Squirrels

Journeys Through Time & Place: Spring 2 Highlights

This half-term, we started by exploring the classic tale of Jack and the Beanstalk. This made a fitting link between Traditional Tales in Spring 1 and looking at castles in Spring 2. The children enjoyed acting out the story in our Castle role play areas (especially the Giant’s part!) Through stories and non-fiction books, the children learnt about how people lived ‘long ago’. We then traveled further back millions of years to the age of the Dinosaurs, discovering the secrets of fossils and museums. This prehistoric spark inspired colourful artwork and some fantastic language!

The classic book, We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury showed it still has huge magic for young children. We enjoyed acting out the repeated refrains together and imagining what the bear might do next!

We continued to show our value ‘we are curious’ by going beyond the classroom as we visited St Mary’s Church to discover why it is such a special place for Christians. We also explored ‘Special Books’ including those from different faiths, learning how stories connect us all and help us understand the world around us.

Our weekly Forest School sessions have become even more inviting now the weather is getting warmer and we can observe the blossom and Spring flowers emerging. Highlights have included our Spring Scavenger Hunt, creating clay imprints to explore fossils and our Easter Egg Orienteering Hunt.

We’ve continued to develop and embed our early mathematical and literacy skills. The children used a range of resources and their fingers to help them to understand and remember their double facts and number bonds to ten. In Phonics, we have learnt several ‘special friends’ (2-letter sounds) and begun to read short sentences. In Drawing Club, we have continued to develop our drawing and our storytelling as well as writing words and short phrases independently.

From scaling apparatus in Gymnastics to using small equipment in Games, we’ve been moving further and faster and growing in confidence and control. We’ve been learning how to stay healthy and safe in PSHE, including the importance of good sleep, food and exercise.

We’ve enjoyed two special celebrations in March. We dressed up and shared our favourite books for World Book Day - a glorious day of reading for fun. We reflected on why we all love our Mums and made special cards for Mother’s Day.

We wrapped up the term by celebrating Spring and New Life. The ultimate highlight? Watching the children take the stage for the Whole School Easter Assembly with such poise and joy.

Watching our young explorers grow from curious learners into confident performers has been a wonderful way to end the Spring term!