EYFS, Nursery

EYFS Sports Day

What glorious weather we had to enjoy our EYFS sports day.  After practising their skills in the last few weeks, the children enjoyed participating in a beanbag throw, a howler throw, a beanbag balancing race and an egg and spoon race.  The children had lots of fun and we were very proud of the way that they supported and cheered for each other.

And of course, a huge well done to the speedy mummies and daddies in our parent races!

Enrichment, News, Y5, Y6

Joseph!

The school hall was packed on Wednesday and Thursday nights this week for the Y5/6 production of Joseph. The children sang, acted and danced their hearts out and loved every minute of their performance. The response from our audiences was equally enthusiastic. Thank you to Mrs Wilson-Sly and Mrs Moran and the staff for preparing the children so well and giving so generously of their time. We hope the fantastic memories of Joseph stay with the children for a long, long time.

Design & Technology, Geography, Y2

Wonderful Welsh Cakes

As part of Year 2’s topic on ‘Where does our food come from?’ they have been learning about different foods from around the UK. They began by locating these on a map and placing them in the correct place.  They the correct places for foods such as haggis, jellied eels, Bakewell tarts, soda bread and also Welsh cakes. Then on Tuesday they had the opportunity to be Masterchefs as they carefully followed the recipe and made some fantastic Welsh cakes.

Nursery

Busy Time in Nursery

We have had a fantastic time in F1 focusing on the story of ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’ as part of our Traditional Tales topic.

It all started with a letter which arrived in our class one morning along with a broken chair. It was from Baby Bear asking us if we could help him figure out who had done it. We had to become detectives and use the clues to solve the crime.

In Literacy we have been making story maps and also innovating the story by creating our own ending. The children have wrote sorry letters from Goldilocks to Baby Bear and have also written character speech bubbles.

In Maths we have been working hard on our counting and number recognition in preparation for F2. We have also been sorting objects by size and making our own repeating patterns.

In Phonics we have been continuing to practice our oral blending and segmenting skills with lots of fun games and activities. Some children have begun Phase 2 Phonics in Miss Randall’s group learning the first sounds: s a t p i n m d

We have a new Role-Play area- The Three Bears Cottage. The children have loved acting out scenes from the story in here developing their communication and language skills.

In our Outdoor play we have been busy making Obstacle courses and using the crates to make houses and dens. The children have enjoyed looking for snails and other mini beasts in the garden area and also cooking some lovely ‘porridge’ in the mud kitchen. The children have also loved performing on our stage and using the musical instruments and dressing up box.

We even got another letter from Baby Bear this week thanking us for helping to solve the mystery of his broken chair and he sent us some of his favourite porridge to try!

What a busy and exciting few weeks we have had in F1- keep up the great work everyone. Not long until we finish for the summer now.

Key dates to remember-

Transition morning 5th July

Sports day- 19th July

Geography, History, Y4

Year 4 Trip to Standedge Tunnel

On Wednesday, the children enjoyed a trip to Standedge Tunnel. They learnt about the different features of a river, and constructed their own river model. The children also learnt about how canals were made and made their own canal models. Lastly, they really enjoyed a boat trip through Standedge tunnel which is the highest, longest and deepest tunnel in Britain.

 

News

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat – Cast List!

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat

Cast List 

Joseph 1st Half            Sophie Bradshaw

Joseph 2nd Half            Annabel McClellan

Jacob                           Evie Moran

Potiphar                      Jakub Los

Potiphar’s Wife           Lucy McDermott

Pharaoh                       Oliver Price

Butler                          Keira Mistry

Baker                           Amber Kirkman

Brothers

Reuben                        Mario Vaccaro                       

Simeon                        Joshua Obior (Solo: One More Angel in Heaven)

Levi                               Emma Carruthers

Napthali                      Ryan Walls (Solo: One More Angel in Heaven)

Isaachar                       Michael Gibson

Asher                          Asa Mather

Dan                             Daniel Benson

Zebulum                      Harrison Thomas

Gad                             Conor Boyd (Solo: Benjamin Calypso)

Benjamin                     Ben Hetherington

Judah                           Moses Sadiq (Solo: Benjamin Calypso)

Guards and Ishmaelites

Guard 1                       Roman Towsey

Guard  2                      Myles Foreman

Guard 3                       Tyrone Taylor

Guard 4                       Nelson Taylor

Guard 5                       Ryan Bradburn

Wives, Prisoners and Dancers

Wife 1                         Lucy Highfield

Wife 2                         Olivia Turrall

Wife 3                         Ashleigh Raftery

Wife 4                         Nicole Pertoldi

Wife 5                         Holly Mee

Wife 6                         Ellie Acheson

Wife 7                         Olivia Ishola

Sports

KS1 Sports Festival

A team from St. Mary’s competed in the annual TCSSA KS1 athletics festival at St.Anne’s on Wednesday. The children tries extremely hard and won some of their events. In addition, Lilly was awarded a medal for her effort and sportsmanship.

PE, Sports, Y2, Y5

Junior Play Leaders

Year 5 have been busy  practicing their sporting, leadership and teamwork skills for the past few weeks. They have organised and lead activities for the younger children in year 2. In the coming weeks  they will be undergoing an assessment to see if they qualify to be Junior Play Leaders.

Enrichment, Sports, Y2

Yr2 Sky High Adventure

Year 2 had a fantastic time at Sky High Adventure on Wednesday. For two hours the children climbed, clambered and caved their way around a variety of obstacles. Once split into two groups the children began to explore the array of activities. One group took to the high ropes course which involved the children showing off the balancing and coordination skills as well as a lot of bravery. Following that they then entered the deep, dark cave to begin exploring. In the meantime the other group explored the variety of different climbing walls that were on offer. They demonstrated exception grip, balance, strength, determination and bravery to reach the top of some very tall and challenging walls. The groups then swapped over and experienced the other activities. It is clear to see that year 2 have some budding spider men and women among

their ranks as well as exceptional bravery and determination throughout. The children’s behaviour and listening was excellent and they had a thoroughly enjoyable (and exhausting) time.

History, Y6

Year 6 Trip – Air Raid Shelters

After an extremely busy week of SATs, where every child in Year 6 worked incredibly hard, class 6S went on a well-earned trip to Stockport Air Raid Shelters to find out what life was like for children during the Blitz of late 1940.

 Dressed in period clothing, carrying gas masks and their lunches in brown paper bags, they arrived at the shelters as evacuees where they were shown around the underground tunnels that kept thousands of people safe during the war. After the tour, which also included an experience of total darkness and many opportunities to sing war-time songs, they headed over to the museum to handle real artefacts and to find out how to ‘make do and mend’ in a 1940s house.

 Their behaviour was fantastic and they were a credit to the school

.

EYFS, Science

Our Spring and Growing Topic

The children in F2 are having lots of fun engaging in our Spring and growing topic.  We have read non fiction books about the season and looked for signs of Spring outside.  We had a special trip to the farm to see some newborn animals and have written some fantastic recounts.  We are spending lots of time in our class thinking about growing plants.  We have been looking at the roots and veins of plants and made some observational drawings.  We have also planted some cress and have been watching it as it grows, recording changes in our cress diaries.

We found some strange beans in our classroom … then one morning, a beanstalk grew!  We have enjoyed guessing what could be at the top.  We have been reading the story of Jack and the Beanstalk.  We have retold the story using our small world figures and roleplay.  We have sequenced the events of the story too, using story language.  We will be retelling the story using a story map, then changing some elements to make our own story.  

In maths we have been adding and subtracting in different ways: using objects, numicon shapes, fingers and counting on and back.  We have been doubling by making ladybird doubles with the same amount of spots on each side.  We have also been halving groups of magic beans between our teddy bears.  We are continuing to practise counting backwards from 20 and have enjoyed some fun aiming games outside finding the number 1 fewer than a number.

EYFS, Geography, Nursery, Science

EYFS Trip to Cockfields Farm

We had a fantastic time visiting Cockfields farm. We held rabbits, guinea pigs and chickens. We fed baby goats with bottles of milk and even gave the tortoises a bath! We had lots of fun with our friends learning about how to look after the farm animals. We fed the barn animals including llamas, pigs, sheep, goats and reindeer. Which animal was your favourite?

RE, Religious Life

“Good News” Easter Play

Congratulations to the Y3 and Y4 children on their wonderful performance of ‘Good News’. The children retold the Passion of Jesus through drama and song. We saw some super acting and confident narration from Year 4. They were most ably supported by Year

3 who proved themselves talented singers.

Community, Curriculum, Enrichment, EYFS

F2 – Our Police Visit

As part of our People Who Help Us topic in EYFS we had a special visit in our classrooms from a police officer!  We thought of lots of interesting questions that we wanted to ask her to find out about her job.  We got to look at and try the police uniform and equipment.  We learned lots of new things about the different jobs in the police force and completed a finger print matching activity, just like real police officers!  Since the visit we have enjoyed using ink to create our own fingerprint patterns and have engaged in lots of police roleplay in our outdoor area.  It looks like we might have a few future police officers in our classes!

EYFS

People Who Help Us

Here in EYFS our current topic is ‘People Who Help Us’.  In F2 we began by talking about all of the people who help us in different ways.  The children have taken a particular interest in firefighters  so we have been doing lots of firefighter role play outdoors and learning about firefighters in literacy.  We have been making our own non fiction books all about fire fighters too and are focusing on writing simple sentences independently using our phonics and tricky words. On the creative table we have been painting fire engines and making fire collages.  

 We have been talking about times when we have been ill and the people who helped us.  The children are loving our doctor’s role play area and our hospital small world area and have acted out lots of stories.  

 In our discovery area we are thinking all about looking after God’s wonderful world by recycling.  We are sharing books about recycling and sorting different recyclable materials.

 In our maths area we have been playing lots of games to help our number recognition: bingo is a firm favourite!  We are counting groups of objects and comparing the quantities.  Some of us have even started counting in twos.  We are also adding and subtracting using objects.

 You can help your child in their learning at home by practising counting backwards from 20, as well as saying the number that is one less/fewer than a number.  Please continue helping your child to practise their tricky words that were sent home and to read their book for a short time each night.  Also look for writing opportunities throughout the day to build your child’s writing confidence: can your child help you to write a shopping list?  A sign for the door?  A little note or card for a family member?  Remember that  we love to share your home learning on Tapestry.

English, News

World Book Day

Last week, St Mary’s had a fantastic time celebrating World Book Day in their classes. From acting out their own stories and sharing them with their peers, to reading new and exiting texts to develop their love for reading- fun was had by all. Take a look at their wonderful costumes . . .

 

Science, Y2

Year 2 Young Garderners

In year 2 we have been busy planting lettuce seeds as part of our science topic – Young Gardeners. We had to read the seed packets carefully to make sure that we were planting them in the correct conditions and are now carefully taking care of them. Hopefully we will have enough for a salad soon!

Enrichment

Lantern Workshop

This week, the children attended a fun Lantern Making Workshop in preparation for this weekends Lantern  Parade which will take part in Denton. The children really enjoyed designing their own Lantern and look forward to using them.

History, Y6

Year 6 Viking Workshop

Year 6 enjoyed a very exciting morning when a Viking came to visit to explain what that time period was really like. Not only did the children get to observe how fires were made and try on the extremely heavy, chainmail armour, they also learn about how they lived and why they were such successful travellers, traders- and also raiders too!

 

Nursery

Winter – F1

What a great start to 2019 it has been in our Nursery Class! The children have loved our Winter Topic and we have certainly had the weather to go with it ?

In Literacy we have read the book ‘The Polar Bear and the Snow Cloud’ and we innovated the story to add our own twist. The children used their imaginations to think of other arctic animals that the snow cloud might make for the polar bear. They have been working hard on listening to initial sounds in words and include these in our mark-making. We also read ‘Lost and Found’ by Oliver Jeffers. We created a story map, ordered events in the story and wrote lists of things we would take in our rowing boat on a trip to the South Pole.

In Phonics we have been working hard on rhyming words and alliteration playing lots of fun new games to embed this learning. Keep up the good work! We have also enjoyed Interactive games on Phonics play such as ‘cake bake’.

In maths we have been working hard on number recognition and counting. We have played lots of fun games and learnt some new number songs. We have also been busy making 2D shape pictures and thinking about shapes in our environment. We have been working hard on recognising when we have the same or more/less objects and practiced this vocabulary in our learning.

We have enjoyed weekly dance lesson in the hall where we have learnt to use the movement dice and traffic lights. Children have loved dancing along to our snowflake poem and snowman music. We celebrated Chinese New Year and learnt about the zodiac calendar and why each year is named after an animal. We tasted Chinese food and made Chinese lanterns too!

Our small words area turned into a Winter wonderland with lots of arctic animals and even the castle from Frozen. Children have been using some fantastic imaginative language acting out different characters. In our Outdoor learning children have been busy experimenting with ice and how to melt it. We have built dens in the construction area and also made obstacle courses with the sports equipment.

What a super busy learning time it has been in F1! Thank you to all parents/carers for your continued support and we look forward to more fun after the holidays where our topic will be ‘People who help us’.

News

Safer Internet Day

On Tuesday 5th February it was Safer Internet Day. Here at St Mary’s we took part in many different activities to promote the main focus of this years’ learning which was: Our Internet, Our Choice. The KS2 children attended an assembly in which a group of Year 6 pupils explained more about what this means and focussed on ‘consent’. They gave the children different scenarios to think about and asked them what they thought they would do if it happened to them.

Each year group completed different activities around this theme throughout the week. In EYFS the children heard a story about ‘Smartie the penguin’ and discussed how they can stay safe online by asking for help from adults. Children in Year 6 made their own booklets about online bullying and ways in which this can be addressed.

I hop that your child found it useful learning about online safety. If you want to know anymore or need further support at home please visit: https://www.saferinternet.org.uk/advice-centre/parents-and-carers

Thank you