Money square

This week has been an unusual week in the school, due to most of the children and teachers being struck down with a horrible sickness virus. I hope that everyone is now feeling better and feeling energised ready for the last few weeks of school.

The EYFS children (Kai, Nico, Sergi, Cloe, Ona, Ivet, Luke, Julien, Katie and Carla) have begun looking at money. Through immersive learning they have practised playing the role of shop keeper, organised and looked closely at both Spanish and English currency, created price tags by rubbing coins and practising their number recognition and formation when writing on the price tags. Kai really enjoyed separating the money and noticing the patterns of the images on each of the coins, such as the Queens head on the English coins! Sergi loved making price tags for the flowers in our 'garden centre'. He used different colours and enjoyed rubbing coins to trace their patterns. He is really improving his recognition of different numbers, as he proved when telling his customers the cost of things in the shop!  Cloe worked really hard to understand the difference between 'cheap' and 'expensive' things, as we collectively divided items such as an apple, a pencil, a camera and a phone into groups of their worth. Once she understood that the size doesn't equal to bigger worth she grasped the concept well! Ona responded fantastically to our shop role play. She clearly used the phrase, “please can I have..." correctly understanding how to structure and change the sentence, dependent on what she wanted to buy. Gabrielle was really proud of her, as this phrase is very useful and can be transferred to everyday, classroom situations, such as asking for water!

The children have also continued to learn about the growth of plants; focusing on which fruits and vegetables grow under and which grow above the ground. Ivet was very focused when painting a large piece of paper. She was keen to be involved in painting both the ground and the sky I’m te display. She then worked hard to think about whether she needed to stick the vegetables above or below the ground. Ivet thought really carefully but still  finds this concept a little tricky. We will keep discussing this and providing activities to help her understand this.

In phonics time, Nico was fantastic! We focused on the 'n' sound this week and Nico worked at such a high level, as he was able to think of other words that begin with this letter sound. He drew clear pictures of his ideas and helped his class friends to think of different words, such as: 'nature', 'nest' 'Natalie' and 'night'. 

Unfortunately, Carla, Katie and Julien weren’t in school very much at all this week, as they were feeling poorly. I hope they all feel better and are well enough to join us next week. We also hope to see Luke back next week, after his long holiday in Lithuania. We all miss you, Luke!

The KS1 children (Jordi, Arlet, Carla, Marcel, Joana, Thais and Noa) have been working on counting on 5’s. After working very hard the previous week on 2’s and 10’s, they already had a good understanding of how to count, using a sequence. Arlet, initially found the concept of counting in 5’s difficult but with the help of her give fingers and the pictures of hands, which Jo provided, she was able to count up and correctly cut out and stick the multiples of five in the correct order. Arlet then became more confident and was able to write out the sequence of numbers, with only a little support.

In our topic, the children have also continued to learn about the growth of plants. They enjoyed spending time in the garden; identifying and drawing the plants to show whether they grow above or below the ground. I was very impressed with how well Jordi recorded the vegetables and the understanding he has of where different fruits and vegetables grow. He drew them accurately, with a small part of the leaves sticking above the ground. He then independently wrote the name of each fruit  or vegetable, using his phonics sounds to help him. I am really impressed with how much his writing is improving. Well done Jordi! When creating a display for the classroom, Joana and Thais were very focused when colouring the fruits and vegetables. It  was great to see how keen Thais was to colour each vegetable the correct colour. I  was also very impressed with how much plant related vocabulary Thais has learnt. She was the first person to say the name of each fruit and vegetable vegetables and she was correct every time. It is great to see Thais speaking so confidently in English. When focusing on the different scents which flowers and plants have, it was great to see the enthusiasm Noa had to find plants. She carefully smelt each plant and thought carefully about where to stick each of the flowers, depending on how strong their scent was. I was so proud of Noa in this lesson as she was super confident to speak lots of English, as she was keen to share her ideas about the different plants.  

Unfortunately, Carla and Marcel weren’t in school very much this week as they felt too poorly. I hope they are feeling much better and are able to join us again next week.

The KS2 children (Arnau, Nil, Tatiana, Pau, Judit, Blanca, Sofia, Sara B and Sara) have been working on money, with a focus on solving money problems. Sara B and Judit worked really hard to add different amounts of money together, using a money square. It was a great opportunity for the girls to practise the column addition method and to see the confidence they had to add decimal numbers. This is definitely a skill we need to keep working on but I was really proud of the girls’ independence and concentration when completing the activity. Arnau did a great job of adding together different amounts of money as a way from him to buy different items, shown ln the list. He was very confident to use the column addition method and it was lovely to see him so confident to work out the answers and then turn to his friends to try to help them. Nil was also excellent at solving money problems. It was great to see that he had the confidence to both add together different prices and also to complete subtraction sums as a way to work out how much change he would need. Although Tatiana was only with us towards the  end of the week, I was very impressed with how well she was able to identify British coins. She then effortlessly added the different amounts together and worked out the total price. I was very impressed with your confidence, Tatiana. Pau was ill at the beginning of the week and because of this he found it more difficult to access our maths topic this week. He found the money problem solving difficult, especially when solving problems, using double operations. However, as always, I am proud of the determination Pau shows to complete and correct his work, even when finding it difficult.  Well done Pau!

For our plant topic, the children have continued to prepare their projects about Spanish plants, in preparation for our end of year presentation. I have been really impressed with Sofia and Sara’s teamwork skills when preparing the project. They initially found working together very difficult and they found it hard to compromise about their ideas. However, towards the end of the week, it was a real pleasure to watch them working together. They are now recognising the importance of listening to each other’s ideas. Due to their great teamwork, they have now produced a fantastic project, which they both feel proud of.

Blanca was only able to join us at the end of the week, due to her being ill. However, when returning, she was super keen to help us prepare for the protest we had on Thursday. She worked hard to decorate our banner and was keen to do the best job she could. I was also very proud of how well Blanca read at the protest. She was very confident and sure of what she was saying and was determined to let everyone know just how much she loves her school.

Thank you to everyone that supported us during the protest this week. It was a great atmosphere and a brilliant way to show the people of Mataró what a fantastic school we are!

Bar graphs

This week the EYFS children (Nico, Kai, Sergi, Katie, Carla, Ivet, Cloe, Ona, Julien and Luke) have been working on data collection in maths! From tallying things we see in our surrounding  to creating bar graphs of eye colours in the class; they have responded very well to the activities! Kai did a wonderful job drawing five different coloured eyes and he then created a tally to show the results of the different coloured eyes in the class. When creating graphs, Sergi showed his impressive ability to colour neatly and accurately between the lines. When questioned about the results in his graph, he also answered questions well and showed that he had a good understanding of how to read and comprehend a graph. Katie loved hunting around the garden to find the items on her activity sheet. She was very confident to record her findings, using a tally chart and she clearly understood hOeOe to record the results in groups of five; correctly using the tally method.

Our topic of plants has continued, and this week we were looking more into the plants we eat. Nico was particularly impressive as we categorised the plants we eat into flower, seed, root and leafed fruit and vegetables. He could independently notice the distinction. Carla was wonderful as we worked through riddles about plants that we eat, listening for their descriptions and often answering first. Ivet is responding so well to the new songs that we´ve been learning about plants.. She particularly enjoys those with actions and is getting better and better at keeping up with the pace of the song. Cloe impressively identified all of the colours of flowers that she saw in a documentary all about plants. She was very confident and independent when saying the colour names in English. Julien was very engaged and concentrated when collaging a sun for our presentation at the end of the term. He sat peacefully and enjoyed the activity a lot. Ona responded very well to our plant hunt and recognised all of the flowers and plants that she needed to find in the garden, such as dandelions, clovers, and daisies.

Luke is still spending time with his family in Lithuania. We miss him and look forward to welcoming him back soon.

The KS1 children (Jordi, Arlet, Marcel, Carla, Thais, Joana and Noa) have been revising the 10's and 2's in maths. Arlet and Marcel have really started to understand the different number patterns and could confidently order all the way up to 200 in 10s and 50 in 2's. Jordi, Noa, Thais, Joana and Carla are getting more and more confident with theirs tens, going as high as 100 independently.

Within our plant topic we have been focusing on the needs of plants., particularly the four main things which a plant needs: water, sun, air and soil nutrients. They have done so well to remember all of the things a plant needs. They can also now name the parts of the plant. They worked so well as a team to create a class display, whereby they all contributed some writing and creative input. I was so impressed with the result! They did such a good job working together and in their team groups; earning themselves lots of beads for their pots!!

The KS2 children (Judit, Sara B, Blanca, Sofia, Tatiana, Arnau, Nil, Pau and Sara) have been working on data collection in maths this week. Nil really impressed me with the ability he had to read and comprehend information in a table. Everyday he completed his work confidently and independently and was then keen to complete some challenge work. It was great to see him so confident as he developed the role of the teacher; helping the other children on his table to complete their work. Tatiana also had a good understanding of how to extract information from a table and it was great to see how focused and independent she was when answering the data collection questions. I am very proud of how well Tatiana and Arnau have worked as a team this week. They initially found it difficult working together but I was particularly impressed by how keen Arnau was to complete his work first so that he could then help Tatiana with hers. Great teamwork, keep it up!

In our plant topic, the whole class have enjoyed taking part in plant hunts around the school and also in the park in Matarò. It was a pleasure to see how engaged and enthusiastic the children were when drawing and writing down the plants they had found. I was particularly proud of the comma list Sara created. Sara was keen to record the plants nearly and she was very focused on ensuring that she put commas between each plant and she then consistently included an end at the end of each line of plants, which she had recorded. I was also very impressed by Sara B’s focus on our plant hunt in the farm. Sara was keen to record every plant which she saw and then when returning to school she independently researched the names of each of the plants in English, using our plant book and her tablet. Sara was very keen to be accurate and she created a great comma list of all the plants she had found. When further researching different and typical plants, which grow in Spain, it was great to see how concentrated Pau was when answering questions about the climate and conditions which plants are most suited to when living in Spain. Pau didn’t find it easy to answer the questions but he was very determined and didn’t give up. When starting our presentation project, about plants in Spain, it was great to see how well the children worked to find out information about the plants. The children had to work in  teams to create their presentation. Sofia initially found it very difficulty to work in a team and compromise on the ideas each of the people in the group had. However, after recognising that her team weren’t progressing well with their project, Sofia took the initiative to organise her group. It was great to see the patience she had when speaking to her team mates. She was very sensitive of everyone’s ideas and was keen to ensure that everyone was happy with the way in which the project was presented and the information which would be included. I  was great to see how mature and cooperative Sofia was. Well done!

Blanca and Judit started completing their real SAT’s exams this week. Although they have been super nervous and scared to complete their exams, I have been really proud of how they have approached the tests and have completed them with confidence. Keep it up next week, girls!

Topic of plants

This week has been a difficult week for parents, children and staff as we have been fighting to keep our school open  I am really proud of how well the children have coped with having people taking photos and videos of them working in the classroom and doing activities on the farm. They had a well deserved treat in the swimming pool to reward them for being so mature and sensible during the time the camera people were there. They still worked really hard and were focused well in their class activities. Well done everyone!

This week the EYFS children  (Carla, Ona, Katie, Ivet, Cloe,  Nico, Sergi, Julien, Kai and Luke) have been looking closer at patterns of colours, numbers and shapes. Carla loved making a bracelet to consolidate what she learnt the previous week of patterns. She understood the sequence of up to 5 different colours, and had her own pretty bracelet to take home, too.

We have also been looking at our class topic of plants. Katie did such a great job at tracing plant related words, she didn´t need any assistance and her hand is getting steadier and steadier. She has also loved learning a new song that we´ll perform in the new presentation, all about the growth of plants from a seedling to a flower! Ivet got very involved in our class collage of a watering can and water drop for a classroom display. She cut up small pieces just as I had asked and really enjoyed sticking them as she liked! Cloe loved our scavenger hunt through the garden. She spotted all the different coloured flowers, trees of different shapes and sizes and insects that we were looking for. She´s becoming more and more confident to speak aloud and showing how well she is absorbing vocabulary.  Ona has really taken on board the progress of growing. She has loved watching our class bean growing; taking in the vocabulary of all the parts of a plant and she understood the order of sequences in a plants growth.

In phonics time,  Gabrielle was very impressed with Nico’s ability to read. She is also impressed daily with how able he is to sound out the letters and pronounce the words. He is often the winner in our phonics card game, remembering so well the names of the objects. During the handwriting lesson, Gabrielle was also very impressed with Sergi, as he was able to trace his own name. He then identified the letters amongst the rest of the alphabet to add to the page, and freely decorated it with imaginative patterns! During our art session, it was great to see how much more confident Kai now is to draw. He was very concentrated and created a very nice, colourful mouse to put in our class house.

On Friday we also welcomed back our friend, Julien.  After a month in his home country ( Germany) he slipped back into the routines well,  particularly  reading a book titled, ´”can I eat that”, which  was all about the origins of food and plants!

Luke is still in Lithuania with his family but we look forward to seeing him back soon  and hope he is having a lovely time with his family.

The KS1 children (Noa, Carla, Joana, Thais, Marcel, Jordi and Arlet) have also been learning about plants this week. They have been able to verbalise in English what the different parts of a plant  are They all created a lovely little booklet and tried sounding out the letters to spell each component! They all tried their very best!  The group have also been discussing what a plant needs to grow. They have  have learnt that plants need sun, soil, air and water. They have done lots of work to help them remember this.

In maths, the children have continued to work on sequences of numbers and have spent the week learning how to count in tens. Jordi, Arlet and marcel were quick to understand this concept and were even given extra challenges, which they found difficult.  However they all kept asking for help when they needed it and they didn’t give up until they completed their challenges. Joana, Thais, Carla and Noa are now starting to recognise and verbalise some multiples of 10 and they are now able to order the multiples to 100 correctly. 

The KS2 children (Arnau, Tatiana, Nil, Sara, Sara B, Judit, Blanca, Sofia and Pau) have been learning all about data collection in maths. I was particularly impressed with how well Sara B grasped the concept of a tally chart. She was so concentrated when researching the names of different plants. She then confidently questioned all of the children and teachers about their favourite plants’. Sara B then independently and accurately created a tally chart to show her results. Well done Sara B! When working on our charts, it was great to see the confidence which Sara hard to understand pie charts. She was able to independently comprehend the information within  the pies and it was lovely to see how happy she was to be able to help her friends, who were finding the concept more difficult. When creating bar graphs to represent their data about the class’ favourite plants, I  was really impressed with the perseverance of Nil and Pau. They both found the concept of creating the graph difficult but they were keen to listen to my advice and make the necessary corrections to ensure that their graphs were correct and accurate. Both boys had a good understanding of the information their graphs showed and could correctly answer questions about the data they had collected.

In topic, the children have also been learning about plants. We have focused on the concept of photosynthesis. Arnau and Tatiana were very focused when completing a cutting and sticking activity of photosynthesis. They both correctly identified that plants need carbon dioxide, water and sunlight to create food for the plant. They confidently identified and stuck each element in the correct place and could explain the process of photosynthesis really well, when questioned. Sofia has been really keen this week. She understand photosynthesis really well and was keen to complete challenge work. She was able to read a comprehension and answer some complicated scientific questions, with only a little help. Well done, Sofia! Judit and Blanca have also worked really hard to understand the concept of photosynthesis. They both wrote fantastic information to show what they had learnt about plants this week. Judit even bravely read all of the information she had written as the film crew filmed her. You did a great job!

Thank you to all of the parents for your support this week. Look forward to seeing you all next week and hoping for a calmer week ahead. 

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!