Watlington Primary School
Watlington Primary School
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Presentation for NEW parents July 2024
Healthy Start information
The Hedgehogs and Robins have had such a happy day today. Beach Party 2024! More photos to come...
Thank you so much to our special friend living in Australia - Aunty Sarah! The children loved watching her presentation and hearing all about living in Australia. We have been inspired by her to learn about Australian animals and have enjoyed reading 'There's an Ouch in My Pouch' by Jeanne Willis and Garry Parsons today! The children voted for this story using their photos.
Thank you to our super mystery readers! The children cheer when we tell them that we’ve a mystery reader visiting. Please sign up if you can...it’s makes their day!
We visited the art gallery today and were very proud of our rainbow art work based on Alma Thomas's. We also enjoyed looking at the other classes work.
It is Art Week this week! We are learning about the artist Alma Thomas and how she enjoyed painting rainbow patterns. Watch this space for our own designs. Today we turned into scientists and used our thinking and guessing skills. We wondered what might happen if we dip white flowers into coloured water using food colouring and paints. We also 'guessed' what might happen when we added water to rainbow coloured sweets. Look at the patterns we made...there was a lot of sticky fingers!
Early Years Olympics. We were so proud of how you all enjoyed sports day today. You tried your best and worked really well in teams. Well done.
We had a French Cafe today as our resident Lettie the Lemur speaks French because she comes from Madagascar! We listened to which instruments we could hear and pretended to play accordions as you can hear these in French music.We ate chocolate brioche and croissants! Delicious! Ask us what 'hello' and 'thank you' is in French!
We went on our final trip of the year to visit our favourite gardeners and their beautiful allotment! We picked broad beans, lettuce, asparagus, strawberries and raspberries. We then enjoyed some for our snack and took beans home for our dinners - delicious! Thank you so much for having us...again!
We enjoyed building exploring Forest School and building treehouses Lettie the Lemur!
The Lemurs travel in a hot air balloon - we concentrated carefully as we helped each other build hot air balloons
Creating our story map of 'How to Lose a Lemur'
We have made a train out of loose parts for our friend Lettie the Lemur. She drives a train in our new story 'How to lose a lemur'
Thank you to our kind friends who donated lots of new small world toys for us to enjoy - we love them!
Investigating Mr Shaw's compost! We spoke about how compost was made and what food we can add in to make compost. Ask us about it!
There is no stopping our Robins from protecting planet Earth - well done for collecting all that litter. We have even heard that some of the Robins' families have been litter picking too. Amazing!
Some of the Robins have recently practised eating their lunch in the hall along with the Hedgehogs. Well done Robins!
The Robins visited Watlington library today. We enjoyed sharing story books, talking about what we see and think. The children used the story bag puppets to reenact 'The Tiger Who Came to Tea'. They behaved so well that they all recieved a sticker at the end of the session! Well done Robins! On the way back we focussed on staying safe as we crossed the road. We have learnt a new song to remind us to cross the road safely.
Stop, Look and Listen song - have a go at singing it together every time you're about to cross the road!
We have been looking after planet Earth by caring for the plants that we have planted and picking up any litter we spot.
Compost Superheroes have landed! They swoop in to scoop up our fruit peels and away they fly to our compost bins! We are keeping an eye on all the mini beasts we are feeding inside the bin too!
Playing with each other and learning on the way!
We have been working as a team this week building obstacle courses and sharing the tea set in the water tray. The Robins have done really well at remembering to say kind words and use gentle hands. Well done Robins!
We have planted potatoes in a bag inside old car tyres that we have recycled. Thank you to the kind family who gave the potatoes to us.
We have been thinking about which bins to put our rubbish in! It is important to try to recycle our plastic, paper and metal if we can.
We have had a lovely first week back. Playing together, making new friends, looking after the tadpoles, starting our new special story about caring for Planet Earth and painting Earth with balloons! Well done Robins!
We think the Giant might have smelt our baking!! The Robins were captivated by whether the Giant was climbing or down!
As part of STEM Week we were lucky enough to have Rebecca, who is a vet and her dog visit us. She showed us what happens when a dog has an operation. She also showed us how dogs brush their teeth. The Robins asked her questions. Ask them what they found out.
We are learning about life cycles and what happens to tadpoles and caterpillars. Ask us about what we know.
Thank you to Kirsty and Josh for welcoming us to their allotment and letting us harvest rhubarb which we used to make tasty crumble. We also helped to plant different vegetables. We are so lucky to be able to do so.
We have measuring how long objects are including our super beans. We also talked about which caterpillar was longer and shorter. What can you measure at home?
Making a trap to catch the Giant when he climbs down the beanstalk!
We have been wondering how else our magic beans might grow as our entry into Science Oxford 'Big Science Event' competition. The Robins are being good scientists - using our 'looking eyes' to observe and 'thinking brains' to guess ("predict") what will happen. Some of us have planted our beans in playdough, mud, sand (dry and wet!), milk and just water! Let's see what happens next!
World Book Day 2024! Well done to Robins who wore fantastic outfits - especially the teachers! Thank you to the older children who came and read stories to us too.
Today we enjoyed playing the Bean game up in the Hall! Maybe you could play it at home. Baked beans were our favourite! Ask me to show you! We also talked about how our bodies felt after running around (runner beans!) and learnt that our heart is like a big pump - pumping our blood around our bodies. We also spoke about how exercise is very good for our bodies as it helps our hearts work better!
Taking care of our beans - they're growing!
We are going to be learning about how plants grow and what they need to do so. To help us think about our special story 'Jack and the Beanstalk' we have planted some magic beans....
Spring is almost here. We are freshening up our art gallery by painting daffodils.
Drawing underneath a table brings in the crowds! It is really good for children's gross motor skills and builds up their core strength. Have a go!
We've made pancakes in the mud kitchen! Ask us what ingredients we used.
This term, Jerry Cat has asked us to think about how to keep ourselves healthy. To start with, we have drawn around our bodies in order to help us name all the different parts. (We also drew around Jerry!)
Term 4 started in style by celebrating Chinese New Year! It is the year of the dragon! We read a story to find out why the new year is named after an animal. We also celebrated by trying / eating noodles, sweet and sour sauce, prawn crackers, water chestnuts and bamboo shoots. They were tasty!
We have been working on our counting and number skills
We ended Term 3 with Children's Mental Health Week and we 'dressed to express' ourselves! We've used our new Colour Monster toys to continue to talk about how we are feeling daily. To finish Kitchen Disco on a high, we had a disco!
Thank you to the Undercroft and Watlington Co-op for welcoming us all. We thoroughly enjoyed our walk up to the High Street to find and and taste healthy food!
We've had lots of fun pretending to be dentists this week! We have inspected each others' teeth, dressed up as dentists and dental nurses and read lots of books about visiting the dentist. Have you been to the dentist recently? We will be checking! (Also ask us what bacteria does on our teeth...this is our favourite fact of all!)
We have taken part in the Big Schools' Birdwatch 2024 this week. We made a bird hide and had to try to keep quiet! Ask us what types of birds we saw and how many we counted.
We have been pretending to be hairdressers this week! There has been lots of laughing!
We have enjoyed a very healthy morning today by walking to the library and finding lots of different books to look at and talk about. Once we got back we enjoyed tasting different fruits such as passion fruit, sharon fruit, grapefruit, melon and pineapples...some of which star in this terms special book 'Kitchen Disco'. There were lots of empty plates! Maybe you can try different fruits at home.
Night explorers was fantastic - thank you so much to everyone who helped to set up and attended. Thank you to Al and Mary (Mr and Mrs Owl as we call them!) from 'Al's Owls' - available for fetes, parties and dos! We all loved meeting Finlay and Hazelnut. Well done to all those brave enough to hold them.
Happy New Year to all Robins and your families!
We hope you've had a lovely break and are feeling happy and healthy for the term ahead.
Thank you for all our wonderful cards, pressies and warm wishes...you are all very kind.
We are looking forward to Term 3.
Please remember our Night Explorers event on Tuesday 16th January at 4.30-5.30pm - looking forward to seeing as many of you as possible there.
Have a lovely, peaceful(!) holiday everyone.
It's Christmas party everyone! We loved the game 'Sleeping elves!'
The Gingerbread people secretly came to play!!
We hunted high and low for clues in order to find the Gingerbread people!
Thank you to St Leonard's Church for putting on a beautiful Xmas tree festival and letting us visit.
Well done Robins - you were awesome! You sang beautifully, you sat and remembered all the actions wonderfully and you looked fabulous! Thank you to parents/carers for their costumes and for joining us today.
Christmas fun...
We are SO excited about our Nativity 'The Christmas Star' tomorrow. Our dress rehearsals have gone brilliantly - the Robins are singing their hearts out and we are all very proud of them! Please come along and watch.
The Gingerbread House has been built, we have been talking a lot about what happens during the story and using sequencing language such as 'then' and 'next' and 'after'. Ask your Robin to tell you their version of the story.
We adored watching Aesop's Theatre's play of The Gingerbread Man. It was an excellent show and perfect for the Robins and Hedgehogs. We laughed and laughed, joined in singing nursery rhymes and shouted 'he's behind you", whenever we saw the naughty fox!
James the travelling bear has already been on lots of adventures with the Robins - talk to your child about what he has been up to. Thank you to everyone so far for looking after him so well!
Road Safety Week. What an exciting adventure we have had today! The Robins have been practising crossing roads safely - using 'looking eyes' and 'listening ears'. After walking to the library last week, today we went out to practise our skills again. As the Robins did so well, we decided to pop into The Granary for a well deserved treat. The Robins used excellent manners when paying for their treat and sat beautifully waiting for their turn to go to the counter and order. On the way back to school we counted Xmas trees and recognised numbers on house front doors. Well done Robins, we are so proud of you! Please practise crossing the road safely with your families now. Grown ups - please encourage your child to show you what they are learning.
As part of our Term 2 Jigsaw programme 'Celebrating Difference', here are some supporting questions for you to talk with your child at home.
Eat the Rainbow! Please check your child's bags this week as they are bringing this challenge home for you all to do!
Today we have spent a wonderful morning exploring Watlington Library. Please go as families and use the library - it is free and so well resourced! The children loved sharing books with each other plus with a Gruffalo, Moomin and a chicken! Thank you to Anna who met us there and to Mrs Shaw for organising it. We will definitely visit again soon.
We talked together about the Poppy Wreaths and who we remember.
Our new special story this term is 'Whatever Next' by Jill Murphy. We have been talking about space and know lots of facts already! We have made some deliciously healthy fruit rockets and even built a space station too! It is so exciting. Ask all Robins about it!
We have been learning about the celebration of Diwali. We danced to music, designed rangoli patterns and made Diva lamps.
Useful Web Links for Learning at Home
We have spent a wonderful morning at our favourite allotment this morning. Thank you to Kirsty and 'Uncle Tom' for showing us all the vegetables that have grown and for helping us to plant garlic and beans. We loved helping to pick the carrots, beetroot and leeks! Also, guess who we bumped into there! Yes - James the travelling bear!!
Baking apple and blackberry crumble with Mrs Shaw - the best baker in town! We found out what ingredients were to be used and counted how many spoonfuls we needed. Afterwards we spoke about the order in which we made the crumbles. They tasted delicious! Perhaps the Robins can tell someone at home how to make a crumble!
This week the Robins have enjoyed making potions out of natural materials, playing 'Duck, Duck, Goose!' talking about how ice melts, driving cars around Watlington(!), pouring and filling using measuring cylinders and holding tea parties for their friends.
We have enjoyed our first toast cafe this term. We have been practising using a knife to spread and cut with.
Outdoor Learning Day - we have been as busy as bees today! We have planted bulbs, make delicious bird feeders, been bird watching and ultimately had a very happy day together. Maybe you could do some of these outdoors activities at home together.
Leaf printing
Here we are - working as a team, making playdough!
Our first visit to Forest School this year!
Strengthening our finger muscles by engaging with our 'Funky Fingers' activities. Many of these activities can be easily initiated at home and are good fun for children and adults alike!
Exploring musical instruments together. The Robins are practising to become excellent listeners and also musicians!
Thinking about how to brush our teeth. A LOT of toothpaste was involved!
Playing families and constructing homes...even for our farm animals!
We have had a lovely few days as a new Robins class. Well done everyone!
