Memories

We were talking about favourite moments and favourite topics.

Princes and Princesses Dance was one of them.

Spelling races.

Getting wet on the pier.

Brown Better than Chocolate

Brown was truely delicious this Friday. I will explain:

As usual, Reception was up in the library for the weekly book loan and group ICT session.

For the first 3 - 4 minutes there were no surprises. Children found books with illustrations they liked, asked for books other children had taken on previous occasions, while others found books by the authors they have become familiar with.

At this point, I must say, I have never encountered a group who identified authors so well or were so enthusiastic:

"I found a Dr. Seuss book." 

"Today I want a Nick Butterworth book." 

"This is a Hans Christian Anderson story."

"I like 'Winnie the Witch' stories. Who wrote the book?"asked Victoria. "Did she draw the pictures as well?"

The children have spotted books in the library by Julia Donaldson, I did not know existed, and yesterday David found Dr Seuss' biography.

Well, yesterday a little girl came up and asked, "I would like a brown book." I have been asked many questions but, never had a request for a brown book. I did not understand and was too slow on my feet to make the connection. She did not give up, and after a while the book was found.

Last week Luis had found this book about a lighthouse and a cat. I read the story to the class and mentioned that I liked books by this author and illustrator. 

Can you see why Luísa was looking for a Brown book?

Book Day

The day started with everyone coming in dressed up

as a character in a story book.

We took part in the Big Read.

Did Reception Bears have the most parents

taking part in the Big Read?

Can you match the Characters to the story books?

Throughout the day different people came to read some stories.

Thank you very much.

Perhaps one day we can read you a story too.

Thank you Form 4 R

Lighthouse - may the adventure begin

We walked down to the beach after stopping at the post office.

We saw lots of things.

sand

water

waves

sky

ships

rocks

drift wood

lighthouse

the effect of the wind in our hair...

Back at school we read

The lighthouse Keeper's lunch by Ronda Armitage

Vertical articulation

Reception Bears have been learning about castles.

Some Form 4 pupils came to retell the story of

King Arthur linked to their topic on Myths and Legends.

Thank you for coming.

Eisteddfod

Dr Seuss and his fantastic poems.

You can find some poems here.

Nian, colour red, noise and fireworks

There are many stories and legends in China,

but the story of Nian, the lion monster, is a popular one.

We made some rattles and wore red.

We had some mini fireworks

and made a lot of noise to scare Nian away.

Can you answer these questions about the story?

Who is Nian?

Where does Nian live?

When does Nian come to the villages?

Why are people frightened of Nian?

What do people do to frighten Nian?

Chinese New Year

Reception Bears prepared themselves for the Chinese New Year.

First we learnt how to say Happy New Year.

新年快乐

(sshin-nyen kwhy-ler)

We learnt about various Chinese traditions.

People visit one another and present their hosts with

 tangerines and oranges, which mean "luck" and "wealth."

Our first guest taught us how to make dumplings

and also steam a rice cake/pudding - nian gao.

We all had a go at making dumplings.

 The dumplings were delicious with the soya bean sauce.

Jing used a special pot to steam the nian gao.

We all had a taste of the rice pudding, but we did not all like it.

Our next guest taught us how to make pretty patterns with paper.

Paper was invented in China, they are very good at
making things from paper.

 We cut a monkey and a Chinese character

that means "double happiness."

See the story bellow to find out why this is the

year of the Fire Monkey.

Do you think the Jade Emperor was clever?

The New Year is also called the Spring Festival.

This is the character for Spring.

We folded and cut this intricate pattern.

Our third guest taught us how to draw some

Chinese characters.

We used brushes and special ink on red paper.

We followed instructions carefully.

We wrote numbers from 1 to 10.

Our last guest lived in Singapore and has celebrated

the Chinese New Year ever since.

Sarah makes cupcakes and decorates them with tangerines.

She helped us make the frosting and decorate our cupcakes.
Rodrigo's family provided some delicious tangerines.

We all had a taste and there were still plenty to take home.

The Chinese New Year was also a good excuse for a rickshaw ride.

It takes skill as well as strength to pull a rickshaw.

新年快乐

A tale from China by Hans Christian Andersen

The Nightingale

(nightingale song - click here)

Hans Christian Andersen

Reception Bears have really enjoyed stories by Mick Inkpen, Nick Butterworth and more recently stories by Hans Christian Andersen.

Hans Christian Andersen wrote scary, sad and funny stories.

He wrote stories about love and friendship, good and evil, kindness and hardship, mystery and magic.

The Snow Queen was a scary story about
the fight of good against evil.

True friendship and bravery conquered evil.

With The Ugly Duckling we talked about accepting differences and how words can be cruel.

The Emperor's new clothes was a funny story that lead us to talk about vanity and blind greed.

The Little Match Girl was very sad.
We spoke about the difficulties that some children face
and that perhaps Hans Christian Andersen
might have faced difficulties himself.

The Princess and the pea - the first of the love stories.

This is going to be a pleasant surprise: 

The Little Mermaid

Jack Frost - story

Jack Frost does not really visit children in Oporto,

but he can visit your homes in the form of this book

and the experiences the children are having at school.

Can you guess who read and recorded this story?

It snowed!

The sky was not blue. A cold wind was blowing

and believe it or not... it snowed.

We witnessed some Jack Frost Magic.

Magic snowflakes that did not melt fell from the sky.

We looked at the pretty patterns and tried to match them up in pairs.
We could not do so because they were all different.

We cut our own paper snowflakes and had a lot of fun throwing them down for our friends to catch.

The Snowman

As Reception Bears learn about snow and 

explore some winter  stories, we continued

to watch the film we started to view last Friday.

For everyone to enjoy and recall:

David Bowie - the young man recalling his childhood memories.

The Snowman - Raymond Briggs

World Origami Day

Today we celebrated origami day by folding origami fish.

We will also learn how to fold a crane.

The same paper bird Sadako, a WWII victim folded, wishing for good health and world peace.

In many places around the world children and adults fold thousands of cranes and place them in Sadako's honour
and her wish for world peace.

If you would like to encourage your child to continue to fold,
you can use:
http://en.origami-club.com/

Colourful PE

Can you follow instructions? 
Can you run around, go under, skip, change places,
walk fast and faster, change direction, stretch, pull, roll,..

We had loads of fun using the parachute in our PE lesson.

Teddy Bears Picnic

If you go out in the woods today, you're sure of a big surprise.
If you go down in the woods today, you'd better go in disguise;
For every bear that ever there was will gather there for certain because
Today's the day the Teddy Bears have their picnic.
If you go down in the woods today, you better not go alone.
It's lovely down in the woods today, but safer to stay at home;
For every bear that ever there was will gather there for certain because
Today's the day the Teddy Bears have their picnic.

Picnic time for Teddy Bears

The little Teddy Bears are having a lovely time today

Watch them, catch them unawares and see them picnic on their holiday.

See them gaily gad about.

They love to play and shout.

They never have any cares.

At six o'clock their Mummies and Daddies will take them back home to bed

Because they're tired little Teddy Bears.

These are some of the messages written by the children
to remind parents to allow a Teddy Bear to school.

We washed our fruit and made some honey sandwiches.

Walking down was so exciting. 

The children walked down in pairs, each one holding onto their Teddy Bear.

They also went in disguise to catch the bears unaware.

We played some games down in the 'woods.'

 This was a piggy back race.

Then, what a surprise!
We caught some Teddy Bears having a picnic!

When we were going up, we were some tired little Bears.

We have played this game in class. You may wish to play it at home going beyond counting to 10 when your child is confident and accurate with 5 and then 10.

Click here to open the game