On Tuesday morning we walked down to Axminster Library.  The children really enjoyed browsing the picture books and listening to stories read by the adults.  Please return your books to the library on the 17^th December which is three weeks from our visit. Thank you to the parents for accompanying the children.

On Monday afternoon, we made bird feeders with the children. They chose their carboard shape which gave us an opportunity to talk about the names of the 2D shapes and their properties. Then the children threaded in string and I showed them how to tie a knot before they spread the honey on with a knife and sprinkled the bird seed on. We talked about hte birds that would benefit from the bird feeders e.g. blackbirds, robins, blue tits etc. Great job, Robins!

Continuing on from last week’s lesson, where the children were learning that Jesus was born in a stable and laid in a manger, we listened again to the story, Room for a Little One by Martin Waddell.  The children thought about how the animals felt when they were welcomed into the stable by the Ox and each other.  We had words like, calm, relaxed, relieved, nice, fuzzy etc. suggested by the children.  Then the children drew one of the animals from the story and told us what they said which we scribed into a speech bubble.  After this, the children thought about what they can do to be kind.

On Thursday, even though we had to close early, we managed to get the children out to play in the snow. They had a wonderful time!

In our RE lessons this week we have been learning that Mary and Joseph travelled to Bethlehem to add their names to a register.  We thought about how Mary felt on her way to Bethlehem and what Mary and Joseph would have prayed for.  In explore and learn Robins have enjoyed playing with a Nativity set in one of our tuff spots, acting out the story.    As well as this, the children have enjoyed making maps of Mary and Joseph’s journey to Bethlehem and roleplaying it outside.  On Thursday afternoon, we listened to the carol, O Little Town of Bethlehem and the children drew and painted a building that we will put together on our class display to represent the town of Bethlehem.  In this activity the children LOVED mixing colours and painting brightly coloured buildings.

This week, we talked about how we can tell it is autumn.   The children learnt about hibernation and the children found hedgehogs hidden in the leaves.  We talked about how we can help native animals as the weather gets colder.  We took a photo of the children by our flowering cherry tree and the children drew trees from observation in their sketch books.

On Wednesday, the children had a wonderful visit to Magdalen Farm.  In the morning we fed the hens and collected the eggs. We also enjoyed squelching around in the mud! After this we took the eggs to the Eggonator to sort them into different sizes.  Next we went to feed the goats and the pigs.  As we fed the animals we learnt a bit about each one.  Once we finished our lunch, we went on a walk around the farm, noticing the signs of autumn and finished up in the garden. Whilst on our walk, we were looking for hay and leaves to make a nest for a dormouse who was ready to hibernate.  Our dormouse was a fruit shoot bottle covered in fur with warm water in it.  The children left their nests with their dormouse hibernating in them, whilst they completed a yes, no game about bats.  We had to listen to a scenario and then say whether that was good for bats (yes) or bad for bats (no).  Finally we had a tour of the garden to see some of the vegetables still growing - beetroot, tomatoes and nasturtium. Then it was time to go back to school.

On Tuesday morning Robins went to Axminster Library for the first time.  The children enjoyed browsing the books, choosing a book to take out the library and then finished the session by listening to a story.  Thank you to the parents who helped walk the children down.   

On Monday, we held a very special baptism sacramental liturgy to welcome our Robins Class to the St Mary’s school family. They were each presented with their own St Mary’s teddy bear as a special reminder of the start of their journey with us.   Thank you to all the Robins’ families who joined us for this special time.

After going on a Creation/autumn work to notice God's beauty in creation and signs of autumn, the children used what they had collected to make clay creatures as well as transient art pictures.  We talked about the textures, colours and names of what we had collected and were using in our art work. Great work, Robins!

In our Understanding the World lesson, we continued talking about the lifecycle of a human being, focussing on babies and toddlers.  The children played with the babies and explored different artefacts relating to babies and talked about how we look after them.

Each week we listen to a piece of music at the start of our music lesson with Mrs Gibbs. This week we listened to 'The Storm' from Beethoven's, Pastoral Symphony. We then made our own stormy sounds during explore and learn using some rain sticks, a large drum and some cabasas.

As a part of our learning in RE, learning that God made me and to help the children recognise that we all have a name and God knows us by our name, the children made their name out of magnetic letters. They used their name card to find the letters they needed.

In our RE this week we have been listening to the story of Creation and have learnt a Creation song.  We have learnt that God made me, God loves me, God loves everyone, God is love, God loves each one of us as a unique person.  Each one of us is very special.  We must treat others in a caring way because God made them too. We made self-portraits using our transient art materials.

Robins have had a great first week in school enjoying exploring the learning environment.