Fine motor building

One day each week in Crew Frost, we spend time focusing on developing our fine motor skills through activities such as using scissors to cut along lines and around shapes. Cutting is an excellent skill to master in the Early Years, as it supports so many of the important skills children need as they begin their writing journey.

The children are learning how to separate and strengthen the muscles in their fingers and hands whilst carefully controlling the scissors. They are also developing their hand-eye coordination and problem-solving skills as they work out how to move the paper and scissors together whilst trying to stay on the lines. This takes a huge amount of concentration, control, and perseverance.

Alongside this, we have been practising our “ready to write” positioning by sitting with our tummy to the table and all six chair legs on the floor. Developing core strength, balance, and posture is a very important part of early writing development, helping children to gain the stability needed for mark making and pencil control in the future.

Although cutting may look simple, it is actually a very tricky skill that requires children to coordinate many different movements at the same time. We are so proud of the resilience, determination, and focus Crew Frost have shown whilst practising these important skills. Well done, Crew Frost — it is much harder than it looks!

Flower Power.

Over the past week, the children have sequenced the stages of plant growth and made and labelled their own flowers, all doing a fantastic job! Not only did they love creating the flowers, but they were also enthusiastic when talking through how plants grow. They are showing great interest and knowledge within the Growth and Change topic.

Celebrating Our HoWL House Champions: Smithies Shine Bright!

What a fantastic moment for HoWL House as we celebrate our latest champions – Smithies! Their hard work, sense of camaraderie, and determination have truly paid off, and their victory is incredibly well deserved.

To mark the occasion, Smithies took part in an unforgettable glow-in-the-dark dodgeball session – and what a celebration it was! The lights went down, the neon came out, and the energy in the room lit up just as brightly as the players themselves. Laughter, friendly competition, and glowing dodgeballs flying across the court made for a celebration that perfectly matched their vibrant crew spirit.

A huge congratulations once again to Smithies, and of course, a big well done to all the other houses, with only three points this term between Smithies and Carrs!

Healthy Snacks in Crew White

After we bought our fresh fruit from the market during our fieldwork on Friday, Crew White washed, chopped and ate it!

There were juicy strawberries, marvellous melons and soft dragon fruit with an interesting texture and taste.

We had some downsides to our fruit preparation:

  • some of our fruit had gone mouldy because it had been left over the weekend;
  • some of the raspberries had turned into mush because of how we carried them back from the market;
  • many of the fruit was fragile and a little bruised

Overall, however, we were pleased with our purchases and enjoyed our sweet and healthy treats to kickstart our week.

Concrete Fun!

For our new unit about Fractions, Year 2 have enjoyed exploring the concept of wholes and parts by chopping fruit, deconstructing everyday objects and finally partitioning counters. We represented the whole and its parts by drawing pictures of a part, part whole model with the amounts!