Year 5 English - Persuasive Texts: Adverts to visit Darwen
Year 5 were lucky enough to have the opportunity to read our persuasive writing to a Brand Director at Merlin Attractions this week! We based our writing on some adverts for Legoland and Thorpe Park, and Nick from Merlin was really impressed with our understanding of how advertising works and was persuaded to visit Darwen by our fabulous emotive writing and our offers to book now!
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Year 5 English - Persuasive Texts: Adverts to visit Darwen
Year 5 were lucky enough to have the opportunity to read our persuasive writing to a Brand Director at Merlin Attractions this week! We based our writing on some adverts for Legoland and Thorpe Park, and Nick from Merlin was really impressed with our understanding of how advertising works and was persuaded to visit Darwen by our fabulous emotive writing and our offers to book now!
Year 5 English - Persuasive Texts: Adverts to visit Darwen
Year 5 were lucky enough to have the opportunity to read our persuasive writing to a Brand Director at Merlin Attractions this week! We based our writing on some adverts for Legoland and Thorpe Park, and Nick from Merlin was really impressed with our understanding of how advertising works and was persuaded to visit Darwen by our fabulous emotive writing and our offers to book now!
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Year 6: English - Persuasive Writing
In English, year 6 have been analysing examples of persuasive texts. We have been spotting the language features authors use to persuade the reader. LO: to discuss techniques used to persuade the reader.
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Year 4 English - Designing Villains
As part of our English unit, we have been designing our own villains to go into our innovated stories based on The Little Shoemaker. We used noun phrases to describe the villains and has great fun being creative!
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Year 2 - English - Instructions
In Year 2 we have been writing our instructions for our invented playground games and started to plan our independent write on how to wash our hands.
Reception Class -Stick Man
This week, Reception Class have been reading the story of Stick Man. The children have really enjoyed the book, joining in with repeated words and phrases. The children have been collecting and decorating sticks, making their own stick person. They have also used playough to represent the Stick Man and different characters from the story.
Year 1 - English - Using Envoys To Communicate Facts
Year 1 consolidated their knowledge about Seasonal Weather by making posters. Later, they sent an envoy from each team to gather further facts about weather in each season. They practised oral rehearsal of facts during this activity ready for their writing later in the week.
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Year 4 English - Character Thoughts and Dialogue
This week in English, we have been continuing our learning about The Little Shoemaker. We have been working hard on using adverbs to start sentences, and we also thought about the difference between thoughts and speech. The children did a fantastic job or inferring the character's speech and thoughts in different ways!
Reception - Exploring Our World - A Leaf Scavenger Hunt
As a part of our "Exploring The World" Unit and this week's Literacy theme on the book "The Leaf Man," Reception class went on a leaf scavenger hunt. The children worked in pairs and had clip-boards with different leaf images to tick. They were brilliant at describing the colours and shapes of their leaves.
Reception - English - The Leaf Man
In English, the children have been reading "The Leaf Man." They have been putting actions to new vocabulary and then choosing how they could adapt the story. Today they were able to draw pictures of a friend for Leaf Man and then use their phonics knowledge to label their work.
Pre-School-Literacy-Penguin Making
The Pre-School children have been developing their fine motor skills this week. They have used the play dough to roll, press and shape into a penguin. The children rolled the body and splatted the dough to shape eyes, a nose or used the enhancements to create wings and feet. The children have been building up muscle strength in their fingers.
Year 6 English Comparing Two Different Songs
Year 6 have been listening to two different songs, they have been analysing Big Yellow Taxi, by Joni Mitchell and What a Wonderful World, by Louis Armstrong. The children then compared the two sets of lyrics and discussed the message the lyrics were trying to get across to them. We then had a class discussion on which one we preferred and why? Most of the class prefered the Big Yellow Taxi over What A Wonderful World since it was a more upbeat and catchy song.
Year 2 - English - Playground Games
In English we have been reading and analysing the instructions for playground games. We then made up our own games in small groups.
Year 1 - English - Freeze Frames For The Story Zog
In English, Year 1 has been re-imagining the story of Zog. They have come up with new characters and settings, following the structure of Zog. Today they acted out some freeze frames in order to learn the order of the story.
Year 6 Independent Guided Reading - Focusing on Retrieval Question Types
After a week of rehearsing answering retrieval question types, on Fridays Year 6 answer questions independently. The focus is to apply the skill that has been taught throughout the week. We are particularly enjoying the novel Skandar and the Unicorn Thief!
Year 6 - English - Independent Write
In English this week Year 6 have been completing their independent writing, re-telling the story of the Wizard of Oz and introducing a new character into the tale. We focused on using high level adjectives to build expanded noun phrases, relative clauses, subordination, adverbial phrases and parenthesis.
Year 2 - English - Reading Playground Game Instructions
In English, we read some simple instructions for different playground games and had a go at playing them.
Pre-school - Communication And Language.
The children Listened to our story We're Going On a Bear Hunt, acting out movements throughout the story representing under, over and through movements.
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Year 4 English - Writing and Presenting Stories
We have finally finished our unit on the Loch Ness! We have thoroughly enjoyed this unit, and wow, have the children produced some fantastic story outcomes from it! We were so proud of our stories, that we decided to type them up to put on display in school, and we worked hard on improving our typic skills in the process. We can't wait to find out what unit is coming next!
Year 5 English - Freeze Framing Key Scenes from Beowulf
We have been reading the story of Beowulf and Grendal in English, and we had a lot of fun deciding on the key scenes from the story and then using the drama technique of freeze framing to act these scenes out. Can you guess what is happening in each photo?
Year 6 English : Comparing Modern and Classic Texts
In English Year 6 has analysed front covers and language features to find differences and similarities between classic and modern texts. We were surprised at how similar the language features were in the Wizard of Oz (published in 1900), and Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (published in 1997).
Year 1 - English - Using Images To Retell A Story
Year 1 created a story map of 'Zog'. They then rehearsed retelling the story using a repetitive pattern and adding actions. They enjoyed performing the story for each other.
Reception Class - Writing
The children in Reception Class have been developing their motor control through a range of different activities. The children have been writing their graphemes in the sand today, being encouraged to use the Letter-join formation, moving from left to right.
Year 3 English - Aesop's Fables - Asking Questions
This week Year 3 have started their new topic in English all about Aesop's Fables. Today's fable was The Tortoise and the Hare. They took turns to hot seat at the front of the class as one of the characters whilst the rest of the class asked them questions.
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Year 6 English - Classic Texts
In English we have been looking at examples of classic texts, and thinking about what makes a book a classic. We also discussed which of our favourite books may become a classic in the future.
Year 3 English - An Independent Write About Antarctica
Year 3 have been learning how to write a leaflet in their English lessons. They used their knowledge about Antarctica from their Geography lessons to create an independent leaflet.
Year 5 Spelling Strategies
Year 5 have been using different strategies to learn their spellings this week, including cheerleader spellings and rainbow writing!
Year 2 English - Independent Animal Research
Year 2 are preparing to write their own Safari Animal non-fiction text. They research their chosen animal, make notes and added them to their box ups.
Year 1 - English - Writing Facts About Mice.
Year 1 watched a clip that taught us some really interesting facts about mice. We discussed them and orally rehearsed them before writing them down in our small groups. Later, we presented our facts to the class.
Year 6 English
Starting our independent writing in English, showcasing the vocabulary and grammatical features we have learnt so far! We are really pleased with the outcomes so far and how imaginative the story has been, and I am excited to see how they will come to their conclusions tomorrow.
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Year 4 English - Role on the Wall
We have now moved on to our fiction section of The Loch Ness unit, and we have been looking at The Treasure of the Loch Ness Monster story. We thought about the characters of Ishbel and Kenneth, and used words to describe their characters, justifying with evidence.
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Year 3 Library
Every Tuesday lunchtime Year 3 have the chance to visit the library to change their own Home Reading books. They enjoy looking at the different books as well as reading them to each other.
Year 6 English
Using images and working together to describe our unique ‘Room of Wonders’, inspired by the Nowhere Emporium.
Reception Class - Name Writing
The children have had a go at writing their name using their name card. I asked the children if they could identify any letters from their name, some children could. As the children were writing, we discussed correct pencil grip and I supported the children to achieve this. Some children could form some letters and some children made marks to represent the different letters in their name.
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Year 4 Art
This week, we finished our second novel of the year - The Danger Gang! As our art unit is about drawing stories, we decided to illustrate out favourite moments from the book, and add a catchy caption. There were some excellent captions and sketches by all of the children.
Year 2 English - Boxing Up Facts
Year 2 became 'talking experts' about lions. They brainstormed all their facts and added them to a non-fiction text box up ready for writing.
Year 2 English - Safari Animal Research
In English we have started our non-fiction writing by researching our chosen animal. We used online books to discover the answers to our question: What are their offspring called? Where do they live? What do they eat? Then we found some interesting extra facts.
Year 6 Spelling Practice
Year 6 had to practice their spelling using segment words and then had to put them into the correct syllables and phonemes.
Year 5 English - Top Trumps of Mythical Monsters!
In English, Year 5 are learning about different ancient, mythical monsters to create a character for our stories based on The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. We used Mythical Monsters Top Trumps to help us begin to learn about these creatures!
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Year 4 English
As part of our English unit, 'The Loch Ness', year 4 have been looking at infographics, which are a type of fact-based text using images to help the reader understand. We have explored infographics and conducted our own Nessie research, ready to write our own.
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Year 4 Geography
As part of our Amazon Rainforest studies, we used our knowledge of infographics to create one based on the Amazon! We learned a lot about how we might improve the quality of our information and how it is presented, and we can't wait to use these skills in our Nessie infographics in English!
Reception Class -Handwriting
Reception Class have started practising their pre writing shapes this week. These activities are a great starting point for writing. We will be working on our motor skills, building up to beginning to write.
Reception Class - Phonics
Today the childen in Reception began their phase 2 phonics and guided reading sessions. We have started short sessions, gradually building them up over the next half term. The children did a fantastic job and realy enjoyed participating in some of the activities, using some of these in independent learning too!
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Year 4 Question Matrix
As part of our Loch Ness unit, we have been using dice and the question matrix to generate questions linked to our research! We are looking forward to writing our articles on Nessie!
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Year 6 English
Writing a descriptive paragraph to describe the scene as 'The Nowhere Emporium' mysteriously arrives in Glasgow city centre.
Year 2 - English - Roleplay in the blizzard
Year 2 have been reading the story - The Way Home For Wolf. We explored how the character Wilf felt when he got lost in the blizzard.
Year 4 Handwriting
This week, year 4 have been practicing their 'curly caterpillar' letters. We worked hard to form the letters correctly, making sure they were nice and round, and a great shape. We went around the classroom and looked at the amazing progress our friends had made - before nominating some super star writers! We then wrote up our Class Charter, working hard on our formation.
Year 3 - English - Paddington Bear and Marmalade Sandwiches
Year 3 started their new English topic all about Paddington Bear. They started by looking for clues to identify the story they would be reading ,then made delicious marmalade sandwiches.
Year 1 - English - Writing Using Finger Spaces
Year 1 enjoyed learning key facts about mice and then writing them using spaces between words.
Year 6 Looking at Artifacts in our English Lesson
Year 6 looked at artifacts to find inspiration for creative writing and generating excitement and interest in our class text 'The Nowhere Emporium '
Year 3 English - Researching Dogs For Their Own Stories
During English Year 3 have been reading 101 Dalmatians. Today they have been using the Chromebooks to research different breeds of dog. They will use this information to create a new character for their story.
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Year 2 English Spelling Practice
Year 2 practiced this week's spellings on Edshed.
Reception Class - Phonics - Writing a Sentence
Reception Class have been busy practising their writing skills, trying hard to remember ther capital letters, finger spaces and full stops.
Year 3 English - Features of a Villain
Working in small groups year 3 looked at various fictional villains including Captain Hook, Lord Voldemort, The White Witch and Cruella De Vil. They gathered information including physical appearance, negative noun phrases and how they made other characters feel.
Year 2 English Noun Phrases
In English we pretended we were flying on the magic carpet like Aladdin and Jasmine. We then had a brainstorming session creating interesting noun phrases about what the characters saw as they flew in the sky.
Year 3 English - Developing A Character From A Narrative
Year 3 have been reading the story of 101 Dalmatians during their English lessons. Today they looked at Cruella De Vil and using noun phrases wrote about her character thinking about what she looked like, how she behaved and the effect she had on other characters.
Pre School- Literacy- Mark Making
Pre-School have been practicing their drawing skills, copying different marks and then using what they have learnt to draw an object and talk about what they have created. We had spiders, caterpillars, worms and faces, and the children were very pleased with their work.
Nursery - Literacy - Remembering Parts of A Story
In Nursery class this week we have really enjoyed reading 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' together. The children have been encouraged to join in at story time, helping to read the story and using our story props to support their understanding. Some of the children recalled the beginning middle and end of the story and could order our story props to represent this.
Year 3 Writing - Using Dictionaries
Year 3 are enjoying reading the story 'One Hundred and One Dalmatians' for their English topic. Today they used chromebooks to look up and write the definitions of words from the story
English - Rat Facts
Year 1 have been learning facts about rats. These photos show us sharing our ideas and making fact posters.
Year 6 English: Researching Chester Zoo for a Persuasive Advert
This week in English we are writing some adverts, persuading people to visit Chester Zoo. We used the Chester Zoo website to find out as many amazing facts about the zoo as we could! For example, did you know that Chester Zoo has over 35,000 animals?
Year 6 English Debate
We created a 'line of continuum' to debate whether Mrs Ramsbottom in the poem is a good mother or not. At one end was 'strongly agree' and at the other was 'strongly disagree'. We had to justify where we stood with reasons for our choice. We then used the arguments made in our writing, a short discussion text debating both points of view.
Year 4 Re-Writing Their Own River Poem
Over the past Five days Year 4 have been writing their own river poems and today they put all of the verses together.
Year 1 - Guided Reading - Decoding
Year 1 enjoyed their guided reading session with their new book this week. The children read the new vocabulary from the text and enjoyed spotting these words as we read the book together.
Year 4 Computing - Persuasive Letters and Posters
Year 4 have been building upon their flow charts last week and writing persuasive letters and posters campaigning for a new playground in computing.
Year 3 History - Preparing for the Afterlife.
During their topic on the Ancient Egyptians Year 3 have been learning about the process of Mummification and how the Egyptians were prepared for the afterlife.
Year 5 English Journey To The River Sea
Today in our English lesson we discussed the Amazon rainforest setting from our class novel, Journey To The River Sea. The children then listened to Miss Lawson write her version of the setting.
Year 3 English - Identifying a Key Idea in a Paragraph
Today in English, Year 3 have been identifying key ideas in paragraphs about the Ancient Egyptians. Each group were given packs containing paragraphs and subheadings. They had to read each paragraph and match it with the correct subheading. Taking it in turns the children then moved around the room to see if the paragraphs had been sorted correctly.
Year 3 English - IdentifyingKey Words in Paragraphs
In English today, Year 3 worked in small groups to research facts about Tutankhamun and the Pharaohs. They then shared their facts with rest of the class.
Introducing Recount Letters - Year 2
Year 2 have started their English topic on recount letters. We have read a variety of letters developing our reading fluency. Today we investigated different unknown words from the letters we read.
Pre-School- Literacy and Maths- Calendar
Everyday Pre- school children take part in Calendar time. In this short activity we learn the day, date, month and what letter sound they start with. The children learn to recognise their own name card and letter sound. We then count how many children are in our class and put them into groups, recognising which group has more or less.
Year 4 English - Poetry
We have started a new English Unit this week - based on the poem 'The River' by Valerie Bloom. We have spent the week exploring some of the writing styles, images and also exploring some physical features of rivers.
Year 4 Maths - Money
This week we have started our new topic of money... whilst discreetly continuing our previous topic of decimals. A important topic in this day of age, especially in a new generation of contactless payments, Apple and Google Pay etc. Had some good fun.
Year 3 English - Ancient Egyptians
As part of their new English topic on the Ancient Egyptians, Year 3 have been exploring and identifying the main and subordinate clauses in complex sentences.
Year 3 - English Mummies and Their Sarcophagus'
Year 3 started their new topic in English writing a non-chronological report about the Ancient Egyptians. As an introduction to the topic today they made their own Sarcophagus and turned a peg into a mummy.
Pre-school-Literacy-The Giant Jam Sandwich
Literacy We have started reading the story of 'The Giant Jam Sandwich'. The children have been creating different pictures and learning new words but today we decided to make our own jam sandwiches with different styles and tastes of bread. The children selected which bread they would like and added jam if they wanted to. We discussed the sweet smell and how the wasps were attracted to the town.
Reception and Y1 - Guided Reading
Reception and Year 1 have been developing their early reading skills. They have been applying their phonetic knowledge to help them decode the words in the book and they have been working on improving their fluency when reading. The children have really enjoyed these interactive reading sessions and have used the Chromebooks to use the ebook feature, this has been a real hit too!
Year 5 English Lesson - Role Play - Fnishing a Piece of Writing
Today in our English lesson we have been reading the story of The Fantastic Flying Book of Mr Morris Lessmore. We role played finishing a piece of writing and notes. How we would finally finish our writing; final full stop, put the pencil down, check over it and then close the book.
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Nursery - Communication and Language - Which Animal Made that Sound?
Nursery class have used their brilliant listening skills to identify which animal from our story 'Where's spot?' made the sound that they could hear. They worked really hard to link the sound with the correct animal picture and then mimicked the animal sound. The children took this new knowledge and found different animals during independent learning and were very excited to voice the correct animal sounds.
Reception Class - Handwriting
Reception Class have been working hard on their letter formation through our Letterjoin scheme. They have been learning the rhymes to help them with their formation and sharing their work with a friend, talking about how their letters look and if they have been formed correctly.
Reception Class - Story Time - Whatever Next!
Today during story time the children acted out the different parts of our story Whatever Next! baby Bear and Owl met up and flew to the moon on a fantastic adventure! The children had remembered lots of vocabulary from the story and they were able to sequence the different events.
Year One - Guided Reading
In Guided Reading, we have been using our pointers to help us track our reading. We also used them to point to tricky words or graphemes too.
Year 6 - English - Persuasive Writing
Today in our English lesson we have planning our persuasive writing all about climate change, Greta Thunberg and how we can reduce Carbon emissions.
Year 3 and Year 4 Guided Reading Group
This week the year 3 reading group has been reading The Queen's Plan. They have enjoyed reading and talking about the characters and story as well as adding expression. They have been breaking down new words and identifying the sounds ai, ee, igh, oa.
Reception - Literacy - Plot Point 4
Today in literacy we have been looking at plot point 4 of our story Pig's Might Fly. In the story, Wilbur pressed the big red button to activate the rocket booster! We were finding things that are red and we had a go at writing a sentence "Wilbur pressed the shiny red button". Some of the children had a go at changing the word shiny to other words, such as ruby and bright.
Year 1 - Phonics - Popcorn Pop!
In phonics this morning, we played 'Popcorn Pop', reading words with the 'ea / e-e' digraph.
Year 1 - English - Ordering a Poem
In English this morning, the children thought about the shape of the poem and worked in pairs to put the poem in order.
Year 1 - World Book Day
Year 1 have had a great Book Day afternoon. We read Sloth in The Slow Lane and learned some key facts about sloths. Later, we made a sloth mask and some children did a collage.
Year 2 - World Book Day
Year 2 has had a fantastic World Book Day! They shared stories with Year 6, talked about their teddies and explored the story or Mula and the Unsure Elephant.
Nursery - World Book Day
Nursery have had a wonderful day today celebrating World Book Day. They have dressed up, brought in teddies and shared stories!
Year 1 - English - When I am by Myself
We started our new unit in English today, a poem called 'When I am by Myself'. The children have been learning the shapes for the poem which will help them with the sequence when they are writing their own. We played a game called 'Show me'. After learning the names of the shapes, the children worked with a partner and matched them to the different parts of the poem.
Year 3 - World Book Day
Today for World Book Day Year 3 read Handa's Chicken and learned about Africa. They looked at its different countries and also the different flags. They also enjoyed a visit to nursery, to listen to the story of The Gruffalo read by Miss Lawson.
Reception Class - World Book Day
World book day 2024! Today we have listened to many stories via different methods. First the children shared their guided reading books with their favourite teddies, our reading pals love having stories read to them! Then we enjoyed an exciting dinosaur book together as a class. This afternoon the children gathered on the carpet and we listened to a calming ebook which was a different experience for us, reception class listened very carefully, and were able to recall the characters and retell parts of the story. Then to end the day we were joined by some parents and we partnered up with Year 4. Mr Twist read two books for us all which included actions and the children's participation to help tell the stories. The children have all had a great day!
Year 6 - World Book Day
Year 6 enjoying World Book Day! Reading for pleasure after lunch, and reading with Year 2 children later in the afternoon.
Two’s Room - On the Farm
We have had lots of fun today looking at our new story all about the farm. We enjoyed playing with the farm and the animals. We created pigs today using paper plates and pink paint.
Two’s Room - Minibeasts
We have had a fantastic week in nursery this week. We have been learning all about minibeasts and creating our own bees. We had lots of fun during rhyme time with our family members. We had fun playing in the water with the ducks. We looked at the word sitting and what it means to us. We all practiced doing this and we also showed this with other objects. We enjoyed playing a colour matching game where we had to match the different colours to the different coloured objects. We have spent time exploring the outdoors and we even found some worms.
Year 1 - Little Red Riding Hood
Year 1 have been collecting vocabulary to use in their writing about Little Red Riding Hood. They focused on the characters and the woods. The children worked in pairs completing a 'Role on the wall' activity. For this, they had to think about how the wolf felt and what he looked like.
Supporting your Bilingual Child
Speaking two languages is an amazing skill to have! So if you're raising a bilingual child here are a few ways to support them
Two’s Room - Rhyme Time
The parents and children in the Two’s room had a fantastic time during our rhyme time today. Thank you to all of the parents who could make it. Please don't worry if you couldn't make it this week as it will be running it every week.
Nursery - Story and Rhyme Time
We are pleased to announce our new story and rhyme time sessions in nursery. Tuesday for the Two's class children Thursday for Pre School children Parents are welcome to come to the session from 11.00 am for morning children. 2.30 pm for afternoon children. In this time we will have a lovely story/ rhyme session and before we finish you will be able to change your child's reading book with them before you go. We will now be changing books on Tuesday for Two's class children and Thursday for Pre School.
Darwen Library Events in March
Saturdays in March at Darwen Library.
Reception Class - Group Reading
Reception have been working hard to apply their phonics knowledge to their reading. They have been working on ‘speedy reading’ breaking down the word into sounds and blending together to read the words.
Pre School - Katie’s Sunflowers
In literacy this week we have started a new story called Katie and the sunflowers. Katie goes to a gallery and sees a beautiful picture of some sunflowers. We discussed what we would see in a gallery and learnt some new words from Grandma Fantastic. We decided to create our very own sunflowers.
Two’s Room - Dear Zoo
We have had a good week so far in nursery. We have been looking at our story, Dear Zoo. We dressed up like the different animals and moved our bodies and made noises like the animals. We made animal footprints using the different coloured paints. We also made elephants which have long trunks and big ears! In our physical development room we have been practising our crawling and climbing skills. More fun to come!
Pre School - Little Red Riding Hood
This week the children have been learning about the fairy tale Little Red riding hood. We have developed our fine motor skills using the tweezers to get the pom poms out of the forest. We developed our skills for maths with Grandma's cakes, giving a plate to Red riding hood, Grandma and wood cutter, even though we gave out the cakes the total remained the same. We played a game of hide and seek with Grandma and revisited a lesson on our senses.
Year 1 Guided Reading
Year 1 have enjoyed reading this week! They have worked hard looking at new vocabulary, sounding out, blending and talking about what is happening in the story.
Year One - English
Year 1 have been learning about Toys of the Past in English this term and thoroughly enjoyed our Experience day last week. We made party hats and enjoyed a teddy bears picnic (in class because it was raining) but we didn't let that spoil our fun! We also thought of different adjectives and alliterative words to describe teddy bears. E.g Tiny Teddy, Terrific Teddy, Brown Bear, Beautiful Bear and use these ideas in our writing the following day.
Year 6 - English
Over the last two days in our English lesson we have been learning about Mount Everest. We have learned a lot of interesting facts and discussed what we need to take in our rucksack.
Reception Class - English - Writing about Penguins
Reception class have been learning all about penguins this half term. During our English lesson the children wrote the sentence ‘the daddy penguin hugs his baby.’ The children applied their phonetic knowledge, identifying tricky words and using their segmenting skills. Great effort everyone!
Reception Class - Phonics and Early Reading
Reception Class have been settling into their new routine of guided reading and phonics. We are developing our blending, segmenting and writing skills.
Two’s Room - Kitchen Disco
We have started looking at our new book, Kitchen disco! It has lots of fruits and vegetables inside the book and so we have been exploring the different kinds of fruits and vegetables today. We touched and smelt the fruits and vegetables and talked about what they were called. We also played with the carrots and the lettuce in the water. We have lots of fun activities planned for this week. Here are some photos of what we have been up to today.
Year 1 - The Queen’s Hat
In the story, The Queen's Hat, the wind blows her hat off. For today's experience day, the children have been experiencing the impact of a windy day. We watched some windy day clips and thought of some key vocabulary. We then used a hair dryer (wind) to blow their hats off. This was very tricky to catch on camera but the children thoroughly enjoyed it! We then used a tissue paper and explored different ways to make wind (blowing, throwing, dropping...) and watched the affects it had.
Reception Class - Phonics - Popcorn Pop
During our phonics lesson today the children were introduced to our phonics game 'popcorn pop'. Inside our popcorn box we have some graphemes, tricky words and some CVC words to help the children with their blending. We really enjoyed this game and we will definitely be playing it again to help us with our phonics knowledge.
Year 6 Drama Techniques
In English we used drama techniques to 'freeze frame' what our reactions would be if we were told that we were going on a trip around the world, like the main character Michael, in our book Kensuke's Kingdom.
Pre School - Literacy - Where The Wild Things Are
In Literacy this week we have started our new story,' Where the Wild Things Are.' The children went out in the garden to find wild things using our imagination like Max from our story. The children found bears, witches and owls in the forest and loved running away from them and hiding in different places. The children moved their bodies to the action words we have been learning, skipping and marching. We even made some magic wands.
Reception Class -Acting out a Story
In Reception Class we have been acting out the story of Owl Babies. The children took on the role of different characters, repeating familiar phrases from the story.
Reception Class - Phonics
Today in phonics the children have been practising their blending skills by playing Dragon's Den. The children had to read the words on the egg and decide if they thought the word was real or fake. They voted on this using our coloured fans.
Reception Class Name Writing
Reception Class have been working hard on identifying and writing their names. Some of our children are self correcting their pen grip too which is great!
Pre School - Bear Hunt
In literacy this week we have continued exploring our story of We're Going on a Bear Hunt. We have now reached the dark forest and explored the different sounds we would hear in the forest, selecting pictures of the animals we would find. We used the sensory box to find hidden bugs and twigs. We created forest pictures, painting with twigs and leaves. We then went outside to make a bear cave, collecting twigs, leaves and recalling the story as we worked together to make the cave. I think the bear would be very happy.
Y1 English - Experience Day
For our Experience Day today, the children explored a busy and beautiful forest. In small groups they thought about the birds movements and actions and created a list of verbs including pecking, flying, twirling, gliding... The children then moved like the birds.
Handwriting in Reception
Reception Class have been busy practicing their handwriting this afternoon. We are working on following a simple pattern on our boards, moving from left to right and holding our pen correctly.
Pre School - Literacy
In literacy the children in pre-school have been exploring our story; We're Going on a Bear Hunt. We experienced warm and cold water, damp and dripping wet clothes and listened to different sounds of dripping water and splashing. We learnt new words from Grandma Fantastic's basket.
Y2 English - Following Instructions
In English this week, Year 2 are learning about instructions. This morning, they followed a set of instructions to make a jam sandwich ... which most of them thoroughly enjoyed eating at the end!
Year 6 - SPAG Afternoon
Year 6 are having a 'SPAG games' afternoon today, where we are revising our knowledge in alternative ways. These photos show us having fun and working collaboratively to complete a 10 minute SPAG treasure hunt!
Pre-School - Jasper’s Beanstalk
We have had a very busy week in Pre-School exploring and learning. We have been reading Jasper's Beanstalk and have been taking part in lots of different activities. We even created our very own beanstalk and made our own Jasper the cat masks.
Pre School - Goldilocks and the 3 Bears
This week in Pre School we have been looking at Fairy tales, the story we chose was Goldilocks and the three bears. The children came into a crime scene on Monday and had to investigate what had happened. As the week has gone on we have been learning about size and developing our cutting skills.
Reception Class - English Experience Day
This afternoon Reception watched a video of the Red Arrows as part of our experience day for Pigs Might Fly. We then explored flight by making our own paper aeroplanes and testing how well they flew.
Year 2 - English ‘Shape Days’
Year 2 will be completing a non-fiction piece of writing over the next few weeks based on the story ‘The Day the Crayons Quit’. To begin this unit we have completed 2 ‘shape days’ where we have been looking at our new shape vocabulary that will help us with our writing; see if your child can remember any of the shapes we have learned.
Year 5 - Timeline
We have had a very busy week, starting our new topic in English, we also created timelines of significant Kings and Queens in English. The children found this tricky but really tried hard to apply their growth mindsets.
Y2 English Experience Day
As part of our English unit, the children enjoyed their campfire experience day. We sang songs, listened to stories and even enjoyed smores and hot chocolate.
Y6 - Collaborative Poem
This morning Year 6 wrote a collaborative poem all about a boat on a stormy sea. I think you’ll agree with me that they have used some wonderful vocabulary!
Reading with your Child
Kids brains are like sponges, soaking up everything around them. And when you play with them, you give their brains a boost. Get support at Start for Life nhs.uk/start4life/chatplayread #ChatPlayRead
Year 4 - National Poetry Day
Today for National Poetry Day, we read and performed a poem called The Lifecycle of a Flower. We enjoyed using actions and liked the rhyming words too!
Pre School - Letters to the Bear
Pre-School have been reading We’re Going on a Bear Hunt this week. Some of the children created some invitations to give to the bear because he is lonely and the children asked him to come and play at nursery. The children left the invitations in the garden and this morning we had a reply, the bear had left a note and some biscuits to share with the children.
Y1 and Y2 Literature Festival
Year 1 and 2 had a great time at Darwen Library this morning. We met a real author called Christina Gabittas and listened to her stories. Your child will bring a voucher home today that you can swap for a free book in Darwen library from 10 am to 12 noon on Saturday.
Y2 - Visit to Darwen Library
Y2 had a wonderful time exploring Darwen library this morning. The children thought of some fantastic vocabulary that will help them with their writing this week.
Reception - Phonics
This afternoon in phonics Reception have been practising writing their graphemes and names, this is something they will do every day. They will be talking about print going from left to right, using the dot on our board to help them. They will also be looking at holding their pens properly.
Reception Class Phonics
This week in Reception the children have been introduced to Phonics Bug. We have started learning about different phonemes, so far we have worked on 's' and 'a' sounds.
Y2 English
Year 2 started their new unit in English today ‘Little Red Reading Hood’. The first lesson was an experience day. They went for a walk around school looking for different places they would like to read.
Y5 - Reading Wish List
This afternoon we have been transported to a cafe whereby we are tasting a selection of different books. We are exploring lots of different genres and making a reading wish list for the year!
Help us Win £1000 for our School’s Library!
*** We need your help! *** This would be a fantastic prize for our children. Please could you spare 30 seconds, follow the link, click enter now and vote for Darwen St James CE Primary Academy. https://www.nationalbooktokens.com/schools? Thank you!
Year 2 - English
In English, we have been sorting facts about Neil Armstrong. The children enjoyed learning about him and over the next few weeks they will write a non-chronological report about his life and the when he landed on the moon.
Y3 - Adventure Stories.
Year 3 have been writing their own adventure stories and sharing them with thier classmates.
Year 2 - Re-Telling a Story.
The children began the week re-telling the story ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ to a partner. They then planned their own story on a story map, changing the name of the main character (e.g Little Pink Riding Hood), who she met in the woods (e.g a bear) and then thought about what the new character said to her (e.g ‘Oh Granny, what big paws you have’. The children will use this plan to help them write their own story. We look forward to reading them next week.
Year 6 - Writing a New Chapter for the Wizard of Oz.
We have had a lot of fun this morning making a new chapter for the Wizard of Oz story come to life with role plays and freeze frames in Year 6!
Reception Class - Name Writing
Reception Class have been working hard to write their names, including forming their letters correctly.
Library Visit - Y4
We loved our visit to Darwen Library today! We learned all about how a library works and enjoyed looking at all the different books. We all borrowed a book to keep at school. Those who brought back their form to become members will get their library cards by the end of the week so you can go back and choose a book to enjoy at home.
Blending CVC Words
Today the children in Reception have been working hard with their blending skills in phonics. Great job everyone!
Year 3's Library Visit.
Year 3 have been selecting books from our school library to take home.
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