The Royal Opera House!

Giraffe class were honoured today by a visit from some lovely guests from The Royal Opera House - yes, THE Royal Opera House! - who came to work with us on our drama and operatic skills.  They introduced us to the concept of an opera, in particular "The Magic Flute".  There were vocal warm ups, moments of creativity and a chance to be a director as the session finished with the children working in two groups to direct and create their own freeze frames/short scenes based on two pieces of music from "The Magic Flute."  Here they had to represent one of the two trials experienced by the characters in the opera - a trial by fire and a trial by water.

Der Holle Rache - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1-CbocY21E 

O Isis Und Osiris - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2lKLi0rJDA 

The final freeze frames/performances were entertaining to say the least.  Some key quotes include:

"I enjoyed being the lava - bubble, bubble, bubble."

"Who is the wee?"

"I'm the toilet flush." *insert flushing sound and action*

"My favourite part was being the hot cheetoh!"

Yes, their ideas on what would constitute a Trial by Fire and a Trial by Water were... interesting.

P.E. - New P.E learning begins

Giraffe class have started their new half term with a lesson on their new P.E. subject focusing on racket skills.  They have been introduced to the parts of a tennis racket (the handle, the neck, the head and the face) and have been practicing how to correctly hold a tennis racket (the handshake hold) and move smoothly whilst controlling the racket and a bean bag.

P.E. - Giraffe class becoming Diamond Cricket Superstars!

For one of our final P.E. lessons of the half term, the children utilised the cricket skills they have learned over the last few weeks in a game of Diamond Cricket.  All the children got the chance to be batters, wicket keepers and fielders with several children taking the chance to be the bowler.  They showed excellent teamwork skills and rose to the challenge!

Art - How far away are they?

As we are slightly ahead with our Van Gogh artwork, we decided to look back at perspective and explore a rather advanced technique using one point perspective.  The children simply looked at creating simple 3-dimensional shapes that moved back towards a vanishing point.  They then used a single colour to add multiple levels of shading to their shapes.  

Don't they look fabulous?

Maths - Gathering and presenting data with statistics.

The children have started work on statistics today and have recapped how to create a tally chart correctly in order to gather information.  They started with work on the marks and how to correctly group them into blocks of 5 before they chose some information to collect.  Some chose to find out the class's favourite colours, some the favourite sports, some the eye colours of children in the class and others favourite Disney films.

Maths - How long, how heavy, how much?

In maths, the children had the opportunity to explore a whole variety of different measuring equipment including weight scales, rulers & tape measures, and measuring cylinders.  They worked collaboratively to measure each others' height, estimated the amount of liquid in a container and measured the weight of different objects using two different types of scales.

Computing - Giraffes, the quiz masters!

In our unit of learning about "Presenting Ideas", the children have been looking at creating their own quizzes with different types/styles of questions.  These quizzes could include multiple choice questions, true or false questions, sequencing questions, typed answer questions, matching pairs questions and sorting items.  The children worked brilliantly with their partners showing excellent collaboration skills as they created their quizzes based on our topic all about plants.

Science - So, what were the results?

Follow our cress experiment, the children finally looked back at how the different amounts of water and sunlight impacted on the growth of our cress.  Amazingly, the cress in the dark still grew and in fact grew taller than the cress in sunlight.  We think it was trying to reach up and find a source of sunlight!  The cress seeds in lots of water didn't grow much, probably because they were floating and they couldn't take root in anything.

Art - Can we be as great as Van Gogh?

The children have been continuing their pictures based on Vincent Van Gogh's "Cafe Terrace at Night".  They have been paying close attention to the contrasting sections between light and dark within the picture having made sure to include elements of perspective when drawing.  I'm sure you'll agree that these are starting to look fabulous!

R.E. - Moses and the Ten Plagues.

The children having continued working on their understanding of Judaism and particularly to the stories within the Torah.  They've learned about Moses' early life and have this week looked at the Pharaoh and the Ten Plagues!

Science - Do plants need more water or sunlight?

Today the children began an investigation into whether water or sunlight is more important for the growth of plants.  To do this, they are growing cress and making the conditions slightly different.  For instance, one group is giving one set of seeds more water than the other whilst another group is making sure one set of seeds gets lots of sunlight and the others don't.

The King's Coronation

We started the day with a reading of "The King's Pants".  It may have made us laugh...

We made sure to finish making our own crowns because we are all Kings and Queens really.

One of our class games this afternoon in our celebration was a team drawing activity.  The children had just 30 seconds to look at and draw part of the image before the next person had to add to it doing the same.  Miss Salter then judged which group had created the most accurate depiction of it.  The children had a great time testing their team work and observational skills in this game.

In our celebration assembly this afternoon we sang our Coronation Song...

...and to finish the day, our wonderful parent volunteers had raised enough money to get everyone in school a special, commemorative badge!  How amazing!

Science - Growing Plants

This half term, the children are learning about how plants grow.  We have already started growing some plants and even recycled some empty plastic bottles to make our own hydroponic planters.  We're growing a variety of vegetables including broccoli, beetroot, peppers and peas.

...We'll let you know, how it goes!

Geography - Learning about Peru

The children have been working with a variety of sources to investigate Peru.  This is the non-European country that we will be learning about this half term.  And yes, it is where Paddington comes from!

Freeze Frame Drama of "The Last Wolf" by Mini Grey

We introduced our new text, The Last Wolf, and began exploring the different scenes by creating freeze frames of some of the crucial story points.

Pop-up Easter Egg Cards!

These were a lot of hard work but the children really persevered and created some phenomenal pop-up Easter Cards with working mechanisms! Giraffe class should be super proud of what they achieved. 

P.E. Ball Skills

This half term, we are exploring ball skills with an aim to playing basket ball.  We have looked at dribbling the ball and maintaining control, which is not easy.

Gymnastic Routines in UNISON!

Giraffe class have made wonderful progress with their TRAVELLING, ROLLING, WHEELING, BALANCING and JUMPING skills in gymnastics.  So much so that they have now been trying to move in unison with a partner to mirror the routines that they are undertaking!

Making Equal Groups

As we started to look at repeated addition and multiplication, we began with making sure we understood EQUAL groups.  Some of our younger children made equal groups with different numbers, whilst others checked if pictorial images had equal or unequal groups.

Geography and Giraffes

Giraffe class have been using globes, atlases and maps to learn all about the continents and oceans of the worlds.  Here is an example of a map one child created.  We also looked at two songs...

Continent Song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6DSMZ8b3LE 

Ocean Song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6BE4VcYngQ 

Protecting our Oceans

We had a lovely visit today from Philip Hunter (www.greenupyouracteductation.co.uk) and learned all about protecting our oceans by refusing, reusing and recycling.  He showed us some fantastic things that he's made out of recycled ice cream wrappers and ring pulls from drinks cans.  They were amazing!

He then worked with us to make a cork fish complete with recycled fish scales...  Wow!

Food Chains

The children have been exploring the idea of Food chains and how energy goes from one creature to another as they eat each other.  We learned words like producer (for the plants who make their own food from the Sun) and consumer (the animals that eat something to get energy).  We discussed herbivores, carnivores and omnivores and talked about predators and their prey.

Musical Giraffe Class

Giraffe class have been continuing to learn how to use a glockenspiel to support their learning in music.  We are learning to keep the rhythm of a song with our glockenspiel work.  It isn't always easy!

Did you know a blue whale's heart is as big as a car?

Giraffe class researched whales as part of their literacy learning for this week.  We found out some fascinating facts!  They can grow up to 30metres long (almost the length of 3 buses) and weight almost as much as 3 lorries.  Their hearts are the size of a car; their tongues weigh as much as an elephant; and their blood vessels are so big that we could swim through them!  Amazing!

Gymnastic Giraffes!

Giraffe class have been doing gymnastics in P.E. looking at routines that including beginning and ending in a pin, a method of travelling, a balance (either 1, 2, 3 or 4-point) and a jump (straight, star or tuck).  They have worked exceptionally hard to try and create some of their own routines after practicing different ones.

Rockpool Habitats in the classroom!

Giraffe class have been looking at rockpools and the kind of wildlife that make their homes there.  We did this after hearing the story of "Sharing a Shell" by Julia Donaldson.  The children then worked collaboratively to produce their own miniature shoebox rockpools. They all worked fantastically together. 

Giraffes learning about Judaism

In R.E. the class were learning about Shabbat and the ceremony of Havdalah.  After learning about how Havdalah ends Shabbat with a ritual involving drinking wine from decorative goblets and aromatic spice boxes amongst other things, the children then created their own spices boxes.  With their spice boxes in hand, they took part in their own Havdalah ceremony to try and better understand the Jewish faith.

Christmas Dinner!

The children had a fantastic time during Christmas Dinner with their friends!  A well deserved treat for everyone!

A Trip to the Church for Advent

The Giraffe class set a fantastic example on our walk to the church.  Once there they learned all about the Christian celebration of advent and its importance within the Christian calendar!

Giraffe Class tasting different food combinations

As part of our DT learning (linked with our Science learning on the senses) the children explored a variety of taste combinations in order to create ideas for their perfect morning toast.  As we all know, breakfast is the most important meal of the day!  And our children tried some foods they hadn't tried before and combined some that may sound strange but they assure us tasted amazing!

Experimenting with Hygiene

Giraffe class used two methods of washing their hands and experimented to see which one cleaned our hands the best: hand sanitizer or soap and water.  We ensured it was a fair test by having one set with dirty hands and one set that was untouched (our control).  We placed our hands on slices of bread to see which method had gotten rid of the most germs.

If we're honest, the results were kind of disgusting.  The bread turned green and yellow, black and white.  Holes appeared.  It was not a pretty sight.  But we did discover that plain old soap and water was more effective than hand sanitizer!

Giraffes in the great Outdoors!

We got to spend a fantastic morning exploring our senses which took us outside to Forest School where we gathered around the camp fire, toasted bagels, played games and did so much more!  What a fantastic morning!

Giraffe Class and the history of books

As part of their learning on the history of books and recorded writing, Giraffe class tea stained their own paper in order to produce a Codex just like the Romans did using sheets of parchment.

Giraffe Class helping Children In Need!

The class all turned out in non-uniform and took part in our bake sale to raise money for Children In Need!

Giraffe Class and the History of the Written Word...

We began finding out about how books came to be invented.  As part of our investigations we discovered that some of the earlier forms of written words were recorded on rolled up scrolls that could be well over 10ft long (some even 50ft long!).  They were made of a brittle material - papyrus paper, made from dried strips of reeds - and were prone to tearing.  Ours were made from paper so they may still tear but they are not AS fragile.

Giraffes love maths!

We've started the year by exploring Number and Place Value in Key Stage 1.  Our Year Ones have been looking at counting, ordering and comparing numbers, and have been introduced to how numbers bigger than 10 require us to understand how the tens and ones are different but work together to make a comprehendible number.

Welcome to Giraffe Class 2022-2023!

We're starting the year with lots of work all about ourselves by exploring the texts "Can I build another me?" and "Wonder".  The children are going to be learning all about just how special and unique they are!

Keep checking back for updates on our learning!