Welcome to Lime Tree Class!
End of Lime Tree Class 2021-2022
September 2021-July2022
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Dear Parents and Carers of Lime Tree Class,
We would like to thank you for following the government's advice on handwashing, social distancing, and other measures they have put in place to protect the people of this nation. These are difficult times as we are all trying to understand this unprecedented situation but please know that you are not alone and that as a community, we will get through this together.
In the meantime, we will be posting various things on our class page that will help your child continue their learning at home. Please check back regularly as we will post links to websites or suggest fun home projects to complete. We are committed to providing the best educational experience for your children, whether on school premises or not.
We wish good health for you and your families during these times!
Sincerely,
Lime Tree Class
Science experiments are integral in fostering curiosity and love of learning. They promote questioning and discovery which children naturally do on a regular basis in the world around them. So let's encourage the scientist in your child by conducting science experiments at home! It is a wonderful learning opportunity where children can write a list of materials, instructions, labels and results -without it feeling like a writing exercise. More importantly, have fun and get messy
Here is a link to a website that has many child-friendly science experiments to do at home. Please follow instructions carefully and ensure that an adult is always there to supervise and conduct the experiment with the child/children.
Reading books aloud to children stimulates their imagination and expands their understanding of the world. It helps them develop language and listening skills and prepares them to understand the written word. Please continue reading on a daily basis with your child!
To help expand your at-home library since the public libraries are closed, we have included a link to an award winning children's literacy website where stories are read aloud. Research has shown that: "Reading aloud to children has been shown to improve reading, writing and communication skills, logical thinking and concentration, and general academic aptitude, as well as inspire a lifelong love of reading."
Please have a discussion after reading the story asking questions such as these:
1. Did you like the story? Why or why not? What did you like about it? What didn't you like about it?
2. Who was your favourite character? Why? Who was your least favourite character? Why?
3. What do you think happened after the story ended?
4. What happened if...
5. How was this character feeling? How do you know?
Check out Harold's Daily Diary
Our happy, healthy giraffe mascot, will be posting a daily blog: Harold’s Daily Diary – starting next Monday, 23rd March at 9am!
Each day he’ll be giving children positive, fun messages about what he’s doing to stay happy and healthy while he’s off school, separated from his friends. He’ll invite the children to join in activities which will be family-friendly, varied and tailored to all ages, follow his Daily Plan and download and fill in their own version.
Topics will include:
· Taking regular exercise
· Being creative
· Helping others
· Connecting with others – in ways that are safe
· Mindfulness – learning to enjoy the moment, here and now.
You can follow Harold @CoramLifeEd (Twitter) or @CoramLifeEducation (Facebook) each day to see what he is up to!
Harold has already put a little message on the website:https://www.coramlifeeducation.org.uk/harolds-daily-diary
Reminders
Newsletters
Have fun with Phonics!
The topic for this term is People Who help Us.
Today, the London fire Brigade came to our school.
We went inside the fire engine and learnt all about the fire equipment.
With the help of the fire fighters we even used the fire hose in our garden!
Each month, the children will explore a different Learning Behaviour.
Click on the link below to see our Curriculum overview and all the Learning Behaviours.
In the month of March we have been learning what does it mean to be a creative thinker. We learnt to solve problems in new ways, to use our imagination, to keep an open mind and think outside the box.
Can you think outside the box? Are you a creative thinker?
Here is a challenge for you:
There are three books inside a basket.
Three children each take one of the books.
How can it be that there is one book still in the basket?
In the month of February we have been looking at a new Learning Behaviour:
We have learnt that learning is an adventure and we learn more and better when we keep an open mind, we keep asking lots of questions and we dig deeper.
January: This month, we have been exploring the Learning Behaviour of Confidence! In class we talked about how we can achieve anything if we BELIEVE IN OURSELVES
All we need to do it try our best and our teachers are here to help us succeed!
We have been learning the song What I Am because we all have something special and unique about us!
Our new reception children have made a brilliant start. They are exploring what it means to be in Reception: they are learning how to settle on the carpet, how to make friends, play nicely, how to write their names and be more independent, especially when changing for our PE lessons. We have had already so many learning opportunities; we had visitors coming to teach us signing in Makaton, the Metabugs company came to show so many different insects, Spud and Yam with their fantastic singing and many more to come...
We celebrated
Thank you to all the people who donated the food to share with those less fortunate than us.
In Science, we have been learning about our bodies. We decided to make a body out of natural resources from our school garden. We planned it by drawing the body, we labelled the parts and talked about what to use for all the different parts. We took our drawing into the garden and started building.
We started our topic reading the book 'Elmer' by David McKee. We talked about how different and unique we all are.
Inspired by the book, in Maths we looked at repeating patterns.
We drew repeating patterns on fish shaped paper and then added to our Maths display.
In Religious Education we talked about what makes us special and we learnt that we are God's special children. In Lime Tree class we are using Makaton to sing and sign the song "If I were a butterfly" to thank God for 'making me...me!'
In Art, we used our observation skills for our self portraits. We used mirrors to look at our features and we painted our faces.
Look at our work!
We are so lucky to have a beautiful garden! We went outside for an Autumn walk. We looked at the beautiful colours Autumn brings and we collected leaves and conkers to use in our learning.
Summer Term
We have had a very busy and exciting start to the Summer Term.
Thank you to all the Daddies who came to our Father's Day Act of Worship. We loved having you in our class, and it was so nice being able to show you our school and have fun playing with you!
We hope you liked your cards and that you had a very special Father's Day!
Wow! Another half term finished already. Lime Tree Class have had a great half term full of lots of fun learning experiences.
We have watched our Caterpillars turn into Chrysalises, and then we got to see them emerge from their chrysalises having turned into beautiful butterflies! We then got to go to our garden to let our beautiful butterflies go, we loved being able to see them fly away. This was such a nice surprise for us on the last day before the half term holidays. Bye-Bye Butterflies!
We also loved being able to come to school in clothes from our national country for One World Week. It was lovely to be able to celebrate the different cultures and nationalities, and the foods brought to our school by the PTA, it was a tasty treat! Thank you to all the parents and friends for your hard work!
To all the children, parents and families, have a wonderful and relaxing half term!
We had an amazing school trip to Odd's Farm!
We had a great school Trip to Odd's Farm. The children got to see so many different farm animals. We saw some baby goats, and as an extra treat we even got to bottle feed them which we loved! We then went and met a lovely big Jersey cow, we got to see her being milked and learned a lot about how to care for a cow that is being milked. We know that they need lots of food and lots of water. Did you know, a cow can drink up to a full bath tub of water a day?
Thank you Odd's Farm for a really great day out!
Life Cycle of a Chick
We have been learning about the life cycle of a chick. We received some chick eggs. Over the last week we watch the chick eggs very carefully to see when they would hatch. The baby Chicks started to hatch and we all were very excited!! We loved going to see them and listening to their adorable cheeping.
Life Bus: All About Us!
We had a visit from a very special vehicle that drove to our school. We had some super guests on the LifeBus who spoke to us all about our bodies and how they work! We had so much fun putting the organs on the human model! We learnt a lot about how our bodies work. Thank you LifeBus for coming to visit!
Life Cycle of a Butterfly
Lime Tree Class have been so excited this term! We have been given our very own class caterpillars to watch them grow and carry out their life cycle. They have grown so much already! Now we are just waiting for the Caterpillars to create their Chrysalis's!
Spring Term
Wow! What an exciting Spring Term we have had in Lime Tree Class! Full of story writing, bird watch week, snow days, math's investigations, creative challenges, dinosaurs and lot, lots more!
Lime Tree Class Science Week: All about Dinosaurs!
We have had a very busy and exciting week in Lime Tree Class learning all about Dinosaurs!
The children were very busy at home working on their dinosaur projects.
The children used non-fiction books and the internet to research all about Dinosaurs. We had a great visit from the Science Dome. The children pretended they were Palaeontologist for the day!
Frozen Dinosaur Egg Experiment
How will we set the Dinosaurs Free?
We used salt, sand and sugar to see which one would be the quickest to melt the ice.
The children also used clay to create their own dinosaur fossil. They then shared them with their friends to guess which dinosaur the fossil belonged too!
Bird Watch Week: Lime Tree Class
Lime Tree Class went out into the garden in search of birds. When the children met Mrs Kerner in the garden, she had an exciting activity for the children to do. The children had to find lots of sticks and use them to create a bird.
We had a great visit from Falconry UK. The children were all very excited to meet the different birds and even got to hold some.
The children were very busy at home too making different birds! We used clay to make our own birds in class too!
Snow Day!
The children had a lot of fun playing in the snow. They built a snowman together and was feeling the snow.
Writing Sentences
The children have been busy writing sentences using three special ingredients:
Capital Letters!
Finger Spaces!
Full Stops!
They have been using their phonic knowledge to sound out unknown words and also spelling the high frequency words correctly.
Autumn Term
We have been very busy the last few weeks in Lime Tree Class.
Our Christmas Play
The children were outstanding in their Christmas play ‘Christmas Counts.’ They all sang so beautifully and behaved so well.
Well Done Lime Tree Class!
Advent
We have been thinking about what Advent means for us and how we prepare for Christmas. The children have been really excited to open each new window on our class advent calendar.
We have been learning all about the first Christmas, ‘The Nativity Story’. The children have been able to re-tell the story in their own words.
We have been reading the story........
‘The Polar Express’ By Chris Van Allsburg.
The children have been so excited and engage with this story. Each day we have been looking at a different part of the story. The children have been thinking about their own train journeys, how the little boy feels in the story and what they might find on the train.
On Monday 17th December all the children came to school in their pyjamas... oh and the adults tooJ! We created a train in our classroom and the children pretended they were going on a journey to the North Pole. We had hot chocolate, marshmallows and biscuits; just like in the story!