A Comberton Educational Trust School
Jeavons Wood Primary School
Eastgate
Great Cambourne
Cambs
CB23 6DZ
office@jeavonswood.cambs.sch.uk
December 2010
Hello from the Ladybird Class!
The Ladybirds have shown lots of enthusiasm and have been working hard this half term with
our topic of buildings. The children have produced some fantastic work and there has been very
impressive learning going on!
The Ladybirds have loved learning in the outdoor area this half term with
their very own construction site outside; they have built some amazing
buildings with actual bricks and their home made cement.
The children absolutely loved learning about famous
buildings and responded by making their own versions
of the buildings from junk or finding out about them on the internet.
They found out some very interesting facts and made brilliant replicas of
the buildings themselves. This also included the Houses of Parliament –
the children learnt about this famous building during our first week back
when we investigated ‘Festivals of Light’: Bonfire Night and Diwali. The children made some
very authentic looking ‘WANTED’ posters for Guy Fawkes and made beautiful firework pictures
which they enhanced with ‘sound words’ such as BOOM! and POP! For Diwali,
the class heard the story of Rama and Sita and responded by making their own
clay diwas and rangoli patterns.
The natural choice for our Literacy was ‘The Three Little Pigs’! Here, the
children read different versions of the traditional tale and alternative
versions, they acted out the story in the role play area and even
interviewed the wolf! Having immersed themselves in the tale, they then
went on to write their own traditional tales and created storybooks using
2simple software on the computers. The results were very impressive
with different fonts, bright illustrations and sound effects. The children
clearly knew the sequence of events in ‘The Three Little Pigs’ well as their stories were so well
structured! This led us to thinking about the materials the three little pigs used to build their
houses; the children built their own houses of straw, sticks and bricks (well, Lego!) and then
used a hairdryer for our very own Mr. Wolf. This was a very interesting science investigation
and the children were able to see for themselves which materials were the best and strongest
for building.
Our topic on buildings also lent itself well to Maths, where we have
been measuring and using time. The children were able to use a ruler
to design their own building and make sure it had sides was straight
and equal. They have also been weighing, they enjoyed using the
balancing scales, and learning about time.
Of course, we all enjoyed our Superhero week this half term as well. The children created
their own Superheros, amongst whom we had, Catgirl, Spiderboy and Maths Girl! They then
customised a t-shirt, made headbands, wrapped themselves in capes and did a super groovy
Superhero dance for everyone in the hall! Of course, we did lots of learning about the real-life
Superheroes in our community and were incredibly lucky to have visits
from the fire brigade, the police, a vicar, a nurse and a paramedic. The
children thought about the characteristics of these Superheroes and why
their jobs are so important for us.
The
Thinking about these characteristics, the children have really been trying
hard to work together as a team this whole term. Every time the whole
class do something well they receive a ‘brick’ to go on their brick wall. The
Ladybirds received their final brick two weeks ago so were able to choose
a whole class reward: they decided to set our classroom up as a cinema and we watched a DVD
with popcorn! The children really enjoyed this and were very proud of themselves for getting
their reward - they thoroughly deserved it. The brick wall now starts all over again!
The past two weeks we have got stuck into our Christmas activities!
The Ladybirds were brilliant in our Nativity ‘Hosanna Rock’. The
villagers were extremely busy and got themselves very dizzy and the
shepherds and sheep were very cool dudes with their jazzy dance! I
was really proud of their performances. The children continued
learning about materials into Christmas – they have been designing
toys in our ‘Santa’s Workshop’ role play and investigating the best materials to keep Santa warm
and dry during his long trip on Christmas Eve! They had a lovely time during our last week when
they went to the theatre, had a party, a visit from Father Christmas, Christmas dinner and
made a whole host of lovely Christmassy things to bring home…phew! A very busy week indeed.
The children have had a fantastic first term and I hope you are really proud of what they are
achieving in school. They are a gorgeous class and I feel very lucky that they are mine!
Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Jenny Brown