Welcome Back

We are really excited to be back in school for the new year. There have been lots of changes since we were last together. Some of our class have moved to their new schools; they will be putting on their comprehensive school uniforms and moving into shiny new schools. While you have been away the grown ups have been working hard to make our classroom and school colourful and safe ready for you to return. 

Over the term we will still be practising how to wash our hands and keep ourselves, and each other, safe. We will be remembering our hand washing songs and practising 'Catch it, Kill it, Bin it' again. You will be experts and ready to teach any new children who join us this year.

We will be thinking about the changing season.... I wonder if any of you have noticed what is happening outside to the trees, plants and weather? 

Healthy, Confident Individuals

ready to lead fulfilling lives as valued members of society

Routines

Every morning when we arrive in school we organise ourselves to get ready for learning. This term we take some extra time to pack  our coats and bags away safely in our lockers and wash our hands before we start our activities. We have learnt that exercising together helps us to feel positive, it releases happy feelings in our bodies, it helps us stay fit and well.

Our favourite dances are the 'Kids Bop' routines. We love to move and sing along together. Use the link above to try them out at home.

Physical Development

Spending time outdoors is good for our well-being and helps us to stay healthy during these different times. Developing good hand and eye co-ordination supports all aspects of our learning - drawing, writing and ICT. Important life skills like using a knife and fork, tying our own shoe laces and writing our names are all supported by good co-ordination and fine manipulation skills.

Well-Being

Being Well and Thriving

Learning to be ourselves, to be around other children and adults, is an important part of our development. To be ready to learn we first need to feel safe and valued as a member of our learning community.  Being a 'bud' can sometimes mean we are in the very early stages of our learning journey; we need to feel supported and cared for, we need opportunities to experience the classroom, but more importantly the big, wide, sometimes scary, world outside it. When we feel secure we are able to take risks, explore the world around us and be the best version of ourselves that we can be.

Staying Safe

We have been watching the author, Michael Rosen, talk about his long stay in hospital while he had Covid 19. He has recovered but still has some difficulties walking around and has to practice walking upstairs everyday. We talked about how important it is to still follow ALL the guidelines from the government and NHS Wales. This means washing our hands regularly, wearing a mask if you are a grown up when you come to school with your child, or staying at home if we are asked to. We all miss our friends and family when we are in lockdown but listening to Michael Rosen reminds us that, although we are all fit and well and some of us would probably only experience mild symptoms if we caught Covid, for others, maybe our grandparents, friends or family with health issues Covid can have lasting effects.

Please follow ALL of the guidance ALL of the time.

Let's stay safe and well together.

Thank you

to all the mum's dad's and grown ups who keep our Buds safe

Staying safe and being at home means making big changes and sacrifices for everyone in the family. It is important that everyone has time to recharge and take care of themselves. This yoga is a lovely way to take ten minutes for yourself to feel calm and happy. We have tested it out as staff, in our own homes, and decided that Adriene is a lovely gentle teacher to spend some time with every day. There are hundreds of lovely videos on her You tube channel - every one of them is free to use. 

Stay Safe and Well

It is really important to stay happy and healthy at home. We need to look after ourselves and each other. Help the grown ups by saying 'yes certainly' whenever they ask you to get dressed, tidy up or get ready for bed.

Remember how great it feels to be a bucket filler. A really special person, in a red suit, is checking his list right now, in the North Pole, to make sure that you are on the green track.... I wonder who that can be?....

Have a look at the links below to help you stay calm and remember to use your breathing strategies to help.

December 2020

We are counting down the days until Santa arrives - Remember to write or draw in your diary. Use the J2E page or the sheet you took home to help you write the date. Can you complete the daily challenge and add in how many sleeps are left until Santa arrives? There are new challenges on Reading Eggs and Maths Seeds for you to complete this week; once you have completed them you can carry on learning wherever you like on both sites.

I will be adding in links over this last week of term, while we all carry on working together at home. Keep in touch on J2 message and don't forget to see what is going on in the world by watching 'Newsround'. We love to read the daily weather reports that some of you share.

Ambitious, Capable Learners

ready to learn throughout our lives

The Lost Words

This year, more than ever, we are very aware of the world around us. Now is a time for us to reflect on important words, places and spaces where we can be safe. Learning together, outdoors, is a wonderful place to be after all the months we have spent apart.

Our school grounds are full of beautiful sights and experiences,,,, birds, leaves, trees, flowers and even some supersize vegetables. We like to start the new school year by looking around to see what is changing in the natural world this season. The beautiful words and pictures of Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris remind us of the importance of words and language. Outdoor learning experiences allow us to use all our senses to enjoy the natural world together. Together, we can learn to use our eyes, ears and sense of touch to name and enjoy the magical spells that make up 'The Lost Words'.

Time

Learning to understand time can sometimes be a challenge; this has been especially true over the last few months when many of our routines have changed. We take time each day to try to understand when things happen. We learn about the twelve months of the year, the days of the week, the changing of the seasons and different times of day. We understand that we do different things at different times - eat breakfast in the morning, lunch in the middle of the day and go home in the afternoon. The grown ups help us to understand the different days by wearing this colour clothes each day:

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

We use words and pictures to help us understand what is for lunch on different days - curry on a Tuesday and dinner on Thursday are two of our favourites.

Our classroom birthday balloons help us to remember which month our birthday is, how old we are now and how old we will be on our next birthday. Classroom routines and help boxes explain the sequence of activities using the words 'first, next, then and finally'. 

Developing our Confidence and Resilience

Everyone finds it difficult to take risks, to experience failure, shake it off and try again. We have discovered that juggling is a great way to improve our co-ordination and balance. It makes us concentrate, try hard and keep persevering; when we drop one of our bean bags we pick it up and start again. We are also learning the importance of practising every day. To be a world class expert at anything it is said you need to practice for ten thousand hours.... ten thousand hours! - to be a good juggler ten minutes practice every day is a great place to start. Even better news - ten minutes of building resilience every day through juggling makes our mental muscles stronger. In the buds, we believe in the power of 'yet' - 'I can't do it yet' our brains will start to realise we can do anything we decide to - just as long as we practice.

Are you going to practice juggling today?

'Yes Certainly!'

Ethical, Informed Citizens

ready to be citizens of Wales and the world

Swansea Community Farm

Just on our doorstep, the farm is an amazing place to discover sounds, sights and smells. There are lots of animals... some even pay the school grounds a visit every day (safely fenced in of course) and help to keep our grass in shape. We are very grateful that we are still allowed to visit, because, unfortunately, the farm is closed to the public at the moment. 

Anti-bullying Week 2020

We have been listening to Todd Parr's story about being different - 'it's okay to need some help' ... 'it's okay to be a different colour'. Find out what he has to say about eating macaroni cheese in the bath by listening to him reading the story. We have been learning about authors and illustrators this term. Todd Parr has learnt the skills to do both! I wonder if he was ambitious, creative or enterprising when he was in school?

Autumn Equinox

Today, September 22nd, is the last day of the summer. The earth is starting to tilt away from the sun and Autumn has officially arrived. This afternoon we have been strolling around the school grounds, saying goodbye to the summer. We chose which way we would like to learn outdoors, some of us made drawings, others collected leaves, acorns and feathers.

We bumped into Gordon, the beekeeper at the Community Farm and had a wonderful time learning about the plants in their gardens. We spent some time looking at the pond and learnt a very interesting fact about tree bees.... I wonder who can remember where they have laid their eggs?.

Enterprising, Creative Contributors

ready to play a full part in life and work

Introducing a new topic....

We have been getting ready for a new topic.... mysterious things have been happening in our classroom. We have been using what we already know to investigate. We have looked, listened and used our words to make predictions.

We have already started to learn some new skills, some of these are especially important at the moment. We have learnt to keep on trying, even when we find things difficult, we have shown perseverance and resilience. We have taken opportunities to learn from each other and sometimes to take on the role of the teacher.

We are taking the opportunity to share some things on our class page that can be part of our 'blended learning' experience; this means that we can revisit the things we learn in class when we are at home - we can watch videos and continue to learn outside of our classroom anytime we want to.

Literature fires our imagination and inspires our Creativity

We have been finding out about the author Julia Donaldson and the illustrator Axel Scheffler who have worked together closely to write some fantastic stories for children. We discovered that the 'Highway Rat' is a baddie and a beast; we think that he made a terrible mess in our classroom by taking what he wanted and eating what he took. We have made some predictions about what happens in the story.