Exploring Shape

We re-visited 2D shapes today and we were great at naming and describing them. We decided to work in groups to create some shape pirate ships. We thought carefully about which shapes to use for the different parts of the ship and we all worked really well as part of a team by taking it in turns to talk and listen. We are great Reciprocal Ants!

Exploring Weight!

This week we have been using weighing scales to explore the weight of different objects. We helped Teddy to work out which were his heaviest and lightest possessions so that we could pack his suitcase, ensuring nothing light got squashed. We then used compare bears to weigh and compare each object. We became really confident at balancing the scales! Later on in the week, we discovered that things like suitcases (at the airport) and food are weighed in grams. We looked on food packaging, like Coco-Pops, a box of chocolates, and Pom Bears to find their weight in grams. Then we followed a recipe for chocolate and cherry cookies and used the scales and the grams to help us weigh out the correct amount of sugar, flour, chocolate chips and cherries. The cookies were delicious because we had measured everything accurately using our gram weights and scales. Well done, Redberry!

Getting Ready for Summer!

In Redberry we have really enjoyed the recent hot and summery spell of weather! We decided to design our own t-shirts so that we would have something nice and cool to wear to the beach! Would you buy any of these T-shirts? We think they are very on-trend!

Teamwork in PE Lessons

We enjoyed developing our teamwork skills in a recent PE lesson when we learned how to play 'Stuck in the Mud'. Four children at a time chased us around the hall and, if we got caught, we had to freeze as if we were stuck in the mud! We needed to work as a team by spotting anyone who had been caught and crawling through their legs to free them before the 'chasers' could catch us too! We had a lot of fun and we were great at helping each other! By the end of the lesson our hearts were beating fast, we were hot and sticky, and we felt like a strong team!

Exploring 2D and 3D shapes!

This week we have been exploring 2D and 3D shapes and we are now good at describing the properties of different shapes. We know that 2D shapes are 'flat' and we are great at counting and describing their 'pointy corners' and sides. We also know that 3D shapes are 'fat' and we are now sometimes able to count and describe their faces, and investigate whether they can roll. We went outside and looked for 2D shapes all around the playground. We also used 3D junk modelling to build minibeast hotels! Which shapes can you spot?

STEM Week: We Investigated How Boats Move!

Miss Bassett had some boats in the water tank which she didn't know how to move. We decided to help her by thinking of as many different ways as possible to move them from one side of the tank to the other. Some of us realised that the wind makes boats move, so we blew the boats across the water by puffing up our cheeks and also blowing down straws. We also tried to make waves to carry the boats across the water, by moving and splashing the water with our hands and blowing bubbles with straws. Some of us used paintbrushes which we inserted inside the boats and used to pull the boats around. Finally, some of us tied strings to the boats so that we could drag the boats through the water. We also had some interesting chats about why the boats sometimes sank, and also about how motor boats and cars move! We have been super scientists this week!

Jack and the Beanstalk

This week we have been learning the story of Jack and the Beanstalk and it has inspired our learning in lots of different ways! We really enjoyed measuring beanstalks using non-standard units. First we measured mini beanstalks using cubes, and then we placed the beanstalks in order of height. Then we went outside and drew our own giant plants and flowers and thought of different ways to measure them. Lots of us measured them using our hand prints or footprints! Some of us also built beanstalks and castles using the sticklebricks. Well done, Redberry!

P.E.!

Redberry Class are really enjoying being taught by two professional sports coaches in P.E. at the moment! We have learnt lots of fun new games and we have shown how great we are at working in a team and listening to instructions. After an hour with the coaches, we are always very sweaty and red-faced, and we have noticed how fast our hearts are beating!

Halving Numbers!

This week in maths, we have been consolidating and applying our halving skills. In keeping with our new growing topic, we used some peas (which Miss Bassett said she had picked from the garden!) and wheelbarrows to find out what is half of different amounts. We started off by halving even numbers, and then some of us investigated how to halve odd numbers, by chopping the leftover pea in half!

Ordering Numbers!

Last week, we learned all about Chinese New Year. The dragon could not complete his special Dragon Dance unless we put the numbered parts of his body back in the correct order! Using the iPads to help us, we carefully ordered consecutive and non-consecutive numbers. Well done, Redberry!

Colour Mixing!

We decided that Goldilocks needed a brand new dress but, because we only had red, blue, yellow and white paint, we had to do some colour mixing! We weren't sure what would happen when we mixed the colours but we were excited to find out. We made sure our brushes were clean and dry before we added our first colour to the paint palette. We then washed and dried our brushes again, before adding the second colour to the palette and watching the colours transform! Do you know what happens when you mix red and blue, or yellow and red?

Cooking Delicious Porridge!

This week we have been reading 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears' and we decided to make some porridge of our own. We made sure we washed our hands and put on aprons before we started, so that we didn't spread germs or get our school uniforms dirty! We weighed out our porridge oats very carefully, by using a set of scales and 50g of compare bears. We knew we had enough porridge when the scales were balanced. We then used a measuring jug to measure out the right amount of milk. We mixed it all together, added some sugar to make our porridge as sweet as baby bear's, and cooked it on the hob. We stood well back from the hot oven so we didn't burn ourselves and then we blew on our cooked porridge so that  we didn't burn our tongues either! We thought the porridge was very tasty and we scraped our bowls clean so that there wasn't any left for greedy Goldilocks to steal! Yummy!

Building Houses for the Three Little Pigs

This week we have been reading the story of 'The Three Little Pigs'. We thought about why the big bad wolf was able to blow two of the houses down so easily. Some of the children in Redberry decided to try and build some strong houses for the little pigs' whose houses had been 'huffed and puffed' down! We used a range of different tools to help us! We particularly enjoyed role-playing with the drills and the saws! Would you feel safe from the hungry wolf if you lived in one of our houses?

Enjoying the Outside Area!

We are very lucky because our super TA, Mrs Keeling, and her wonderful husband, Mr Keeling, have recently acquired some tyres for our outside area! We have enjoyed exploring the different ways in which to use them. Some of us have created obstacle courses and we have been trying to move along these without overbalancing. Others have been rolling the tyres and building up our gross motor skills. Some of us have hidden in them during games of hide and seek. And all of us have been having a lot of fun! We have also enjoyed using some of our new water equipment outside (thank you, Miss Woodsend!). We have really had to work together to find ways of transferring water from one tub to another, and we have had to think carefully about how to build waterways which don't leak!

More Measuring!

This week we found a big box of Rudolph's spare antlers. We helped Santa to measure them, using a big box of cubes. We now know that we need to measure from one end to the other and we are great at identifying the 'longest' and 'shortest' objects from a group. Well done, Redberry!

We Love Numeracy!

Redberry have been doing some excellent learning during our daily numeracy sessions. We have recently explored non-standard units of measurement and we enjoyed measuring how long Mrs. Keeling is by carefully lining up some felt-tip pens. Can you guess how many pens long she is? Then we enjoyed measuring each other to find out if we were longer or shorter than one another.

We have also been working on our number recognition and counting out the correct number of tasty treats onto slices of pizza!

Some of us have also even been exploring '1 less than a given number' and taking away. We tried to decorate Christmas trees with pom-pom baubles and a naughty Elf kept stealing some away. We wrote number sentences to find out how many baubles we had left. If you see that cheeky Elf, can you please ask him to give us our baubles back?!

Diwali

We recently enjoyed celebrating Diwali, the Hindu festival of light. We read the story of Rama and Sita and made our own puppets so that we could re-tell it. We also learned how some Hindus (like Jessica on CBeebies) celebrate Diwali, for example: by decorating their hands with Mendhi, lighting Diwa lamps and decorating their doorsteps with beautiful Rangoli patterns. We had a go at making some traditional Diwali sweets (they were so tasty that we gobbled them up before Miss Bassett could take a photo!) and we made our own Diwa lamps. Don't you think they look great?!

Baking Bread

Reading 'The Little Red Hen' story inspired us to bake our own bread. Mrs. Keeling is a super cook and she helped us to make some really yummy bread rolls!

The Little Red Hen

'Froggy Legs' and Handwriting

Recently we have become really good at holding our pens and pencils properly. We make sure we have our special 'froggy legs' ready which help us to grip properly! We have been practising a range of different patterns and letter shapes using pens, pencils, crayons, chalk, magic wands and paintbrushes! We are also becoming experts at writing our own names!