Monday 22nd April - Friday 26th April

What a busy busy week!

Our learning has included:

• exploring the composition of number 9
• retelling the story of 'Dinosaurs Love Underpants' and discussing series and collections of books by the same author 
• innovating the story as a class and creating the new version, 'Dinosaurs Love Socks' 
• discussions about healthy eating and the importance of a 'varied diet'. We talked about the ways that different food can help our bodies.
• role playing in the 'healthy food shop' 
• learning about printing with the paint and some healthy vegetables! This led to lots of fabulous conversations about colour mixing and creating new colours.

Enjoy your weekend everybody!

Monday 15th April - Friday 19th April

The dinosaur madness continues this week as part of our topic 'Our Wild World'.

Our learning has included:

• what fossils are and becoming paleontologists ourselves!
• talking about the features of a church where Christians go to worship
• problem solving and using our knowledge of number 8 to find the 'hiding numbers'
• a visit from SCARF and our giraffe friend Harold. We talked all about looking after our bodies and taught Harold to brush his hair and his teeth and how to help when he feels sad and lonely 
• we made our own dens and obstacle courses and completed mazes and talked about resilience and the importance of not giving up, even if things get tricky!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Love Mrs McCaughey and the EYFS team :) 

Monday 8th April - Friday 12th April 

Welcome back everybody!

We have started our topic 'Our Wild World' and are beginning with learning about dinosaurs!

Our learning has included:

• comparing dinosaurs and discussing their similarities and differences 
• learning about silhouettes and making our own dinosaur silhouette art work
• we did both addition and subtraction within 7
• we wrote about our favourite dinosaurs
• we sorted fiction from non-fiction books
• talked about resilience and the importance of not giving up!

Love Mrs McCaughey and the EYFS team :) 

*** A HUGE THANK YOU ***

To all the parents/carers of Merlins,

Thank you so very much for my surprise wedding video, gifts and vouchers! I feel so very spoilt! I had the most magical wedding day and am still on cloud nine!

Love Mrs McCaughey :) 

Monday 11th March - Friday 22nd March

 'We have lift off!' has ended with a (big) BANG this week! 

Our learning has included:

• continuing to find which group has more and less and using new vocabulary 'fewer than' and 'greater than' 
• we visited the local church to speak to the Vicar all about our Easter learning 
• we spoke about looking after our environment and the importance of putting our rubbish into the bins!
• we learnt about money and looked at some coins. Some of us enjoyed some coin rubbing too!
• we tried fencing with a new sports coach
• we have been working on our formation and short sentence writing 
• we rounded off the term with a big Easter egg hunt!

We hope you all have the best Easter break and look forward to seeing you in a couple of weeks!

Love Mrs McCaughey, Mrs Clements, Miss Pinto, Mrs Parry, Mrs Giles and Mrs Knight :) 

Monday 4th March - Friday 8th March

 'We have lift off!' continued with lots of 'Aliens love underpants' fun this week! 

Our learning has included:

• finding which group has more and less and using new vocabulary 'fewer than' and 'greater than' 
• Obb and Bob arrive in Merlins with real and nonsense words! 
• exploring the use of clocks and the long and short hands
• playing lots of describing aliens
• thinking about how we can all work as a team to look after our classroom
• decorating pants for our own class washing line!
• exploring why we have day and night and learning about how the Earth orbits the sun
• torch and shadow making play! 

See you next week! 

Monday 26th February - Friday 1st March

This week we have been fully immersed in our topic 'We have lift off!' 

Our learning has included:

• finding one more and one less in a variety of ways
• continuing to practice our subitising to 5 
• playing lots of partner games and working on being a good listener
• innovating our class text 'Whatever Next' by changing the main character to Baby Dog instead
• making props for Baby Dog including a helmet, picnic blanket and teddy bear
• comparing the 8 planets in space and singing about them!
• learning about the first man to walk on the moon, Neil Armstrong

See you all next week for even more 'out of this world' fun!

Monday 19th February - Friday 23rd February

This week we started our new topic 'We have lift off!' 

Our learning has included:

• exploring the composition of number 6 and looking at the 'part-part whole' model
• finding one more and one less
• retelling our class text 'Whatever Next', dressing up as Baby Bear and writing lists of items we would like to take to space with us!
• learning about the 8 planets in space
• using our funky fingers to weave our own planets!
• organising the Spaceship folder by hole punching the paperwork so we can keep it all safe

It's been a blast! 

Monday 5th February - Friday 9th February

This week has been as busy as ever and we have really enjoyed our learning!

Our learning has included:

• continuing to explore the composition of number 5
• creating our own versions of The Naughty Bus story and using plenty of 'story language'
• finding out about what happens to water when it gets too cold (freezes)
• finding out about what happens to ice when we heat it up (melts)
• exploring floating and sinking objects in the water tray
• discussing the different seasons and what clothes we can wear to look after ourselves in different seasons!

And that's a wrap!

Happy half term everybody! 

Monday 29th January - Friday 2nd February

This week has been so busy and we have been learning so much!

Our learning has included:

• learning about the composition of number 5
• reading about the adventures of the Naughty Bus and exploring other versions
• controlling the remote control cars and driving to reach the targets!
• sorting different materials and discussing why we use certain materials for certain jobs 
• Idris' story telling!

See you next week!

Monday 22nd January - Friday 26th January

This week was enrichment week and full of Music, Art, Drama and Dance fun!!

Our learning so far has included:

• an urban dance class with a professional dance instructor 
• listening to brass instruments 
• engaging in drumming workshops
• a drama session with a drama teacher 
• finding one more in all sorts of ways!
• designing and making our own cars!

Roll on next week!

Tuesday 9th January - Friday 19th January

We have had a fabulous beginning to term 3!

We kicked it off with a big Christmas catch-up and then got gong with our new topic 'Brum Brum, Beep Beep!'

Our learning so far has included:

• lots of train role play and selling tickets at 'Uplands train station'
• reading our current class text 'The Magic Train Ride' and discussing new vocabulary, eg, 'aboard' and 'destination' 
• lots of construction and building our own vehicles
• small world play relating to the 'lands' in our class text 
• discussing different types of 'vehicles' and 'modes of transport'
• subitising numbers to 4 in a variety of ways, through a number of different activities
• creating and continuing 2, 3, 4 step patterns and beyond!

We are also saying a big welcome to Mrs Parry this term :) 

Happy New Year to you all!

Monday 18th December - Thursday 21st December

We have had another super busy Christmas-crazy week!

We have:

• done our Christmas performance and enjoyed taking part in our first Nativity!
• making Christmas cards
• learning about the months of the year and making calendars  
• more post office role play
• more decorating the classroom Christmas tree
• a 'Christmas cinema' treat!

We are also saying goodbye to Mr Brown today :( We wish him lots of luck in his new role! 

Merry Christmas to all the Merlins and their families! We will see you in the new year!! :) 

Monday 4th December - Friday 15th December

We have been learning lots as well as getting ready for our upcoming Christmas performance!

Our learning has included:

• using our maps of the local area to plan a route and go on our very own 'Winter Walk' together - featuring a snack and story and a play in the park!
• retelling the story of We're going on a bear hunt
• number 9 and number 10 counting and comparison 
• comparing different objects and using vocabulary: heavier, longer, heaviest, longest
• learning about the Christian Christmas story! 
• post office role play!
• printing Christmas trees and stars!

Well done Merlins!!  

Monday 27th November - Friday 1st December

What a busy week!

Our learning has included:

• retelling the story of The Little Red Hen
• 'hot seating' characters
• comparing different objects and using vocabulary: longer, longest, shorter, shortest, taller, tallest, etc
• learning about welcoming a new baby to the Muslim community with an Aqiqah 
• pizza restaurant role play 
• looking at 'Starry Night' by Van Gogh and creating a large scale collaborative Starry Night artwork of our own 

Well done Merlins!!  

Monday 20th November - Friday 24th November

What a busy week!

Our learning has included:

• learning all about The Little Red Hen and comparing different versions of the story!
• learning about 'characters'
• having a visit from Ted's grandad to tell us all about the 'past' and what school was like for him as a young boy, long ago
• representing the number 8 in a variety of ways
• comparing the size of different objects and using the appropriate vocabulary 
• learning about welcoming a new baby to the Christian church with a Baptism - we even baptised our dolls in the water tray!
• lots junk modelling 
• firework pictures using new painting 'techniques'

Fab work team Merlins!!  

Monday 13th November - Friday 10th November

What a wonderful, wet, windy week it has been!

Our learning has included:

• plenty of story telling and actions!
• making 7 in a variety of ways, using a variety of resources
• ordering number rockets
• continuing with our learning about Diwali and creating diva lamps to 'light the way home' for Rama and Sita
• playing dodgeball for the first time with our buddies!
• lots of games and turn-taking 
• learning about changes over time and writing with 'quills' and 'ink', just like they did in the past

Well done Merlins!!  

Monday 6th November - Friday 10th November

What a fabulous start it has been to term 2!

Our learning has included:

• reading Read on the Broom and enjoying lots of role play on our broomsticks
• mixing colours and making potions
• learning about Diwali and creating Rangoli patterns 
• learning about healthy and unhealthy foods
• lots of work around the number 7

Well done for all your hard work and efforts this week Merlins!!  

Term 1

It has been a very busy term here in Merlins class! We have all transitioned into school amazingly well and have become familiar with the rules and routines. We have developed brilliant friendships and have learnt so much already! Most importantly, we have had a LOT of fun too! Well done team Merlins for a brilliant start to school! 

We look forward to next half term already!

Miss Allen, Mrs Giles, Mrs Clements, Mr Brown and Miss Pinto :) 

Monday 3rd July - Friday 14th July

I am not even sure where to start - it has been a busy busy busy couple of weeks! 

Our learning has included:

• lots of counting, discussing patterns in numbers and problem solving
• comparing where we live to a village in Kenya, Africa
• recapping lots of phonemes and tricky words and growing hugely in confidence with these!
• visiting The Wild Place Project and seeing lots of African animals close up!
• using various construction resources to build animal homes
• And of course, ART WEEK!! - weaving, painting, sticking, etc!

Well done for all your hard work and efforts Merlins!!  

Monday 26th June - Friday 30th June

Our learning this week included:

• the arrival of the butterflies! 
• discussing 'Superworm' and his talents and sharing what talents we have. We then celebrated our friends talents and made certificates, badges and rosettes for our peers!
• growing our own cress 'hair'!
• more subtraction and subitising 
• introducing new tricky words
• discussing special stories for Hindus and recapping the celebration of Diwali 
• joining in with the whole school Danceathon!

Happy July!! :) 

Monday 19th June - Friday 23rd June

What a super busy week that was - it has flown by!!

Our learning this week included:

• our first ever sports day! 
• reading 'Superworm', learning new vocabulary and making up nonsense rhymes!
• threading pasta and pipe cleaner 'Superworms' of our own!
• our pet caterpillars are remaining safely in their cocoons... watch this space!!
• addition and finding the missing number in the sum 
• discussing that some religions also share some special stories

See you on Monday for the final week of June everybody :) 

Monday 12th June - Friday 16th June

Merlins have had a very super and very sunny week! 

Our learning this week included:

• our pet caterpillars spinning their cocoons... watch this space!!
• minibeast hunts
• subtraction using concreate objects and pictorial representations too
• the staff at the healthy eating cafe continued serving delicious food and drinks to their customers
• more playdough and loose part butterfly and caterpillar models, which led on to creating more detailed, clay models of butterflies!
• comparing stories that are special to Muslims and stories that are special to Christians
• retelling the story of Noah's Ark in the water tray
• engaging in Pyjamarama Day and spending the day in our PJs, listening to stories, drawing and doodling - all for a good charitable cause!  

Enjoy the sunny weekend Merlins team! :) 

Monday 5th June - Friday 9th June

Merlins have had a fabulous first week of term 6! We are so excited about our learning this week and have had so much fun!

Our learning this week included:

• learning all about the butterfly life cycle and OUR VERY OWN CATERPILLARS ARRIVED!
• writing suggested names and then voting for our 5 favourite caterpillar names
• writing and making signs to remind people of how to take care of our caterpillar friends
• adding numbers and finding one more and one less
• the healthy eating cafe opened 
• playdough and loose part butterfly and caterpillar models
• learning about features of a mosque where Muslims go to pray
• butterfly symmetry paintings 

Brilliant beginning to your final half term in Merlins team! :) 

Monday 22nd May - Friday 26th May

Merlins have certainly ended this term in style (and sunshine!)

Our learning this week included:

• doubling numbers
• more distributing equally and sharing fairly in maths
• more story writing and telling 
• lots of 'Who Am I?' games
• bedtime routine discussions and role play 
• the importance of brushing our teeth
• beginning to look at the parts of a flower

Well done to everyone for working so hard right up until the final day this term - you are all stars! 

See you for after half term team! 

Miss Allen :) 

Monday 15th May - Friday 19th May

What a wonderful week it has been. Merlins have been very much enjoying the sunshine we've been having!

Our learning this week included:

• distributing equally and sharing fairly in maths
• cooking up a storm in the mud kitchen!
• story telling and writing our own stories 
• puppet shows!
• learning about Mosques 
• tangrams/creating shape pictures

Roll on the last week of this half term! :)

Monday 1st May - Friday 12th May

It has been a odd couple of weeks with bank holidays and lots going on in Merlins! Our dinosaur interest is continuing to grow and develop. 

Our learning this week included:

• discovering different types of dinosaur fossils
• discovering dinosaur bones in the sand and working on our fine motor skills whilst pouring and transporting the sand with accuracy 
• story telling and writing 
• learning about odd and even numbers and the patterns in numbers
• number formation practise
• designing and creating dinosaur sock puppets!

We wonder what's in store for next week... :)

Monday 24th April - Friday 28th April 

What a week for Merlins! Our 'Our Wild World' topic is in full swing and the children are loving their learning! 

Our learning this week included:

• learning more about dinosaur fossils
• reading to our dinosaur cuddly toys!
• reading and writing our own non-fiction dinosaur books!
• exploring the composition of number 10 and learning about number bonds to 10
• learning about silhouettes and incorporating them into our own artwork
• the importance of persevering on a task and to keep going even when something is hard!

Roll on next week team! :)

Monday 17th April - Friday 21st April 

What a brilliant week back it has been for Merlins! We are already so engrossed in our new topic 'Our Wild World' and the learning taking place this week has been amazing!

Our learning this week included:

• opening our new 'Dinosaur Museum' in the classroom
• discovering dinosaur fossils
• reading non-fiction dinosaur books and learning new facts
• constructing with a purpose and building dinosaur homes
• exploring the composition of number 9 
• wax resist paintings
• measuring our heights and comparing them to how tall we were in the Autumn term - we have grown SO MUCH!
• relay races in PE 

A fantastic start has been made to this term and I look forward to seeing what fascinating conversations and learning will take place next week!

Miss Allen :)

It has been a wonderful final week of term in Merlins!

Our learning this week included:

• exploring the composition of number 8 
• visiting the local church to enhance our RE learning about the Christian celebration of 'Easter'
• making Easter bunny cones and party hats
• an Easter Egg hunt with the children from Uplands Playgroup
• an Easter story with our Year 6 buddies

Well done for all your hard work this term - you really are a bunch of super stars!

Miss Allen, Mrs Langdon and Mrs Giles are super proud of you all and we look forward to welcoming you back after the Easter holidays!

Also, keep checking on Tapestry to see your child's latest learning - thank you :) 

Monday 20th March - Friday 24th March 

What a week it has been in Merlins!

Our learning this week included:

• addition and subtraction within 7 and making links and connections
• learning facts about Neil Armstrong
• junk modelling Neil Armstrong's space rocket 'Apollo'
• a visit from SCARF and giraffe friends, Henry and Harold. They taught us all about our bodies and how to look after them.

Well done team!

Also, just to remind all parents to login to Tapestry and check on their child's learning - thank you :) 

Monday 13th March - Friday 17th March 

Merlins have enjoyed lots of fun learning again this week!

Our learning this week included:

• 'describing' characters and objects
• learning about why we have day and night
• thinking about different emotions and facial expressions
• exploring the composition of the number 7
• a visit from local Community Police Officers who came to talk to us about 'Internet Safety' 

Merlins, you are all super stars!! 

Also, just to remind all parents to login to Tapestry and check on their child's learning - thank you :) 

Monday 6th March - Friday 10th March 

Merlins have had another fantastic week of 'We Have Lift Off' learning!

It has been a super busy week and we have done so much, including:

• innovating (changing aspects of) our class text 'Whatever Next'
• learning more facts about space and the planets in our solar system
• looking at the measurement of time and using clocks to tell the time 'to the hour' 
• ordering numbers and discussing more and less numbers
• junk modelling and creating our own space rockets!

Well done Merlins team! 

Also, just to remind all parents to login to Tapestry and check on their child's learning - thank you :) 

Monday 27th February - Friday 3rd March 

Merlins have had a wonderful first week back and are absolutely loving our new 'We Have Lift Off' topic already!

It has been a super busy week and we have done so much, including:

• lots of space ship role play as astronauts!
• looking at the 8 planets in our solar system and ordering them by their distance to the sun
• comparing numbers and stating when the amount in a group was 'more 'less' 'fewer than' 'greater than' 'same' or 'equal' to another group 
• sorting 'Obb' and 'Bob' words
• doing a 'space dance' as part of our PE!

Roll on next week Merlins team!

Also, I just wanted to remind all parents to login to Tapestry and check on their child's learning - thank you :) 

This week we enjoyed:

• reading The Naughty Bus and creating our own versions of the stories - plenty of story telling and writing!
• experimenting with changing water into ice and then melting it again!
• taking away numbers using the cubes
• more writing challenges and some beautiful captions and sentences
• new rolls in gymnastics during our PE 

As always, we are super proud of the Merlins team!

This week included:

• exploring number 6
• finding 'one more' and 'one less'
• learning about what 'prayer' means for Christians and writing one together 
• discussing the beginning, middle and end of stories
• reading and writing using the new sounds and tricky words we have been learning 

Roll on next week Merlins team!! :) 

This week the Merlins...

• enjoyed a visit from a paramedic and explored the back on an ambulance - the sirens and flashing lights were definitely the highlight for us!
• engaged in ambulance role play - our paramedics have been on board ready to help poorly patients!
• explored the ice and asked questions? eg, "Why is it here?" "Where did it come from?" "Why is it cold?"
• built their own vehicles and learnt lots of new vocabulary when discussing the features, eg, chassis, axles and wheels
• competed as they raced their cars down our outside track
• answered more addition number sentences
• continued to use recently learnt vocabulary when discussing capacity, whilst playing in the sand pit
• produced some fantastic independent writing during continuous provision

A big well done on another fabulous week Merlins!

Miss Allen, Mrs Langdon and Mrs Giles and SUPER PROUD of you all :) 

Merlins have had another wonderful wintery week!

We have enjoyed:

• more work on the composition of numbers
• bunny hopping in our PE lessons
• using our remote controlled cars, directions and positional language 
• more train riding fun!

Roll on next week for even more 'Brum Brum Beep Beep' fun!

All aboard another week in Merlins!

Our topic 'Brum Brum Beep Beep' is now in full swing!

This week's highlights included:

• Train station role play
• More patterns - we love them!
• Gymnastics and careful balancing
• Adding and new vocabulary 'add' and 'equals'

Great work all :)

Happy new year and welcome to term 3!

We are back and Merlins have already been working super hard!

This week we have:

• completed and created patterns
• discovered the part-part whole model and explored the composition of numbers
• enjoyed puzzles and problem solving

Well done Merlins team!

And that's a wrap!!

We are off for Christmas now but I need to say a massive well done to the Merlins class for all their hard working during their first full term at 'big school'! 

We have learnt so much already and cannot wait to learn so much more in 2023! See you then :) 

PS. Look how much fun we have had in the build-up to Christmas! Our first Nativity, a Christmas cinema treat and Christmas party too! 

This week the Merlins team enjoyed:

• exploring the number 10 further
• measuring weight and using appropriate vocabulary to discuss and compare weight
• painting 'Starry Night' inspired pictures by Vincent Van Gogh
• reading books to each other and sharing Christmas stories too!

This week the Merlins team:

• continued measuring and discussing length 
• made pizzas!
• enjoyed role play in our very own class 'restaurant'
• explored maps of our 'local area' 
• began to think about creating our own maps

Watch the video below for some brilliant directions being given using teddy's map! 

Just a few highlights from another busy week in Merlins!

This week we:

• learnt about baptism and had a go at baptising our dolls in the water tray!
• measured our feet with cubes
• interviewed some of our grandparents about their childhood's in the past
• practiced our new sounds and writing them
• did a taste test with pizza toppings! Yum! 

Welcome back for term 2 Merlins!

It has been a busy and fabulous week with the Merlins team. We have covered A LOT, including: making spooky potions and colour mixing, saving the conkers and berries from the spooky spider web, making 'fireworks' using a new painting technique, learning about the festival of light called Diwali and creating our own Rangoli Patterns.

Look how much fun we have had...

As our 'This is Me' topic continues, we learnt more about our bodies this week. We read Funnybones and talked lots about our skeletons and various other body parts this week!

We learnt new vocabulary for parts of our body, eg, skull, ribs, jaw, ankle, spine, etc.

We used cotton buds to create our own skeleton artwork, we looked at X-ray images and discussed what we look like beneath our skin, muscles and fat, etc.

We drew around Ellis on large paper and began to label his body as a group. The children directed me to where they wanted me to write to make our ‘labels’. Some children decided to draw more details on afterwards, giving Ellis eyes and a smile! Some children used their phonic knowledge to begin to label with a little support, eg ‘ribs’ and ‘hr’ (hair) and ‘maf’ (mouth).

We also learnt about the ‘human life cycle’ and how changes happen to people over time, eg, developing from a baby, to toddler, to child, etc. We had a huge giggle looking at each others baby photos and some great comparisons about our similarities and differences were made!

And that concludes our first half term Merlins! Have a wonderful half term and Mrs Day-Lewis and I will see you ready for term 2! 

Merlins have enjoyed learning about the season 'Autumn' this week! We have explored some of the autumnal  changes and signs we may see in the world around us. We have discussed 'harvest' and learnt about the journey of how some fruit and vegetables go from being a seed to ending up in the shops ready for us to buy! 

We have painted with water colours, learnt even more sounds in phonics and have been learning to retell the story of Elmer! 

We even managed to get hold of some of Elmer's magical, growing berries too! The berries arrived to us very small and over time grew bigger and bigger until... 

As part of our 'This is Me' topic, this week we have been discussing birthdays! We have explored when each of our birthdays are and why we celebrate our birthdays on the days that we do! We have talked about the ways we celebrate and people we spend our special days with. We've engaged in; birthday party role play, making 'cakes' with playdough, writing shopping lists for our parties and birthday cards, designed our own cakes, created party decorations too and continued with our colour mixing exploration and used watercolours to paint our own balloons!

We have also worked hard on creating our own self-portraits and looked closely at each of our unique facial features. 

We have also been enjoying lots of stories and our cosy reading area too.

Well done Merlins - keep up all the great work :)

We have had our first 5 day week in Merlins and it has been a blast!

Our first reading books have started going home! We are also sending home 'sound cards' showing the sounds we have been working on so far in our phonics sessions - please practise these with your children too!

This week has featured lots of: rhyming, careful and accurate counting, discussing similarities and differences between ourselves and others, listening games, colour mixing and so much more... 

Keep up all the fab work Merlins team!! 

What a week - four full days!!

In Merlins we are continuing to explore our learning environment and all the wonderful resources we have. We are becoming more familiar with the routines and expectations at school and having lots of fun as we go along!

This week was super exciting because we started our phonics sessions. We have been learning to recognise, pronounce and form the sounds... Can you spot which sounds we have learnt about this week?

Well done Team Merlins!!

Hi everyone!

What an exciting week for Merlins!! Lots of 'firsts' including our: first time meeting everyone in our class, first assembly, first lunch, first time meeting the rest of the school, first time being helped out by year 6 and first playtime!! 

We have continued to explore our indoor and outdoor learning environments and created our own set of 'class rules' together as a team. We are becoming more familiar with our routines and settling in beautifully! In fact we have been settling in so well that Miss Allen gave us ALL our FIRST STAR AWARD and our parents came to watch!

Thank you to parents for bringing children to their morning/afternoon settling sessions over the past couple of weeks and for popping in for lunch and assembly this week - the children loved having you in! I am sure many of you will be pleased that the children will all be in full-time and doing the same hours as the rest of the school from Tuesday 
 

Keep up with the amazing work Merlins team - we are super proud of you  

Welcome to Merlins!

We (Miss Allen and Mrs Day-Lewis) were super excited to welcome our new Merlins! They are settling in so fast and enjoying getting to know each other and exploring the classroom. Our topic this term is "This is me!" and we will be sending out our knowledge organiser shortly. We are discovering all sorts of favourite things to play with including car tracks, playhouse, lego, puzzles and mobilo. Here are some pictures of their first few days. We are looking forward to meeting lots of you on Thursday for their first school lunch.  

Monday 18th July 2022

What do Merlins Class do in a heatwave? 

We PADDLE!!!!!

Thursday 14th July 
Today the children were given a very special job where they had to design and make their own zoo. The children worked brilliantly with their partners to create different enclosures to keep the animals safe - they were super imaginative and even built monkey bars, beds and bridges for the animals! Take a look at the photos below. 😃🦒🦓 

Friday 8th July 2022

Another lovely, sunny week in Merlins Class. Last Friday our butterflies started to emerge from their chrysalises, so our first job on Monday was to release them into our garden. We have really enjoyed watching them grow from tiny caterpillars and hope they have a lovely life back in the wild!

Our book this week is called Same,Same But Different and we have been learning about life in India. We have started to learn about the different animals that live in India and have been painting pictures of them. 

Friday was a very hot day so we decided to have a but of fun playing with the water. This progressed from simply paddling, into some amazingly complicated role play involving a queen who would not allow her servants to go on holiday!

Friday 17th June 2022

Wow! What a busy week. Starting with Sports Day, then the climbing centre in Gloucester, gymnastics in school, dodgeball, scooters, martial arts and more! The children have enjoyed every minute, although they will definitely sleep well this weekend!

Friday 20th May 2022

This week we have been reading the book 'Saturday Night at the Dinosaur Stomp'. It has inspired us to have our own 'stomp'. In preparation, we have written invitations to our own dinosaurs, made biscuits and party hats.Today we have held the 'stomp'. We have drunk swamp juice, eaten biscuits and played musical dinosaurs. We had some brilliant games to play ( thank you Mrs Day-Lewis), including a 'Tricera-Toss'. 

Friday 13th May 2022

The children in Merlins Class have found out about Eurovision this week and have made the following video to wish Sam Ryder lots of luck on Saturday night!

Friday 29th April 2022

Well, that first week back was short! We were very excited to start our new topic on dinosaurs. We are building a dinosaur museum and are finding out lots of facts about dinosaurs- photos of our discoveries will be added to the website next week.

Here are some dinosaur jokes to keep you entertained!

What do you call a dinosaur ghost?

A scaredactyl.

What do you get if you cross a dinosaur and a pig?

Jurassic Pork.

Friday 1st April

There is no doubt that the highlight of our week has been our trip to Hawkwood! Learning outside in our natural environment covers many areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum as well as being enormous fun! Everyone from Merlins Class would like to thank the parent helpers who came with us on this trip- you made the whole thing possible and all added extra magic to the morning.

We started by making pictures of animals from materials that we found.

Next we made dens. The challenge was to ensure that it had a roof and that both children could fit inside!

Our final ( and messiest) challenge was to make our own paint from mud and then paint a picture. This was a huge hit with both the children and adults!

Friday 25th March 2022

This week we have been applying for the jobs that we want to do in school during Careers Week. This has really captured the children's imagination and has inspired them to do their best writing ever, with high levels of independence!

In maths we have been sharing. We have really enjoyed doing this practically and understand that it has to be the same for each one to be fair.

We have also been thinking about Easter and spring. We have talked about the story of Palm Sunday and why Christians might think that the Easter story is both sad and happy. 

Friday 18th March

This week we have been reading Zoom Rocket, Zoom. We have found out what astronauts do and have been writing diaries as if we were astronauts.

In maths we have been doubling numbers. We all understand that doubling means adding the same number again. We have used numicon to help us understand this and some of us now just know doubles mentally!

In art we have been creating crazy collage aliens. We think they look amazing!

Friday 4th March 2022

What an exciting week we have had! Our new topic is 'We Have Lift Off'. The classroom now has a fantastic space ship in it and the reading area is now full of stars! The children have loved dressing up and having adventures in Space. Please see below for the Knowledge Organiser for this topic. 

Thursday 3rd March 2022

World Book Day

Thank you to the parents who came to school on Thursday morning. The children loved eating breakfast and sharing their favourite books. They were also treated to an impromptu performance of our class poem!

Wednesday 5th January 2022

Welcome back!

This term we are thinking about transport, Our topic title is Brum Brum, Beep Beep! Please see below for a copy of the Knowledge Organiser for this term.

Friday 19th November 2021

Well, this has been such an exciting day! We have had a science day which started off with a range of exciting activities delivered by our visiting scientist.

We then went back to our own classroom and answered two questions:
* Can I make the water move without tipping the cup?
* Can I make something that feels like a solid and a liquid?

The answer was 'yes' to both of these questions and while the children carried out their investigations, they were able to ask lots of scientific questions and to make some predictions.

Thursday 18th November 2021

This week has been all about pizza, and we have loved it!

We started off by tasting the different toppings that could be added to a pizza and then designed our own pizzas. 

We then made our own muffin pizzas and ate them, evaluating what was good and what could be improved. We then wrote up our recipes.

In maths we have been looking at the composition of 3,4 and 5.

Next week we are going to change the story of The Little Red Hen to include the hen making pizza. 

Friday 8th October

Well done Merlins, another great week at school! 

In literacy we have been reading Monkey Puzzle. We have started using the letter sounds that we have been learning to write words and wrote 'mum and dad' this week.

In our phonics we have learned the sounds 'ck, e, u and r'. We have also learned to read the words 'no, go and the'.

In maths we have been exploring 2D shape. We have been able to talk about different shapes using the words 'straight, curved and sides'. We have also really enjoyed playing with the shapes and exploring their properties.

Friday 10th September 2021

Wow Merlins, what a brilliant first week you have all had in school! In just five days you have made new friends, found your way around a new building and tried out lots and lots of fun activities! 

Next week is going to be even more exciting because on Thursday you will be having lunch with one of your adults AND meeting everyone in your class. It is going to be great to be altogether at last. We have put some photographs below of some of the things that you have been doing this week so that you can talk about them with your families. 

We are looking forward to seeing you all on Monday!