divendres, 31 de març del 2017

Zoo trip

This week we have continued to learn about animals but we have focused specifically on zoo animals. We were very lucky to have a school trip to the zoo in Barcelona. The children had a fantastic time and they learnt a lot from our tour guide, who explained lots of things about the different animals in English. The children listened very carefully and they were all keen to answer her questions. They especially enjoyed seeing the different skulls which they had of different animals. 
The EYFS children (Cloe, Carla, Kai, Luke, Sergi, Julien, Katie, Ona and Mark) have been working on the rectangle shape. Sergi has developed very good pencil control and is now very confident to trace around different sized rectangles. He was very concentrated and able to draw accurately on the lines. Katie also did a great job of drawing rectangles. She recognises that they need to have four sides and she now knows the difference between a rectangle and a square. Kai is also making good progress with his shapes. When showing him two pictures of a rectangle and triangle, he was able to quickly distinguish between the two shapes and say the names of both of them in English.
In our zoo animals’ topic, we have focused on the story of ´dear zoo´. I was really impressed with Cloe as she knew the names of all the animals in the story and was able to hold up the correct picture of each animal as they appeared in the story. Luke was also extremely confident to name the animals and each time I turned the page in the book he instantly shouted out the animals´ name and did the appropriate action for each animal. When drawing zoo animals, it was great to see Julien´s concentration as he learnt how to trace a hippo, by putting his paper against the window. He was so proud of his result. When colouring in jungle pictures, I was very impressed with Ona´s ability to follow instructions. She has really developed her concentration and focus when completing activities. Ona listened really carefully to my instructions and selected the correct colour for each of the animals in the jungle.
Mark has settled in really well and I am really impressed to see that he is already using English words when speaking to me and asking me questions. He has been very happy this week and it was lovely to watch him at the zoo, as he interacted so well with the other children and is forming great relationships with the other children in the class. Unfortunately Carla has not been with us in school this week. I hope she is feeling better and can join us next week.  
The KS1 children (Jordi, Joana, Thais, Marcel, Arlet, Noa and Carla) have also been working on zoo animals. I was so impressed with Arlet and Marcel when watching them sing the song, ´down in the jungle´. They were attentively watching Jo and were copying every movement that she did within the song. They also sang the song fantastically with such enthusiasm. It was great to see them so happy and confident. Thais has also enjoyed learning songs about different animals. She is getting so confident to sing songs in English now and I have heard her many times this week singing the songs to herself. She is getting very good at the words and always looks so happy when she takes part in singing practise. When drawing zoo animals, Joana did a fantastic job drawing a giraffe by following a step by step guide. She was extremely concentrated and sat for the whole lesson, carefully drawing the animal, ensuring that she had correctly drawn each part of the giraffe and it´s features.
In maths, we have been learning about measurements and comparing different sized objects. The children started off with the concept of ´big´ and ´small´. Jo was very impressed with how confidently Jordi was able to cut out and organise the objects into the two groups. He then independently ordered all of the objects by size. He has a very good understanding of size vocabulary and can use this accurately in conversation. Carla has also developed a good understanding of size vocabulary. When putting all of the children in size order, Carla was confidently and accurately shouting out each time, which person was tallest and which was shortest. She is now also using this vocabulary in conversation, when measuring herself against her friends. During our zoo trip, it was great to see that Noa was using size comparison vocabulary when talking about the animals in the zoo. She remembered the story we read about big and small animals and when seeing the different animals she correctly identified whether the animal was big or small.
The KS2 children (Judit, Sara, Sara B, Sofia, Blanca, Tatiana, Pau, Arnau and Nil) have been working very hard on the magazine this week. Judit wrote some very good information about our new rabbit, Bonnie, as part of our ´farm news´ section and it was fantastic to see the vocabulary she used to write story in the style of a newspaper report. Sara did a fantastic piece of work on animal descriptions. She is becoming extremely confident to write in English now and she is now far less worried to make mistakes. Sara is sounding out her words fantastically and she very descriptive sentences about the different zoo animals. She was very proud of her work and I am looking forward to seeing it in our topic section of the newspaper. Within the magazine, Sofia was very motivated to find out information about the new developments which are currently happening in the school. She listened carefully as I explained about the changes which were happening and she then wrote a very detailed piece about our new dining room, to put in the magazine. Tatiana, was also very keen to find out about what was happening in the school. She asked many questions and was especially keen to know what was going to happen next in our new gym area. Tatiana listened very carefully as I explained the information and then wrote a very informative article about the gym to put in the magazine.
In maths, we have also been learning about size comparison. However, we have been focusing on the measurements of mm, cm and km´s. Sara B did a fantastic job of measuring out 100cm to create her own metre stick. She was very independent when marking out each cm on the ruler and she really understand the need to be accurate to ensure that the measurements she recorded were correct. Pau also did a great job, when creating his metre stick. At first he was very nervous and worried he would make a mistake, but once he started to measure out the cm´s with the ruler, he became very confident. He then independently selected objects which would measure more than a metre and measured these very accurately with his metre stick. Blanca was excellent when measuring the heights of all the different children in the class. She was extremely helpful and keen to ensure that all of the measurements were accurate. When realising that some of the children´s measurements weren’t quite right, she was determined to re-measure them so that we could record the correct height of each child. Arnau and Nil were very motivated by the topic of size comparison. They were both very enthusiastic when writing questions, such as, ´who´s hand is bigger- Arnau´s or Pau´s?´´ They both wrote their questions very independently and were keen to go around the classroom; measuring the different objects to find out the answers to their questions.

Thank you very much to all of the parents who came to help with our zoo trip. I hope everyone has a lovely weekend and I look forward to seeing you all on Monday. 






































dilluns, 27 de març del 2017

Farm Animals

This week we have welcomed two new friends into the class. Mark is 4 years old and although he only joined us for 1 day it was great to see how well he settled and how happy he was to take part in the activities and follow the class routines.  It is great to see how keen he is to learn the language as even on his first day he tried to speak to me in English. We also welcomed Pau. He is 10 years old. Pau started the week feeling very nervous but he is now much happier and is confident to say when he doesn’t understand something. He has worked really hard to complete the activities and it is great to see him forming relationships with the other children his age.
The EYFS children (Sergi, Ona, Kai, Luke, Axel, Cloe, Carla, Julian, Katie and Mark) have started their topic on farm animals. It has been great to see how much Luke’s vocabulary has improved and how keen he has been to talk about the different farm animals he knows. Oasis is really proud of how much Luke wants to help the other children who find it more difficult to use English words. It is great to see the confidence he now has. Katie has also been very confident to talk a lot within our farm animal topic.  It is great to see that everyday she is gaining more confidence to speak in English and she is rapidly improving her vocabulary. She was especially confident to speak when completing a matching activity, whereby she matched the description of the animal to the correct farm animal. Gabrielle was really impressed with how well she completed the activity and how confident she was to identify the correct vocabulary. Julian has also been working really hard to learn the names of the farm animals.  He has worked very hard to trace the letters and write the name of different farm animals.  Gabrielle is really proud of how much Julian’s pencil control has improved and how much he is using the English phonics sounds to help him read the farm animal names. It is great to see how much his pronunciation has improved when naming the different animals.
In maths, the children have been learning about the triangle shape. Oasis is really happy with how much Carla has improved her pencil control. She has been working really hard to trace the triangle shapes and as a result she now has more confidence when using a pencil to write letters and numbers.
Oasis has been so happy to see how much Sergi, Axel and Ona have developed their personal and social skills. Sergi has become a real little leader within the group. He has worked so hard on all of his topic and maths activities and Oasis is really proud of the example he sets for the other children. It is great that when Sergi completes his activities he is always keen to help his friends complete their activities too, before he goes to explore the other corners. Ona has also impressed Oasis with how helpful she now is. She is always keen to help Oasis set up the activities in the class. It is also great to see how well Ona is listening to instructions. She is much more focused and keen to complete the activities correctly. Oasis has also been very impressed with how Axel attitude to work has improved. He is now listening more carefully to instructions and Oasis has been really happy with how much effort Axel is making with his work.
Unfortunately, Kai and Cloe haven’t been in school this week. We look forward to seeing them both next week.
The KS1 children (Joana, Thais, Carla, Arlet, Jordi, Marcel and Noa) have also been learning about farm animals. Jo has been really impressed with how much Marcel’s presentation and spelling has improved.  Jo is happy to see that Jordi and Marcel are using the phonics sound they have learnt when spelling and writing about the farm animals they know. Jo has been very impressed with Arlet as she is now independently writing, using her phonics sounds. She is always keen to try and blend together the sounds she knows to write words.
In maths, the children have continued to learn about the numbers 0-20 and the quantities which match to each number.  Jo has been really impressed with Carla as she now recognises and can name each of the teen numbers, when shown to her in random orders. Thais and Joana have also worked really hard to order and recognise the numbers. They are very keen to show their understanding of numbers 0-10 but they just needs to be a little more confident to name the teen numbers in English.
The KS2 children (Blanca, Sofia, Judit, Sara, Sara.B, Nil, Arnau and Tatiana) have also been learning about farm animals. Arnau has done a fantastic job of extending his vocabulary within this topic and he has been keen to communicate his ideas in English. Gabrielle was really proud of how well he completed a descriptive piece of writing about chickens as he used the new vocabulary he had been learning. Judit has also been very focused on our farm animal topic and it has been great to see how motivated she was to find out the names of the baby animals of some more unusual farm animals. She was very surprised to learn that many of the baby animals are called a calf. Blana was very focused on the task of finding out the products each animal gives us on a farm. It really opened her eyes to the jobs that each animal has and she was very keen to speak about how unfair she thought the treatment was of some animals. Sara B was very motivated to find out the names of the different meats which the animals provide. She was very touched when finding a photo of battery chickens and she was keen to find out more information about why the farmers kept the chickens in these conditions.

In maths, we have been learning about quantity. Gabrielle has been really happy with how independently Nil has been working. He was very engaged when writing his own sums and was keen to work out the answers. It was great to see how keen he was to listen and learn the new techniques which Gabrielle showed him. He then used these to help him find the answer. Sara did a great job when matching numbers to their quantities. She enjoyed practising writing the number names and was keen to learn how to pronounce and write all of the numbers to fifty correctly.  Tatiana has been working on fractional quantities. I was very impressed that she was keen to try completing a more difficult activity and she was very motivated to cut out, stick and match the equivalent fractions together.