Last day enjoyment with our buddies, by Mr Pearson

Date: 22nd Jul 2024 @ 11:17am

First lesson t.oday the Penguin and Koala tribes came together for some challenges in the hall. Buddies had to build the highest towers, throw and catch different sized balls 20 times to each other.  Next challenge was to design an imaginary animal.

Finally we had team challenge using the giant parachute.

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A fantastic day!, by Mrs Thomson

Date: 17th Jul 2024 @ 10:16pm

Yesterday started in a perfect way! The children did a morning bog eyed jog around the school field. We ran, danced, sang and chatted all the way! We chatted so much that we had no idea how many laps we did! We then had breakfast outside with our school friends before setting off on a whole school walking bus around the village. 
The penguins loved playing the 50 pence slide! Evie was in the lead before Hugo just beat her with his last slide! I think this game will be played a lot over the summer on your shiny floors.

We had a very special singing afternoon before Mrs.Wooley and Mrs.Fletcher were awarded their final school reports. 

We are excited to go litter picking in Longton tomorrow and then we will be busy making our ice pops.

A message from Mrs.Regan, by Mrs Thomson

Date: 12th Jul 2024 @ 7:48am

Mrs.Regan is excited to see your sunflowers. Over the weekend please can you measure your sunflower and if possible send a picture of your penguin stood next to it. Mrs.Regan will announce the winner of the tallest sunflower towards the end of the week.

Thank you

Takeover day!, by Mrs Thomson

Date: 11th Jul 2024 @ 9:16pm

On Monday it was a very special day. The year six pupils took over the school and the penguins had three new teachers for the day. The maths, phonics, topic time and show and tell was planned to perfection and the penguins had a truly amazing day.

On Tuesday the penguins enjoyed going to church for the celebration assembly. They enjoyed spending some time with their buddies.

On Wednesday work began in our outdoor play area. An aeroplane, check in desk, tunnel to the aeroplane and airport cafe was opened by our very creative penguins. (If you are buying new suitcases this year and have a small suitcase that is no longer used please let us know)

Today a representative came into class from the 'Story Homes' building site. He gave us a talk about being safe near building sites and how builders stay safe in their work. We then had a surprise visit from the 'build a bear' The penguins enjoyed wearing the hard hats and high visibility jackets. In their back packs that the children were given today is information about a poster competition. Please take a look.

We enjoyed our assembly today by learning about the summer reading challenge at Longton library. The penguins were very excited about this.

Next week we will be talking about how we can look after our world. We will spend one morning in the community, litter picking. Please make sure coats (and summer caps) are sent each day.

Happy homework - the children have been given a summer scavenger hunt. If you are able to go for a short walk or spend some time in the garden to complete this I would be very grateful as this links with an activity planned for next week. (A huge thank you for the homework sent in from last week! It was so interesting and the children enjoyed sharing their information with the class. We had our globe and map out to spot the different countries).

Come rain or shine!, by Mrs Thomson

Date: 7th Jul 2024 @ 11:53am

This week the penguins received a message in a bottle. It was from Pirate Polly. She wrote to tell us that she had arrived in China. We have been finding out lots of information about China and some penguins have had a go at writing their name in Chinese whilst others created a huge outdoor 'Great Wall of China'.

We had a visitor from the HSBC and she talked to us about our money and how to look after it. She told us a story about Cinderella who worked hard at her job designing trainers to earn her money.

The penguins enjoyed their own Wimbledon this week. 
Our Andy Warhol pop art project is now finished. We are now ready for some DT work and art using food!

We are looking forward to visiting our Y1 classroom again next week.

Keeping cool!, by Mrs Thomson

Date: 26th Jun 2024 @ 8:39pm

The penguins have been trying to keep cool this week. We have been working and playing in the shade. We have been talking about staying safe in the sun and the penguins have been wearing their own hats or one of our spare caps from class. They have been drinking lots of water and some children have refilled their water bottle three times! Great job!

(Please send in a sun hat and suncream in your child's book bag - no aerosols please)

On Tuesday we had a class trip to the library. We had new stories about looking after our world and looking after our wildlife. The penguins then completed an art activity using recycled books. Super star penguins! Great listening, lovely manners and super sharing of the resources!

Today the penguins visited Father Sam at St. Andrew's church. They had a wonderful tour of the church where they carried out a scavenger hunt. Father Sam talked to the children about the church, the services and they even got to sing new songs.

As you can see from the pictures we even got time for a little cool down!

Homework - this week our focus for homework is our reading. Please revisit the tricky words stuck in the record book and encourage your child to read their first book listed by Mrs. Morrison this week which is linked to our phonics work. 
Some ideas - read by torchlight, make a reading den, read your book to your favourite teddy, ready with your sunglasses on, read in a pirate voice or do five star jumps at the end of every page!

Feeling hot!, by Mrs Thomson

Date: 23rd Jun 2024 @ 8:34pm

What a sunny few days!

This week the penguins have been creating their own pirate ships. They have been built with rigging, a crows nest, a mast, sails, a ships wheel, cannons and even a plank to walk across. The children then had to test them out in our water tray to see if they would float. Some ships needed materials changing as they became soggy or broke off in the water. Great problem solving and resilience!

In maths we have been learning about grouping and sharing. 
In our phonics we have been looking at ue and ew words. The penguins have been amazing us with their writing and super effort. 

The penguins have now finished their road safety work. They have used their amazing listening skills to remember to stop, listen and look before crossing the road whilst holding hands with an adult. They talked about how electric cars and push bikes are very quiet and that it is very important to stop talking and look and listen several times before crossing. Good work penguins!

Later in the week we looked at the life or a pirate and listened to some sea shanties. The penguins then worked in small teams to make up their own pirate sea shanty. They had lots of fun performing them!

This next week is a week full of adventures.
On Tuesday we are walking to the library for a story session followed by a craft workshop. Later that day, in the afternoon the penguins will be visiting their year one classroom. We had a circle time and thought of lots of questions to ask Mrs. Pratten and we also made a list of all the things the children would like to see in the classroom.

On Wednesday afternoon we are visiting St. Andrew's church as part of our RE work. 

We will try our hardest to change all reading books on Tuesday and Wednesday this week but due to our library and church visits they may take a little longer. All books definitely be changed before the end of the week.

Thank you

Penguins back together!, by Mrs Thomson

Date: 14th Jun 2024 @ 2:40pm

It has been lovely to have our penguin family back together this week. They have had so much exciting news to tell and they are so proud of their 'All about me' books which have some lovely pictures and memories to share. (These books will go into the year one class for a short time so they can share them with the class teachers).

We have started our new topic - We are explorers! The penguins have been learning about pirates this week and they certainly have had fun making ships, dressing up and making Mrs. Morrison and I walk the plank! We are going to talk about maps next week and have a walk into Longton to create a map. We have a class map and the children have been reading the coordinates to plot the pirate pictures.

In maths we have been doing addition and subtractions up to 5. Some children have even been working up to the number 10.

In our phonics we have revisited the sound 'ue' and we have a funny feeling that next week the phonics fairy might deliver a new sound. We have made silly sentences using words such as statue, rescue and Tuesday. In our writing we are remembering to use our swooshes and flicks (the Longton Primary cursive script) and finger spaces between our words. Thank you for your help and support with writing - the children really have 'wowed' us this week!

Reading books were changed a little later this week but next week it will be back to two colour teams on Tuesday and two teams on Wednesday. Pip penguin is still coming home each week so please continue to read each day.

Next week we will continue with our road safety. Please send a coat each day as we plan to be outside as much as we can. We have our fingers crossed for some sunshine!

Have a lovely weekend.

MAD SCIENCE Assembly, by Mrs Catterall

Date: 31st May 2024 @ 11:33am

We enjoyed our visit from Mad Science.  Lots of fun and learning.  I'm sure we will all be trying the balloon and hair experiment!

Forms have gone home if you would like to be a part of the Mad Science after school club.

Our Australian Arts Adventure., by Mrs Thomson

Date: 22nd May 2024 @ 6:07pm

For a change I am going to do very little talking!

I am sharing lots of pictures from our amazing week so far for you to enjoy with your penguin. I hope that they will explain to you what the pictures show.

Super brave adevnturous penguins - Everyone was very proud yesterday of the penguins. It was a busy and very new day for them but they worked so hard and had some fun along the way. I hope you agree that the older children looked after the penguins and encouraged them well.

Unfortunately our fun day at Lostock Hall Primary School has been cancelled tomorrow. Therefore, we have planned a morning of musical instruments, singing and dance. We will also be completing our rain makers. Last Friday the penguins achieved their final class compliment. We had chatted earlier in the week about ideas and today we held a class vote. The ideas were flowing - a visit to the park, a water fight, a disco, a trip to spar, a classroom ice cream factory, a picnic, a pyjama party, another sports day, a baking day and a full play day.

The winning vote (by far!) was the pyjama party! We have decided that we will have a picnic lunch, a pyjama play afternoon and a classroom ice cream factory!

Thank you

Excited for Arts Week!, by Mrs Thomson

Date: 17th May 2024 @ 4:18pm

What an eventful week!

Earlier on in the week the penguins started their work on road safety. They were amazing listeners and although they didnt cross the road this week they identified the traffic, kerb, pavement and road.

We have been working hard in maths this week. We have revisited finding different ways of making 9 and 10. We have also been doing additions and subtractions. Wow the penguins have been mathematicians! They had another go at our super fun challenge! They all had record scores in their additions! Perhaps try some additions at home.

We had three butterflies to release this week. Two couldnt wait to explore but one decided it wanted to stay with us a little longer. The next day the last two emerged from their cocoons. We said goodbye to them today but not before one decided to stay on the penguins hands and even a school shoe! An amazing experience with some very caring and gentle penguins!

We talked about D day during the week and we went outside with our school lamp of peace. We started off the journey of the lamp travelling to each class in school.

Next we decided to continue our topic on transport and do some vehicle spotting outside school. Some penguins wore their amazing binoculars and we did a tally to see which vehicle we saw the most and which we saw the least of. I am sure the penguins will tell you more about our findings!

On Thursday we had our class enterprise. What a success! We sold out within minutes! Before we finish for the summer we will make them again but on a much smaller scale! One each for the penguins as they are working so hard and really deserve a chill out with a smoothie ice pop!

This morning we did some work on friendships. We have been learning ways of being a kind friend and we saw what happened when Mrs. Thomson used unkind words to Mrs. Morrison (it was planned!) The penguins were not impressed with me!

For next week I would be very grateful if you could save your empty kitchen roll tubes. We will be using them for an art project. We have an exciting week planned with singing, dancing, painting and model making. We have a special visitor who is an artist coming to work with us and we also have Miss. Skinner who will work with children in our amazing school art room.

Thank you 

Lots of learning and fun in the sun!, by Mrs Thomson

Date: 12th May 2024 @ 7:26pm

This week we have been talking about being a good friend. We have been partners with different friends for lots of activities this week and the children have worked hard to share, take turns and use kind words.

We have created a bike wash and have had lots of fun cleaning our school bikes. We have been looking at money and the value of 1p, 2p, 5p and 10p. It costs 8p to have your bike washed!

We have created a stage in our playground and the penguins have been singing, dancing and putting on shows all week.

In maths we have been doing simple additions. We have found that by adding we always make our number bigger. We had fun carrying out 'Big Maths' 

Next week we will be starting our road safety work. We will do this learning in the classroom, in our playground and we will also go onto School Lane in small groups. 

Please continue to read the school reading book at home each day. New sounds are now being introduced in phonics so it is very important that the children have the opportunity to practise these in their reading books to help them to master and remember the new sounds. 

We are still collecting batteries in school - please send them in the school book bag.

On Thursday it is our class enterprise. The penguins are making smoothie ice pops. They will sell them after school in the quad area. Please collect your penguin from the quad area (picnic benches) after school. If possible the penguins will stay for 5/10 mins after the hometime bell to sell their ice pops.

Reading books are always changed on a Tuesday and Wednesday morning. However, this week reading books will be changed on Friday morning. Please continue to send reading books and the reading record book in each day so we can monitor progress or any problems.

Thank you

Mini beasts everywhere!, by Mrs Thomson

Date: 3rd May 2024 @ 2:46pm

Lots and lots to share from this week.

Two of our class caterpillars have now transformed into chrysalis. They have kept us amused with their wriggling and we now eagerly wait for the other three to change also. Please ask your child about them, they will tell you all about the grumpy caterpillar pushing and pulling the others!

We enjoyed having our parents in class this week. Learning about forces has kept us busy  and the children have enjoyed exploring and testing just like scientists. 

We also explored and observed when we carefully took one of our mini beast hotels apart on a large white sheet. Wow! The mini beasts of Longton are certainly enjoying our hotels! Slugs, snails, woodlice, spiders and ladybirds all came out to see us. The children used magnifying glasses to look closely at the creatures and looked in books to find out about the mini beasts. We found out that Woodlice curl up small when they are frightened. The penguins were careful and gentle - our woodlice did not need to curl up. After investigating, we rebuilt the hotels and carefully put them back in the hedges so that new visitors could come and stay.

In maths we have been looking at numbers ten to twenty. We have been putting the numbers in order, counting out the correct number of items carefully and also looking at what numbers can be used to make our new numbers (10 and 3 can make 13, 5 and 5 and 3 make 13) Perhaps your penguin could teach you one of our number games?

We have a lovely new work bench in our playground which was bought for us by the PTFA. We have had lots of fun by using it for musical instruments this week. The children have put on plays and musical performances in the sunshine.

Friday started with the penguins being musical once again. We had a beautiful solo performance of 'A million dreams'. We then had a full class perfomance of the same song. A fantastic way to start the day! Miss. Derby did say that five minutes of singing a day can help you feel happy and she was right. Everyone was smiling and happy.

Thnak you for your help and support with reading and phonics. Pip penguin will be back and busy visiting someone for the weekend next week.

Bring Yer Wellies!, by Mrs Thomson

Date: 24th Apr 2024 @ 2:46pm

What an amazing day the penguins had yesterday! 

What do plants need to grow? Why is horse poo good for our grass?  Why are worms important in our gardens? What is compost? How do we recycle? How can we work together to build a den?  What makes great teamwork? What are herbs?

These are just a few of the questions that were asked yesterday. Nigel and Melissa were delighted that the children could listen so well and that they also had lots of their own questions to ask.

The penguins all planted their own lavender plant. They kept the soil fluffy and protected the roots. When they come to water the plant please remind them that plant needs just 'enough' water. Not too much and not too little. 

I hope you enjoy sharing these pictures. 

I have also included a picture from our RE session. We enjoyed a story called 'The Swirling Hijab'. 

Trip Information, by Mrs Thomson

Date: 22nd Apr 2024 @ 8:21pm

What to wear - 

School polo shirt and school sweatshirt / cardigan

PE kit joggers / leggings

Wellies will be taken off the wellie wagon and your child will change into wellies as soon as they arrive in school

Coat

(Waterproof puddle suits will be provided by school if needed)

What to bring - 

The children have all ordered sandwiches of their choice from the school kitchen. Packed lunches will be provided by school. Each packed lunch will contain a bottle of water, pudding and a piece of fruit. (Two children did say today that they were bringing in their own packed lunch. This is absolutely fine but please send it in a named plastic bag. Lunch bags and boxes cannot be taken)

Water will be offered throughout the day.

Book bags are not needed tomorrow.

The water bottles that are brought into school each day, can be brought into school tomorrow and the children can bring them on the trip or leave them at school for when they return.

It will be a fantastic day!

Thank you

Mrs. Thomson

Chewy and Mr.Waddles!, by Mrs Thomson

Date: 22nd Apr 2024 @ 7:45pm

Today we had a lovely visit from Holly and her two lambs. One lamb was called Chewy and Holly asked for name suggestions for the second lamb. Mr. Waddles seemed to be the favourite which Jessica suggested.

The children had a feel of the wool and asked lots of questions to find out information about the lambs. Perhaps ask your penguin if they can remember what Holly told us about their oily wool. (Jumpers, carpets and soap!)

Tomorrow is our class trip. Packed lunches have been ordered. Please send your penguin into school in their polo shirt, jumper and PE kit joggers / leggings. They will all change into their wellies when they arrive at school. Please send a coat. No book bags are needed tomorrow. 

Thank you

Super Scientists!, by Mrs Thomson

Date: 19th Apr 2024 @ 4:25pm

The penguins have been investigating the forces ‘pushes and pulls’ this week. As scientists we have discovered that we need to do lots and lots of testing. Therefore we spent the whole day testing everything that we used inside and out to see if it needed help to move and if it needed  be pushed or pulled. We then made labels to show it had been tested.

We tested dominoes, bikes, prams, zips, doors, hair combs, Ker plunk, sweeping brushes, balls, bowling skittles and many more things.

Next week -

Monday - baby lambs visit to school.

Tuesay - Class Trip ( the children will change into their wellies once they come to school. If we do not have wellies in school for your child, please send them in on Monday so we have them ready for our trip the following day)

Please wear school polo shirt, school jumper and PE joggers for our trip as well as a coat.

Our theme of ‘Ticket to Ride’ started this week with a huge list of different vehicles and forms of transport. The penguins are creating a train in the construction shed and have completed some writing on ‘The naughty bus’. Next week we will be creating story maps for another story.

We now have new sounds starting in our phonics. Please, please continue to read each day so that the ‘old’ sounds and rainbow words are firmly embedded before the new ones are added.                                  Books have been changed this week. If your child is on a new colour level please write a message in the record book to let us know how your child got on with this book over the weekend. 

Thank you and happy weekend!

A great start to the week!, by Mrs Thomson

Date: 16th Apr 2024 @ 9:59pm

The penguins like to be busy and we have had an amazing start to our new half term. A wonderful theatre production of Alice in Wonderland, new art work to try, 3D shapes to explore and a naughty bus!

We have revisited odd and even numbers also this week. If you have a basket of socks that need pairing please ask your penguin to see if the amount is odd or even. The children are enjoying creating odd Bob aliens and even Steven aliens.

Mini beast hotels!, by Mrs Thomson

Date: 8th Apr 2024 @ 7:56pm

A few pictures to share from our amazing day spent creating mini beast hotels and also from the Easter bonnet parade.

After the holidays we will investigate our hotels to see if we have any mini beast visitors. We have our fingers crossed!

Eater Fun!, by Mrs Thomson

Date: 27th Mar 2024 @ 1:25pm

This week the penguins have had some Easter Fun. On Monday we shared the Easter story and then did an Easter hunt outside. Unfortunately I forgot to order lovely sunny weather but the penguins didnt seem to mind!

On Tuesday we spent the day outside creating mini beast hotels. Fantastic team work! We have hidden our hotels underneath the hedges and we will investigate them after the school holidays. We included leaves, grass, bamboo and sticks. Your penguin will enjoy telling you why we chose these things and explain how they made the hotels.

We have spent a lot of time talking about keeping ourselves healthy. Over the holidays if you have a spare minute I would love a photo of your penguin cleaning their teeth for a new class display. These can be sent back in the school book bag. Thank you!

Holiday Homework - Reading, reading, reading! Super amazing bedtime reading if your days get busy or every morning before your day gets started. It is really important to continue reading and looking at our sound cards everyday.

The 'All about Me' book has been returned - please add one or two pictures, tickets or leaflets from your school break.

Thank you for your help and support,

Mrs. Thomson

Friday fun, by Mrs Pratten

Date: 22nd Mar 2024 @ 1:53pm

Today we enjoyed exploring instruments in music, scanning QR codes in computing and mixing cold colours in art.

Have a great weekend :)

Spring Time., by Mrs Thomson

Date: 20th Mar 2024 @ 1:57pm

This week the penguins have continued their work on Spring time. We have planted herbs and also sunflowers which will link in with our maths work on length and height.

This week our homework will be to spot signs of spring. Can you please have a look in your garden or go for a walk and see if you can see signs of new life. Baby lambs, plants, buds, frog spawn or blossom. The children will have opportunities all next week to share their findings. Some children have asked if they can draw what they see or make a list. These ideas are perfect and we always try to include the penguins fantastic ideas.

Thank you for your wonderful support with reading. The penguins are also blooming! They are very proud and enjoy reading to us and our amazing parent helpers. Please continue with ten minutes reading each day. 

This week we have had a couple of blips with school lunches! The children all choose their lunch as they arrive in class in the morning and this order is sent to the kitchen. We try to keep our lunch line organised but a couple of times the children have changed their mind at the kitchen hatch which has meant that other children have not got their chosen lunch. Please could you share the menu at home the night before so that the children have plenty of time to choose what they would like before the order is sent to the kitchen. Thank you.

I hope you enjoy some of the pictures from our week so far. The art work was completed after learning about a piece of art called 'Painting with scissors' by Henri Matisse. The penguins had wonderful patience with this task.

Something to work on - over arm throwing, looking at different ways of making 9 and 10.

Super Scientists!, by Mrs Thomson

Date: 13th Mar 2024 @ 10:02pm

Today was a great day at Imagine That! The penguins and the giraffes had a very busy and exciting time. Bath bombs, slime, magnets, dry ice and snow! Role play, treasure bags and lots of fun! Pizzas, hair cuts, building and shopping! Putting on a show, reading the news and delivering the weather! 

The penguins worked hard and played together all day. They had their science hats on and asked lots of questions showing their curiosity. We had lots of sad faces when we said it was time to leave.

The staff asked the children to come back and visit them soon. 

Reception Rocking!, by Mrs Thomson

Date: 7th Mar 2024 @ 7:37pm

What a great class of rock stars!

Thank you for your help with the amazing outfits! The children rocked all day!!

We enjoyed some new books today and a firm favourite was Pete the cat rocking in his school shoes! The children made reading dens and book marks before hearing another new story linked to our mini beast theme. Creepy Crawlies in a band!

We had a school assembly this morning and Mrs. Fletcher introduced a new story. However just as we were getting settled to hear it all, the story was stopped! The story went to year six who added another part of the story and visited every class before it headed our way late in the afternoon. The penguins had amazing ideas of how to end the story, their imaginations going wild! Please read the story on the blog. Our part starts after the sentence about the sneaky eky odd numbers hiding. The story was read in the afternoon assembly. The penguins were very proud of their ending to the story. I think they will enjoy sharing this with you and they will definitely know which part was from our class.

I have also added a short video of our days of the week song. We didn’t perform this at our assembly as we thought it may make it a little bit too long. 

Class assembly, life cycles and celebration assembly in church, by Mrs Thomson

Date: 1st Mar 2024 @ 4:53pm

What a busy week! The super proud penguins just took it all in their stride! 

We have been looking at how things follow in a sequence this week - our day, our week, life cycles and even how we make fruit kebabs. The penguins thoroughly enjoyed the blue berries, mango, banana and apple fruit kebabs they made for their afternoon snack.

The penguins were amazing during their first class assembly and they received two class compliments for amazing team work.