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!

What an amazing day Robins and Chaffinches had as they opened their Wildlife Park to parents! When the gates opened, parents were greeted by a welcoming party and were given a map of the park, so they could explore it at their leisure. They wandered round various different habitats and found expert presenters, who gave informative talks about their animal and answered any questions the visitors had. They could visit the desert to find out about various snakes and meerkats.

The woodland experts talked all about foxes and owls.

In the polar regions, visitors were told all about penguins and polar bears.

In the savannah habitat, our giraffe and elephant experts were busy all afternoon.

Finally, in the aquarium, our fish and shark experts had lots of interesting facts to share.

Visitors to the park were entertained by two “flash-mob” dances of “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” and “The Monkey Dance”, which the audience thoroughly enjoyed.

A gift shop sold merchandise that the children had made and the café provided much appreciated refreshments on such a hot day.

All the visitors were impressed by the children’s work but also their amazing research and expertise.

As part of our topic about Zoos, we visited the Yorkshire Wildlife Park to find out about the animals, their habitats and how a good zoo cares for its animals.  Polar bears, lions, leopards, meerkats and wallabies with their joeys were just a few of the many animals that we saw.

We also were lucky enough to meet some of the animals close up in the discovery classrooms. We handled a gecko, an African land snail and a hissing cockroach. We found out so many interesting facts and information and, despite a gloomy weather forecast, we were very lucky to have a fine day.

We had so much fun that we were exhausted on the way home.

Fully prepared with waterproof coats and picnics, we set off for our day out. First of all, we walked through the woods looking for signs of spring.  Mr Parry gave us some clues and explained how trees and plants change during the different seasons.  We saw squirrels and lots of different birds too.

We were also learning about different types of houses in Anston.  We walked to the Green and the Wells, where we heard about how Anston has changed over the years and how it is continuing to grow now.

The next part of our journey took us to Anston Brook, where we had some fun playing pooh sticks on the bridge.  Finally, it was time to have a rest and eat our lunch, but not before we had played some games and enjoyed the facilities at Anston Parish Park.

After lunch, we set off on our final mission to visit South Anston Methodist Church.  We learnt about how they are preparing for Easter.  The highlight however, had to be entertaining some local residents at their weekly Friendship Group.  We sang songs, told rhymes and played ‘Hot Cross Buns‘ on the handbells.  We saw lots of happy faces and they definitely seemed to enjoy receiving the bookmarks that we had made for them.  We arrived back at school tired but having learnt so much. It was an amazing day!

What an amazing day our classes had at The English Institute of Sport! We represented Italy and the day began with us doing a lap of the running track waving our flags, just as they do at the opening of The Olympic Games.

We had seventeen events to complete during they day, including high jump, long jump, hurdles, javelin, golf, sprinting and much more. Here we are all doing our very best in some of the events.

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We really needed our lunch after all the energy we had used up.

During the whole day, we had to show resilience and good team work. Here is our fastest girl winner proudly standing on the podium. We all received a special certificate to remember our day and, after our huge efforts at The English Institute of Sport, we all slept well that night.

This half term Year 1 and 2 are celebrating!

The celebrations started straight away when we came back to school by learning about Shrove Tuesday, its origins and traditions. The pancakes that we made were delicious! We then spent two weeks finding out about Mardi Gras and learning about how it is celebrated around the world.

This week, Robins and Chaffinches have been learning about the Hindu celebration of Holi. This spring festival, also known as the festival of colour, was celebrated world wide and in our playground on March 13^th this year. The children experimented with Holi paints and worked collaboratively to create some super pieces of art work.

The highlight however had to be the throwing of special holi paint, a hindu tradition where children are allowed to play tricks and throw paint at their teachers.

Lots of fun, amazing artwork and some very colourful teachers!

This term, we have been learning all about Italy’s culture, music, art, geography and history.  As part of this focus, we have also undertaken a huge design and technology project. To gather our ideas initially, we visited Paradise Island Adventure Golf and carried out an analysis of what makes a good mini golf course.  We then researched about the different landmarks and cultural aspects of Italy and these provided us with ideas for a possible Italian themed 9 hole golf course.  We used our research to design and then create our holes.

After having created our holes, we tested our designs in the hall and adapted them to make them successful.

Finally, we invited our families to try out our 9 hole golf course with us.

Robins and Chaffinches designed the score card and ran the whole event welcoming parents and grandparents, handing out equipment. At the end of the course parents were encouraged to fill out an evaluation sheet.  Here are some of their opinions and comments of the course.

“We thought it was brilliant and we wouldn’t change a thing”

“A lot of thought and preparation has gone into this event, it is obvious that the children have learnt a lot”

“It was very creative and imaginative”

Jason Ripley, the golf professional from Rother Valley Golf Course attended the event and gave us his encouragement, offering a few tips too and providing us with a trophy.

Robins and Chaffinches launched their new topic about Italy with a visit to a Pizza restaurant, where they were taught how to make authentic, individual pizzas by a real life pizzaiolo (pizza chef). Both classes had great fun choosing their toppings and learning about the ingredients used to make a pizza.

After the pizzas came out of the oven, we eagerly tucked in and enjoyed the rewards of our efforts. Here are some of the comments from the children.

Jenson  said “This is the most delicious pizza that I have ever eaten”.  Minnie  sighed  ”This is pizza heaven”.

We also had fun making dough sticks, see how long we managed to stretch the dough!

After having had a lovely lunch, we were ready to carry out our research on what makes a successful and fun mini golf course. We enjoyed playing and putting our golf knowledge and skills from P.E. into practice, whilst also evaluating several of the holes. This information will help us as we design our own Italian themed mini golf course.

Haley said “It was a great day and it was a lot of fun” and Phoebe’s verdict was, ” It was the best trip ever, I have had so much fun”.

Robins and Chaffinches welcomed the Lords and Ladies of Anston to their Merry Medieval Banquet.

After weeks of planning and preparation, the day had finally arrived. On Thurs 17^th November, Robins and Chaffinches welcomed nearly 100 guests to Greenlands Castle.

The day before had been spent working in the sweaty kitchens peeling, scrubbing and chopping the vegetables to make the potage for the first course. The menus had been planned and written out, the tables had been laid, with special care and attention given to the Lord’s table.

The Lord arrived and the festivities commenced…

We read prayers to begin the banquet.

Some children read poetry about castle life and visits from friendly dragons.

The Lords and Ladies of Anston were served delicious food by very hard working servants.

The Lord and his guests were entertained by jugglers, jesters, acrobats and dancers too.

Finally, the children sang a beautiful version of Greensleeves. The Lord thankfully gave all the servants and entertainers his thumbs up and they settled down to sleep by the fire.

Everyone had worked really hard to create a very enjoyable banquet.