas cards that you can purchase and send to your nearest and dearest.  The children and I are so pleased with what they have created, I'm sure you will agree they are just beautiful.  Please look out for them in your child's book bag soon!!

Maths
This week in maths we have been using what we learned last week to help us learn about doubling numbers.  We have been doubling numbers such as 5 and relating them to number sentences.  We have also been discussing adding near doubles such as 5 +6.

Science
In science we have been learning all about materials, and how different things are made from different materials.  We have been talking about different types of materials and their properties….this leads us on nicely to our show and tell this week which is all about ‘What my toy is made from’.  Hopefully the children have all brought in a toy of their choice and we will be able to sit together and discuss what they are made from and what properties they have.

Woods and Stories
On Thursday Years 1 and 2 joined forces and took an inspirational trip to the woods.  Without giving the game away too much…the children took their journals and made notes and drew pictures all in preparation for some wonderful writing next week!

Reminder
Just a reminder that this term children are allowed to bring their toys into school…

Children in Need
Tomorrow is, as I'm sure you all know, Children in Need.  The theme this year is ‘Heroes’, so please do all come dressed in non-uniform or as your favourite hero; make it as elaborate as you like…someone had the wonderful idea of using onesies! The school will be selling special Children in Need wrist bands to raise money for the charity so please remember your money.

Gunpowder, Treason and Plot

‘Remember remember the 5th of November,

Gunpowder, treason and plot,

I see know reason why gunpowder treason,

Should ever be forgot.’

Another wonderful week in Year 1 and I hope you’ve all had a wonderful half term!
This week we have been learning all about Guy Fawkes and why we celebrate Bonfire Night.  We have been looking at what the Houses of Parliament are and that Guy Fawkes had his plan to blow them up and his attempted treason on King James I foiled in 1605, over 400 years ago.
To learn about the gunpowder plot we have been talking about poems, the children have learnt the ‘5th of November’ poem and then had the chance to write their own poems and turn them into pop-up cards!




Maths
In our maths lessons we have been learning about number sentences, the children have been brilliant and so clever learning about the differences between a sentence and a number sentence! They have been writing number sentences using all kinds of operations that we have learnt, such as addition, subtraction and equals signs. 
ICT
This week we were lucky enough to get to use the new Ipads in our computing lessons!  We talked about some of the things an Ipad can do for us and how to take care of them.  Our lesson was all about using Imovie, where we could all have a go at making our own films!  We talked about the different style of film that we could make and then experimented with making our own by filming ourselves and our friends.
 
 
Topic
Our topic this half term is all about toys.  This week we all brought in a special toy of our own…we have had lots of fun playing with them on the playground and showing and talking to our friends about what they are!  On Thursday we had a lovely carpet time and discussed sorting and the different criteria we could use to sort the toys.  The children had a go at making their own criteria using a selection of toys, we had lots of lovely ideas of grouping from using colour, material, size and whatever they wanted to!


Our role play corner has been turned from a hospital into a toy shop!  The children have been having lots of fun using the new corner which has encouraged the use of money and using numbers with the till!  The shop keeper made a very important announcement at the beginning of the week that all toys were now 50% off so lots of early Christmas shopping has been done!
The children have all become budding engineers and have been designing on paper their own toys!
P.E
This week Mrs Hood took year 1 into the dance studio for P.E. where we were busy choreographing our own dances for our Christmas performance!  The children were brilliant at making up routines and have been creating a ballet dance and march for different characters!
Forest Schools
Today in Forest Schools we were learning about continents! The children were shown a picture of the continent Africa and asked to make it…the children love the freedom they get from forest schools and really flourish!  They could make it individually or in groups, the choice was theirs…they had wonderful ideas of clearing spaces, and outlining using leaves, bark and stick.  some even made palm trees and had animals in their African continent!  Connie was our wonderful photographer…..
 
 

Next Friday is Children in Need day. The theme this year is ’Heroes’ The children may come to school dressed as their favourite hero. If they do not wish to dress up, they may wear home clothes. We are asking for a contribution of £1 to support this charity. Wrist bands may also be available to buy on the day at the cost of £1.
Hopefully the weather will hold off and we will see lots of you tonight for our wonderful bonfire night, we have finally got some cold weather so dress up warm!! xx

Thank You for Everything... Except for Brussel Sprouts!

This week in year 1 we have been celebrating the Autumn Season, particularly with the Harvest!  It has been a busy week with our history topic merging into our R.E (Belonging).  The children have been creating their own year timelines in the classroom, showing what has happened throughout the year and looking at timelines of our lives from start to now. 


We have also been reading about the different Kings and Queens of England, they were mostly taken by Henry VIII! We did get to read extracts from a fascinating Tony Robinson book, 'The Worst Children's Jobs in History'. With some gory yet hilarious stories about chimney sweeps, whipping boys and tooth donors,  I think we can safely say that each one of us is incredibly thankful to be living In 2014! 


We have also been learning about our own families history.  The children have made their own family trees, writing about their parents and grandparents and using our very own unique fingerprints to paint the autumn leaves.

We have also been making family history quilts using tessellating shapes! Maths, R.E, History and Art. have combined forces!  The children have made some beautiful quilts using photos and quotes of and from their families and friends to make something special and unique to each child. Our RE topic, belonging, has meant that we have been thinking about the different groups we belong to, starting with our families and then thinking about all the other groups, like school, clubs, sports, friendships and so on.


We have had a very special treat this week.  Great Aunt Margaret (Mrs Pimlott's auntie, although she has been adopted by the children!) came to visit us.  She told us all about what it was like for her growing up.  Aunt Margaret grew up during the war when things were very different!  The children found it fascinating to find out what type of clothes she would have worn, food she would have eaten and what Christmas was like, imagine fruit in your stocking instead of iPods!


To link in with our RE topic of belonging, in our forest schools lessons we have been joining together as friends, working together and building dens in the woods.


Our special harvest festival
On Thursday afternoon we all took a special trip with years reception, 2 and 3 on our mini busses to White House Farm.  We were joined by lots of parents and grandparents and members of the public who watched our wonderful performances.  We have been practising very hard and it definitely paid off, it was a beautiful setting for our harvest festival, all the songs and poems sounded amazing and we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!

By the time you have read this we will have already had our whole school harvest festival which I'm sure will be as spectacular as our ‘mini’ festival yesterday and I hope you all enjoyed it! 
Wishing you all a wonderful half term with your children, see you all in two weeks - refreshed and ready for lots more exciting learning!! x