Bears@taddy

We were delighted to welcome Lorna and John into school this afternoon for a mental health workshop.  The children discussed different ways of looking after their mental health with Lorna and John.                                           They worked as a team to move a hoop around everybody in the circle- without letting go of each other's hands, showing the benefits of working together to help one another. Lorna talked about different emotions we might have and how we can look after ourselves and others when we have these feelings. The children decorated paper plates to demonstrate the feelings they have and drew an example of when they might feel them.         Each child then added a strip of paper to a paper chain to help us to remember that we are united at Taddington and we can help one another. We are so grateful to Lorna and John for helping us this afternoon to understand more about mental health.  

 This week, the Year 1 children have started a new maths topic- numbers to 40. We have been doing lots of counting and number recognition using the 100 square and number line as well as making numbers to 40 using base ten and Numicon.  I've been really impressed with the Bear's attitude. They have been explaining their knowledge to one another and disagreeing well, backing up their thoughts with justifications. Working in pairs- counting in tens first, then ones.                      

 We practised adding in maths this morning. First, children were given a number. They had to throw that number of cones into their first hoop. Then a second number was given, they threw that number of cones into the second hoop. The children then added up the number of cones in both hoops to find the total number of cones. 

We really enjoyed making our Christingles on Tuesday. We learnt about Candlemass and the meaning of the different elements of the Christingle. First, we made holes in the oranges to put the candles into.              We then wrapped the red ribbon around the orange to represent Jesus' blood. We added four cocktail sticks to represent the four seasons and sweets to show the fruits of the world that we have been given. Then added the candle to show Jesus as the light of the World. What a magical Christingle service we had this afternoon. Thank you so much to everyone from our village community who joined us. Thank you to Rev. Adele and our Giraffes for leading the service. 

In our topic, 'Bright Lights, Big City' Tigers and Bears have been learning about physical and human features. On Tuesday afternoon, we did some retrieval practice, remembering our learning about physical features. The children then worked out what they thought human features might be. We looked at a check-list of human features and predicted which ones we would be able to spot in Taddington. We then went on a hunt around the village. We were lucky to have Carol Gregory and Mrs Storey with us who shared lots of their historical knowledge of the village. We were able spot an old pub (as well as the current one), an old post office, an old butchers shop and an old village shop, as well as the old school. The children knew the church was a human feature and talked about the cenotaph as a landmark.