Chocolate Masterteers
Finally the time came this week to make our chocolate bars! After much tasting, testing and planning, we began by melting the chocolate on the cooker with the help of Mrs Walton. We then had to rapidly mix our fillings and flavours in before the chocolate began to harden again. We finished by pouring the chocolate into moulds and allowing it to harden overnight.
Our job didn’t end there though. We then had to design the logo and the packaging to go with our chocolate. We looked into what makes a good chocolate bar name and also studied existing design. Finally, we got to take them home and devour them.
Watch us while we work.
This afternoon we worked on some learning tasks with our parents and carers. The learning jobs we had a go at were activities that we could do at home to practise some important skills. There were spelling activities and number bond jobs along with some multiplication tasks. Take a look.
Dinosaur Drawings
We have been working really hard during our art lessons to perfect our drawing skills. We have been focusing on using different types of lines and shading.
We started off thinking about shapes that we can use to make drawing easier for us. We then use this knowledge to sketch our lines carefully to mimic the shapes of the dinosaurs.
Check out our amazing progress!
Snack time in Foundation
If you didn’t already know – Foundation is all about space!
Take a peak in our classroom to check out what your child will be learning about in the coming weeks.
During snack time, we had space fruit (OK – fruit wrapped in tinfoil). Unwrapping our fruit is a great way to improve our fine motor skills and the children were adamant that space fruit tastes different to normal fruit!
We also spent time watching how astronauts aboard the ISS do daily tasks like brushing their teeth. The children were fascinated by the effect of no gravity.
Be sure to chat to your child about what they’re getting up to!
Foundation goes to… Space!
At the end of last half term, the children expressed an interest in learning about space. 
So to kick off our space theme, we’ll be reading Nick Sherratt and Pippa Goodhart’s You Choose in Space. The You Choose books are great – the choices the children will make will create a different story each time.
You Choose in Space will promote good speaking and listening skills when deciding where we will go, what we will wear, what will make etc. Our maths learning will also be considered when choosing the most popular or least popular options.
Be sure to ask your child about this week’s book. I wonder if they could make their own at home…
Home learning link
We hope you are all having a lovely half term.
Just a little reminder that our new topic will be SPACE! Our home-learning link is to make a rocket from bottles, boxes and other used packaging. Adding labels would be even better!
Be sure to send any photos of this, or other activities and outings to:
stjameseyfs@spherefederation.org
Thank you.
Staying Safe homework
This week, the homework relating to staying safe was brilliant! Here are some examples:
Olivia created a fantastic ‘gaming’ story, similar to our class novel- The Forest of Doom, although her story related to bullying. She also made a spinner using an electrical circuit to decide what happens in the story. A fantastic mixture of Living and Learning, English and Science!
Outdoor Phonics
After a chilly and frosty morning yesterday, we were blessed with glorious sunshine all afternoon 🙂 We took our phonics session outside and had some fun in the sun…
A special mention this time for L and R! Check out L’s fantastic jolly phonics action and how well R is emphasising his sound…
We moved on to chalk writing, practising how to form our letters correctly. Look at our fantastic concentration!…
What a lovely last day- Well done Foundation!
Mr Wonka’s Challenge
Last week, we received a letter – or challenge should we say – from Mr Wonka himself. It turns out he is trying to make a chocolate bar that wouldn’t melt in children’s pockets. He thought the best people to test this would be children themselves.
So we set about: collecting different samples of chocolate; heating them up; observing when how long and at what temperature they melted; and then recorded our results.
During this investigation, we focused on making sure we were carrying out a fair test. We used the same amount of chocolate, the same cups etc and only changed the type of chocolate.
Living and Learning: Staying Safe
Recently, we had a theme week all about staying safe. We thought about all the times and places that we needed to stay safe. We first considered the classroom and how we could make it a safe place. We had brilliant suggestions about keeping the room tidy as well as how we can make people who are feeling upset feel safe.
We also had workshops from the Police about stranger danger and how to recognise adults who can help us. Our road safety workshop was especially interesting. We learn all about the need for wearing a seatbelt and the consequences of what can happen in you don’t.