Wow, wow, wow! What a great start to our new topic. Robins and Chaffinches launched their new topic by taking part in a fantastic day of activities, which were all linked to our learning about Castles and life in a castle.

The children made knight’s helmets for their role play areas, as well as torches to light up the classroom. They also decorated some goblets and enjoyed baking crown biscuits which were delicious. They even practised their archery skills outside and took part in drama activities, using their imagination to make up stories about princes, princesses, dragons and knights.

The children were fantastic, they gave 100% to each and every task and showed lots of enthusiasm for the topic. We are looking forward to learning lots more about life a long, long time ago.

Robins and Chaffinches classes ventured out to explore Old Anston and to discover all about life in our village over 300 years ago! We were joined by Dr Bob Gellatly, our resident expert on all aspects of Anston’s history, who told us all about the village’s interesting past. We explored Greenlands Park and found out that it was originally a quarry whose limestone was used to rebuild the Houses of Parliament after a fire. We visited Anston Hall and discovered that the row of shops, known locally as ‘The Ponds’, was originally a large farmhouse, which belonged to Squire Wright, who lived in the Hall.

We were interested to see all the different houses on The Green and then we dropped down to explore ‘The Wells’, which provided fresh water for the village. Finally, we walked to Ryton Road to see how much it had changed in 300 years. We had a very memorable, fascinating day and the children were, once more, excellent ambassadors for our school.

What a fun-packed day at Creswell Crags!  Robins and Chaffinches took part in several activities.  We learnt about instruments from the Stone Age, this was a very hands on workshop and we made quite a din playing instruments made from shells, bones and antlers.  We also made shelters and took part in target practice, throwing spears at a dummy reindeer.   The highlight though for most of us was the visit to the caves.  We imagined what life would have been like all those years ago and turned the lights off on our helmets to experience the darkness of a cave.  The weather was beautiful, so we benefited from having a picnic outside in the sunshine.  As always, the children were exceptionally well behaved and great ambassadors for our school.

As part of our investigation into Stone Age life, Robins and Chaffinches classes went on an exploration of Anston Stones Wood, what an exciting time we had!

The children took part in many activities, including exploring Dead Man’s cave, making woodland music, creating natural sculptures, a scavenger hunt, games at the park and playing pooh sticks too.

We were joined for the day by a local councillor, Mr Ireland and Claire Moseley, a park ranger.

We learnt a lot about the early history of Anston, the excavations that have taken place and the artefacts that have been discovered there. We have used this information back in school.

We were extremely lucky with the weather and had a super day in the sunshine and a picnic on the park. There were many highlights to the day, but here are a few photos to remember the day.

What a fantastic way to bring our amazing topic towards an end, with a super day out at Snozone in Castleford. You can see from the photos and the videos what fun we had. This week in our science lessons, we will be investigating different materials, with a view to finding the most appropriate for making our own sledge.

As always the behaviour of the children was second to none. The children in these two classes have worked extremely hard this term and have learnt so much about the Arctic and the Antarctic, we are sure there are some future scientists and explorers in our midst!

The children in Wrens, Robins and Chaffinches celebrated the end of their topic this term with a production and performance of “Jack and the Beanstalk”. They had to design and paint the props, which was a challenge because they were so huge. The characters and narrators had lots of lines to learn but they managed really well and performed very confidently. The Jack, Cloud and Harp dancers were very entertaining and the singing was excellent. The audience loved every minute and Mr Wirth complimented the cast, saying this had been the best Infant Christmas Production ever!

Robins and Chaffinches have been finding out all about harvest and they celebrated the end of the topic by inviting their parents and grandparents to attend an amazing harvest service. They entertained their families with songs, prayers and poetry and finished with a collection to support the homeless people in Sheffield as part of the Archer Project. Parents contributed produce and clothes, which will be greatly appreciated.

The guests then joined their children in the classroom to share the work they have been doing this term and they were served with delicious crumbles and scones. Everyone had a really enjoyable, celebratory morning.

This week, Robins and Chaffinches visited Whirlow Hall Farm. What a fantastic day we had!  During the day, we had a guided tour around the farm.  We handled many different animals; goats, chickens, horses to name a few.  The piglets were only a few weeks old and so cute.  We also worked very hard and carried out lots of jobs, just like real farmers!  We put on our gloves and wellies and got busy!  We collected eggs, groomed the horses and  undertook ‘pasture management’ – in other words we picked up poo!  Look at the pictures and you will see how busy we were and how much fun we had!

Robins and Chaffinches launched their new topic about Harvest and growing with a Scarecrow-making day.  Children were presented with a problem set for them by a real life Farmer.  Farmer Andrew sent a video asking the children to help him to protect his crops.  Eight teams of children worked well together to produce a variety of scarecrows.  Some friendly, some not, some tall and some small.  Lots of fun was had. At times, however, it was a challenge to actually see the hall floor!

On completion of the task, the children then voted for their favourite scarecrow.  Farmer Andrew is also hoping to visit to pass his judgement too!