Acorn Archive 2019-2020

Spring 1

Week Commencing 10th February 2020

In Maths, we have been learning 3D shapes! We have been building with them, rolling with them and sorting them. We have learnt the names and discussed the properties. We have also been singing the famous 3D shape song!

In Topic, we have been learning about Australia! We made Anzac biscuits and had a go at some Aboriginal dot paintings. We talked about the different Australian animals and landmarks and discussed how it is different to our country. We tried jumping like kangeroos and tried throwing a boomerang- trickier than you think!

Week Commencing 3rd February 2020

In Maths this week we have been celebrating the number 10!!! We used the numicon to find ways to match the number 10- Mrs Marsden would only let us use two pieces! We managed to find several different combinations to make 10 and some of us even decided to record them as number sentences!

In Phonics, we have been segmenting sounds to spell. We revisited the sounds j, v, w, x and y and we tried spelling some words with the magnetic letters.

We had a storyteller visit this week as part of KS2’s Mental Health Awareness week. We were very lucky for him to pay Acorn class an extra visit and we listened to a really fantastic story, joining in with the actions as we went! He even let us have a go on the thumb piano which had lots of interest.

Week Commencing 27th January 2020

Friday was our annual Birdwatch day! We joined Ash and Oak class to learn about different garden birds. We went birdwatching and made bird feeders. We also made some rather impressive bird masks which Acorn class insisted on wearing for the rest of the day. Another highlight was a visit from Stonham Barns who brought in a real live owl called Darwin. We learnt lots of facts about owls!

In P.E this week, we had a go at playing some Hockey! We learnt how to control the ball using the hockey sticks around the cones. We then tried a mini game 2 versus 2. Our aim was to get the ball into the oppositions goal to score a point.

Week Commencing 20th January

We learnt about Italy this week! We learnt about the famous landmarks in Italy and how to say hello in Italian. In true Italian style, we made pizzas! We rolled the dough and shaped it into a pizza base. We then spread the tomato sauce on the top and added our toppings! We were very excited to take it home to enjoy that day!

In Maths, we introduced the addition sign! We have been practising putting two sets of objects together and counting them all to find the answer. On Thursday, our friend Lily the Ladybird helped us with our adding! We found different ways to arrange her 8 dots on her 2 wings and then wrote the number sentence to go with it.

On Friday, we celebrated Chinese New Year with Oak class. We tasted Chinese food, make Chinese lanterns and dragons, had a go at Chinese writing and took part in the Chopstick Challenge. Gung Hay Fat Choi!

Week Commencing 13th January

In our topic lesson this week, we have been learning about our country Great Britain. We talked about the different parts of the UK and where to find it on our globe. We then learnt about London. We ‘visited’ all the sights- our favourite was definitely the Gherkin! We then made our own pictures of the London landmarks using lots of different techniques and resources.

In Maths, we have been finding out different ways to split 5 using the five frames and the part-part-whole model. First we played a game where we dropped 5 double sided counters and recorded how they landed. We then split 5 cubes into two hoops using the part-part-whole model.

Week Commencing 7th January

Our first week back after the Christmas holidays began with P.E. This term we are focusing on team games. We had a go at playing benchball and had to stop the balls from hitting the bench behind the other team.

We went to the church to celebrate Epiphany with the rest of the school. Some of us made crowns from recyclable materials  to wear to the service.

In Maths, we have been learning how to measure time. We learnt about how long 1 minute is and thought about what things we could do in 1 minute. We set out a obstacle course and timed how long it took us by counting. We then challenged ourselves to see how many times we could do the obstacle course in 1 minute. We recorded some results on a board.

In pairs, we then had a go at the 1 minute cup challenge. We took it in turns to be in charge of the 1 minute sandtimer and the other one had to build a tower with the stacking cups. We counted the cups to see who had the most!

Autumn 2

On Friday, we took part in a Lords Prayer Enrichment day with the whole school. We made bread, we learnt a new song, we contributed to a whole school piece of art, wrote prayers, learnt sign language and made some decorations for our school reflective area. It was very busy and we were definitely exhausted by the end of the day (Mrs M included!).

Week Commencing 28th October:

We are now officially blending champions in Acorn class and thought we would try our hand at segmenting this week! We learnt how to segment the sounds in a word using our phoneme fingers and then match the sound to a letter to spell the word.  We have been segmenting robots all week long!

In P.E, we had our first go at gymnastics! We LOVED the ropes and enjoyed swinging on them!

Our topic for this half term is ‘Celebrations’. We celebrated the Hindu festival of Diwali this week. We listened to the story of Rama and Sita and why the festival is called ‘The Festival of Light’. We made our own salt dough diva lamps, coloured salt rangoli patterns and some yummy diwali sweets. We also learnt about mendhi patterns and had a go at designing our own.

Week Commencing 11th November:

This week we learnt about Remembrance day and why it is such a important celebration for our country. We learnt about the significance of the poppy and made our own poppies to display in our classroom. It was such a popular activity and we were so proud of the results.

The wooden bricks have been really popular during our busy time this week- we have had new creations every day! Mrs M has been very impressed by how much co-operation was used- lots of teamwork to make the tallest towers! We had museums and rockets galore!

We have been learning how to read and write labels and captions in our Literacy lessons. We have been using our phoneme fingers to segment the sounds and write the sounds we can hear. This has inspired lots of independent writing this week during our busy time!

Week Commencing 4th November:

In Topic, we have been celebrating Bonfire Night. We learnt about the Gunpowder Plot and made our own firework pictures using some rather strange material. We pretended to go on our own firework night by wrapping up in coats, hats and gloves and turning off all the lights. Mrs M put on a firework display on our IWB and we sat and watched our very own firework display. Later on we made our own firework display with the colourful scarves, drank hot chocolate and marshmallows, iced our own firework biscuits and made some firework patterns on the light panel.  We have definitely been busy!

It is ‘One More’ week in Maths. We have been adding one more here, there and everywhere! We went on a bus journey and added one more passenger at each bus stop. We added one more when we lined up. We added one more marshmallow to our hot chocolate and we made ‘One More Towers’.

Week Commencing 25th November:

A very exciting event happened this week- it was the snails birthday! We decided to plan them a birthday party to celebrate so we each wrote Mrs M a party to do list of all the things we need to get. We then made birthday cards, wrapped up presents and decorated cakes ready for the party. The day finally came for the party and we were VERY excited. We even got to wear our party clothes! We danced, we played games, and we sang ‘Happy Birthday’. We even blew out  birthday candles before we ate our cakes- YUM!

Week Commencing 18th November:

In Literacy this week, we have been enjoying the story of The Gingerbread Man. We had a very exciting package arrive for us from the little old lady. She needed our help as she kept making gingerbread men but they kept running away! She gave us some ingredients to make our own ones but warned us to keep a close eye on them! We made gingerbread men and enjoyed decorating them. It inspired lots of the children to write letters to the little old lady and we even captured our own gingerbread man and took turns to keep an eye on him.  We enjoyed making more gingerbread men using the gingerbread playdough- there was a line for the oven. We even acted out the story using the small world toys.

In Topic, we learnt about weddings. We talked about the different roles and traditions in a wedding and then acted out our own ceremony! All the children had a role and enjoyed dressing up and acting out the different parts of a wedding- we even had the first dance and the cake cutting!

Week Commencing 16th December:

The Christmas cheer continues in Acorn class. We had a Christmas party with Oak and Ash class where we showed off some serious dance moves!

Week Commencing 9th December:

Wow- what a week! We performed our Christmas nativity play called ‘I Spy Christmas’ this week to the whole school and then our families. We were AMAZING and made Mrs M very very proud. We sang, danced and made our way to that very important stable in Bethlehem.

We read a book this week called Leaf Man which inspired us to use our creativity to make our own leaf men. We collected items from the outside area that we thought would be interesting. We used them to form a body, a face and arms and legs. Look at our creations- they are amazing!!

In Phonics, we learnt two new tricky words and then went on a tricky word treasure hunt. We had 3 minutes to write down as many of the tricky words we can find. The Acorns took it very seriously!

Week Commencing 2nd December:

We began our week learning about Christingle. We learnt about the meaning of the Christingle and then got to make our own. In the afternoon, we attended the Christingle service in the church.

Christmas fun has begun at All Saints’ starting with our Christmas lunch! We enjoyed a yummy lunch and enjoyed sitting down all together.

On Friday, it was Christmas Jumper and Decoration day! Our morning was filled with glitter and Christmas cheer as we made lots of festive craft with our families.

Autumn 1

Week commencing 14th October:

We have been using our senses this half term as part of our topic ‘Marvellous Me’. This week, we went on a Autumn walk to explore our sight, hearing and smell. We had a checklist to look out for things to spot that was a sign of Autumn.  We explored the changes in leaf colours and listen for birds. Our best spot was definitely the squirrel!

Acorn class have been teaching Mrs Marsden all about Forky this week. They have been talking to them during busy time so we decided to make our own! This was very popular!

Week commencing 7th October:

We have learnt about a new learning behaviour this week- ‘Co-operation’. We demonstrated this learning behaviour by working in teams to build puzzles! We negotiated and shared- Mrs M was very impressed!

We decided to go on a impromtu conker hunt this week outside the front of our school. We had a lot of fun trying the find the biggest and smallest conker!

We have managed to put our haul to good use- we have been counting, making patterns and even making letter shapes with them!

In Topic, we tested out our taste senses! We tried different foods and discussed whether it was sweet, salty, bitter or sour. We made some very funny faces when we tasted the lemon!

Week Commencing 30th September:

In Maths, we have been sorting and comparing quantities. We used our sorting skills from last week to sort the objects into two groups and then compare them. We learnt some new vocabulary- more, fewer and equal.

In P.E, we have been practising our catching skills. Tom challenged us to experiment with size balls. We found the ping pong balls the trickiest because they were just SO bouncy! We also tried to catch balls in cones. We worked in pairs- super co-operation Acorns!

Our finger gym challenge was very popular this week. We had to use the tweezers to put the pom-poms on the mat. Lot’s of stickability required!

Week Commencing 23rd September 2019:

It has been sorting week this week in Maths. We have sorted buttons, shells, dinosaurs, vehicles, animals and numbers. Mrs Marsden has challenged us to explain how we have sorted the objects and then she asked us to sort them AGAIN in a different way. We sorted by colours, shapes, types and we even sorted by number of legs!

In Literacy, we have been learning the story of ‘The Three Little Pigs’. We retold the story using Pie Corbett actions and made a story map together as a class. We have made our own stick puppets and then acted out the story in the puppet theatre.

We had our final tennis lesson with Mr Hall. We used the rackets to control the tennis balls. We tried bouncing the balls on the rackets, trying not to let them fall off.

In Maths, we have been celebrating numbers 4 and 5. Our Numberblock friends have been helping us out to find different ways to make these numbers. We counted out 4 objects from a larger group. Mrs M tried to trick us by arranging them in different ways but we could still see they were 4. We then built towers with 5 connecting cubes. We tried to find different ways to make a tower with just 5 cubes.

In Literacy, we have been practising writing our names. We joined Mrs Marsden’s Dough Gym and have been having a dough disco in the mornings to warm up our finger! We had to spell our name using the unifix blocks for our finger gym challenge this week and we have been writing our name using chalks and pencils.

In Maths, we have been celebrating the number 2. We thought of different ways to show the number two. We used dice, objects, fingers and numicon. We also drew 2 things too!

We enjoyed our first P.E session with Tom Bigg. We rotated around lots of different challenges. We did lots of super turn taking!

We had made it through our first 3 days at big school- WELL DONE ACORNS! We have been enjoying exploring the classroom and outside area. We discovered worms in the sand pit, planted herbs in our planter and played with the ride-ons.

We also had a go at our first finger gym challenge, made a dinosaur museum and a icecream playdough shop.

We had our first P.E lesson with the tennis coach Mr Hall. We had a go at rolling the ball to each other using the tennis rackets.

We have ended every day with a thumbs up – well done Acorns! Mrs Marsden is very proud of you!