Maple

Jack in the Beanstalk! 

Since being back into the classroom after the Christmas Holidays we have been exploring the traditional tale of 'Jack in the Beanstalk!'. We have been sequencing the story and retelling it using actions as a class. Today we put ourselves into the shoes of the giant and wrote an angry wanted poster trying to find naughty Jack! 

During our topic of our learning about Florence Nightingale, we learnt about the harsh, awful situation that was happening in Scutari Hospital. We then put ourselves into Florence's shoes and wrote our very own letter to Queen Victoria pleading for her help! We used descriptive language, commas in a list and lots of persuasive phrases to ask for her help. We then made it look authentic by staining our letters with tea! 

Today we got to meet Florence Nightingale! As a class, we discussed and generated questions that we wanted to find out the answers to. We then had the opportunity to ask Florence these questions. It was very exciting! We found out lots of interesting facts about her. Ask us what you would like to know! 

Art in Maple Class

This week in Maple we have been inspired the wonderful artist David Hockney!

We have enjoyed making hues of colours inspired by this Artist. They start by mixing two primary colours together to make a secondary colour. We noticed that the colour changes as we added a little more colour each time. Test us on our knowledge of primary and secondary colours! We are experts :) 

Following our topic of 'Touring Totton' we have been increasing our geographical knowledge! We have been learning about physical and human features. Today we recognised different places in Totton and the surrounding area. We have been categorising them into two groups - Human and Physical. Please test us on what we know! We are experts in this field now :) 

This week in guided reading we have been looking at writing recipes and instructional texts. Together as a group we read a recipe at we picked apart the features. We discussed the use of imperative verbs 'bossy verbs' and practised using them on each other! 

In Maple, we have been reading Mr Grumpy's Motor car. We discussed as a class and filled in a Guided Reading grid. We made links between other texts we have read, picked out interesting vocabulary, discussed the things that we liked and made predictions for  future book 2! We predicted that the car might get into trouble and fall into a river - What would happen next? We also said that it might need to go on a rescue mission. Watch this space - Maple class children have bought the copyright for story two! 

Our Healthy Fruit Pots

This week in Maple we have made healthy fruit pots. We have been learning about the necessity of eating five fruits and vegetables a day. Scientifically, we now know how to identify them and which grow overground and underground. We made our fruit pots (After carefully designing them!) ensuring that we have two different fruits, yoghurt and oats. We hope they are delicious! They certainly looked it!  

This week in Maple we have been retelling the story of The Enormous Turnip. We found an Enormous Turnip on the school grounds - we couldn't believe it! Together as a class, we thought of key words and adjectives and retold the story in our own words!  

Fabric pirate badges

Maple class (and the rest of KS1) have been busy making fabric pirate badges as part of our learning in DT. See the photo below of the materials, tools and resources we could select from. A big thank you for the kind donation of blind samples from one of our parents which has given us plenty to choose from. Then look at the after photo and you will be forgiven for thinking what a mess! However, Mrs Stevens sees hard work, independence, creativity and resilience plus lots of team work was used to tidy up at the end of the day. We look forward to showing you our badges when they are finished.

Grace Darling - thinking about the past

Maple class have been thinking about facts, people and events that happend before their living memory. We looked at a portrait of Grace Darling helping to rescue survivors from the SS Forfarshire. We discussed the differences between life when Grace was alive and how we live now. Some of the children's ideas about what the people where thinking and feeling during the rescue were written on the painting.

Pirate Day

Ahoy there! Maple loved spending the day as pirates taking part in a drama workshop. They also created pirate treasure maps, went on a treasure hunt, sang sea shanties and constructed paper boats.

Exploring shapes and making nets

Exploring how to carefully cut out, fold and create 3D shapes from nets in Maple class had definitely challenged our resilience this week. We also used the mathematical terms cube, cuboid and tetrahedron. 

Planting with Maple class

Maple class have been busy tidying up our outside area. We have been planting seeds and plants thinking carefully about what they need to survive. We have lots of volunteers from our class who are keen to water them all.

Thank you to the people who kindly donated plants and pots.

Maple Cross Country runners

Well done to the Hazel Wood children who took part in the Infant Cross Country event at Gang Warily. All the children did Hazel Wood proud!!

Celebrating World Bee Day

This week Maple class took part in a special day learning about the importance of bees and celebrating World bee day.

Collages, pollination, life cycles and creating algorithms for how a bee can travel to the hive kept us all buzzing about!

Exploring and evaluating in Design Technology

We have been exploring and evaluating in teams, which shapes make the best shelters. We need to make our shelters strong, stiff and stable so that Miranda can have somewhere safe to sleep.

Maple class are looking forward to designing and making their own models.

What do humans need to survive?

In Maple class we have begun to read Miranda the castaway. We discussed and thought of questions to help us work out what has happened to her, and what humans need to survive especially when deserted on an island.

Thinking about our feelings

Maple class has been thinking about words that could be used when we are sad or happy. We then shared the book Dogger by Shirley Hughes and discussed how the characters felt at different points in the story.

Invitation to our ukulele concert

Did you receive your hand written invitation?

Maple class have been busy writing letters inviting their grown ups to come and watch them at their ukulele concert. We hope you can join the children from Maple class on Tuesday 28th March at 2:30pm.

Observational drawings and water colour painting

Looking closely at daffodils and making observational sketches has kept Maple class very busy. Then we used water colour paints to complete our pictures. Look out for our art work in book bags next week as we have used our paintings to create something special.

Exploring colour mixing with water colour paints

All of the children really enjoyed exploring using watercolour paints. We have been talking about primary colours and what happens when we mix them together. 

Step into Spring morning

We have been looking for signs that it is nearly Spring in our school grounds. Our scavenger hunt made us look carefully for signs of new growth and we started preparing the soil for planting. We also hugged the trees and felt the grass with our toes during our mindfulness activities.

Sorting animals

Maple class have been busy sorting. We had to think of our own ways to sort animals in to groups. We talked about their features, similarities and differences.

Science- looking closely at animals.

Maple have been learning in science about how animals can be grouped in to different categories such as mammals, birds, fish, reptiles and amphibians. We looked at animals features and talked about similarities and differences as well as what they like to eat.

Taking photos and making a photo collage

This week in Maple class we have been finishing a piece of computing work where we used our creative skills to make a photo collage. We began by taking photos using the ipad exploring how we could capture interesting photographs of the Snow White puppets. We then opened Word and inserted our favourite images making changes using the artistic effects tool. Next, we added and edited text exploring different fonts, text size and positioning on our posters.

Snow White story writing

In Maple Class, after retelling the fairy tale Snow White and adding actions, we have begun writing the story. We have been practicing using capital letters, finger spaces, full stops and a range of adjectives to describe the characters and events in the story.

Once upon a time...

This week in Key stage one we had a mysterious visitor who crept into our assembly and without a sound left a basket. After looking inside we discovered some items that gave us clues to who this cloaked lady might be. Can you guess which story this character might be from? Hazel Wood children made great detectives and worked out the story very quickly.

Sliders and levers

Look at our amazing team work in Maple! We have been exploring in small groups how slider and lever mechanisms work as part of our Design Technology work. You will find out soon what we will be using these mechanisms for.

Learning about money

Maple class have been recognising and using coins in maths this week. We can name all of the coins and add two amounts together to find the total. Well done Maple class!

Firework music by Maple class

Maple class listened to Stravinsky’s piece of music called ‘Fireworks’. They thought about the instruments he used and listened to the dynamics in the piece of music. They then watched a video of different types of fireworks and thought about if they were loud or quiet.  The children enjoyed exploring  the instruments and thought about which sounds would be appropriate. They picked a graphic notation to represent each firework. Finally they worked in two groups to compose their piece of music. 

Splendid skies - learning about the weather

In Maple class this week we have been creating weather diaries including the temperature and how much daylight we have each day.  We have also been monitoring how much rain has fallen and some of us even saw a beautiful rainbow.

Kindness in Maple class

Maple class have been spending time this week thinking about kindness and how they can show kindness to others . We talked about being thoughtful, sharing our things as well as being helpful to others at school and at home. These bright and colourful pictures are how we wanted to promote being kind.

This week we have been learning about a special artist called Yayoi Kusama. We have been inspired by her Artwork to create our very own. Her inspiration is polka dots and pumpkins! We have been learning in stages to draw pumpkins, do different styles of polka dots using lots of different mediums! We cannot wait to show you our masterpieces! 

This week in Maple we have been learning the countries of the United Kingdom and their capital cities. We have learnt a song and have had a go at putting together a puzzle of the map! Test us at home and see if we can remember 🙂 We have also been learning to create pictures using oil pastels. We have explored different techniques! Take a look at our learning.  

We have had a fantastic time this week enjoying our new school gym! We have loved trying out the new equipment and working out which device uses which muscles! :) 

The Ugly Duckling

This week in English, Maple class have been learning, acting out and reciting the story of 'The Ugly Duckling'. We then had an opportunity to re-write the story in our own words. We discussed and discovered new adjectives to use to make the story more exciting. We have also been trying to remember our non-negotiables when writing, ensuring that we have got our capital letters, finger spaces and full stops. Well Done Maple - your stories are amazing! 

Beautiful inside and out 

We have started our new topic of beautiful inside and out! We have focused on ensuring that the words we use are kind and positive. We have focused on taking it in turns to speak and to make sure we are always there to listen to each other. This is our new classmate - Jigsaw Jack! We have tried to make him feel special and safe in Maple class. 

Learning Blog

Maple have had an exciting time learning about 'The Great Fire of London'. We have created our very own timeline of the events and even interviewed Samuel Pepys! 

In Maths in Maple class we have been learning clever counting by adding 9 to a 2-digit number. We used the method of adding 10 and then subtracting 1. We have made our own blank number lines to help us. 

This week during guided reading we have been reading the book 'Welcome to the Arctic'. We discussed the features of a glossary and made our own using key words and phrases. 

Welcome to Maple Class!

Celebrating all of our fantastic home learning during lockdown. We are very proud of you all.