Climbing club is back on! ☺

Climbing club – after almost two months off, the children came back raring to go, and boy did they go!  The children showed such incredible confidence and determination today that they made me and their parents so very, very proud.

Not only are they couageous when climbing, but the support and encouragement they show each other really warms my heart; hearing them support and praise each other was very special to watch.  If you weren’t able to be there tonight to watch your child, you should know that they were and are amazing, every single one of them. 🙂

I think they might have also inspired some of the parents, as a couple of the dads were persuaded to have a go and of course Mrs Hancock then also joined in!!  A massive well done to everyone and a massive thank you to the staff at Rock & Rapid.

Alison Hancock

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Class 1’s Snowy Winter Week!

Class 1 were particularly pleased to see the snow today, as we are enjoying a week learning all about winter!  Whereas on Monday we were feeding the animals in the fake snow, today we got out to enjoy some of the real stuff!

We have been learning why we have to feed the animals in the winter, both on farms and the birds in our garden.  On Monday and Tuesday we made fat balls for the children to take home and hang in their own gardens for the birds.

We have been getting creative with our hand print snowflake paintings:

 

We have been counting snowmen:

We even made soup in our soup kitchen outside, although Mrs Hancock wasn’t too sure about shark soup…

 

Reception have been making non-fiction books about British wildlife:

Then finally, today, the real snow came so we had to go outside and have a play!!

Then this afternoon we made some real soup from potatoes and leeks to warm ourselves up and we ate it for afternoon snack!

Thank you weather for the perfectly timed snow for our winter week!  😉

From all in Class 1! 🙂

 

 

Class 1 are ‘Under the Sea’!

Class 1 – Welcome back!  We have had a fantastic first couple of days back at school and we’re thoroughly enjoying starting our new topic of Under the Sea.

Today we have been reading, writing, counting, adding, swimming like sharks, diving like dolphins and explorers diving deep in the oceans!

I think it is safe to say that this topic is one that is loved equally by children and staff alike!  We have been painting under the sea scenes, watching divers swim around coral reefs, and learnt some things about sharks and blue whales!  So much to learn; a whole new world, under the sea. 🙂

Here are just a few pictures of some of our learning today and don’t worry, we made sure when we went diving and swimming around the classroom, to put our tanks on so we could breathe under the water! 😉

We even found time to sing our favourite Under the Water song at the end of the day.

Looking forward to a fun term ahead, The Class 1 Team. 🙂

Class 1 Bookstart today!

Class 1 – just a quick reminder that our Bookstart session is on this afternoon for parents of children in Class 1 at 2.30 in our classroom.  We’d love to see you there if you’re able to attend.  Last week we had a lot of fun singing action songs and rhymes and we were treated to an extra special story reading by Jacob’s dad.  I think it’s safe to say he had the whole class completely enthralled, many thanks again to him! 🙂

Sharing a love of books, stories and reading is one of the most precious gifts we can give our children.  We’d love to see you later if you can make it.

The Class 1 Team

 

Class 1 – Quick! Call the Fire Brigade!

Class 1 – this week we are learning about different occupations and talking about what we want to be when we grow up.  It provided us with a fantastic opportunity to follow the children’s interests.  The children really wanted to make a fire engine outside and they helped us to set one up.  The children were all really engaged with learning about how to drive a fire engine and how to put out fires!

Climbing Club!

We went climbing!!!  After much anticipation and excitement we finally had our first session of Climbing Club at Rock & Rapid tonight.  The children were amazing; they never fail to amaze me with their excellent behaviour, their enthusiasm, their perseverance, their skill and their courage.  Every single one of you did an amazing job, I am so proud of you all!  I don’t know who was more excited you or me!!  (…and yes, Mrs Hancock might have had a sneaky climb at the end!)

I did my best to get photos of everyone but apologies if I’ve missed anyone, will take more photos next session.  Huge thanks the the staff at Rock & Rapid who were as brilliant as ever!

Looking forward to next week.

Mrs Hancock 🙂

Class 1: So much learning!

These boys had lots of fun on the farm this week, working together to get all the jobs done.  They played really well together showing good turn taking and sharing and they showed their excellent conversational skills.

The children showed great interest in the weather and the changes to the sky this week.  We talked about why it was getting darker, which direction we thought the storm was going and why.  They really enjoyed learning about their natural environment and showed great enthusiasm.

Continuing with our theme of Wonderful Me, we made biscuits in the shape of ourselves.   The children learnt about following instructions to find out how to make biscuits and how to use scales and read the numbers to measure out the correct ingredients.  They also enjoyed eating the biscuits of course!

We also took the time to enjoy lots of stories…

…practice using our newly learnt sounds to read some simple words and match them up with the pictures…

…we also practiced our drawing and writing skills…

…and enjoyed a good sing along of some of our old favourite Nursery Rhymes with Mrs Yates.  Another very full and productive week!

Class 1: So much fun… and we’re learning!

Class 1 –  Now that we’re into our fifth week of learning the children in Reception are excited about the new skills they are learning as they learn their phonics and how to write the letters that make those sounds.  They are, quite rightly, very proud of their achievements as is the whole Class 1 team.

 

 

The Nursery children are also really enjoying the many different opportunities for mark making.

Of course we’re also very aware of how important it is to build and develop the children’s physical strength and coordination and provide the children with many opportunities to do this both inside and out.

 

We were even lucky enough on Friday to have Chrissy Rycroft with us and took advantage of the chance to sing along with her and her guitar – thanks Chrissy!

Our music theme continued this week as we explored some of the sounds we could make ourselves!

We also found time to make the most of the good weather last week and went on a senses walk around our beautiful school field.  The children worked beautifully together looking for different colours in the natural environment and different textures.  We were very impressed with how well they worked together.

 

So much fun and excitement, so much enthusiasm and learning, such a joy and inspiration – you really can’t beat working in Early Years, not that we’re biased of course! 😉

The Class 1 Team 

 

Class 1: – Wow! What a fantastic first week back at school!

Class 1: Just wow!  We had such an amazing first week back at school, the children all settled in beautifully and really enjoyed exploring the changes to their classroom.

We flew into space in rockets and landed on the moon; we camped out in tents and made campfires (just pretend of course!) and we built towers that reached all the way up to the clouds!

We rediscovered the water and solved the problem of how to fill up our water containers from a shallow tray.

We used chalk outside to draw pictures and practice writing our names.

We discovered that some of us were in fact very good at walking on the mini-stilts.

We braved the dinosaurs in the classroom…

We had fun in the sandpit.

We cooked amazing meals in our home corner; Mrs Hancock was very well fed!  We also learnt some super tidying up skills.

We shared stories, sang songs, made new friends and played with old friends.

We drew some amazing pictures and showed off our amazing pencil grip.

This is just a tiny snippet of the fun and learning we’ve had in our first three days.  Our team of staff have finished every single day smiling at the fun we’ve had and the learning we’ve seen; the three year old following the words in a book as she read a story to her friend (ok, maybe she was making up her own story, but she was following the words in the right direction and knew exactly what they were for; the joy and pride on the four year old’s face as he saw how impressed we were that he had learnt to write his name over the summer.

This is why we’re here, this is what it’s all about, the children, their learning and the joy it brings us, so wow, just wow, what an amazing week.  I think it’s safe to say that our whole team is very, very excited about the possibilities that this year is going to bring to us and your children and their learning.  Inspired!  Welcome back!

 

 

A day out at Knightshayes

Class 1 and Pre-school had a lovely day out at Knightshayes today.  In the morning we all set off for an adventure in the woods together.  The children loved hunting for bugs and plants and trying to name them.  We found some dens that we enjoyed playing in, we said hello to the sheep and finally got back to the house to find some shade and eat our lunch!  I think we were all glad of a rest!

In the afternoon Reception and Year 1 went off to do a ‘Growing Plants’ workshop led by the National Trust; we got to taste some different vegetables grown in the kitchen gardens, we learnt about the parts of a plant and what they need to grow, we even made our own seed heads that each child was able to take home with them to grow.

The Pre-school children, together with their parents, Kath and Cassie then went off to explore the gardens and also the house to escape the sudden downpour!  It was really lovely to have so many parents and children come along with us and we really hope you enjoyed the day every bit as much as we did, thank you for coming.

We had lots and lots of comments from  members of the public and from National Trust staff about how well behaved the children were, they made us all very proud, well done everyone!  I must also say a massive, massive thank you to the National Trust staff who went above and beyond what was expected of them to help us out today, many, many thanks to you from all of us.

I also must take this opportunity to say a very heartfelt thank you to my team, Miss Alderman, Mrs Howes, Kath, Cassie and of course the wonderful Mrs Honey.  Today proved what an excellent team we are and how well we work together, you are all amazing and it is a privilege to work with you, thank you.  A proud day for Early Years at Bishops Nympton  Primary School.

Alison Hancock