WOW!....what a fun-filled day we all had at the zoo today, but it went so quick! The weather was on our side, with the threat of rain holding off. We saw lots of animals, from Elephants and Lions to Tortoise's and Rabbits!
All the children were really well behaved- at times even showing older children how to behave! (proud Miss Rushbrooke).They did lots of walking- a good few miles worth I'm sure - we expected a few zzzzzz on the coach home or at least quite times....but no chance, full of excitement from their day....we can only assume they 'crashed' when they got home! 
A big thank-you goes to Noah L's Mum, Annie's Mum, Aimee's Mum, Neala's Mum, Georgina's Mum, Corinne's Mum, Emily's Dad, Rose's Dad, Emma O's Dad and Adam - your help was very much appreciated.
Not forgetting Mrs Wray and Miss Gillings....thank-you ladies.

Take a look at our photos from the day....

Miss and Mrs Rushbrooke

A HUGE well done to all the children across the school, and particularly class Hughes for participating in Sports day today. It was class Hughes first school sports day, and they all did SO well! I am very proud of each of them for trying so hard! Well done again!

Thank-you also to all those parents, grandparents, siblings etc and children who took part in the race for life- as many of you will know the reason behind it has affected my own familyvery recently as well as the school 'family'- hence why you may have witnessed some amusing sights of the school staff taking part too!
Take a look at some of our pictures (some great action shots captured by Mrs Rushbrooke!).

This week in our maths lessons, we are looking at symmetry. First of all we learnt what the word 'symmetrical' meant and then had a look at some different pictures- deciding if they were symmetrical or non-symmetrical.
We then went into the hall, where Miss Rushbrooke laid down a piece of wool to represent a line of symmetry. She then chose different children to create a shape or pose with their bodies, and another child had to create the same shape or pose on the other side. We were very good at this, and we had to tell the children if they needed to move closer to the line of symmetry, move their legs closer together, arms higher etc to make sure they both looked the same on each side.
Sometimes it was a little tricky when we had to 'reflect' the shape or pose as if it were a mirror image.
For example, one of us chose to make a star shape- we then had to instruct the second child on how to 'reflect' this on the other side- so the 2 children ended up almost back-to-back.
We then went back into the classroom and created our own symmetrical pictures using coloured shapes and multilink cubes.

This week we have been having lots of fun outside in the glorious sunshine!
We have been making Snow White cottages out of the hollow tubes, 'painting' the walls, playground and fences with paintbrushes and water- we practised writing our names with paintbrushes too.
We have enjoyed our refreshing  ice poles during morning snack times - turning our tongues some fantastic colours!
We have also been having our afternoon snack and story time outside in the garden too.

........down came the rain, and the hail stones- did you see them? they were huge! Miss Rowe tried to catch some in a bucket for us to look at.....but they soon melted! We stood under our shelter and watched the storm for a little while. We couldn't hear each other talk because the hail stones and rain were so loud on the shelter roof!
At least our plants got a good drink!

Thank you very much to Noah L and his parents for very kindly donating some plants for our reception garden. We were given some tomato plants, runner beans and peas. Mrs Rushbrooke has already planted them in one of our raised flower beds.
​Thank-you again!

 From this Friday (16th June), we will be sending 5 teddies/soft animals home with different children each week for a 'Sleepover' over the weekend. Each teddy will have their own diary and suitcase or bag. 
Their names are: Rufus, Mumble, Spikey, Heidi and Poppy.

If your child comes home with one of the teddies, please could you support them in writing a 1 page entry in the diary, telling us what the teddy got up  to on their 'sleepover', e.g, they went shopping, they went to the park. They can also draw a picture or take a photograph to show us.

Please don't worry, the 'teddies' don't have to do anything 'spectacular' on their sleepover - a day in the garden can be just as exciting!

As you may well know, we have been looking at the story of 'Snow White' as part of our Disney topic. 
​If you are familiar with the story, then you will know that Snow White is tricked into eating a poisoned apple. 
We decided to make our own....but we decided to use chocolate and sprinkles instead of poison.....we think it will taste ALOT nicer!
We have left our chocolate apples in the fridge to 'set' overnight, and they will be sent home to eat on Friday.

Once again, thank you to Ellie's Mum, Alex who very kindly came in to help us cook.....we very much appreciate her help each week.
​

As the weather is warming up (and hopefully staying!) the children will have the opportunity to go outside in the reception garden on a more regular basis. Please could you ensure your child has a drink bottle with them everyday, containing either water or juice. Of course, we can top these up with water when necessary throughout the day.
It may also be an idea to send your child in with a named sunhat. We have some spare, but unfortunately not enough for everyone.

As many of you will of seen, the list of accompanying parent's for Colchester zoo is up. Many thanks to all of you who offered to help, as usual, to make it fair, names were put into a hat and 9 were picked out. My apologies if you were hoping to join us. 
I will provide any further necessary information nearer the time.
​Many thanks

Today, we have done some marvelous maths work. Some of made a human number line. Each of us were given a number from 0-15 to write down on a piece of paper. Holding our numbers, we then had to sort ourselves into the correct order, and made a loonnnnggg number line!.

The rest of us were doing some fabulous halving using some skittles. In pairs, we were given an equal number of skittles up to 20, and 2 paper plates. We then had to find out what half the number of skittles was, by sharing them out equally between the 2 plates....then we got to eat them!