Children’s Mental Health Week – Know Yourself, Grow Yourself

This week, Squirrels took part in Children's Mental Health Week with the theme ‘Know Yourself, Grow Yourself’. It was a wonderful week where the children focused on understanding their feelings and learning how to take care of their minds! The children discussed what makes them happy, excited, sad or worried. Then, the children talked about the different ways they can look after their mental health, such as talking to someone if they are feeling sad, taking deep breaths when they’re upset, or doing something fun to make them smile.

We also did some special activities to help us ‘know ourselves’ better. One of the children’s favourites was drawing pictures of themselves and then drawing pictures of what they love, what is special to them, what they are good at and what they would like to get better at. This helped the children to think about how unique and special they are!

      

        

Number Day

This week, the children also enjoyed celebrating Number Day, and they all had so much fun! Squirrels spent the day doing exciting maths activities and even came to school wearing numbers or patterns.

   

Writing – The Dragon Machine

In the children’s writing lessons, they continued to explore ‘The Dragon Machine’ by Helen Ward. After reading the story, the children used the machine that we had created as a class to write their own imaginative stories about the adventure that the machine would go on. The children were able to use lots of exciting adjectives to describe the characters in their story and the adventure that they went on. Their writing was creative, and the children loved using their imagination!

    

   

Maths – Addition and Subtraction within 20

In Maths, the children have continued to learn about addition and subtraction within 20. This week, the children focused on subtraction, and they have used different methods and resources, such as number lines and counting cubes to help them solve problems. The children enjoyed the lesson where they were working out the difference between two numbers and they were able to work out the difference between the number of girls and boys within the classroom.

   

Science – Transparent and Opaque

In Science, the children learned all about materials that are transparent (see-through) and opaque (not see-through). They did an exciting experiment to see which materials were transparent and which were opaque. They used flashlights to test the materials and found out that glass is transparent, while materials such as wood and cardboard are opaque. The children really enjoyed discovering which materials allow us to see through them!

        

      

Geography – The Seas and Oceans Around the United Kingdom

In Geography, the children identified the seas and oceans around the United Kingdom. They learnt the names of the different seas and oceans including the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel, and the Irish Sea. The children also explored where the UK is on a map and how the seas and oceans help us with travelling from place to place.

      

Design and Technology – Fairground Wheels

In Design and Technology this week, the children continued to work on their exciting project – making their own fairground wheel! This week, the children made the pods for their wheel using various materials including card and split pins. The children used their creativity to make them look fun and colourful. The children were proud of what they had made, and their fairground wheels look amazing!

       

RE – Places of Worship

In RE, the children have been learning about different places of worship. These are special places where people go to pray and learn. The children enjoyed exploring and comparing three different places of worship (Mosques, Gurdwaras and Buddhist Temples). The children even had the opportunity to look at various religious artefacts that could be found in the different places of worship.