Willow Class
Welcome to Willow Class. We are a mixed Foundation Stage and Year 1 class. Our class teachers are Mrs Nicholson and Mrs Robinson, supported by Mrs Garland and Mrs Verwoerdt.
The learning themes in Willow Class for the Autumn term are ‘Nursery Rhymes and Traditional Tales’ (Foundation Stage), ‘Planes, Trains and Automobiles’, and ‘Christmas’.
We will start the term learning about our new friends, their families and interests. Our focus will be on all children becoming settled into life in Willow Class and in Cliddesden School. We will be exploring lots of rhymes and become story tellers using traditional tales. We will look at our school environment, linking home and school, then explore the wider environment of Basingstoke and the countries in the UK.
Later in the term we will be focusing on transport old and new, using books, stories and experiences to explore the past and present.
In Science, we will be identifying materials and investigating their properties and suitability for purpose. We will find out how the shapes of some solid objects made from different materials can be changed by pushing, pulling, twisting, bending, stretching and squashing.
We will compare how things move on different surfaces and the impact of pushing or pulling objects. We will make our own predictions and test them.
Our ICT will start with a focus on E-safety and using the internet. We will move onto using the internet to communicate safely.
To celebrate Christmas, we will be finding out about its traditions, and of course, performing the Nativity with Beech Class.
Class Information
Spellings copy and remember and then tested on Monday, practice new ones Tuesday.
Mental maths skills Thursday, test Friday.
PE is on Wednesday and Friday. On Wednesday we would like the children to come to school in their uniforms and bring their PE kits with them to change into. On Friday, we would like the children to come to school in their PE kits.
Class Charter
Rainforest Journey
As part of our Amazing Animals learning theme, today the children are travelling to Brazil!
The classroom has been transformed into an aeroplane ready to fly the children to Manaus in Brazil.
The children had packed their rucksacks full of useful things ready for their flight today.
As the children arrived at Gatwick airport, they were greeted by British Airways flight attendants. They were guided through to a scanner to check their backpacks. Pushing the tray through the scanner was fun! Next, the children had to walk through the metal detector to check for any metal objects. Sometimes it went beep and the children looked for metal bits on their coats as the flight attendants scanned them again.
At Passport control, the class had the passports they had made, checked and stamped. The children were shown to the Departure lounge where they relaxed with some holiday magazines!
Our flight to Manaus was then announced and seat numbers were called. The children checked their number then went onboard to match their ticket to a seat.
After our safety checks, we set off, watching the pilot in the cockpit and the ground get further away. It was very noisy and the children had to pop their ears once we reached the clouds and higher!
There was time for inflight food and drink served by the air stewards. As our flight was very long the class watched an inflight movie (Octonauts in the Amazon), which helped prepare the children for seeing some amazing animals.
Once the plane had landed and the seatbelt signs were turned off, the children went to Arrivals to meet their guide. They shared their backpack contents with the guide who helped them decide if they were going to be useful.
Now the children were ready to explore. They paired up and kept near the guide, spotting and counting animals. The binoculars were the most useful item in their backpacks.
After a camp lunch, the guide helped the children find and draw some of the animals.
The children had a great experience and we hope this will inspire the children in the next few weeks to find out more about these amazing animals.
