Longton Primary School: Reception - The Giraffes: Blog items

Date: 22nd Mar 2023 @ 9:20pm

What a fantastic day! Fresh air, nature and adventures!

Nigel and Melissa took us to the greenhouse to plant some lavender and chives. The children listened to lots of advice on how to care for their plants which should live on a window sill until the weather is warmer. The children have all agreed to try and look after their plants just like the plants and trees help to look after us. They can be planted in the garden when they grow bigger and as they are perennials they will come back each year.

We then had a picnic outside before playing in the sand. Our next activity was learning about worms, soil and worm poo! The children were very interested and loved looking at the hundreds of worms in the wormery.

We then split into teams to watch our boats race in the brook followed by den building in the woodland.

The children were fantastic listeners and had great team spirit throughout the day.

Trip day tomorrow!, by Mrs Thomson

Date: 21st Mar 2023 @ 9:16pm

Bring Yer Wellies Trip!

We are all very excited about our trip tomorrow. We will leave school tomorrow morning with our school packed lunches and our wellies on. Home time is as normal.

Things to remember -

warm coat

hat / gloves

warm trousers

thick socks for our wellies

school polo shirt and school jumper / cardigan

named water bottle ( which can be disposed of)

We are looking forward to a day of planting, den building, boat making and learning about mini beasts. I will post pictures tomorrow so the children can share their day with you.

Thank you for your help and support.

Red Nose Day, by Mrs Catterall

Date: 21st Mar 2023 @ 6:39pm

Congratulations to our Red Nose Day competition winners.

Their positive character trait Mr Men/Little Miss characters were put on a t.shirt for them to wear with pride.

Thank you to everyone who entered. Certificates are on there way to each of you.

Friendly Friday!, by Mrs Thomson

Date: 17th Mar 2023 @ 6:54pm

How fast has the week gone! Lots of learning about Spring! New growth, life cycles and signs of Spring.

The children have class caterpillars to look after and we have been getting our outdoor planters ready for some new plants for us to care for.

We are going to create some miniature gardens next week so if you have any small pebbles, twigs or anything we could use I would be very grateful if you could send them in.

Wednesday will be an exciting day as we will be going on our class trip. We will have wellies ready on the morning but please remember that warm trousers or joggers will be needed (with the school uniform polo shirt and jumper / cardigan) and a warm coat and hat. We will be outside all day.

School packed lunches have been ordered by the children for our trip. Please send a water bottle which can be left for recycling when it is finished with your child’s name on it.

Have a lovely weekend.

Spring is nearly here!, by Mrs Thomson

Date: 14th Mar 2023 @ 11:08pm

Today was started by talking about Spring. Over the next few weeks we will be looking at the signs of spring as well as animals, mini beasts, planting and growing.

The children followed instructions to draw baby chicks this morning.

We had an amazing afternoon when Holly came to visit with two baby lambs. We all loved them and we were quite sad when they had to go back to their farm. Please ask the children if they can remember how the lambs were feeding, where the lambs sleep and how old they were.

Class Assembly slideshows., by Mrs Thomson

Date: 10th Mar 2023 @ 4:02pm

Please find the slides that were shown at the class assembly.

Thank you.

Assembly starter.pptx Class Assembly 2023.pptx

Friendly Friday., by Mrs Thomson

Date: 10th Mar 2023 @ 3:49pm

The morning started with us snow hunting! Luckily we found just a little bit left! It was a good job we had our wellies on as the field was quite muddy. We had a good run and some snow fun!

When we arrived back at school we were given a super special treat from Mr. Brown. He had enjoyed our assembly and was very proud of the giraffes. They all got a home made cookie as a treat!

This afternoon the children had lots of fun with Mr. sumner in drama, they continued programming in IT with the cats and dogs and then did some fruit tasting with Mrs. Morrison.

Next week we have a super week ahead! We will start our story ‘ The very hungry caterpillar’. Our herbs are starting to grow and we will be planing more next week.

Have a lovely weekend.

Tuesday news., by Mrs Thomson

Date: 7th Mar 2023 @ 4:57pm

We have had some lovely news news today. A letter from Tiboo the triceratops! We are all happy to hear he has settled in his new home and we are going to write to him this week.

We have enjoyed the sunshine today by practicing our throwing and catching, skipping, balancing and bike skills.

We have been reading stories that have fruit and vegetables in them. We have been creating fruit faces and bowls of fruit with play dough.

A wonderful week!, by Mrs Thomson

Date: 3rd Mar 2023 @ 3:05pm

What a great week!

World book day, IT with the Beebots, a visit to the library and making sandwiches with the cress we grew in class.

A big thank you for your help and support. The children all looked fantastic on world book day and enjoyed themselves at the library in the afternoon. We have some amazing new books in our classroom.

The children are doing great with their reading and we will continue to send Dash bear home every weekend if the children are able to read each day for 10mins.

We are busy getting ready for our class assembly next week. I will send a note home on Monday if an items of clothing are required. (This only applies to several of the children and it will clothing linked to their hobbies)

Have a lovely weekend.

Pancakes for our brain break!, by Mrs Thomson

Date: 22nd Feb 2023 @ 7:29pm

It has been lovely to have the giraffes back! They have had lots of news to tell us along with their wonderful ‘All about me’ books to share with their friends. Thank you for helping with these books. The children are very proud of these very special books.

Please send your book back if it has not already come back this week.

We are working hard with our cursive writing and everyday we are practising different letters to ensure they all ‘swoosh up and have a flick at the end’.

Our number work has been great fun. We have been adding, counting in 2’s and counting in 10’ s this week. We have also been using our clocks to show o clock. The giraffes are experts at spotting 12 o clock - lunch time!

On Tuesday after our number work we decided to have a brain break and make pancakes.

Thank you for your support with reading. We are doing lots of reading in class, talking about the story, predicting the ending and talking about the characters and also the setting. Please continue to do this at home to ensure the children are understanding their stories as well as reading the words.

Winter walks., by Mrs Thomson

Date: 20th Jan 2023 @ 2:41pm

A busy Week where we have enjoyed several morning winter walks.

A picture below shows the children couldn’t wait to get started on one of their challenges and got busy before they had taken their coats off!

We have enjoyed learning about the Chinese New Year celebrations and traditions. We had a lovely lunch to help celebrate. We have practised writing our numbers in Chinese and had good fun making our own class dragon to use in our dancing.

The giraffes have made kites this week after one of our giraffes made one at home to show everyone.

We are learning about different people who help us and we had a visit from PC Paul and Sergeant Joanne who came with their police van. The children asked super questions, enjoyed using the equipment and dressed up whilst being outside in the snow! A great morning with lots of learning.

Next Friday morning we will be watching the short film and interactive game called ‘Pantosaurus’ which is on the NSPCC website. This will be part of our PSED learning. On the website there is more information and guidance for parents. If you have any questions please feel free to come and speak to Mrs. Morrison or myself next week.

Lots of splashing in puddles!, by Mrs Thomson

Date: 15th Jan 2023 @ 9:28pm

We have had a wet week but this hasn’t stopped us from bike riding, creating boats to hold our penguins, doing our number work in the outdoor shed and having a great time at forest school with Mrs.Jackson on Friday.

At our creation station we have been making winter colours and experimenting using white and black paint to make our colours lighter and darker.

We have started new morning challenges in our teams. The children have embraced these new activities and some pictures below show the giraffes being busy. On Friday morning we didn’t have a challenge but did dancing to start our day. We did a penguin dance, the morning wake up shake up and our favourite banana meatball dance. A great way to start a Friday!

The children looked at the South Pole on the map during the week and we talked about animals, the weather and explorers. The giraffes had a go at building their own sled using the bricks and crates in the outdoor building area.

Trait of the week, by Mr Pearson

Date: 13th Jan 2023 @ 11:28am

Each week the pupil's of Longton Primary School will discuss a positive quality or characteristic trait.

Please share as a family.

Week beginning 16^th Jan

Trait 1: Be honest. Don’t lie. Be a person people can depend upon. Think of the people we admire in books, movies and real life. Don’t they act with honesty and integrity? Aren’t they generous with others? Doesn’t everyone look up to them?

Happy new year!, by Mrs Thomson

Date: 8th Jan 2023 @ 10:23pm

Happy new year!

It has been lovely to see all the children back together and Mrs. Morrison and I both commented that they have all grown so much over the break.

The giraffes have had lots of talking and listening time this week as they had a lot of news they wanted to share. We have celebrated our first birthday this year.

Our new class topic is ‘Amazing Animals’. We listened to a story about a lonely penguin and then looked on maps at where many penguins live. We did an experiment with water and talked about their habitats.

We have used paint, charcoal, chalks and pastels this week to create penguins. Next week we will be mixing paints and colours to create cold, winter colours.

The children have been revisiting their phonics this week. I would be very grateful if you could also do the same at home. Your wallets should have all of the sounds in to do this.

Thank you for your ongoing support with reading.

Please send in any small cardboard or plastic containers that you have finished with. We will be using them in our water play.

Thank you

Christmas Week., by Mrs Thomson

Date: 22nd Dec 2022 @ 6:13pm

A great final week in school! Christmas parties, visits from Santa, Christmas story massage, the carol service in church and even a visit from the Grinch.

The giraffes still managed to fit in time to learn new sounds, make a huge paper chain decorated with reasons why they are all special and unique as well as unpacking our home corner when it ‘moved house’.

I wish all the giraffes and their families a very happy Christmas. See you all in 2023!

One last message - a huge thank you for all the beautiful cards and gifts which were sent to Mrs. Morrison and I. They were a lovely surprise.

Party Time!, by Mrs Thomson

Date: 13th Dec 2022 @ 9:47pm

The giraffes had a great time at the Christmas party this afternoon and they were delighted to see Father Christmas.

They all got to play games, sing and dance. The giraffes seem to be enjoying singing and dancing - have you been told about our class disco corner? The children requested music to dance to and a microphone so that they can sing their favourite songs.

Our home corner has been up for sale and the children are getting ready to move house this week in our classroom.

All busy busy!

Christmas lunch., by Mrs Thomson

Date: 7th Dec 2022 @ 9:17pm

Today started with a walk on the field to crunch on the frosty grass. We also revisited our work on shadows by creating shapes and shadows on the field.

We have been working very hard on our phonics and we will keep revisiting our sounds in class and also in our new reading books.

Just a reminder that the book listed first in your record book is linked to the phonics we are learning. It will seem a little tricky so it may help to use the book with the new sound cards which will come home tomorrow. This way your child can be a detective looking out for our sounds the first time they visit their new book.

The second book is a book your child has chosen. It is closely linked to their stage of reading but may have unfamiliar names in.

Please continue using your sound cards at home. Over the last few weeks the children have learnt that two letters can make one sound.

Christmas lunch was a lovely treat today. The children enjoyed their dinner, the crackers and the music in the hall.

Baaarmy Bethlehem!, by Mrs Thomson

Date: 5th Dec 2022 @ 9:54pm

We hope that you enjoyed the Christmas Play. The children enjoyed their rehearsals and worked so hard on their singing and dancing.

Last week saw more creative skills with the children creating their own ‘Kandinsky’ piece of art using squares and circles. They are beautiful and will be coming home soon.

On Thursday and Friday we made puppets to use in our shadow play. We have been learning about light and dark which also links to our maths and science work.

On a Friday afternoon the children have drama with Mr. Sumner. I am sure they have told you lots about the acting and games they enjoy doing.

Congratulations to our star readers from last week! Children who are able to read each day have their names put in a box for taking Dash bear home for the weekend. Please do not feel you have to complete eaxtra work by writing in the diary. The children asked for a book so they could draw a picture of Dash to show on the Monday morning.

Whoever left the elf today could you please make sure you take it home tomorrow! When everyone had gone home I left the room for two minutes to come back to chaos with our genius gems!!

Traditional tales and lots of dancing!, by Mrs Thomson

Date: 27th Nov 2022 @ 10:29pm

A busy week - castle building everywhere, Christmas dance rehearsals, porridge making and a special celebration in church!

We have welcomed lots of visitors into our classroom this week. The giraffes were extremely welcoming to everyone and enjoyed telling them about our school and the learning we have been doing.

Our traditional tales take us to the three bears cottage this week as well as a visit to the world of ‘ Wallace and Gromit’. Please feel free to send in any ‘Wallace and Gromit or Shaun the sheep’ books for us to share in class.

A very wet walk!, by Mrs Thomson

Date: 20th Nov 2022 @ 5:13pm

On Friday we decided to cut short our walk as the rain just didn’t want to stop. We headed out whilst the weather was fine and managed to use our senses, spot signs of Autumn and even have a splash in the puddles. The giraffes didn’t moan or groan once about the weather but we decided to head back to school and plan another walk for a hopefully better day.

Autumn walk, by Mrs Thomson

Date: 17th Nov 2022 @ 9:57pm

Tomorrow we will be walking to the Brickcroft Nature Reserve. We will follow the path around the Brickcroft looking at signs of Autumn and using our senses. We will stay on the path and the children will walk with a partner and adults at all times. We will leave after morning snack and be back at school in plenty of time for our lunch.

We have puddle suits and wellies ready! Please remember warm coats.

Thank you

Mrs. Thomson

Traditional Tales, by Mrs Thomson

Date: 11th Nov 2022 @ 9:34pm

This week the giraffes have carried on with their journey of traditional tales. The children have worked hard at making their own gingerbread stories as well as building boats to help the gingerbread man escape the fox. Everyone had to test their boat and most of them successfully floated carrying the gingerbread man to safety.

The giraffes have worked very hard on their tricky sounds this week. I have sent sheets to read through for homework. Two letters, one sound.

In maths we have been shape detectives. Everyone did a shape hunt around school. Please look for circles, triangles, squares and rectangles when you are out walking.

Thank you for your amazing hard work with daily reading, practising our sounds and the homework books.

We have a lovely week ahead with a new story to share, an exciting dance lesson to take part in, Jack and the Beanstalk PE and a class castle to create.

Run, run as fast as you can!, by Mrs Thomson

Date: 4th Nov 2022 @ 7:14pm

It has been a great week in the giraffes classroom this week! We have started our new topic ‘Traditional Tales’. We have been looking at the Gingerbread Man. The children have had escape bridges to make, the story to retell with toy characters, ginger spiced play dough to use and lots of opportunities to create their own gingerbread man. We have been discussing language from the story - mocking, accelerate, cunning and block. We created actions to help us remember their meanings.

In maths we have been working on how to make the number three in different ways. We also created a graph to show which part of the gingerbread mans body we ate first! Of course we all needed to have a gingerbread man for this! Yummy maths!

We learnt about Diwali and enjoyed painting fireworks for the celebration. We used kitchen rolls for painting and then listened to the noises that fireworks make. We mad a word bank of words to describe the noises. The children also got busy outside creating beautiful Rangoli patterns. I am sure they will be able to tell you what these beautiful patterns are.

PE this week was Squiggle and a wriggle and also a wonderful stretch / yogi session by a yogi teacher. We had a great time! Everyone enjoyed the session and we even had a lovely relaxation time at the end! Perfect!

In forest school the children created wonderful dens and houses for the gingerbread man to hide out in! The children are hoping some fairies visit the dens this weekend.

I hope you enjoy some pictures from this week. I have also included a link for bonfire night safety.

https://capt.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Fireman_Sam_Fireworks_Safety_FINAL_nourl.pdf

Have a lovely weekend

Mrs.Thomson

The last day before the half term break., by Mrs Thomson

Date: 30th Oct 2022 @ 7:33pm

Some amazing pictures to share with you! What a great day!

Lots of amazing learning at forest school and then a lovely time with our buddies. Hot chocolate and marshmallows went down a treat for the children and their buddies.