Bears@taddy

 Today, we continued to read our new book 'Weirdo' by Zadie Smith and Nick Laird, where the gift in the story (a Guinee pig) felt like she didn't fit in amongst the other pets at her new home. She decided to change the way she looked in order to be like the other pets- dying her hair, wearing glasses and crafting wings.  The Bears decided that changing herself hadn't made the Guinee pig happy and that it is important that we like who we are rather than comparing ourselves and changing for others. In order to remind themselves and others, the Bears wrote badges prompting them if they ever feel a bit worried that they don't fit in. They wrote on their badges: " I am special."                                          " I am me."                                           ...

All  of our 3D shapes were in a muddle! The Bears were challenged to sort the shapes and place them in the correct group.  They started by using scrubbing brushes, cloths and sponges in soapy water to wash the 3D shapes, feeling the shapes and their corners and sides.     Then they looked at each shape and discussed it's properties, deciding which group it belonged in- cylinder, sphere, cuboid, cube or pyramid.  Thankfully, the shapes are now all sorted!

This week, we have been practising counting on, which is the next progression in addition from counting all, moving us towards using more efficient strategies. We've counted on in lots of different ways We started by counting with 'Tom' the puppet, who started a pattern of numbers and we followed on from him. We also used one hand to show 5 fingers then used our other hand to count on from 5.  Today, we used the tens frame- the frames already had 5 filled in then we rolled a dice to see how many more to add on to the tens frame. The children are very familiar with the tens frame and are picking up patterns of how numbers are made.   We've also played an active game- skipping, hopping, jumping etc. then picking up a domino card, one side having a numeral, the other having dots to count on with.    They added the numbers together by counting on. The children found this was useful as they could 'hold' the numeral in their head before counting on to add the dots. 

 What a fantastic morning the children had, joining with their house teams to enjoy Jubilee crafts.  A huge thank you to Mrs Beswick for organising. She has also been a busy bee baking buns with the Tigers and Bears all week ready for today's decorating. Today, the children did: Watercolour artwork with Mrs Beswick Painting stones to be made into a collective piece of art with Miss Lingard Decorating crowns with Miss Furness Decorating buns with Miss Bellicoso 

  Yesterday morning we were part of something really exciting- a Guinness world record attempt! We joined children from around the country, Katy’s from Strictly Come Dancing and Baez Wynter from TT Rockstars to take part in an attempt to beat the most views of a rolling numbers livestream.  We all went into the hall for 9.30am when the stream started and then took part in a little dance and rolling numbers chant. The previous record was only just over 1000 and yesterday we beat it to make it over 5000!  What a fantastic thing to take part in! 

 The Bears were practicing reading and writing 'er' - 'a better letter' this morning in phonics. They worked in teams to complete an obstacle course in order to pick up an 'er' word. They then read it their partner, who wrote it on their whiteboard.  I was so impressed with how well the Bears applied their phonics knowledge, as well as they way they worked together as a team. They checked their partners sounding out as well as writing and gave valuable feedback to one another. When they'd finished, they counted up how many words they'd completed as a team. Super stuff Bears!

 On Monday afternoon, we conducted an experiment to help us understand hibernation. We know that people have different pets and that they need to be looked after in special ways. We talked about the way that tortoises need to be cared for and in particular how some species hibernate throughout the Autumn and Winter months.  For our experiment, we filled two hot water bottles with the same temperature and volume of water to that it was a fair test. The hot water bottles represented the tortoises- 'Sonic' and 'Scooby Doo'. We then made a 'burrow' by filling a carboard box with soil and bark and then put one 'tortoise' in the 'burrow' and one in a box without soil.     The children then used a timer to check the 'tortoises' every 10minutes to see whose 'body temperature' was the warmest. The recorded their findings on a recording sheet.    After their investigation the Bears found out that the 'tortoise' that was surrounded b...

 The Bears have had a very important job to do this morning- they have been in charge of looking after Margot. The children discussed what dogs need in order to be healthy and made sure that Margot had everything she needs. Margot was given her breakfast by the Bears. She was given treats for sitting and giving her paw. The Bears helped keep her mind active by hiding treats for her to find. They read to her....  ...and they took her for a walk and played fetch with her to give her exercise. The Bears then shared their knowledge of how to look after a dog with the other classes when they took her to visit them.                                                Margot has thoroughly enjoyed her visit to school and really appreciates all the love she's been given. Now to catch up on some zzzzzzzzzz !                   ...