Pippin Class Blog
EYFS & Year 1
Term 6
Weeks 5 and 6 The Snail and the Whale
The last book of this academic year is by one of our favourite authors, Julia Donaldson. We have already enjoyed looking at where in the world the snail and the whale visited and how the weather is different around the globe.
This week was also our sports day. We all loved the chanting and excitement of the afternoon and we're looking forward to finding out which house has won.
Thursday morning was great fun as we all got to move up a year and move to Bramley Class. We did some fun activities with Mrs Stephens and Mrs Hands and began to get used to the idea that we will soon be there permanently instead of just visiting. We left our class to the Year 6 who got one more chance to choose their own learning before moving to high school.
This week has been busy with Pippin Class welcoming our new children on two afternoons. We were all great role models and we all demonstrated our class value of Friendship towards our new friends.
We have also had a couple of slimy visitors - Gary and Muddy the African Land Snails. We all enjoyed having a close look at their shells, feet and eyes! Some of us held Muddy while some of us preferred to look at or stroke his shell.
Pippin 2024-2025 The Snail and The Whale
Weeks 3 and 4 Room on the Broom
We have had such fun this week composing our own spells and casting them with our own wands. Our teachers have been turned into all sorts of things!
We loved having our families come to watch our sharing assembly where we shared our learning from the whole year so far. We hope you enjoyed watching our musical version of The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
The treat at the end of this week was an afternoon of waterplay. We had a pool, tyres and tarpaulins to make our own pools, bubble wands, a sponge ball and a home made slip and slide! It was a warm afternoon and we all had fun getting very wet.
The reception children were fantastic role models this week when the new reception children joined us for a picnic... we are very proud of them!
Reception maths this week has been planning an obstacle course which we had to draw as a simple map and label with the items needed. We then were able to make our obstacle courses and try them out which was great fun!
Pippin 2024-2025 Room on the Broom
Weeks 1 and 2 Ten things we can do to help our world
Our week began with excitement as our butterflies had made their way out of their cocoons! We watched as they stretched their wings and flew out over back field on a beautiful sunny morning.
The excitement continued with the Colour Run. We all had such great fun running around the field getting covered in different coloured powder paint.
We have started learning about ways in which we can look after our world and make it a better place. We are already very good at putting our fruit waste into the green bin in our classroom and we are trying hard to turn off the lights when we don't need them, especially when we are leaving the classroom. We are also learning about what can be recycled and how we can reuse things rather than throwing them away.
Pen Down Day was great fun! We toasted marshmallows in Forest School, played parachute games and completed our sixth Trailblazer hike.
We have also been busy rehearsing our Sharing Assembly.
Pippin 2024-2025 Ten things we can do to help our world
Term 5
Weeks 3 and 4 The Very Hungry Caterpillar
We have had a lovely time watching our very tiny caterpillars grow larger and larger until they finally created their cocoons. We are now waiting to find out if we get to see them emerge as butterflies before half term!
We have created beautiful butterfly and caterpillar creations and learned all about the life cycle of butterflies.
We can't wait to dance our May Day dances for you. We are very proud of how well we have learned them.
Pippin 2024-2025 The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Weeks 1 and 2 The Tiny Seed
What beautiful weather we have had to start off our summer term!
So far we have planted a selection of seeds which we will be carefully looking after in the hope we might grow some herbs and different types of lettuce. We have also created our own cress heads which we are eagerly watching in case they start sprouting green hair.
Our May Day dancing is beginning to look fantastic... we can't wait to dance in front of our families on 22nd May!
Our cress heads grew the most amazing hairstyles. We hope they will get even crazier before being cut off and eaten!
We are one step closer to achieving our Trailblazer badge after walking to the top of Foxcote Hill on Wednesday. Only one more hike to go!
Pippin 2024-2025 The Tiny Seed
Term 4
Weeks 6 and 7 Easter
We have begun the countdown to Easter by doing some beautiful observational drawings and paintings of spring flowers.
We have also really enjoyed inviting our adults into our classroom to join in with some Easter Craft. It was so lovely to see everyone helping each other to create Easter baskets, daffodils and brightly coloured Easter eggs.
A visit from the Easter Bunny was very exciting. We all enjoyed searching for the delicious chocolate eggs she left for us.
Making chocolate nests was a fun activity, especially when we could lick our fingers afterwards!
Happy Easter everyone.
Pippin 2024-2025 Easter
Weeks 4 and 5 Each Peach Pear Plum
This week the reception children completed Trail Blazer hike number 4! Only two more hikes until they receive their well earned Ilmington 11 badges.
We have been working on a new book - Each Peach Pear Plum. Thank you for bringing in all the old household items for us to explore and to compare with present day items.
We have also enjoyed telling and singing the nursery rhymes and the stories that appear throughout the book.
This week has brought the beginning of preparations for May Day! We have all been practising our skipping very enthusiastically!
We have also been working hard writing sentences using our phonic knowledge and working on making and representing teen numbers.
Pippin 2024-2025 Each Peach Pear Plum
Week 3 Holi
This week we have been learning about the Hindu festival of Holi. We have made some coloured rice to make beautiful patterns and have painted our own patterns too. We also enjoyed making and tasting Mango Lassi! Some of us thought we might prefer to use a different fruit and wrote down the recipe to take home to try with our families.
Pippin 2024-2025 Holi
Weeks 1 and 2 Mr Wolf's Pancakes
This half term has begun with making and eating pancakes! The Year 1 children carefully followed a recipe to make their own pancakes (which, apparently, were delicious!) while the reception children tried a variety of fillings in their pancakes. The favourite was definitely golden syrup but there were lots of suggestions of even better fillings - strawberries, cream and chocolate got the adults' vote!
We all very much enjoyed taking part in the pancake races on Tuesday... it was great fun! The reception children have also enjoyed having their turn at making pancakes.
Today was World Book Day. We all brought books in to do a book swap and spent the afternoon sharing books and telling our favourite stories. It was very strange to be in school in our pyjamas!
Pippin 2024-2025 Mr Wolf's Pancakes
Term 3
Weeks 5 and 6 Chinese New Year
We have begun learning about Chinese New Year. We have heard the story of the Nian and how the villages New Year celebrations were saved by decorating houses with red and letting off loud firecrackers and have made our own decorations just in case the Nian decides to visit our classroom!
As it is the year of the snake, we had a lovely afternoon with Millie and Noodle, the corn snakes. Some of us touched them while others preferred just to look.
We had a great treat from Longborough Opera Festival, who brought a fantastic show for us to watch. Who knew opera was so exciting?!
Our second week consisted of tasting some delicious Chinese food and learning about how the lunar years were named after particular animals. We had fun ordering the animals while listening to the Great Race story.
Pippin 2024-2025 Chinese New Year
Weeks 3 and 4 The Gingerbread Man
Our gingerbread men didn't escape from us after we had baked them but we did try to help them across the river using our problem solving skills. Some gingerbread men fared better than others!
We have created some fantastic story maps, written lists, made moving gingerbread men and painted life size gingerbread people.
We have also enjoyed our PE lesson with Sprint Active and our music lesson with Calypso.
This week we have completed our third Trail Blazer hike! Three more to go before we achieve our Ilmington 11 Trailblazer badge.
Pippin 2024-2025 The Gingerbread Man
Weeks 1 and 2 Supertato
We have begun the new year with our new book, Supertato! We have spent time thinking about what super power we would love to have and have drawn ourselves as a super hero. We have also started creating characters from the story using a range of media.
This week we were also lucky enough to go the the theatre to watch Jack and the Beanstalk. It was such good fun! We particularly enjoyed joining in with the song and dance and catching the sweets thrown out to the audience.
The Evil Pea escaped into the classroom with disastrous consequences! Parsnips were taped to doors, sprouts hung from door handles and carrots couldn't move from cupboards. We managed to save all the vegetables using our superpower - kindness. We also made sure that the evil pea couldn't return by making evil pea soup.
Pippin 2024-2025 Supertato
Term 2
Weeks 6 and 7 Christmas!
What a busy week! A dress rehearsal and two performances of our nativity, Whoops a Daisy Angel. We enjoyed performing it so much (even if there were a few tears when we had to leave you at the church) and hope you enjoyed watching.
Reception children have completed their second Trail Blazer hike - only four more to go to achieve the Ilmington 11 badge. It was a lovely amble around the footpaths, demonstrating our skills by climbing a couple of stiles and cheating at one stile by going through the dog gate!
We have really enjoyed all the Christmas activities this week. From Christmas maths, Christmas colouring and writing Christmas lists to decorating a virtual Christmas tree, making crackers and making Rudolf gingerbread biscuits.
Merry Christmas everyone!
Pippin 2024-2025 Christmas
Weeks 4 and 5 Stickman
This has been another jam packed week! We have begun our learning on the Julia Donaldson text, Stickman. We have had great fun working out how to join a variety of media in order to create our own Stickmen.
Our visit to Warwick Arts Centre was a big hit with all the children (and the adults). We watched a fantastic performance of The Smeds and the Smoos and came back to school to draw and talk about our trip. We also produced some lovely writing to go with our pictures.
The highlight of Friday was coming into school to find that the elves had visited overnight to decorate our classroom ready for Christmas. They had also left a small tree for the children to decorate and redecorate as their hearts desire!
Rehearsals for our nativity have been at the forefront of our minds this week. We can't wait to actually perform for you in church next week.
Reception Christmas Craft was as popular and messy as ever! Beautiful decorations were made in between covering our adults, ourselves and our classroom in as much glitter as possible!
Pippin 2024-2025 Stickman
Weeks 2 and 3 The Three Little Pigs
This week began with making some poppies for Remembrance as well as visiting the war memorial to take part in the Remembrance Service. Alfie, as the youngest child in the school, had the honour of helping the eldest child to place a poppy wreath on behalf of the school.
Our work on the Three Little Pigs has begun with some amazing drawings, paintings and creations. Some very sturdy (and some not so sturdy) houses have been built with a range of materials.
What a treat we had this week... snow! We had so much fun playing and learning in the snow and ice!
Pippin 2024-2025 The Three Little Pigs
Week 1 The Best Diwali Ever
We have had a lovely first week back learning about Diwali, the Hindu festival of light. As part of our learning, we enjoyed making and eating some delicious sweets and we have created our own firework pictures using chalk and paint. We also used clay to sculpt our own Diwa lamps which have patterns around the top.
Mehndi patterns were fun to make by painting patterns on our hands and then making prints of them.
Pippin 2024-2025 Diwali
Term 1
Weeks 7 and 8 The Gigantic Turnip
Our week has been full of story telling and art as well as all of our usual activities! We have enjoyed two different versions of the same story and talked a little about stories changing as people retell them. We have used vegetables to print with as well as doing some very careful observational drawings of the inside of some fruits and vegetables.
Our maths has been about composition of numbers for both year 1 and reception. Year 1 have worked hard learning how to show numbers using bar models and part whole models while Reception have been concentrating on representing the numbers 1, 2 and 3 in different ways.
Dough disco has been a fun way to strengthen the muscles in our hands in readiness for writing the sounds we are learning in phonics.
Our week ended with a visit to the library to enjoy the books and choose one to take home.
Reception completed their very first Trailblazer hike this week. To gain this badge, we will complete five more hikes over the year. For more information about the Ilmington 11, please click here.
Thank you to everyone who donated some vegetables. We made a delicious vegetable soup while developing our fine motor control by using peelers and knives.
The Year 1 children enjoyed planting bulbs on Monday as part of their learning about our local environment. We will hopefully see the results of their improvements in the spring.
We have all worked so hard and learned so much this half term!
Pippin 2024-2025 The Gigantic Turnip
Weeks 5 and 6 We're Going on a Bear Hunt
This week the reception children have been learning about heavier and lighter and have enjoyed being human balance scales while Year 1 have been comparing groups using mathematical language.
On Thursday, reception had a visit from Road Safety Sallie who taught us all how to cross the road safely by using the Road Safety Code. We were very lucky to receive a book, a sticker and a reflector!
We have begun to plan for our bear hunt and have thought carefully about the things we might take with us.
Our phonics learning is coming on so well, we have now learned 12 sounds and have begun to blend them together to read simple words.
What an amazing afternoon we had searching for a bear! We went through long wavy grass, a deep cold river (where some of us got wet feet!), thick oozy mud and a big dark forest before coming across a cave! We used our torches to guide us into the cave where we found a nice, friendly bear who gave us cookies.
Pippin 2024-2025 We're Going on a Bear Hunt
Weeks 3 and 4 The Little Red Hen
We have had another busy week but are now fully integrated into Ilmington School life!
Our week has been full of eggs and chickens. We have heard a couple of different versions of the story and are getting really good at telling it ourselves or joining in with the repeated phrases. We have looked at a variety of different chickens and even designed some of our own breeds. We have also watched a clip about the life cycle of a chicken and learned new words such as 'pullet' - a young female hen!
The reception children have begun phonics lessons and have worked on the letters s, a, t and p this week. Don't forget to browse the parents area of the Little Wandle website to find out more.
Year 1 have been busy working on the composition of numbers to five and have used part whole models to help them.
Our second week of The Little Red Hen has involved baking some delicious bread! The recipe we followed was easy to remember (equal amounts of self raising flour and yogurt) and it was lovely to hear that some children had also baked some bread at home.
During maths this week, we have been comparing groups and have learned that we can use the word fewer to describe the amount of objects in a smaller group. The year 1 children have been using bar models and part whole models to show the composition of numbers.
Pippin 2024-2025 The Little Red Hen
Weeks 1 and 2 Settling in and The Great Big Book of Families
We all had a busy but fun first week in school when we got to know the children and adults in our class. There has been a lot to take in for our new children. The week has been very tiring but we have all enjoyed exploring the activities within our indoor and outdoor classrooms.
The year 1 children have been great role models and have kindly supported the reception children as well as beginning their own journey into key stage 1. They have quickly adapted to learning in both Pippin and Bramley classrooms each day!
During our second week we have talked about our families - who lives in our house and who lives elsewhere. We have looked at some pictures of our families and they have made a lovely display in our classroom.
We have really enjoyed being able to fully use our outdoor area in the sun and the rain!
Pippin 2024-2025 The Great Big Book of Families
