Planetarium trip

This week we have welcomed another new friend into our class. On Carla first day, she joined us on our school trip to the Planetarium. It was great to see how quickly she developed relationships with the children and teachers during the day and she was very happy to join us again the next day. It is lovely to have Carla in the class as she has settled into the routines fantastically and is already confident to speak to me in English.

This week we have continued our space topic and the children are still very motivated to explore the space activities and learn new space vocabulary.  This week the EYFS children (Sergi, , Kai, Luke and Ona) have been working hard to make our space role play area look even more fantastic. They have made some very scary and super colourful alien masks to use when travelling on our space rocket. I was impressed to see how concentrated Kai was when making a mask and it is great to see how much he is improving with his cutting skills. The children also enjoyed exploring our box modelling rabble.  They made lots of new rockets and even two space stations to put in the role play area. Ona was particularly creative when adding a little water to coloured crepe paper. After lots of shaking she managed to create a very colourful liquid inside her bottle space rocket. The children have also enjoyed colouring in space vocabulary word cards to display in our space area. I was particularly impressed with Sergi’s enthusiasm to learn the new words as he repeatedly asked me what each word said and was keen to say the words himself.

The KS1 children (Arlet, Joana, Thais, Marcel, Noa, Jordi and Carla) have also been working hard on space themed work. During their writing time this week the children have continued to do work for the magazine. They all wrote a fantastic sentence to explain their space painting,  They also enjoyed drawing pictures of all the farm animals we have in the farm. Joana and Thais were very concentrated when drawing the animals and they were keen to write the names of the animals correctly. Once the children had completed the magazine,  they continued to work on learning space vocabulary in their writing session. They explored the different planets in the solar system and chose their favourite planet. They drew their chosen planet; focusing on the colour and size of the planet. The children then thought of words they could use to describe the planet, for example,  the colour, size, temperature and special properties of the planet.  The children then wrote labels to describe their planet. Jo was very proud of Marcel and Arlet as they were very concentrated and focused when writing their labels and they thought of some very good describing words. In maths this week,  the children have completed space themed maths activities.  At the beginning of the week the children consolidated their recognition of numbers 0-20, by completing a moon shaped dot to dot. The children particularly focused on recognising, naming and ordering the teen numbers ad this is something they previously found difficult.  Jo was very happy with Noa,  as she wrote her numbers beautifully and the correct way around.  She is really improving her presentation!  The children then focused on the then of addition, whereby they needed to solve the addition number problems to be able navigate a path from the Earth to the moon. Jo wad particularly impressed with Jordi’ s enthusiasm when completing the activity as he was keen to complete many addition problems and didn’t just focus on finding the quickest route to the moon.

The Ks2 children (Arnau, Tatiana, Sofia,  Blanc,  Judit and Sara ) have also continued to work on the magazine this week. Sofia did a fantastic job writing about the artist who came to visit our class the previous week and she included lots of information about the different drawings which he brought to show us.  Sara  also did a fantastic job writing information about out new class reward system, whereby all of the children need to gain ten happy faces throughout the week to e allowed to have a treat on the Friday morning. Sara explained very clearly about the muffins we made and the games we played as part of our treat morning, the previous Friday. As t magazine, is now finished,  it was the KS2 children’s job to put all of the different parts of the magazine together.  Blanca did a great job of cutting out and matching the drawings,  names and explanations about all of the animals we have on the farm. Judit also did a great job matching the pictures,  names and explanatory speech bubbles, which each of the children had written. She cut everything out and stuck everything on the ‘All About us’ section of the magazine.  It looks fantastic!  In maths this week we have been working on multiplication.  We started the week by revising all of the times tables from 2-12. I was really impressed with Tatiana concentration and determination when writing down the times tables. She did a great job and was able to write almost all of the times tables without any help.  We then moved on to multiplying 1, 2 and 3 digit numbers.  All of the children did a great job if multiplying 2 and 2 digit numbers and they were all keen to complete extension challenges.  Gabrielle was very happy with how quickly and confidently Arnau was able to multiply 1 and 2 digit numbers. He ha worked really hard on his multiplications this week.

This week we were lucky enough to take a class trip to the Planetarium in Barcelona. The children were extremely excited and the museum provided the perfect opportunity for the children to consolidate their previously learnt space knowledge and find it even more information, which we can continue to develop next week in our final week of the space topic.  The 3d space theatre was absolutely incredible and I repeatedly heard the children saying ‘wow!’ as they reached out to touch the 3D planets, months,  sun and stars. The theatre provided lots of information about our solar system and it provoked the children to ask lots more questions when returning to school. There were so many amazing and hands on science exhibitions for the children to explore and they were keen to find out how and why the machines moved or performed tasks. It was so lovely to see how excited the children were and I was so happy to be with Luke as he excitedly grabbed my hand and pulled me over to see each science exhibition. He was so enthusiastic! It was an extremely educational trip and the children loved learning about many different scientific concepts.

The children behaved very well this week; completing their work and following instructions very well.  All of the children managed to get their ten happy faces this week and their treat was to bake some sweet pizzas.  We then went to the park to do our gym lesson. They had a great time running, jumping,  skipping,  hopping and crawling through the obstacle course we created on the park.  To end our treat morning the children enjoyed having a little picnic at the park, eating the pizzas which they had baked.  

We have had a great and extremely busy week. I look forward to next week; our last week learning about space!

Space

This week we have continued to learn lots about Space.

The youngest children (Sergi, Kai,Luke and Ona) have had lots of fun creating the role play space area. They have worked hard as a team and Sergi was particularly concentrated when covering three boxes in tinfoil to make a fantastic rocket. The children are now enjoying using the astronaut and alien masks and pretending to fly off in the rocket. They also enjoyed helping me to create a dark ‘space’ reading area. Ona loves using their torches to read the space stories and searching for the moon and stars that are stuck on the roof of the reading area. The children have also enjoyed creating scrunched up, tinfoil moon rocks and then using the pincers to search for the moon rocks inside the flour moon. The children have been doing a great job exploring the moon and Luke has had a great time using cups and pincers in the flour. The children have also enjoyed learning lots of new space songs. They are learning lots of new vocabulary and are beginning to remember and sing the songs independently. I have been particularly impressed with how well Kai has remembered the words to ‘eight planets’.

The KS1 children (Jordi, Joana, Thais, Marcel and Noa) have been working hard to help the older children to create our school magazine. Joana and Thais did a fantastic job when writing a list of all the children in the class. The children also did a fantastic job drawing a picture of each of their friends. Jordi was also very keen to draw a picture of Jo and I. The pictures look fantastic and Noa was particularly concentrated and carefully drew the specific features of each person in the class. The children have been working lots on label writing and they were all confident to draw and label their space pictures for the magazine.

In maths, the children have continued to create different number displays. They enjoyed creating a planet calendar for January; colouring in the different planets and sticking the ordinal numbers in the correct place on the calendar. The children also continued to work on matching number words to the correct numerals. They enjoyed creating new number flashcards and displaying them in the correct order in the maths area. The children have continued to practise counting down from 10-0, especially when singing our new rocket song. The children then used ‘multiple of 10’ rocket pictures. It was the first time the children had accessed multiples of 10 and they did a fantastic job of ordering the numbers from 10, up to 100. We will keep working on tens, within a range of different space maths activities. Unfortunately, Arlet was poorly this week and missed all of the fun activities. I hope she is feeling better and can join us again next week.

All of the children have been reading individually to Jo, using the Oxford Reading Tree scheme. The children did a great job of blending the sounds to read the words. Marcel was especially confident to use the sounds he knows when reading the words in the book. We will read a new book every week and will start to bring a book home to practise reading at home.

The KS2 children (Judit, Blanca, Sara, Sofia, Arnau and Tatiana) have also been working very hard to create the different sections of the magazine. I was very impressed with the introduction Arnau wrote, as he presented his writing beautifully and was very keen to finish the two-page introduction. Judit did a fantastic job finding and writing up a muffin recipe for our special beach treat. She did a great job of copying different pictures and illustrating each part of the recipe. Blanca did a great job, using the computer to find out information about the planetarium we are going to visit. She then translated the information from Catalan to English and dictated very well to Sofia, who wrote down the information and presented it beautifully for the magazine.

In maths, the children have continued to work on fractions. I have been particularly impressed with the progress Sara has made with fractions as she is now able to confidently find ½, ¼ and ¾ of different amounts and convert the ingredients in different recipes to ensure that she created the recipes for the correct amount of people. Judit also did a fantastic job of multiplying, and dividing fractions and she was extremely perseverant when working out the answers to create the fractions triangles. Arnau and Tatiana have worked really hard to draw pizzas and shade the correct number of pieces to ensure that they depicted the correct fraction for each flashcard.

All of the children have enjoyed reading individually to me. They all read fantastically well in English. It was great to see how engaged Arnau was with reading and how keen he was to read more than one book to me. Tatiana really impressed me with the comprehension skills she had and the abilities she had to explain the story to me in great detail. Blanca did a fantastic job of reading a chapter book to me. She was extremely motivated to understand all of the words within the book and she was keen for me to explain any words which she didn’t understand.

This week, we have started a new system of ‘happy faces’. The children have been very motivated and have worked really hard to get ten happy faces next to their name. All of the children who gained ten happy faces for listening carefully and completing their work were rewarded with a treat morning on Friday. The children had a great time baking muffins (using Judit’s recipe). They then ate the muffins, before choosing to play lots of team games, which involved them running, jumping and jogging around obstacles. The children had a fantastic time and are now all really motivated to get ten happy faces again next week.

Happy New Year

Welcome back and happy new year! We have had an extremely busy week, welcoming seven new children into the class. The children were very excited to meet Ona, Thais, Arlet, Tatiana, Arnau, Blanca and Sofia and they were keen to help them settle into the routines of our class. Now that we have sixteen children in the class, the children are now working in three groups to ensure that all of the different aged children are accessing activities which are most appropriate for their age. The children have enjoyed completing the activities and they are really happy that we now have Jo working with us for the whole morning. This week, we have started our ‘space’ topic. The youngest children (Ona, Kai, Luke and Sergi) have had a great time learning new space vocabulary. They have learnt about astronauts and have had lots of fun using the astronaut masks in the roleplay area. They have also enjoyed making their own alien masks and they loved having the opportunity to colour the faces in many different colours. The children were also very imaginative when using the plasticine and were able to create super aliens, using googly eyes and pipe cleaners to add lots of eyes, arms and legs. I was particularly impressed with Sergi’s design as he tried really hard to include all of the relevant features on the aliens’ face. They have been working hard to decorate our space area. There are now lots of shiny, glittery stars hanging within the dark night sky. The children also had fun learning about the different planets. We looked carefully at the eight planets in the solar system and then coloured in planet pictures, using the correct colours. Ona worked really hard at this and I was impressed with how well she was able to control the crayon when trying to colour inside the lines. The children then hung the planets up within the black background. They now look at the planets and try to remember the correct name for each one. The children have also had lots of fun creating rockets from a range of box modelling materials. At the beginning, they found it difficult to think of ideas of how to create the rocket but after a little help from Jo they were able to create some great designs. All of their rockets are now flying around in our space area. The KS1 children (Jordi, Arlet, Marcel, Noa, Thais and Joana) have been working very hard with Jo. This week we have focused lots on phonics, both learning the set one sounds and focusing on different objects which start with the letter ‘c’. The children have been really challenged this week to use the phonics they know to help them write words. They have had lots of fun learning ow to write lists when writing down the different presents they had for Christmas. They also continued to practise list writing when exploring the farm with Jo; writing down everything they could see in the farm. All of the children enjoyed this and were motivated to sound out and write down the things they could see. Thais and Arlet have been introduced to new set one sounds and Jo has been very impressed with how many sounds they already know. Unfortunately, Noa and Marcel have been too unwell to join us this week. We are looking forward to seeing them next week and continuing our challenge of sounding out and writing words. In maths, the children have been working hard to create lots of new number displays for our classroom. They have been colouring in rockets, with the numbers 0-20. They then needed to draw the correct number of stars to match each of the numbers. Joana worked very hard and was super concentrated when counting out how many stars she had drawn. They also worked on counting down from ten to zero. We ordered the numbers and then played a game of ‘blast off’, before working together to place the rockets in the correct order within the role play area. I was impressed to see how well Jordi could count backwards and he was able to select the correct number in the order every time. Finally, they all worked very hard to order the alien numbers from 0-20 and then match each numeral to its number word. This was a new concept for each of the children and they all tried really hard and were concentrated when trying to select the correct number word and stick it alongside the correct numeral. The KS2 children (Blanca, Sofia, Judit, Sara, Arnau and Tatiana) have been working very hard with me this week. We have been working a lot on their tablets and this has really motivated them in their reading comprehension tasks. When completing comprehension quizzes about recounts, past tense, first person and adjectives they were all keen to read the information and then answer the comprehension questions within the quiz. The children did a fantastic job of working in pairs to read and then answer the questions. Judit and Blanca did an excellent job and scored very highly on all of the BBC quizzes they completed. When learning about adjectives, Arnau and Tatiana were motivated by picture cues. They enjoyed looking at and drawing pictures of different objects. They then worked hard to think of relevant adjectives they could use to describe each of these objects. When researching different emotions words, Sara was very motivated to write a long list of words. She then worked hard to draw the corresponding face for each emotion. When working on our spellings, the children were very motivated to learn through a game, whereby they had to identify the correct spelling for many words, including plurals and past tense words. All of the children did very well and were able to complete the game. However, Sofia was especially confident and was keen to explain to the others how to play the game and find the correct spellings. In maths, we have been working on fractions. Blanca and Judit have been very perserverant when creating a fractions puzzle. They worked very well together to add up and subtract many fractions. They then had to be very organised when finding the answers and had to check their answers many times to ensure that they were joining the correct pieces, as they needed to form a rhombus when completing all of the fractions problems. Both girls found the organisational aspects of this activity difficult but by the end they were both confident to explain to me how to add or subtract two fractions. Sara and Sofia have been working on recipes. They have been provided with recipes for different foods. They then needed to work out how much of each ingredient they would need if cooking half, a quarter or three quarters of the original recipe. Both girls were extremely confident in finding out the answers and it was great to see them working together and supporting each other so well. Tatiana and Arnau have become very confident to find half, a quarter and a third of different amounts, using pictures to help them. Tatiana impressed me with how quickly she could work out half of the different two digit numbers, without the use of pictures. We have also been doing lots of fun activities altogether as a class. The children had a great time learning the difference between walking, jogging and running when playing the baked bean game and ‘red rover’. They all listened very carefully to the instructions and were able to change their movement dependent on the word I shouted out. When cooling down after our gym lesson, all of the children were able to suggest a way that we could ‘cool down’ and stretch out our muscles. Blanca was especially good when teaching the class different breathing exercises, we can use to calm our bodies. We also enjoyed our music lesson and had a great time creating rhythms, using different parts of our bodies, bells and maracas (which we made ourselves). The oldest children did a fantastic job of creating a musical performance, using the different instruments and they did a great job of continuing the rhythm, alongside their friends. Within our art lesson, the children enjoyed learning about the different sizes and colours of the planets in the solar system. They then worked really well in pairs to create their own planets by wrapping the correct coloured wool around their cardboard planet. All of the planets are now displayed within the role play area, using the correct order to show how close each planet is to the sun. We have had a great week and I look forward to doing lots more fun things next week.