Week 5 Learning through Play
Year 1 Continuous Provision Learning
This week, Year 1 have been busy exploring and learning through a range of exciting continuous provision activities. The children consolidated their understanding of self-portraits by revisiting key artistic skills and carefully observing their own features. In history, they sorted old and new toys, developing their understanding of how toys have changed over time.
In maths, the children practised finding one more and one less, while also revisiting correct number formation to strengthen their recording skills. They enjoyed working collaboratively to construct maps of our local area using wooden blocks and natural resources, helping them develop their geographical understanding and teamwork skills.
Our creative learners also designed and built beautiful fairy gardens, using their imagination and problem-solving skills. As always, the reading corner remained a popular space, where children shared and enjoyed a range of stories, fostering a love of reading and storytelling.
It has been another wonderful week of hands-on learning, creativity and discovery in Year 1!
🎨🧚♀️
Week 5 ‘Avcocado Baby’
This week in Preschool, the children have been enjoying the wonderful story Avocado Baby by John Burningham.
The children loved exploring fresh avocados, carefully looking at the bumpy skin and discovering the large stone hidden inside. We then mashed avocado together and had the opportunity to taste it on crackers. This led to some lovely discussions about healthy foods and what makes a balanced diet. The children shared their favourite fruits and vegetables and talked about foods that help keep our bodies strong and healthy.
As part of our learning about daily routines, the children worked together to sequence their day, thinking carefully about morning routines, daytime activities and bedtime routines. They enjoyed discussing what they do at home and comparing their routines with their friends.
The children also spent time looking closely at the illustrations in Avocado Baby before drawing their favourite scenes from the story. One of the most popular pictures was the part where the baby uses his super strength to throw the bullies into the pond! The children showed great attention to detail and recalled many parts of the story during their drawings.
In our water area, the children have been busy washing plates and household items, linking their play to the daily routines we have been discussing. In the sand and construction area, they used a variety of construction vehicles to repair and rebuild roads while learning about people who help us and the important jobs they do in our community.
The role-play area has been transformed into a baby clinic, where the children have enthusiastically taken on the roles of doctors, nurses and carers. They have shown kindness and empathy as they cared for the babies, giving check-ups, bandaging injuries and making sure everyone was feeling well.
To support our maths learning, the children have been using resources linked to Avocado Baby to compare objects by size, weight and quantity. They have enjoyed using mathematical language such as bigger, smaller, heavier, lighter, more and less during their investigations.
It has been another busy and exciting week of learning, and we are very proud of how engaged the children have been in all of the activities. We look forward to another week of fun and discovery! 🌟
Y2’s hunt for IT in our community
As part of our Computing Unit ‘IT in the World Beyond School,’ we walked to Dawley High Street to look for information technology. Some of the things we found included cash points, tills, lamp posts and a pedestrian crossing machine. We talked about how information technology helps people to complete jobs and keep people safe.
Y2 become Posties!
As part of our Maths unit on place value, we wanted to show the children why they might need to read 2 digit numbers in real life. This is why we became Posties for the day! We walked around Webb Crescent and delivered letters. We had to read the tens and ones to accurately identify the number and as an extra challenge we had to figure out if the house number was odd or even so that we knew which side of the road to look on.
Y2 Food Tasting!
In Design Technology Year 2 are going to be making a healthy pizza. Our first step was to taste test different ingredients to see which ones would make the cut. One of our favourite toppings was tuna but we weren’t fans of the olives.
Year 6 – Microbes Investigation
🦠 Investigating Microbes in Our Classroom
Today, we became scientists investigating microbes! In our science lesson, we explored our classroom to find out which areas might be the “dirtiest” and where we could find the greatest number of bacteria.
We began by learning about good and harmful bacteria, including where bacteria can be found and how they can travel from one place to another. We then carefully collected samples from different areas around the classroom, thinking carefully about how to make sure our investigation was a fair test.
Our samples were placed onto agar jelly, which provides the ideal conditions for microbes to grow because it contains the nutrients and moisture they need. 🧫
Now comes the exciting part… we have to wait! Over the next few days, we should begin to see different cultures growing on our agar plates. We will then be able to observe and compare our results to see which areas of our classroom contained the most microbes.
We can’t wait to see what our investigation reveals! 🔬🦠
Music Minors
Music with Music Minors
Reception had a fantastic time taking part in a music session with Rachel from Music Minors. The children thoroughly enjoyed singing, dancing and moving to some of their favourite songs.
Throughout the session, the children listened carefully to different rhythms, joined in with actions and expressed themselves through movement and music. They loved singing together and showed great enthusiasm and confidence as they danced along to familiar tunes.
Music activities help to develop children’s listening skills, coordination, communication and self-expression, while also providing lots of fun and opportunities to work together with friends.
A big thank you to Rachel for leading such an engaging and enjoyable session. The children are already looking forward to the next visit!
Week 6 ‘Peepo’
This week, the children have been enjoying our focus story Peepo by Allan and Janet Ahlberg. They have taken part in a range of exciting activities inspired by the characters and events in the story, both indoors and outdoors.
Outside, the children explored a themed tuff tray filled with activities linked to the book. They practised their fine motor skills by using tweezers to pick up buttons and developed their mathematical thinking by counting and sorting socks, just like Granny hanging out the washing. They also enjoyed setting up a tea set, pouring tea like Dad, and counting cups, plates, and teapots. Inspired by the baby’s sisters, the children used their counting skills while catching fish and solving number challenges. Also the children have been using the large wooden blocks to build their own house.
The children have also been using viewfinders to take a closer look at the illustrations in the story, helping them notice details and encouraging discussion about their favourite pictures. They then enjoyed drawing scenes from the book and sharing their ideas with their friends.
Using their creativity and knowledge of the primary colours, the children made their own telescopes and explored the environment from a different perspective, developing their observation skills and curiosity about the world around them.
Inside, the children continued to challenge their mathematical skills through a tuff tray activity where they counted people into houses and matched the correct numerals to the number of objects they had counted. This helped develop their number recognition, counting, and one-to-one correspondence skills.
It has been wonderful to see the children so engaged with the story and using their literacy, maths, creative, and fine motor skills through a variety of hands-on learning experiences linked to Peepo. We are very proud of their enthusiasm and the fantastic learning they have shown throughout the week! 😊📚✨
I Love my Grandma
This week we read the story ‘I love my Grandma’ which is based around two bears.
We set up a teddy bears picnic in the tuff spot and explored counting out plates, cups and cakes to each of the bears. We made our own bear masks using collage materials and went on a bear hunt in forest school.
We also collected some leaves in forest school and had a go at some leaf rubbing.
Donald Malone – Year 6
🐧 Exploring the Polar Regions with Donald Malone
We were incredibly excited to welcome Donald Malone to school, who has visited research centres in Antarctica and has first-hand experience of exploring the polar regions.
Donald brought our learning to life as he taught us all about the fascinating environments of the Arctic and Antarctic. We discovered more about the incredible animals that survive in these extreme conditions, including polar bears, albatrosses, penguins and seals and learnt about how they have adapted to life in some of the coldest places on Earth.
Our learning continued outside, where we took part in some fantastic practical activities. We explored how birds fledge, practised huddling together like penguins to keep warm and learnt how birds build their nests. We even discovered how penguin parents work together to carefully pass an egg between the female and male.
One of the highlights of the visit was having the opportunity to examine real bones from Donald’s expeditions to the polar regions. This gave us a fascinating insight into the animals that live in these remote environments and made our learning feel incredibly real.
A huge thank you to Donald for sharing his experiences, knowledge and enthusiasm with us. It was a fascinating day that gave us a much deeper understanding of the polar regions and the incredible wildlife that calls them home! ❄️🐧🔬
Week 6 Learning through Play
This week in Year 1, the children have enjoyed a range of activities in our continuous provision.
In Geography, they applied their knowledge of maps and map key symbols to create their own maps.
In Maths, the children consolidated their understanding of addition to 10 using part-whole models and ten frames to solve and represent addition calculations.
In PE, they used the skills they have learned in their multi-skills lessons to play a fun hoop throwing game, aiming carefully to land the hoops on the target.
It has been great to see the children using their learning independently and developing their confidence across the different areas of provision.
Year 1 – Phonics Workshop
Thank you to everyone who attended our Year 1 Phonics Workshop this morning. We hope you found it informative and enjoyable, and that you had as much fun as the children!
SOTW 9.10.2026
REC-Mrs McGee – Felix
REC-Mrs Brannon – Violet
Y1-Miss Robinson – Hannah
Y1-Mrs Smith/Mr Harris – Billie
Y2-Mrs Longmore – Lexi
Y2-Miss Roberts – William
Y3-Ms Weston – Antoni
Y3-Mrs Cottrell – Evalynn
Y4-Miss Rowlands – Theo
Y4-Mrs Penfold – Ella
Y5-Mr Pilling – Grayson
Y5-Mr White – Nevaya
Y6-Mrs Doughty – Jack J
Y6-Miss Saville – Charlie