Giraffes

Welcome to Giraffe Class

Learning in Giraffes class is based around an approach that involves both adult-led teaching and child-initiated learning.

We believe children learn best when they are allowed to discover and apply their growing skills within a range of contexts.

That is why we create learning opportunities that have real life contexts and that are fun and engaging for children.

A typical day within Giraffes class will involve Phonics (the learning of letter sounds) handwriting, Math and English. We also have weekly Science, PE lessons and music. We explore Geography, History, Forest School, Art and Design and Technology too. As you can tell, we are very busy learning lots of exciting new things.

Things to remember:

• PE on Wednesday (P.E. kit can stay in school) 
• Forest School on Thursday (bring their Forest School clothes to school with them). Children have forest school alternative weeks.
• Books changed on Tuesday.
• Read, and write in their reading diary, three times a week. Every day would be even better!

11.1.19

English: We got a letter from Hansel and Gretel's father! We looked at the different features such as it starting with "Dear", and the use of conjunctions such as "and". Why don't you write a letter to somebody you care about?
Maths: We have been looking at using numberlines to solve problems. It is important that we understand that whether the numbers 1 to 20 are on a numberline, made with cubes, on a dice, or on a domino they are all the same. Why don't you play domino and card games at home, and see if you can recognise the numbers?

P.E: In P.E. we have been practising ball games and doing "HIIT" (High Intensity Fitness). Physical activity is so vital to children's learning. Giraffes know that being strong helps our writing, as well as our concentration. Why don't you go to the play park and see if you can crawl through tunnels and complete monkey-bars to make you even stronger for writing?

4.11.19

English: We were left clues by Hansel and Gretel- including a story book, sweets, crumbs and leaves. We explored forest school to find out what things Hansel and Gretel might have seen. We then used adjectives (describing words) to write sentences.
Maths: We have been looking at taking away. We learnt the chant "Start with the total, and take some away!" to help us understand that we start with the whole amount and then it gets smaller as we subtract.

Science: In Science we have been learning about how to classify animals. We found out that we are mammals because we breathe oxygen and have live young!

14th-20th October

Maths:

We have been looking at starting with an amount - the whole, and splitting it into groups - the parts. We realised when we put the parts back together the were the same - equal - to the whole. We then looked at the "+" sign and the "=" sign.

English:

We have been writing simple sentences with nouns (people, place or thing). We then came up with adjectives too. We wrote sentences to say what we looked like. What adjectives can you think of to describe what you look like?

World Food Day.

For World Food Day we tried breads from around the world to represent all the exciting places our class are from. We tried Spanish, Polish, English, Russian and Indian bread. We thought about what it looked liked and used adjective (describing words) to talk about it. Next week we are making naan. Do you have any exciting recipes from different places around the world?

7th to 14th October
English: We have been learning to write simple sentences to describe a character. Some children have tried using adjectives (describing words) too!

Maths: We have been looking at different amounts and which is greater than and less than. We have been using the symbols < + > . We have also looked at ordinal numbers, seeing who is first, second and third to line up.

Science: We are exploring living things and we learnt about the different parts of a plant, soon we will be growing a bean.

History and Geography: We are finding about John Bonham because he is famous and was born in our local area. We have been exploring our local area.