For Mental Health Awareness Week, Whales had a circle time discussion about ways to look after our mental health. We also talked about how we could support others by simply offering a listening ear! We discussed what we could say to someone who needed somebody to talk to. Some of us wrote messages of support and encouragement, whilst others suggested trusted adults others could turn to. 

Sheep class have really loved learning all about the Great Fire of London so far this term in their history lessons. Having started the unit by being history detectives and scrutinising the primary source materials, children have since been finding out about why the fire spread so quickly and what methods were used to try and control the fire. Samuel Pepys’ diary has been a great source of information for this! The class decided that the strong winds and the fact that the houses were made of wood were probably the most important reasons. They did not agree that creating firebreaks by pulling down buildings was a good idea, because they thought it was mean of the rich people to make the poorer people go homeless. We were very impressed by their independent thoughts on all of this!

We have also now started writing our own stories in English about an escape from the great fire (or another type of disaster!), inspired by the beautiful book we have been reading: ‘The Great Fire of London’ by Emma Adams:

In science, we decided that we needed to find the firefighters some better equipment (“They’ll get so wet using those old water carts!”), so we are going to be testing some materials to see if they are waterproof or absorbent and then decide which would be suitable for making a fireman’s suit. 

We have been learning about the origins of the Jewish celebration of Pesach (Passover), by retelling the story of Moses and the exodus of the Jewish people from Egypt. We read the story ‘Moses and the Very Big Rescue’ by Tim Thornborough, and then we acted out the story all together. The children had great fun doing this (especially the ten plagues!) and could explain that the term ‘passover’ comes from when God passed over the houses of the Israelites during the last plague. We also learnt that the word ‘exodus’ comes from the Greek word ‘exo’ meaning ‘exit’. Great learning, Sheep!

Sheep class have been amazing during our Welly Day sessions.  They work together and are becoming able to persevere!  

This week they were spotted drawing everywhere just like Henri Matisse.   He drew on his ceiling, the Sheep drew on Mrs Cairns’ trolley, on the dens, on the tyres – everywhere!!

The children used their senses to investigate different materials this week in science. We blindfolded some willing volunteers and they had to describe an object and say what they thought it was made of. “It’s heavy and cold, so I think it’s metal,” said one child. “It feels rough and it’s quite light, I think it’s wood,” said another. We then went on a material hunt around our classroom and outdoor area, and found lots of examples. We also learnt about some types of plastic masquerading as other materials, such as plastic made to look like wood. “That table is made of plastic pretending to be wood!” 

Sheep class learnt all about ‘evidence’ this week, and how we can use it to prove something happened. We heard all about how one child discovered that their daddy had eaten all the biscuits because the crumbs in his beard were the evidence! The children then used their detective skills to analyse some sources of evidence, and talked to each other about what they could see and what the evidence might all mean when put together. Without being told the correct answer, the class correctly deduced from the evidence that we were going to learn about a big fire that happened in London a long time ago. They also developed some of their own lines of enquiry, such as ‘Why did the fire start?’ and ‘Who is that man (Pepys) and why is he important?’

The investigation continues…

We said goodbye to Mrs Pattison at the end of this term, as she goes off to work with children within the NHS. We have loved having Mrs Pattison with us in Sheep class and she will be missed by all of us! Thank you for your hard work and dedication to the children, and we can’t wait to see you again when you come and visit us!