23/06/24 - Old Cars, Plushies and Creepy-Crawlies
This term we are doing history and our focus is on the history of transport. We are specifically looking how cars have changed over time. As part of our learning one of our fantastic school governors arranged for some of her friends to bring their classic cars to school so the children could see what some old cars are like! The children had a great time looking at the cars and got to ask the owners some questions about what they are like to drive and how they are different from modern cars. We then compared these cars to the modern cars and the cars that their parents and friends drive.
One of our other highlights from this week was the wonderful art competition that was organised by Martin Turner. It was a great day and the children drew some amazing sketches of their cuddly toys. We want to say a huge thank you to Martin for organising it and we can’t wait to hear the results!
We also had another brilliant forest school session where we had a bug hunt around the forest. The children loved search under logs and stones for minibeast and found many different creepy-crawlies. We finished our session with a special treat – cokking marshmallows on the campfire and making s’mores!
We’ve had a really busy last week of term. This week we finished off our We Are Designers topic by build the toy cars that we have designed, and using our learning to identify the best type of axle to make our car move smoothly and stay strong and secure. We also had lots of fun designing them to appeal to the children at playgroup – our target audience!
This term Mrs McClung has been teaching Elm Class music. During singing assembly they performed the song they have been learning to the rest of the school. They’re enthusiasm and confidence to perform was incredible!
Finally, we finished off our amazing week with a trip to Forest School. To link into our D&T topic Mr Pritchard taught the children some different knots and they had to use these to design and build a shelter. We then tested how effective they were build pouring water on top of them.
10/05/24 - Wheely Good Fun!
This week we have started our next Design & Technology Project – creating a toy car for the children at Whiteshill Playgroup. To begin this process we did some research by looking at some pre-existing products to see what they have in common and what makes them successful.
The children had a great time playing with the toy cars and exploring how the mechanisms work to make the axel secure and the wheels turn. In groups they came up with a list of things that made all of the cars similar and things that they liked about them.
Next week we are going to start designing our own cars and learning the skills we will need to make a functioning and successful toy car. We can’t wait to get building!
We’ve had a fantastic few weeks creating our latest works of art. This term Elm Class have been learning about printing and the work of William Morris. We’ve had lots of messy fun with paint, potatoes, sponges and anything else we could dip in paint to create amazing printed patterns.
The week culminated with the children designing their final prints where they created their own printing blocks by carving patterns and shapes into polystyrene and printing them on to pieces of card and the end results were AMAZING!
Mr Pritchard also got involved in the action and led a fantastic Forest School session on Friday teaching the children how to make their own mud and charcoal paint – another brilliant messy experience!
14/04/24 - What's Growing in Whiteshill?
It’s Science Week! This week the children in Elm Class have been learning about plants and exploring the question “What’s Growing in Whiteshill?
We’ve had an amazing time learning about the different types of plants that grow in our local area and learning how to identiy and classify these plants into different categories. On Tuesday we went on a rather damp walk through the village to see what sort of plants we could find.
Mr Pritchard also led an amazing Forest School session in the beautiful sunshine where the children collected samples from different plants that they found in the forest.
Thank you to all of our volunteers who baved the rain for our walk and those who got better luck ad joined us at Forest School as well.
22/03/24 - Ukulele Concert
Over the last 10 week the children in Elm Class have been learning the Ukulele as part of the Gloucestershire Music scheme. The children showcased their learning with a concert on Friday morning lead by their wonderful Ukulele teacher Mr F-P.
Thank you too all of the parents who came and watch and support the children, I know that they absolutely loved performing for all of you.
05/03/24 - World Book Day
We had a wonderful day last Tuesday celebrating World Book Day. It was a fantastic opportunity to hear about the children’s favourite books and stories and they all made a fantastic effort dressing up as their favourite characters.
In the morning we mixed with the rest of the classes in school and moved around the school to read a story with each class teacher and do some activities linked to these new stories. We read ‘The Day the Crayons Quit’ ‘Julian is a Mermaid’ ‘The Bad Tempered Labybird’ and ‘Peter Pan’.
In the afternoon the children had an opportunity to share their favourite book with their classmates and draw some posters to tell us all about what they like reading about.