Personal Development
Today we visited one of our favourite areas of school… the library! 🥰 Very kindly, Harlow brought in one of her lovely books from home ‘Peppa goes to London’ and we decided to take that with us to read as we got comfy in the library.
Before we left, we chose a book from the basket to take back to the classroom to read during snack time later on this week.
During crew this morning, we talked about times we might have ‘big feelings’ and feel overwhelmed. We discussed why we might feel this way and how we could begin to regulate ourselves. We looked at butterfly hugs and how they can help us feel calm. We finished our session by saying positive affirmations to start our day on a high!
Today we explored the term ‘loneliness’ and how we can support ourselves when we may be feeling a little lonely. We had some really meaningful discussions around the vocab ‘alone’, which was our word of the day and ‘lonely’ comparing how some people like to have some alone time and how this is different to feeling lonely. Here are the things that we like to do to ensure we don’t feel lonely.
Leo loves a family games night and Thomas loves to go out for his tea with his family 😊
We began our new music unit ‘The Doot Doot Song’ by joining in with a warm up called a stomp canon. This enabled us to warm up our voices as well as adding actions to warm up physically too.
We then looked at the structure of ‘The Doot Doot Song’, thinking about the fact that songs are built using different sections and structures.
We began to learn the song by focusing on the chorus. Although the lyrics are not tricky, they are syncopated (goes against the rhythm/beat) and some of the words need to be staccato (short and detached). We then discussed what chords and triads are before trying to identify the chords used in the song.
We then continued to learn how to play the recorder, this lesson we were introduced to the note ‘G’.
We have started a new unit of music called ‘Latin Dance’. We started by learning the basic steps of salsa dancing, making sure that we kept the rhythm so that we all did the correct steps at the same time.
We then discussed that different songs are structured in different ways. We listened to our song ‘Latin Dance’ and identified how the song is structured. Once we had recognised the structure, we began finding the beat of the bar, adding some basic footwork from the basic steps we looked at at the beginning of the lesson. We then added in a further action on beat 1 to represent a two quavers (jogging duration).
We finished off the lesson by beginning to learn the chorus.
We then continued to learn how to play the recorder, this lesson we were introduced to the note ‘G’.
During this lesson, we warmed up by recapping walk (crotchet) and ‘jog’ (quaver) durations before looking at 4-beat rhythms. We discussed rhythm grids and looked at the symbol for ‘rest’.
Once we had practised reading the rhythm grids, we then created our own 4-beat rhythms. We practised the rhythms we created with our partner using untuned percussion instruments before then swapping grids with another pair and having a go at playing their rhythm too.
We have been continuing with our work on ‘Football’. This lesson we created word patterns using different sports and put these to the same melody and beat of ‘Football’. We practised the new chants we had created before adding in untuned percussion instruments.
As part of our expedition, we have been looking at Chinese New Year and the traditions associated with it. We looked at the tradition of giving red envelopes containing money to children to bring them good fortune, good luck and blessings. This tradition now extends to giving envelopes to extended family, friends and colleagues.
To spread good fortune, luck and blessings to our school community, we decided to fill red envelopes with chocolate coins to give to the adults in our school who help us and keep us safe. We worked together to fill them and then took them around school, wishing each crew a happy Chinese New Year.
We had a lot of fun playing in the snow this week! The smiles say it all!
During crew this morning, we went out onto the playground to pick up litter. We found lots of litter hiding down drains and behind the container. We really do enjoy keeping our school environment tidy. 🗑
