Portway Infant School
The sunshine has arrived and so has the spring! We have been finding out about the changes since winter and been learning the names of some of the spring flowers that we can find in our school grounds. We even explored Forest School to see what was growing there!
Today was Superhero Day at Portway in Year R. Everyone dressed up to be a real-life superhero or a fictional superhero. We had lots of fun and posed for a photo which we can use for our big classroom display and some comic strip writing. We look forward to sharing our learning with you.
To continue with our learning of real life superheroes, today we learnt all about the dentist. We learnt about why it is important to keep our teeth clean and brushed twice a day. We learnt about what types of food are good for our teeth and we even practised brushing them to make sure we get rid of any nasty germs!
This half term we are learning all about real life superheroes and today we had some special visitors to help us with our learning.
The Police came to visit us today and talked to us about how they keep everyone safe in Andover. They showed us the different parts of their uniform and the equipment they use to do their job. We had lots of questions which they answered for us and then after all of that, we went outside to see their Police car and even got to sit inside!
Oh my goodness, what a busy day we have had a Forest School today! This morning we found out how to be safe around fires and how to build one to match our learning about real-life Superheroes and Firefighters.
Then we practised using 'flint and steels' to make sparks and had our own real campfire...... we even sang songs together!
This afternoon we matched our learning to World Book Week and made 'stickmen' as we have been listening to stories by Julia Donaldson. They had a great time sharing our Forest School Special Time!!
We have had a great day dressing up as some of our favourite book characters for World Book Day...... come and see!
Today we dressed up as princes and princesses to celebrate the end of our topic on Fairy Tales. We asked our partner to dance and bowed and curtsied to begin. We even had juice and biscuits before our final dance when the clock stuck midnight!
We had a wonderful time at Forest School today and matched our learning to Fairy Tales. We pretended we were Hansel and Gretel and followed trails through our forest and school grounds. Miss Birmingham showed us what different symbols meant and we followed the trail that she had left for us ....... all the way to the fire circle where we enjoyed a cup of hot chocolate!!
We also found out about cuckoo pint. Look out for it when you are on your own walks and stay away..... it will not be good for your tummies!
Today we went on a Far Away Trip to China where we found out all about the flag, dragons, pagodas and The Great Wall of China. We looked at the writing and numbers and made our own flags and red lanterns. We even practised using chopsticks to eat noodles ready for our celebration of Chinese New Year in the afternnoon!
We decorated our classroom with lanterns and flags and then set the tables with noodles, prawn crackers, oranges and lucky envelopes. We even used chopsticks to eat our food while we celebrated Chinese New Year together. We are all ready for the year of the snake!
In PE this half term we are learning all about the 5 basic shapes. These are: Straight, Star, Tuck, Pike and Straddle. We have practised them carefully by holding our bodies strong and still just like gymnasts do. We are experts now and can't wait to teach everyone at home!
With all of the cold weather we have been having, we thought that we would use it to explore the water that had frozen into ice in our Outside Area. This gave us the idea to make ice decorations. We worked in partners to collect natural resources and put them into a plate. We then added water and left it overnight to freeze.
We couldn't wait to see what they looked like the next day ........... they were beautiful and we used them to decorate our tree outside. It must have been cold because they were still there at the end of the day to share with our grown ups!!
We have been learning all about the artist Wassily Kandinsky and how he loved to create art using colours and shapes and found out that his pictures were often linked to his feelings or music. We have been busy creating our own art in the style of Kandinsky and made our concentric circles, choosing the colours according to our feelings at the time.
Today we were lucky enough to be joined by some very talented Portway parents for our Christmas assembly in the hall. The grown ups impressed us with their musical talent and it was lovely to see so many different instruments. What a great way to come together and sing some well known Christmas carols! Thank you to our wonderful performers for joining us.
We read the story of 'Ruff' this week by Jane Hissey and talked about birthdays and why we celebrate them. We then realised that our phonics puppet 'Buttons' had never had a birthday, just like Ruff, so we decided to give him his very first birthday party. We talked about all the different ways we celebrate a birthday and planned some fun things for our class celebration! We made hats, cards and decorations ready and then sang him 'Happy Birthday' when he thought he was coming to teach us our new phonics. We played party games and shared cookies from the school kitchen .......
We have had a great day at Forest School today and could do lots of jobs without grown up help! We wrapped up warm and braved the rain ...... and even had some snow.
At the end of the day we made our 'Camouflage crowns' ready to sneak up on any bears we might find .......
We have been learning all about how our environment changes from Summer into Autumn and how some animals hibernate or migrate to warmer places. We have noticed how the leaves have been changing colour and falling off the trees. So yesterday we had the best fun playing in the leaves in our outside area.
'Brown Bear, Brown Bear what do you see...' I see Duckling's amazing animal masks looking at me!
We had so much fun creating our animal masks this week. First we decided what animal we wanted for our mask and then we made a careful plan. Once we had our plan we painted our mask and started decorating all of its features! Have a look at all of our hard work!
You could use the masks to make up a new Brown Bear story!
Wow, what a super week it has been........ we have become Portway farmers and have learnt about where our food comes from. We have been busy planting radish seeds and can't wait to watch them grow. We have also learnt about the journey our food takes from the farm to the shops and even used the bikes to be tractors harvesting from the fields.
Today we have loved cutting up local fresh fruit and vegetables to have our own little tasting picnic. It was delicious!
We have had the best day at Forest School today. First we learnt how to keep ourselves safe if we got lost and marked all of the hazards with red flags. Then we went and had lots of fun bug hunting, cooking in the Mud Kitchen, digging and making music! We can't wait to go again!!
When the sun is shining we like to take our learning outside and what better way to get some exercise and practise our turn taking than going on the bikes and trikes! We have lots of different designs - even some that move by using our hands! We can develop our gross motor skills and balance by having some fun with our friends.
We have been learning all about the artist Pablo Picasso. We know that he loved making colourful faces with features in the wrong places and facing forwards and sideways. We practised our scissor skills to make our own artwork in the style of Picasso.......
We have been to Spain today to learn about the place that Pablo Picasso was born. We each had a passport and went on a plane to Madrid. We did our register in Spanish, made flags and fans and even did some flamenco dancing!!
We had our first taste of P.E. this week at Portway. We only took off our shoes and socks this time, but we did brilliantly and hardly had any help! We headed into the Hall to perform some Write Dance. We listened to music and made circles and eights with our arms to music to support our Handwriting. Once we had practised this we used floaty scarves and performed to our friends!
Everyone has made such a good start in Duckling Class. We have been busy learning about the different places in our classroom, playing outside and having fun with old friends and new. Come and see what we have been doing .....
