Presentation of projects May 2017

The EYFS children (Kai, Sergi, Luke, Julien, Katie, Andrés, Nico, Cloe, Ivet, Carla and Ona) have been focusing this week on the story of Goldilocks, whilst also consolidating their understanding of the stories of Cinderella and Goldilocks and The Three Bears. When doing a hunt around the farm to find characters and objects from each of the three stories, Sergi was very enthusiastic and keen to lead the others to each part of the farm and he was very confident to say the names of each of the things on the pictures, in English. When returning to the classroom, Katie and Ona did a great job of organising the pictures and putting them with the corresponding stories. They were confident to say what the pictures showed and which story they belonged to. When learning the song, ‘Three Brown Bears’ for the presentation, it was great to see how involved Cloe and Ivet were and how they tried so hard to sing the words and do the actions correctly. They were watching  teachers intently and were keen to be involved in the song.

In art, we have been focusing on creating our mouse mansion and also designing rooms for the house in our classroom. Kai enjoyed getting involved, when creating a pond and grass area for our class house. He was very focused and keen to listen to instructions. He then helped a lot to find materials and stick the correct colours on the pond and grass. In music, Carla understood the concept of pitch really well. She was able to correctly identify high, low and middle pitches and use the appropriate move for each pitch, when hearing it on the glockenspiel. She then worked really hard to use the beaters to correctly hit the different bars on the instrument, to lead the game for her friends.

When introducing the story of The Gingerbread Man, the children enjoyed designing a bridge for the gingerbread man to use to cross the river. They were given a range of materials and had to think about which would make the strongest bridge and how they would join the material to the wooden blocks. I was very impressed with both Nico and Andrès as they both thought of very original ideas and created unique bridges. Nico decided to push sticks through the plasticine to create a stable structure. He then used velcro  to attach his bricks to the wooden  blocks. He made three bridges and the gingerbread man was able to cross successfully, using two of his bridges. Andrès also thought of a unique idea of using lollipop sticks, joined together with plasticine. He then used a peg to try and attach the bridge to the wooden blocks. His bridge ended up collapsing but I was very proud of how he thought it through and tried to create a stable bridge.

Unfortunately, Luke and Julien have not been with us again this week. We miss them and hope to see them back next week.

The KS1 children (Carla, Noa, Marcel, Arlet, Jordi, Joana and Thais) have also been working hard to prepare for their presentation. Arlet did a fantastic job and was very perseverant when practising reading the Cinderella story. She did such a fantastic job in the presentation. I was very proud of how well she read. Thais was also keen to read a full sentence and Jo was really impressed by how concentrated she was on practising the sentence.

In phonics time, Thais has developed much more motivation this week to practise reading and is making a great improvement with the phase 2 phonics sentences which we are reading   Carla has also developed her concentration when reading. She is trying so hard to read the sentences and Jo is really pleased to see that she is now developing her concentration and focus when completing activities.

In maths, the children have been learning about repeating colour and shape patterns. Jo was very impressed with Marcel and the ability he has to complete more complicated, repeated  colour and shape patterns. He was confident to continue Jo’s patterns but was then able to independently create his own. Well done Marcel, you were very concentrated. When working on colours, I was impressed to see how well Noa and Joana were able to read the names of each of the colours. They were then able to correctly select the colours for each part of the rainbow. They was able to colour each part independently and even correctly identified the difference between indigo and violet.

When writing, the children have been focusing  on the concept of capital letters; thinking about when they should be used. We have started by focusing on the children’s names, encouraging them to recognise that we only need a capital letter at the beginning and not in the middle of their names. Jordi initially found this concept really difficult and was repeatedly writing capital letters in the middle of his name. However, he listened really carefully to Jo and was keen to write his name correctly. After lots of practise, he now understands this concept and is working hard to remember when writing his name independently. Well done for not giving up, Jordi!

The KS2 children (Judit, Sara B, Sara, Blanca, Sofia, Sira, Arnau, Tatiana, Nil and Pau) have also been working hard to prepare for the presentation. I was really impressed by Sofia and Sara B’s determination and enthusiasm when drawing the pictures to illustrate their stories for the presentation. They were both keen to draw pictures to show what was happening in every part of their story. They are so determined to do a good job, they spent most of their free time at lunch time drawing to ensure that they were ready for the presentation. The pictures looked great girls, well done! In preparation for the presentation, the children have been practising reading their stories aloud. I am so impressed with the confidence Arnau has gained when reading aloud. When practising, he was really focused and keen to do a good job and it was great to see that he is now much more confident when performing in front of his friends. Sira also really impressed me with her reading. She has developed such confidence to read in English and I am amazed by how quickly she is learning and using the language to read and write. You are working so hard Sira, keep it up! In our reading comprehension lessons, we have been focusing on different traditional tales, such as Jack and the Beanstalk, The Gingerbread Man, The Enormous Turnip and Little Red Riding Hood. I was very impressed by how keen the children were to read the stories and complete the comprehension questions. I was particularly happy with Tatiana, as she worked so hard to help her table mates to read and understand the questions. It was lovely to see her so focused on her work and to see her working so nicely with others. Keep it up, Tatiana.

In maths, we have been learning about tesselation. Nil has been very focused when drawing the different shapes and he was really keen to ensure that he drew each of the shapes to the correct scale. He found the concept of tessellating  the shapes more difficult but after completing a tessellating shape  hunt around the farm, he began to understand the concept and could spot the different quadrilateral shapes, which tessellated within the environment. Although Sara was only with us at the beginning of the week, she also enjoyed completing the shape hunt and she was super motivated when spotting a tessellating pattern on the teacher’s cabin, which  was made from an irregular shape. Pau really impressed me this week with his knowledge and understanding of mathematical vocabulary. As part of his extension work, Pay was able to correctly label the different quadrilateral shapes, dependant on their angles, parallel lines and sides. He managed to complete the activity mostly independently and it was great to see him enjoying his challenge work.

Blanca and Judit have been working really hard; preparing for their SAT’s exams. I was really proud of how well they did on the mental arithmetic rest and it is great to see that they are now working more quickly and confidently when answering the questions. Keep it up girls, you are doing a great job!