Week Ending 31 March
It has been another busy week in Alfa Romeo and we have enjoyed learning indoors and outdoors, with friends, on our own and with adults. The outdoor shop and sand kitchen have been busy and we have been shopkeepers, customers, bakers and chefs. It is a great way for us to practise our cooperation and communication skills.
During our morning meetings we have been recapping on all that we have learnt in our Ready, Steady Grow topic and we are very good at explaining what can grow from a seed and what it needs to grow. We then looked a famous Italian artist who made pictures from things that grow. We told our partners what we could and then played a game to make our own class version. We later looked at how to keep healthy by eating fruits and vegetables, getting enough sleep, exercising, drinking water and brushing our teeth. E also watched a video about how a dentist also helps to look after our teeth.
In FS2 we looked at practising our number skills and played some subitising games together on the carpet. Did you know that subitising is where you look for patterns to help you know how many things there are rather than count them 1,2,3. We then worked independetly to practise subitising and counting on to work out bigger groups.
It was also the Easter fair this week and everyone in Alfa Romeo helped to decorate some biscuits. We learnt how to wash our hands and sang a little rhyme to make sure they were really clean….”forwards, backwards, in between your fingers”. Next, we cleaned the table and made sure to keep everything clean so that no germs would go on our lovely biscuits. We mixed our own icing and watched how it changed as we added water. We were so good at listening and following instructions as well taking turns with the equipment and sharing the decorations.
Well done Alfa Romeo. Have a wonderful Easter break and we will see you in the new term for more fun and learning.
Week Ending 24 March
Amazing Alfa Romeo,
Another full fun packed week this week. Our book of the week we have read ‘ Rosie’s Walk’ and looked at the animals on the farm and mapped out where Rosie went. In Topic we have seen our seeds grow into small seedlings. This week we brought our bean plants home. We have learnt that they need warmth, sunlight and water and take time to grow. We hope they will continue to grow at home and keep use updated with photos. Outside we have had our own seed shop set up to plant seeds and write labels for the pots. This week we have been learning about life on the farm. We have drawn animals and talked about offspring and have learnt the names of their babies. The tractors have been out, and we created our own tracks and roads for them to travel on.
In English we have continued our book ‘The Extraordinary Gardener’ and found out that Joe’s imagination was wonderful. He planted a seed and watched his plant grow into a seedling and it got bigger and bigger. FS2 had some wonderful words to uplevel ‘big’, we had huge, humongous gigantic, ginormous and even some alien words which we tried to think about of as well. Joe kept planting seeds for his garden and then shared it with others and then the city. The world was full of colour and very vibrant. The children used pastels to create their own wonderful plants and drawings and shared them with the rest of the class. Everyone has learnt so much about seeds growing into beautiful plants.
In Maths we have worked on patterns and continued the sequence. We started the week copying patterns by clapping and following sayings. The children used compare bears, counters, shapes, unfix cubes, giant Lego blocks, plants and natural materials to copy and make patterns inside and outside the classroom. They have great knowledge and understanding.
Music this week the children used the chime bars to listen and copy a song. They also have been practicing a song ready for our express afternoon next week. In PE it was time to practice moving in different ways, ball throwing and skipping. The children have had plenty of opportunity to explore outside in the water tray, sand pit, making their own music, climbing, and creating their own games.
A warm welcome to Miss Howard who has been settling into Alfa Romeo and learning the class routines.
Week Ending 17 March
What an amazing week Alfa Romeo!
In out Topic ‘Ready Steady Grow’ we have been seeing changes with our beans and sunflowers seeds. Some of the seeds now have tiny shoots and leaves. The children have been so excited watching them grow. We have moved our bean experiment and now transplanted them into pots and put them out in the sunshine. We have looked carefully at the changes and drawn some pictures of what has happened. FS1 have been out planting seeds with Mrs Bloomfield in the Quad, they weeded the flower beds and tidied up the area and are going to look after and water them over the next few weeks. In the role play we have started to set up a Garden Centre with seeds to buy and sell. There are a range of fruits, vegetables, seeds and flowers for the children to buy and sell inside the shop. We had a lovely time with FOBS and made a little treat ready for Mother’s Day with perfect links to our Topic. Our Book this week was ‘Handa’s Surprise’ we have looked carefully at the book, re-enacted the story using pictures and props, sequenced and draw some wonderful fruits.
We have noticed that fruit and vegetables are certain colours, but there are not many blue fruits and vegetables. We even have drawn and labels some exotic new fruits which are different colours. We did have fun trying to guess each other’s new fruits and vegetables.
In English we have started a new book ‘The Extraordinary Gardener’. Joe’s world was very dull and boring and this made him very sad. FS2 have invented new plant, animal or creature and written why they are extraordinary. Have you even seen a multi-coloured snake or elephant, and colourful rainbow plant or bunch of flowers? Then Joe sent a letter and we had to write a reply back to him telling us why he should come to our world. The pictures in the book are very exciting and we are all looking forward to reading on and finding out what will happen next in the story.
In Math’s we have been looking at 3D shapes, we have looked carefully at the shapes, been for a walk around the schools’ grounds to see what 3D shapes we could find. We have built a range of small models and described the shapes to a friend, used a key to find the shapes in different pictures and sorted different types of 3D shapes. Outside we have used the building blocks to talk about the properties of 3D shapes and trying to mirror and put them back in place naming the shapes to re-enforce language.
In music the children have listened and sung wonderful tunes and used the triangles to play along with the song. Outside PE has been following instructions to move in different ways through walking, running, hopping, skipping and jumping. We have used our throwing and catching skills to move different sized balls forwards and backwards. Plenty or art and painting has been down, using the vehicles, building castles in the sand and collecting fish in the water. We have completed lots of different puzzles and played games and following instructions very carefully. We learn some new games and played ‘What time is it Mr Wolf?’
Keep up the wonderful work Alfa Romeo!
Week Ending 10 March
What a wonderful start to the term we have had in Alfa Romeo!
This week has been another busy week in Alfa Romeo.
We have continued with our Topic ‘Ready Steady Grow’ and been looking and finding out the difference between plants and weeds. We went out to the quad areas and have tidied up the garden planters ready to plant some seeds and give them time to grow. We have planted some more seed and FS2 have written their own instructions about how to do this. I have to say I am very impressed with how the children are using the writing table to practice their writing. We have spent time looking at seeds such as corn, wheat, rice, lentils, peas, sunflowers and runner beans. We have drawn our own gardens and thought about what plants we would grow and where we would place them and why. We have made wax rubbings of leaves, cones, and tree bark and done some fingerprint flowers. We even tried to pull out a gigantic weed just like the Enormous Turnip.
The children had to look closely at the seeds and observe their shapes, colours and textures. We noticed some seeds have eyes and have different patterns which we then tried to draw. The children loved moving energetically playing the bean game – they were jumping beans, runner beans, broad beans, string beans, chili beans and baked beans.
In English, FS2 finished the book ‘The Tiny Seed’ by writing sentences to explain how seeds blow in the wind, fall to the ground, travel across the desert, seed and grow into a flower. The children have really enjoyed working on their booklets and have captured the story of a seed in full sentences and illustrated their stories. These are now on display on the ‘Work to be proud of wall’.
In Maths, we have been exploring number bonds to 10 using real objects in different contexts. We have used Tens Frame, built bonds with transport and compare bears, combined shapes to total ten with Numicon, been on a Tens hunt and made bonds with pairs of dominoes. A great week looking at Numbers FS2 and learning bonds.
We finished off the week with our joint trip with Ferrari to Christchurch in Naples. We had a wonderful tour inside with Madre Jules and got to look around the church. We talked about the purpose of stained-glass windows and how they showed saints and friend of Jesus, the font and its uses, the pews, the lectern and the organ. Madre Jules told us lots of information and we even asked her questions to help us learn more about a church.
Well done everyone for being Amazing Alfa Romeo
Week Ending 03 March
Well done Alfa Romeo another fantastic week in school.
In topic this week we have read ‘Jack in the Beanstalk’ and ‘Jasper’s Beanstalk’. Both books feature a beanstalk. As the children are familiar with the story, encourage them to join in with repeat refrains, such as ‘Fee-fi-fo-fum’ and we used props in the outside area to retell the tale of Jack in the Beanstalk. Jasper’s Beanstalk help helped us to practise the days of the week and find out what happened to Jasper every day. The children explored how Jasper plants his beans and looks after them. We spoke about how long they think it will take to grow beans. The children have been looking at our plants we planted last week and some of the beans have sprouted and have tiny white shoots. For continued healthy growth, bean plants need water, sunlight, air and warmth. We have looked at pictures and can identify roots, stem and leaves. Earlier on in the week, the children planted two more beans as a science experiment where we have stuck them to the windows in the classroom to see how they grow. Inside we’ve also painted our own leaves and looked how tall we are compared to a giant class beanstalk.
In English the children have re-capped the following graphemes ‘ai, ee, igh’ and this week we have looked at ‘oa, oo, oo (look at a book). We have talked about how big an oak tree can grow especially if it grows form one tiny seed that is housed in the acorn. The children surprised by this, we looked at the trees in the school grounds. In Shared Writing the children put together the pictures in order and using the seeds song in the same way. We created a whole class re-telling in pairs performing sections of the story ‘The Tiny Seed’ and FS2 have both completed some wonderful writing this week about seeds. On Wednesday, Alfa Romeo had to come up with aspirations of what they want to be when they grow up. Everyone has their own unique ideas. The children have been able to practice their writing at the writing table and are really enjoying retelling the story.
In Maths, we have looked at counting small objects looking at 9 and 10. FS2 have compared number s to 10 and are continuing to make comparisons with numbers. The children have learnt new language more items, fewer items and the same number items of another set. We have used plenty of practical ways to showcase our learning.
Yesterday, Alfa Romeo’s costumes were amazing all of the children had a fantastic day celebrating ‘World Book Day’. The teachers and staff started the morning sharing ‘ The day the Crayons Quit’ dressed as crayons. A fun packed day of activities linked to crayons and Alfa Romeo completed beautiful writing with new crayons and drew interesting pictures changing the colours of people, animals and items. Now the white crayon does not feel as empty anymore.
Week Ending 24 February
Well done Alfa Romeo a fantastic first week back after half term!
We have started our new Topic ‘Ready Steady Grow’ which is a food and farming-themed project by showing the children about food and produce. The children talked about which shops they visit with their family, who does the shopping and from which shops they buy their food. It was lovely to make links with the UK and see who remembers supermarkets there. We spoke about food here in Italy and how fruits and vegetables are seasonal and looked at how they smell, taste and colour. We looked carefully at different sized seeds and talked about size, shape and texture. To lanch the topic the children then planted two different sized seeds a bean and a sunflower seed ready to watch them grow. FS1 have been on a walk around schools and looked carefully at plant and weeds, they brough back a lovely collections of items to share with everyone in class and answered some good questions. This week’s story was The Gigantic Turnip by Aleksei Tolstoy. After we listened to the story, talked about characters and sequenced events and looked at root vegetables, including a turnip. Looking at pictures we found out turnips, carrots, potatoes and parsnips are root vegetables that grow under the ground. The children to set up the small world farm and have been talking about the animals, buildings and vehicles which you might see on a farm. In the role play together we have created a ‘Farm Shop and a Café’ where items can be bought, and tea and coffee served. The children have been very artistic and used their fingers to paint some beautiful flowers to brighten up the corridor and talked about petals and leaves on flowers and plants. Today the have used different friuts and vegetables to make prints.
Linked to out Topic FS2 have looked at ‘ The Tiny Seed’ by Eric Carle and for the next couple of weeks we are going to explore the journey of a seed. After planting their seeds we have used the new sounds ‘ ai and igh’ to descrive the journey of the seed. Everyone has been working hard to write insructions about planting a sees. Using pictures from the story we have written a caption and learnt a new song about ‘ Tiny Seeds’ making links with our maths and fifnished the week off with a sound hunt.
In Math’s our new area for learning is using counting principles of 9 and 10, counting forwards and backwards and representing 9 and 10 in different ways. FS2 have been using a tens frame, bead string to subitise 9 and 10. FS2 have been following instructions to jump, hop, skip, take giant and tiny steps of 9 and 10. Our daily number formation is going well and lots of the children are thinking carefully about forming numbers starting at the top.
The class have been very creative outside and some children invented a bus. It was lovely to watch them use the large equipment and work collaboratively to build this together. Today some of the class enjoyed vising the café with a selection of fruits and vegetables. I was even made a lovely mixed smoothie.
On Tuesday, Alfa Romeo dressed up in some fantastic costumes for Carnivale. Alfa Romeo Children have designed and made some beautiful decorative masks.
