RSPCA Visit

On Tuesday 3rd May, Great Bear had a visit from Claire who works for the RSPCA. She came in to talk to us about the work the RSPCA does to protect British wildlife and domestic animals living here in the UK. We had a super time learning about the history of the RSPCA, what an RSPCA inspector does, facts and jokes about British wildlife, the five needs of pets, why micro-chipping your pet is important and why disposing of your rubbish safely is important for British wildlife.

We learnt all this amazing information through: film clips, songs, scanning "pets" for microchips, looking at pets with our learning partners and discussing which of their needs was not being met and much more!

Claire was a brilliant visitor and we enjoyed her visit lots, she also said some lovely things about Great Bear Class. WE was impressed with our general knowledge, questions, behaviour and how we tackled the activities, some of them she usually only does with Key Stage 2!

We hope to organise some fund raising activities later on so that we can make a donation to the RSPCA as Claire's fantastic visit was free!

Mastery in Maths

This week in Numeracy we have been looking at Capacity. We have talked about how this means measuring how much something holds, usually liquid and we had a big discussion on all different types of liquids.

Great Bear Class already have a good understanding of estimating and measuring to a Year One standard so I was looking for ways to use their knowledge and understanding to challenge them. We worked our way through several group challenges that needed Great Bear to use their understanding of estimating, measuring, size and proportion.

Lots of the ideas were taken from the Maths website NRICH by From the University of Cambridge. If you fancy trying some of their wonderful Maths investigations take a look at http://nrich.maths.org/frontpage

Here we are with the Cups Challenge

Collective Worship with Great Bear Class

You may have heard Great Bear Class talking about Collective Worship, this the correct term for Assembly and we have been exploring what worship might mean to different people, including the children.

Collective Worship happens everyday in some form, whether it be with the school, our key stage, just our class or through singing. Great Bear Class are enjoying learning about how an alter, candles, colours and symbols are used during Collective Worship.

We are currently learning, thinking and reflecting about Wisdom this term in Collective Worship, linking it to stories from the Bible, modern children's stories and our everyday lives. The children have amazing ideas and we often have very thoughtful discussions in our own class Collective Worships and whilst reflecting on whole school Collective Worships. Ask your Great Bear person about their ideas on Wisdom!

Here we are enjoying Key Stage One Collective Worship.

Animal Poetry

Great Bear Class never fail to amaze me with what they are able to do. This week we have been looking at poetry in Literacy based on British Wildlife, we used photographs and examples written by other children.

The first set of poems we read were written using words starting with the first letter of the animal's name. The children worked with their learning partners to choose and animal and come up with the words. We then discussed the styles in which you could write the poems.

Here are some examples.

S Is For Squirrel   By James and Casimira

Squirrel, soft, shy, scared, speedy, skidding.
Squirrel living in a tree.
Squirrel eating nuts.
Squirrel being cheeky.
Squirrel!

 R Is For Robin By Thomas W and Erin

Robin, their feathers are red.
Robin, the trees are a good place to roost.
Robin, they rush and rub past you.
Robin, the roofs are a quiet place to nest.

Next week we are decorating our poems and writing question poems, we will share more of our wonderful work with you then!

Outdoor Ordering

We have been outside lots in the beautiful sunshine. Numeracy is a perfect learning area to take outside as there is so much we can do. This week we have been ordering numbers to 100 using number tiles, digit cards and dice.

Building Learning Power

You may have heard your little person talking to you about resilience and being a resilient learner this week. This is part of a whole school initiative to "build learning power" taken from Professor Guy Claxon.

We are looking at the learning powers, resilience, relationships, resourcefulness and responsibility. Each power is represented by a colour and we have glass stones to represent them. The colours are; red, purple, clear and blue. The children are encouraged to put a stone in the matching jar when they feel they have used that learning power or indeed the class has collectively! We then discuss the jars at the end of the week as to our most/least successful learning power and our next steps.

At the moment I am introducing one power a week to build up to the full 4. We have started on resilience and are on to relationships next. We have been using short film clips, songs and discussions to introduce and understand what each learning power means.

If you would like to find our more here is a link to Guy Claxton's website.
http://www.buildinglearningpower.com/about/professor-guy-claxton/

What is Wisdom?

This term we are thinking about and reflecting on wisdom in Collective Worship. On a Thursday morning we worship together as a class in our own classroom, the children have lots of wonderful, insightful thoughts and comments and it is a lovely time for us all to enjoy just being together.

Here we are thinking about what present we would ask for if God said we could have any present we liked. This is linked to the Bible story of Solomon.