Carnival of the Animals Autumn 3

2.12.2022

This week we concluded our topic of The Carnival of the Animals by looking at and talking about birds. We ordered numbers on birds and completed simple addition. We also found tricky words in a bird’s nest.

Alongside this much of our week has been taken up with practising for our Christmas Play. We have been working really hard to remember the songs, when to come on the stage and what to say at the right time.

On Tuesday we also had our trip to the Swan Theatre to watch the ‘Cinderella’ Pantomime. The children enjoyed their adventure especially the bus ride! They were also fantastic at waiting patiently when our coach back was delayed despite being tired.

On Thursday we were all very excited because it was December at last! A tree appeared in the classroom and we found out an Elf called Jingles had brought it. He is going to be our class elf for the next couple of weeks. He is very kind. We asked him for some silver decorations to go on it and today there was a big box wrapped in a ribbon under the tree and inside were the decorations.

25.11.22

We have had a busy week here in Ash Class. We listened to the 'Aquarium' part of The Carnival of the Animals and decided it was a very relaxing piece of music. The children have enjoyed reading the Rainbow Fish alongside and have talked about the importance of sharing. We have talked about the different sea creatures and they enjoyed using watercolours and mixing primary colours to make new ones for the Rainbow fish.

This week we have also been busy learning all of our nativity songs - We are sure that you will be very familiar with them by the time the performance comes along!

18.11.2022

The children have enjoyed learning all about elephants this week in class. We have listened to the Carnival of the Animals again with particular reference to the elephant. The children have learned facts about elephants, read “Elmer” and have completed lots of “elephant” themed activities around the classroom. In Maths this week, we have been focusing on the number 3: what it looks like, how to write it and what makes 3.

We had a special day of Quidditch on Tuesday. The children were divided into four groups and earned points for their team during chasing and catching games. See Tapestry for some of the pictures.

11.11.2022

We began our week reflecting on the fireworks many of us watched last Saturday. It was so lovely to see many of you at the display and lovely for the children to see that we do actually exist outside the school building although we did see some slightly shy children compared to the ones we see in class.

This week our special animal from ‘Carnival of the Animals’ has been the Tortoise. Like last week, we  have learnt lots of new and interesting facts about tortoises including the fact that they have an upper and lower shell to protect them and they have a beak! We also listened to the story of The Hare and the Tortoise and thought abot how the characters were feeling in different parts. Our special number this week was number 2 and we identified 2 items, wrote the number and created pairs.

We started thinking about the new school value ‘empathy’ this week. Initially we have discussed ways we can be kind to people and tried to remember to ask someone upset  is the matter?’. We also thought about Rememberance Day and joined in with the whole school for a 2 minutes silence on the playground.

Our new carpet arrived this week and we have all got a nice new bug to sit on!

4.11.2022

our new topic of ‘Carnival of the Animals’ got off to a flying start this week. After reading the story we went back to focus on the ‘Royal March of the Lion’. We listened carefully to the music and then let our pencils dance around the paper to show the loud and quiet, fast and slow parts. We matched, sorted and ordered numbers on lions and created a mane using Autumn leaves. We learnt many new facts about lions which we didn’t know before.

Our special number this week was number 1. We spotted lots of numbers 1s over school, identified singular items and wrote the number in icing sugar. We played games with 1 pennies and challenged ourselves to complete tasks in one minute.

it has been a very busy week!

Carnival of the Animals - Autumn 3

For our third topic of this term we are looking at the book by Katy Flint called "Carnival of the Animals". This book is a story based upon Camille Saint-Saëns' beautiful suite of music called Carnival of the Animals. The music explores various different animals in musical form. 

In the book, two brothers discover a magical animal kingdom behind their bookcase. They are greeted by the royal lion with his shaggy mane; ask for directions from an old lonely tortoise; take a ride on some lumbering elephants; topple a skeleton of dinosaur bones; and swim among a school of shimmering fish. If only they could take them all home...

Take a look in the 'Knowledge Organiser' link , which will give you an insight into what the children will be learning during this topic.