Mrs Watkins and Mrs Stafford would like to welcome you to Yellow Class

Term 6

'Make this World a better place'

How can we improve where we live?

Our School Pond

This week the children got to take advantage of the lovely weather to go pond dipping in the school pond.  They discovered lots of newts as well as other pond creatures.  This is a good sign that our pond area is clean and healthy!

Yucky Worms!

This term we have been reading the story 'Yucky Worms' by Vivian French.

Sports Day

Beach Visit

Busy Bees!

Term 5

'On the go'

Where shall we go and how shall we get there?

St George's Day

For St George's Day, everyone came to school dressed in red and white or as a knight.  Throughout the day the children created their own flags, made castles using different materials and acted out the story of George and the dragon using the puppets.

Easter Egg Hunt

The children participated in an Easter egg hunt around the school.  There were yellow eggs with clues, which the children had to find and  solve together so they could find the prize.  Eventually they found a big basket of chocolate eggs in the classroom!  They made their own Easter baskets to keep their eggs safe.  

The Naughty Bus

This term we will be reading the 'Naughty Bus' by Jan and Jerry Oke. The children will have opportunities to recreate their favourite scenes from the story, find out about buses, make bus books and perhaps even write their own versions of the story!

The Naughty Buses Shenanigans 

The naughty buses have been causing a lot of chaos around Westmeads school today when they escaped from the classrooms.  They messed up the Reception toilets, Orange class cloakroom, the library and even the canteen at lunchtime!  Yellow and Orange class were shocked when they saw what had happened and tidied up the mess the buses had made.  Mrs Lambirth was not very happy with the buses so the children created posters to put up around the school to help to find the naughty buses.  

Pilgrims Hospice Fun Run

The children (and adults) did an amazing job running around the whole playground at least ten times to run a mile.  After every circuit they collected a dot on their hand.  It was hard work and very tiring, but everyone was proud of themselves and have raised lots of money for the Pilgrims Hospice.  Well done!

Road Play

The children have enjoyed creating their own roads by drawing them on large piece of paper or using the construction equipment. Inspired by the story, the children added their own bus stops with passengers waiting for the buses to come along to pick them up.

3D Shapes and Patterns

The children have been exploring patterns and shapes in the school environment.  The 3D shapes the children have learnt include a cube, a cuboid, a sphere, a cone and a cylinder.  However, they found there are other 3D shapes too, such as a pyramid! 

GIST Lorry Visit

The GIST lorry visited our school today.  They parked their lorry on the school playground and the lorry driver explained to the children about road safety, especially when crossing the roads by large vehicles.  The children even got an opportunity to sit inside the cab to see how high up the driver sits and experience what the driver can see out of the windscreen.  Some children even got the chance to honk the horn!

The Naughty Bus at the Beach

The children enjoyed visiting Whitstable beach with Orange class.   When the children arrived at the beach, Mrs Watkins found out that the naughty bus had sneaked into her pocket and had come too!

The naughty bus decided to have a little adventure with the children whilst he was at the beach.  They found him in all different places; in the seaweed, driving around the boat trailer wheels, driving down the groynes, exploring the shells and buried in the stones.  Luckily he didn't go paddling in the water!

Scooter Workshop

The children enjoyed participating in a scooter workshop.  Before they could ride the scooters, the children were all equipped with helmets, elbow pads and knee pads.  All the children (and adults) had a go at riding the two wheeled scooters and practiced balancing, stopping, riding through a slalom and even a few stunts!  The teacher was very impressed with the children's riding skills!

Dead Horse Morris Men

The Morris men visited school and performed a few dances for us in the hall in preparation for the May Day celebration.  There was even a giant tree called 'Jack-in-the-Green'!  Everyone enjoyed tapping and clapping along to the music. 

Term 4

'Bear Adventures!'

Everything was hot

The children read the first sentence in the new book for this term, without any illustrations or the front cover of the book to go with it.  They had to use their imaginations and think about what the story might be about, including the setting and the characters.   They explored the word 'hot' and created their own 'hot' artwork.  The children composed their own lines for a class poem about when they feel 'hot'.

Chris Wormell

The author and illustrator Chris Wormwll came to visit the school on Monday 4th March. He read the children one of his fantastic stories called 'Scruffy Bear and the Lost Ball'.

He created a brilliant creature for Yellow class made up of all different animals that the children suggested. After his visit, the children were inspired to create their own mixed up creatures!

We created our own story box and retold the story 'Scruffy Bear and the Six White Mice' by Chris Wormell, using the small world animals and the white pompoms.

Pancake Races!

Yellow class enjoyed participating in pancake races with Orange class on Pancake Tuesday! Some children managed to flip and catch the pancakes whilst running much better than the teachers!

Where's Wally Day

As part of World Book Day, the whole school (including the adults) dressed up as Wally or Wanda.  It was very difficult to see who was who!  The children enjoyed sharing their favourite stories with each other.  In the afternoon some of the children's mums and dads came in to share their favourite stories with the children.

Trip to the woods!

Everyone had a brilliant time visiting the woodland area at Swalecliffe School and travelling on our school minibus. The children explored the woods, going over, under, around and through the trees! Some children created their own artwork using the branches, twigs and leaves they found on the floor.  The children found many areas which looked a bit like bear caves.

Whitstable Beach Walks

The children were very lucky to watch the practise launch of the Whitstable Lifeboat and find out about it from the crew members.

The children have enjoyed sorting and arranging their beach treasures.   They looked at the different sizes, shapes and colours of the shells and stones.

We're going on a bear hunt!

After reading the story 'We're Going on a Bear Hunt' by Michael Rosen and the woodland vist, the children decided to go on a bear hunt around the school to look for bears. They found places to re-enact the 'swishy swashy grass', the 'thick oozy mud', the 'cold river' and the 'narrow, gloomy cave'.

Music with Mrs Diamond

This term the children started by reading the story and singing songs about 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears,' accompanied by the percussion instruments.

Over the next few weeks they explored different instrumental sounds; high/ low (pitch), fast/  slow (tempo), loud/ quiet (dynamics).  They created their own band, following Mrs Diamond as the conductor.

For the children's last music session they had to listen to the music 'Lark Ascending' and moved their feather gently in time to the music.  Mrs Diamond also taught the children a fun clapping song.

Term 3

Commotion in the Ocean

Cinderella Pantomime

Everyone enjoyed watching the Pantomime and joining in with the singing and dancing!

Puffin Peter

This term we are been focusing on the story 'Puffin Peter'. So far the children have been finding out about puffins and describing the appearance of the Puffin Peter on the front cover using different adjectives.

Firefighter Fit Kids

The children had so much fun taking part in the HIIT session with the fire fighters! It required lots of energy and everyone certainly needed a big drink of water afterwards!

Reading Buddies

Every Friday afternoon this term, some of the Year 2 children are planning on visiting Yellow and Orange class as 'Reading Buddies' and sharing their favourite stories with the younger children. The Reception children are enjoying listening to them read, as well as sharing their favourite stories with them too.

Music with Mrs Diamond

This term Mrs Diamond has been working with Yellow class and introducing them to some of the instruments she plays, particularly recorder, ukulele and guitar.  She has taught the children new songs, including one about what can be seen 'Under the Sea'.  The children have had opportunities to play different musical instruments including chime bars, egg shakers and claves/ rhythm sticks to accompany the songs while they sing and have enjoyed playing games using a special stretchy fabric to represent the sea.

Numbers everywhere!

This term the children have been working with numbers 0-10.  They have been engaging in different games and activities to practice writing numbers, counting groups of objects, representing the numbers in different ways, and adding and taking away two groups.

Superheroes Drama Workshop

The children enjoyed acting out their superpowers and going on an adventure in their Superheroes drama workshop!

'Hooray for Fish' Art Day

The children and adults enjoyed creating lots of different artwork based around the story 'Hooray for fish'.  Everyone was busy mono-printing, wax resist using watercolour paint and pastels, computer art, creating a giant collage rainbow fish, drawing sea creatures or plants collaboratively on a large blue sheet of paper and junk modelling.  All the finished artwork looks amazing!

The Blue Planet

Horsebridge Exhibition

Yellow class enjoyed visiting the Horsebridge Art Center in Whitstable to look at recent 'The Blue Planet' art exhibition.  They each chose their favourite pieces and talked about why they liked them.  There was lots of discussion amongst the children about how plastic rubbish is currently effecting the sea animals and they started to think of different ways they could help to help improve our seas.  Some of these ideas were to have an alarm to warn people when plastic goes into the water, writing a letter to sea creatures that divers would read to them, reusing and recycling plastic, using plastic alternative to things we use everyday and to make posters to tell people not to throw rubbish in the sea.

Chinese New Year

The children enjoyed participating in the Lion Dance Workshop.  They learnt the dance moves and then had a go at holding the heavy lion's headdress whilst stomping and jumping.

In the classroom the children created their own lion and dragon masks to dance with.  They had a go at using chopsticks and challenged themselves to pick up different small objects in the tray.  At lunchtime, the children enjoyed eating a Chinese meal, which included Chinese chicken, vegetable spring rolls, noodles and prawn crackers.

Term 2

Let's Celebrate!

Diwali

This week we have been finding out about the Hindu Festival of Lights, Diwali. The children have enjoyed listening to the story of Rama, Sita and Ravana the demon king. We have had a busy week of role playing the story, creating 'Missing Person' posters and building bridges. 

We finished the week tasting different Indian food and creating diva lamps with clay as part of our own Diwali celebration!

2D shapes

The children have been learning all about 2D shapes this week. They learnt about squares, rectangles, triangle, circles, ovals, hexagons and pentagons.  Then they went on a shape hunt around the school to try to spot some of these shapes in the school environment...

Children In Need

Pyjama Day

We had so much fun wearing our pyjamas all day for Children in Need! We loved the book swap and were all very happy with our new books to take home.

Road Safety Week

This week the children have been thinking about ways to keep safe when walking, scooting or cycling by a road.  They practiced holding hands and crossing the road on the playground either by using the zebra crossing or where the adult was holding the lollipop.  Some children pretended to be the traffic and drove the bikes around, remember to stop and wait to let people cross the road.  The children were so inspired that they set up their own roadway in the outside area using the bricks, taking turns with the road signs and traffic lights in different areas.

Christmas Nativity Performance

The children did amazingly in their Yr R Christmas Nativity performance! They all sang, spoke, acted, played instruments and joined in, putting on a great performance for both the whole school and their families.  Everyone was very proud of them all!

Trip to Seasalter Christian Centre

Yellow and Orange class visited Seasalter Christian Centre to find out how Christians celebrate Christmas at this time of year. The children took part in dressing up as Nativity characters and rein-acting the Nativity story in the large stable, making their own Christingles and even had a lots of fun bouncing on a bouncy castle! This was also their first trip on the new school mini-bus and the children loved every minute!

Christmas Activity Morning

All the children had fun participating in the Christmas Activity Morning! They made reindeer food and Christmas decorations. They would like to say a big 'Thank you' to all the Friends of Westmeads for organising it all.

Father Christmas visited!

We were so excited when we heard the jingle bells coming towards our classroom! Father Christmas gave everyone a present and asked each child what they would like him to bring them on Christmas Day!

Term 1

All About Me

Our first day in Yellow class

School Lunches

Our First Few Weeks...

We have been learning to use the different areas of the classroom independently.  We now know where all the equipment is kept in the classroom, including the puzzles and games.

We have learnt how to control different tools such as paintbrushes, glue sticks and scissors safely and carefully.  We had to use good control with the paint and glue and remember to scrap the glue stick or paintbrush on the side of the pot so we didn't dribble across the table.  We practiced carrying scissors safely to the table. 

We learnt how to trace a picture and then had to add handwriting patterns using the special handwriting pens.  We had to control the pen and pencil carefully to make different shapes and patterns.  We found out where everything is kept on the office table area and learn how to tidy it away carefully in the right places ready for the next person.  We always have to remember to write our name on our work!

We learnt how to use the playdough area and thought about the different things we could make using the different equipment.   We explored rolling, pressing, squeezing and cutting the playdough.

We found out where all the dressing up clothes are kept and practiced getting ourselves dressed and undressed into the costumes independently.  We used our imagination to act in the role play house, pretending to do the jobs in the kitchen and taking on different roles.

We learnt about the small world equipment and where it is kept.  We used our imaginations to create different worlds.

We have enjoyed playing with all the different equipment in the playground and learning to get on and off safely and carefully.

Stick Stories

We have been reading the stories 'Stanley's Stick' by John Hegley and 'Stick Man' by Julia Donaldson. The children were then inspired to use their imagination to come with their own unique stick creations. Have a look at some of them below...