2A

This week was our last week together before the Easter holidays. Because of this, we did lots of fun Easter activities, including making crafts for our hampers and lots of yummy cooking. We had an excellent egg-lympics on Friday, completing tasks like bunny hop race and an egg and spoon race, as well as an egg hunt around the class, practicing our instruction following as well as directional knowledge. We read lots of Easter themed books, including: We’re going on an egg hunt, Peter Rabbit’s Easter surprise, Easter parade, and The Great Egg-scape.

We’ve had a lot of fun in science this week, making an egg zip line, completing an egg sink or float experiment, and even making our very own bath bombs.

We hope you have a lovely Easter and enjoy your well deserved break.

See you in two weeks for an exciting, new term.

This week we looked at flowers and growth in class 2. We planted and dissected our own flowers to investigate the different parts of a plant. We also made ‘rainbow veggie’ pizzas and flower decorated biscuits. We explored the garden again to see what different flowers and other plants we could find. We learned about bees and how flowers start growing by playing a bee pollination game with pompoms.

In PE we have been looking at basket ball skills, practicing our throwing and catching skills as well as our dribbling skills. We even worked in pairs and took turns very well.

Next week we will have lots of fun exploring Easter through lots of fun activities and crafts.

This was our first week back together as a full class! Well done everyone for your hard work and for looking after your friends that were maybe a bit nervous coming back to a big class.

We looked at plants and how they grow, this week, focusing on Jack and the Beanstalk. We explored the garden and took our own Spring photography. We even took traffic surveys, counting the cars, vans and buses that passed the school. We collected different natural materials to make lots of different craft things such as sun catchers and nature paint brushes. We also planted lots of different seeds and investigated how they grow. We made our own baked beans as well as a magic bean stew, both of which were delicious!

This weekend if, of course, Mother’s Day we made a few treats for mum too. Happy Mother’s Day to you all. Have a lovely Sunday together and I will see you next week when we explore flowers!

HOME LEARNING

ASHDALE BUBBLE

Dear Parents/Carers,

As you are aware, Ashdale is having to restrict the amount of children attending school to ensure the correct level safety is in place for both children and staff. As a result, we are offering children at home the opportunity to access high quality virtual teaching and learning.

This will take place on the following platforms:

• Zoom/Google classroom
• Tapestry
• Classroom 360
• Education City
• Oxford Owl
• Posted resources (at families request)

There are five key elements of our home learning offer:

1. Home learning packs
2. Personalised targets linked to EHCP, basic skills and life skills
3. Activity suggestions
4. Whole group  zoom sessions
5. Online learning sessions

Home learning will be used to support the transition between school and home and will encourage a healthy routine when the children are not in school. We will support this transition with visual resources and daily zones of regulation check in’s.

Virtual home learning:

Home learning days will begin at 9.00am where the children will be invited to join a whole class zoom call with a familiar adult. This session will last 15 – 20 minutes and will include a weather/story massage routine, zones of regulation check in and a makaton sign of the day.

The children will then be invited to join various subject specific zoom learning sessions throughout the day (a timetable will be uploaded via Tapestry).

The day will end with a show and tell session with a member of the home learning team, the children will be encouraged to talk about something they have learnt/made that day. The zoom call will end for the day with a zones of regulation check in and a story time.

We ask that you ensure that an adult is in the same room as your child whilst they are on the zoom call, this is to safeguard both staff and children.

Tapestry:

The home learning team will also upload various ‘Winter Themed’ activities which you can use at home. These will be updated regularly and you will also be able to gain access to Education City and Oxford Owl through the login details which will be posted on Tapestry.

Teachers have created life skills documents which include a range of targets that we aimed to work on with your children in school this half term. Teachers have added suggested activities to these targets for you to work on at home.

Tapestry can also be used as a way for you to communicate with staff at school and show us the lovely activities that your children have been doing at home.

If you require any further information please do not hesitate to contact us at school on 01670 336906 or by emailing demi.stroughton@thedales.northumberland.sch.uk

Thank you for your continued support.

This week we continued looking at traditional tales, reading Hansel and Gretel. We ordered and acted out the story then used coloured symbols to answer questions about it. In maths we revisited capacity, using water and other objects to fill, sort and order different containers. In science, this week, we continued looking at liquids and solids by making our own slime and chocolate bars though melting, freezing and mixing.

Most excitingly, we started our Christmas activities! We explored the winter wonderland that the elves had made for us. We loved the North Pole room as it had snowballs for us to play with. Our classroom has new fun things, like the reading area igloo, the North pole tough tray, the Christmas art area and the elf workshop, where we can build and wrap toys for those on Santa’s list. We also began making things for our Christmas goodie bags, making cards, ornaments and crowns. It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas here in 2A.

This week in 2A we read The Gingerbread Man. We answered lots of questions about the story and even made our own versions by changing characters and the setting. In maths we used the gingerbread men to play adding and taking away games. We also counted out jellies for the gingerbread man’s buttons. In RE we made lots of things to cheer up the gingerbread man, like houses to feel cosy and boats to get him across the river safely. We even decorated our own gingerbread men and gingerbread houses – Yum!
We looked at ice in science, trying to melt it in different ways such as pouring water on it, breathing on it or even just holding it. In art some of us used different sponges to paint a giant gingerbread man, while others practised different joining techniques such as sewing.
We have all behaved amazingly so had extra choose time, making the most of our café before it leaves us on Friday, ready for new Christmas areas next week. See you then.

This week we had a new book called ’Sam’s sandwich’, about a boy who made a sandwich for his sister but added gross things like bugs and insects. We looked at how to make a sandwich and what bossy words to use in instructions.
In maths we practiced addition and subtraction using lots of fun food items like M&Ms and jelly beans. We played lots of counting games on the interactive whiteboard and practiced writing some numbers using whiteboards.
In science we looked at food – what is sweet, salty and sour, what is healthy and not healthy, which foods we like and don’t like. In Art and Design we started small projects. Some of us were Subway workers, designing sandwiches and the wrappers. Some were smoothie shop assistants, designing cups and making our own smoothies, and some of us where Wonka employees, designing and manufacturing chocolate bar wrappers.