Tigers@taddy

This afternoon, after playing a game of '1,2,3 where are you', (helping us to get used to boundaries in the woodlands) we discussed the animals that are starting to hibernate at this time of year. We decided to make a hedgehog, so we collected natural materials and used these and salt dough to make our creatures. We then joined together to share stories about them.

The children in Tigers class asked if they could turn our quiet/role play corner into a reflection space where they could have some time to think, pray or reflect on their thoughts and feelings. We have made wool-wrapped crosses as a symbol of Jesus and to remind us how he taught us to live. The children also asked if we could have our reflection candles in there to help them focus further.

Today we came in odd socks for anti-bullying week. Our odd socks helped us to remember that everyone is unique. Our school mission states that we believe that everyone is unique, everyone is valued and everyone is loved.

In RE today we started to think about the Christmas story and that Christians believe that Jesus is the son of God. The children decided that a stable wasn’t the sort of bedroom they would choose for such a special baby so they worked together to design their own.

The infants began looking at our VIPs of the past today. The Bears looked at the clothes that our historical figures wore and dressed up as some of them. The Tigers then guessed who they were. The Tigers chose one of our VIPs to research then presented their information to the rest of the class. They became our teachers.

In maths today, the year 1s have been showing the different number bonds that can be put together to make a certain number. We have tried to do this in an ‘organised’ way by moving/swapping one object at a time. This also helps us to spot patterns with numbers and find mistakes. The children then worked on explaining what had gone wrong.

In our RE lessons this half term we have been looking at the parable of The Lost Son. The children can retell the story very well and know that it has a secret meaning; that God will always forgive us. Today, we reflected on the question ‘What do Christians believe God is like?’ Children came up with ideas such as ‘loving’, ‘caring’, ‘kind’ and ‘forgiving’. During some reflection time, the children wrote their own thoughts down. ‘This is everything that God created and this is God in heaven.’

Every Wednesday and Thursday we have time in our classes to reflect on our Collective Worship theme for the week. We call these our ‘Collective Reflective’ sessions. They are a time to think, share and find a moment of peacefulness. Today, Tigers and Bears listened to some relaxing music and watched images of our beautiful world whilst holding our candles (LED) and crosses. We shared our thoughts and talked about how we felt before joining in with our school prayer.

Today the children were excited to find some animal footprints in our role-play 'cave'. They used impressive detective skills to work out what animals might have been to visit our classroom. They used what they knew to develop their ideas and then we used Google to confirm our suspicions. We found that we had been visited by a polar bear, an organutan, a panda and an elephant! The children struggled to identify the final footprint and decided that it reminded them most of either a dinosaur or a chicken. From this they decided it might be an animal that is extinct and one that might be feathered. Our research brought us to the Dodo!

The infants were given the challenge to create a waterproof, child sized den. The children showed tremendous amounts of teamwork and resilience to complete the challenge. We tested the dens to see whose best fit the criteria.

The infants thoroughly enjoyed a trip to Matlock to experience different forms of transport. We hopped on the Trans Peak from the bus stop in Taddington and made our way to Matlock where we walked through the town to the park. John and Debs welcomed us at the pond where we learnt about the engines in the boats and how much better for the environment the new electric engine will be. The children had so much fun riding the miniature train and loved being driven around in the boats. After a lovely picnic and a play in the park, we made our way back to school where the children played on the bikes, trikes and scooters that we have here. It was a fantastic trip and the children were a credit to the school.

The children rearranged words to make sentences, ensuring there was a capital letter at the start and a full stop at the end. They then decided that the sentences were “only okay” and that they could improve them.

Year 2 children worked out the missing numbers in our calculations.