Explorers Class

Welcome

Hello there.

My name is Richard Coath and I would like to welcome you to the Explorers class page on our website. I am the class teacher and, alongside Mrs Tina Priestman our Higher Level Teaching Assistant we make up the Explorers class team.

We are a Reception class and we love learning.

Class information

We are very excited about our school and the children have settled in amazingly well. All the information about life in Explorers class can be found on the class newsletters below.

Our Spring newsletter is here

We also have a curriculum overview to explain our learning goals this term.

Spring B can be found here

We also have a Knowledge Organiser which explains what our learning will be over the next term. This can be found below. Please feel free to share this with your child.

Spring B knowledge organiser

Covid 19

Please see below for our plan in the event of full school closure:

Covid 19 contingency plans for Explorers class

Our work is now available on the Covid-19 Home Learning tab of the main menu.

Parents morning

On 2nd March we invited our parents to come in and work with their children. We have been learning all about 'Our Wonderful World' and so the children had a go at creating an environment in a box. This could be a desert, rainforest or one of the polar regions. In addition to this there were lots of other activities for the children to share with their grown ups. We had a fantastic morning and some of the results can be seen below. A huge thank you to all of the parents and carers who came to support the children.

	Everybody chose what they were going to make their box into. There were lots of animals to choose from and also tissue paper and glue to make the environment.
	The children and grown ups showed some amazing creative skills. We had wonderful waterfalls, icebergs, sand dunes and rivers.
	We also did lots of other activities including word searches, jigsaws and missing number squares.
	The boys worked together to complete the jigsaw. Great teamwork!

ASDA vist

We were lucky to have a visit from Jo from ASDA. She came in and talked about healthy eating and the fact that we need fruit and vegetables to stay well. She then worked with the children to create cress head super heroes.

	First we put some eyes and a mouth on our superhero pot.
	Next we put cotton wool into the pots, followed by our cress seeds. Finally we watered them and put them on the window sill to get lots of sun.

Science week

During science week we looked at two aspects of Knowledge and Understanding the World. Firstly we looked at what would happen if we mixed some bicarbonate of soda with water, cola and lemon juice. The children found out that the lemon juice made the bicarbonate fizz and bubble.

We mixed the different liquids with the bicarbonate of soda to see what happened.

Secondly we talked about our local environment and how the weather had been very hard on the wildlife. To help with this, we made bird feeders.

	First we put peanut butter on either a pine cone or a cardboard tube.
	Then we rolled them in the bird seed. The stickiness made the seed stick. We then attached string so that we could hang them up.

Year 2 sharing a fairytale.

We were very lucky that the Year 2 children in Brunel class came to share some fairytales with us. They worked together and we really enjoyed hearing lots of familiar stories and some new ones.

The Year 2 children were very good at sharing their story. They showed all of the pictures and answered questions.

Here the boys are enjoying the story of the Three Little Pigs. We all joined in when the wolf huffed and puffed!

Road Safety

We were lucky to have a visit from the Road Safety Partnership who explained the importance of staying safe when using the roads. We learnt all about how to cross the road safely and what the different tyes of crossing are called.

We learnt that when we are going to cross the road we need to do three main things. The first two are stop and look.

We also need to listen carefully. This will help us to hear if anything is coming. We also learnt that if we hear a siren we should not cross the road until it has gone by.

Our Wonderful World

During the first part of the Spring term we have been learning about our world. We started our topic by having a visit from the Explorer dome. The children were very excited to go inside the dome and learn about the different environments around our earth. They found out what it was like to be really hot in the desert, freezing cold in the polar regions and what it was like to be a creature living in the rainforest. Below are some pictures of what we saw.

The children were very excited to see the dome in the hall.

We found out that there is very little water in the desert. However, even there, creatures manage to live in very clever ways. The scorpion comes out at night and gets its water from it's prey.

To show how cold it is in the Polar regions, dry ice was mixed with water. The effect was amazing.

It's a baby

Our nativity this year was 'It's a baby'. Key Stage 1 and Foundation all worked together and retold the story of baby Jesus being born. Explorers class were angels and they sang and signed beautifully.

We sang lots of songs. Our special song was 'Away in a manger'.

The children also learnt lots of signs to go with the words. Here they are showing the sign for sleeping.

Explorers class were a fantastic group of angels.

We're going on a Bear hunt

As part of our learning we have been looking at stories about bears. We had a sponsored bear hunt around school. The children found clues relating to a famous bear and then worked out who the bear was. We had great fun and we raised over �300! Many thanks to all of our parents, carers, friends and relatives who gave so generously.

	We went all over the school looking for clues to our famous bear.
	The children were very good at spotting the clues which were all letters from the bears name.
	There was even a bubble snowstorm. The children were very excited and tried to catch all the bubbles!
	In the end we worked out that our bear was Paddington and eveyone got to have their photo taken with him.

Children in Need

On 15th November it was Children in Need day and the children came to school in their pyjamas.

Some of children had Pudsey on their pyjamas. Even our reading corner snake Histon joined in.

The children were all very excited when Pudsey came to visit.

Measuring Autumn leaves

As part of our maths this term we looked at how we could measure the leaves that had fallen from the trees. We used cubes and whiteboards to write down what we found out.

We used cubes to measure the leaves. We decided whether to measure the height or width .

We wrote the number of cubes we had used.

We were very careful that we did not leave gaps between our cubes.

People who help us: Ambulance visit

	We had a visit from Connor, Dan and Joe from the Ambulance service. They came to show us how they look after people who are poorly.
	We also found out that to get in to the rear of an ambulance you go on a lift. Going up!
	We loved having a look at the ambulance car too. Connor explained that this is used to get less seriously ill people to hospital. If people are very ill they go in the ambulance truck.
	We also got to sit in the front of the ambulance and wear a protective helmet. The helmets are quite heavy as they need to be strong.
	It was a fantastic visit and we all thank Connor, Dan and Joe for coming to Northgate to see Explorers class.

People who help us: Police visit

During our topic on 'People who help us' we had a visit from PC Penny. He came in and explained what the police do to help us and how they keep us safe.

PC Penny came in and talked to us about how he helps people.

Here are the newest recruits to the police.

We loved having a look at the police car. We were all surprised at how loud the sirens were!

Learning in Explorers class

Below are some pictures showing how we start to learn in Explorers class.

	We have started school and we are getting to know new friends.
	We are also learning about all of our technology. Troy is making a puzzle on our big interactive board.
	Troy and Elijas are practising their balancing.
	Conquest is reading the Hungry Caterpillar to our reading corner friends.