Class One

World Book Day Wonders

 in Church / Class Four / Class One / Class Three / Class Two / English by

Here are a selection of our amazing sock puppets of special book characters made to celebrate World Book Day 2022. We came together as a school to share our puppets and awarded prizes of £5 book tokens, kindly donated by FOLS.

We all loved your creativity and marveled at the many different ways you thought of to decorate your puppets. Thank you for all your hard work. 

In Assembly, Rev Bryan’s told us all about one of the most famous books in the world – The Bible. It is made up of different types of writing like poems, letters and biographies and was written by lots of different men and women. He showed us some Bibles written in different languages too – the one pictured below is in Hebrew.

After school, FOLS held a second hand book and hot chocolate stall – it was really popular and was great to see such a buzz around books with children recommending titles to each other and spotting books by authors they love – all for a bargain price! Thank you to FOLS for running this and to all who kindly donated and bought such lovely quality books which have now found new homes.

 

Reading Buddies

 in Class Four / Class One / English by

Year 6 visited EYFS today to hear their Reception buddies read.  Reception were thrilled to have the opportunity to share books with their friends and Year 6 were incredibly positive and inspiring reading role models.

Humanities in the Early Years

 in Class One / Geography / History by

What does Geography and History look like in Nursery and Reception?  The Early Years Foundation Stage has seven areas of learning, rather than the individual subjects used within the National Curriculum. Communication and Language as well as Personal, Social and Emotional Development underpin all our learning in Class 1, but the key areas of learning related to geography and history are through the area, ‘Understanding the World’.

Throughout the autumn and spring terms, class 1 are busy (as usual) finding out about our world in a range of different contexts both in and outside the classroom. This has included: observing changes and recording data on weather in our work about the seasons of autumn and winter; learning about how animals like hedgehogs and birds adapt to the changing seasons; developing an understanding of significant national events such as Remembrance Day; retelling and sequencing events from different stories.

We enjoy adapting our curriculum in early years to follow the interests of the children too.  Our in-depth study on migration began with one pupil’s bird box that had made at home to put in our outdoor area.  This inspired further learning around why some birds migrate; what dangers they encounter; and even a trip to Leighton Moss where we spotted some examples of migrating birds.

Choosing where to locate our bird box in our outdoor area was another opportunity for some learning.  We discovered that it is best to position our bird box so that it faces North.  Deciding on the best location for our bird box involved lots of discussion, problem solving and team work.  We also learnt about how to use a compass to find North too! If you want to know anything about migration and how to look after birds in winter time – there are many experts who will be happy to help in Class 1!

Safer Internet Day 2022!

 in Class Four / Class One / Class Three / Class Two / Computing / SCARF / Whole School by

Today is Safer Internet Day 2022, when schools and youth organisations across the country take part in a global campaign to promote the safe and responsible use of technology. Safer internet day calls on young people, parents, carers, teachers, social workers, law enforcement, companies, policymakers and more to join together in helping to create a better internet.

Using the internet safely and positively is a key message that we promote in school, and celebrating Safer Internet Day is a great opportunity for us to re-emphasise the online safety messages we deliver throughout the year.

This week, Class 1 have listened to a story about Smartie the penguin, joined in with Mummy penguin’s song and learned about what to do if we feel unsure, scared or upset by something we see online. Class 2 have met “Jessie and Friends” and explored how to share pictures online appropriately and use online games responsibly. Class 3 are and Class 4 have both looked in detail at online gaming by teaching an alien from another planet about how online games work, what’s OK, what’s not and where to get help if we need it.

We would be delighted if you could join us in celebrating the day by continuing the conversation at home. To help you with this, you may be interested in downloading the free Safer Internet Day resources for Parents and Carers which are available at: saferinternet.org.uk/sid-parents.

There are top tips, quizzes, and films which you can use at home with your child.

Some other resources which you may find helpful in supporting your child online are:

● Tips, advice and guides for parents and carers from the UK Safer Internet Centre (saferinternet.org.uk/parents-and-carers)
● Advice for parents and carers from Childnet (childnet.com/parents-and-carers)
● Reviews and information about games, apps, TV shows and websites from
Common Sense Media (commonsensemedia.org)
● Help on using parental controls and privacy settings from Internet Matters
(internetmatters.org/parental-controls)
● Information and reporting of online grooming or abuse from CEOP (ceop.police.uk)

 

 

 

Super Space in EYFS!

 in Art / Class One / Design and Technology / Geography / History / Science by

EYFS are coming to the end of their super space topic for this half term. We started with the famous story “Whatever Next!” and enjoyed role-playing a journey to space and having a picnic on the moon. Learning about some of the planets was top of Reception’s ‘What I want to learn’ list and after finding out some interesting facts, they then designed their own using a ‘wash’ effect with felt tips and paintbrushes dipped in water. We thought carefully about the colour of our planets and what they were made from – gas, rock or ice. Constellations were also a big hit; we found out that some constellations can only be seen in certain parts of the world and then recreated some famous ones on black card using chalk. We spent two weeks in total creating our own model of the solar system using papier mache and adding details to each planet; lots of sticky fun! We learnt about gravity and watched videos of astronauts on board the International Space Station, finding out that the further away from earth you get, the less gravity there is. We have enjoyed lots of child-led opportunities in provision including puffy moon painting, making craters in moon dough, designing aliens on the light panel and baking cake pops. We definitely have some budding astronauts in the making!

Beauty and The Beast

 in Class Four / Class One / Class Three / Class Two / English by

Reception children all the way up to Year 6 really have had the most magical theatre experience today! The Dukes Theatre is always so welcoming, their well judged performances are a joy and this year was no exception. The action packed story was a more modern version with funny jokes to entertain the children with details keep the adults smiling too including details of magic and wonder! The children were keen to join in with audience participation including clapping along and letting the actors know if they agreed with their plans! Here is what some of the children had to say…

“The Beast was rather scary and the Dung Song at the start was great!”

“I liked it when the Beast and Bella were planting flowers and their friendship was growing too.”

“I was sitting on an end and so the Beast came really close to me!”

“My favourite bit was the dog as he spoke the word woof and he was called Nigel!”

 

Icy art in Class One

 in Art / Bowfell / Class One / Science / Whole School by

Nursery and Reception have been observing the signs that winter is on its way! After noticing the frost last week, we decided to make some of our own ice decorations using natural materials. We collected leaves, conkers and twigs to create them and then hung them on our apple tree to watch what happened as they began to melt. The results were beautiful!

Anti-Bullying Week

 in Church / Class Four / Class One / Class Three / Class Two / SCARF by

In School this week, we have all been talking about ‘One Kind Word’ which has been the theme for Anti-Bullying Week 2021.   The week began with an assembly exploring the kind words that we can use in our daily interactions that can make the biggest difference to someone’s day; their life and their mental wellbeing.

We should all make a stand by challenging any unkind behaviour that we witness and each class has completed activities during the week about how to respond to different situations; how to seek help and how to support others who may need our help.

Our ‘Odd Socks Day’ was embraced by everyone on Monday too……

Boxes of Hope Revisited

 in Church / Class Four / Class One / Class Three / Class Two / SCARF by

In assembly today we celebrated the wonderful pupils and families of Levens CE School who have made Boxes of Hope. Our grand total this year is 40! This is an amazing achievement and fantastic testament to the empathy and support that pupils want to offer to others this Christmas time. A huge thank you to all who put a box together this year. Your gifts will really make a difference to a child and family who do not have as much as you.

Gerry the Gardener!

 in Class Four / Class One / Class Three / Class Two / Whole School by

Eco team have been finding out about the Levens Greening Campaign that has just been launched in the village. This aims to encourage as many people as possible to try small ways to reduce their carbon footprint. Homes in the village have been delivered a Greening Levens Card with more details.

A village wide scarecrow festival is promoting the Greening Campaign and we wanted to be included! We are going to be having our own greening suggestions for children to achieve very soon.

Here we are with our scarecrow creation – Gerry the Gardener!