Well done to Myiah in Year 6 for receiving a gold coin to use in our Reading Book Vending Machine!

Myiah has been awarded the gold coin for pushing herself massively in Maths since September. She has faced many challenges along the way but she has persevered and never gave up! Week after week, she has shown resilience and a positive attitude towards her learning - even when she was stuck!

We are all so proud of you, Myiah! Well done!

Nursery Weekly Learning - 27-01-23

This week in nursery we read the story 'The Blue Balloon' and had lots of fun with colours and balloons.

We froze some balloons in the freezer and then put them in the water tray. The children used their senses for hands on exploration to learn about change and how the ice melts into water.

Our creative work this week helped us to create pictures through shape using paint and different media. We had a go at learning how to use scissors to cut out different shaped balloons. We used pipettes and squeezed them to see how the paint spread across the paper. 

We developed our hand eye co-ordination skills by threading little beads through pipe cleaners and focused on mark making and drawing and colouring our own pictures of balloons. 

The children had fun blowing up balloons using the small pump, which was great for muscle development!

Outdoor physical play developing our fine and gross motor movements through balancing, carrying materials and investigating. 

On Monday 16th January, 19 pupils across Year 6 attended a 5-day residential trip to Plas Gwynant which is located in Snowdonia, Wales. The week focused around 'Growth Mindset'. Children were faced with tasks and activities that really pushed them out of their comfort zone!

One activity all children completed was canoeing! During this activity, children were required to work as a team to navigate their way across a beautiful lake. We had mindful moments where we stopped and listened to the nature around us all whilst reflecting on our thoughts and feelings towards the week ahead. One group got caught in a hail storm - which made our motivation for quickly crossing the lake even greater!

Another set of activities the children had a chance to complete was abseiling and rock climbing. This really pushed the children (and staff!) out of their comfort zone! Children watched the centre staff model how to complete each task and then they were on their way! Mr Fowler and Mrs Wellings even had a go at abseiling! Mrs Strode decided that being the 'watcher' was the best role for her during this activity!

Another adventure the children experienced was mountain walking. This really tested our emotional levels as well as our physical levels! During the walk, the children observed beautiful streams, outstanding views and spotted a variety of birds! One group discovered old coal mines and were taught how significant the area was - specifically during the Victoria Era (which happens to be our next topic in Year 6!) Another group experienced an entirely new walk; one that has not been completed by any group in Plas history! The walk included climbing at the top of the peak - the views were incredible!

Another day of activities included a beach walk and gorge walking! 
The children visited a local beach called Borth-Y-Gest which is in Porthmadog (roughly 20 minutes away from the Plas Gwynant Centre) and whilst there they climbed rocks, searched for crabs and played games on the Matrix rock! We also enjoyed our lunch on the beach - the views were stunning!
The gorge walk took place in the afternoon. This experience was so incredibly rewarding and unique for all children! We made sure we were wearing our waterproof clothes because we were about to get very wet! Climbing through the gorge we stopped to stand under waterfalls and we even jumped into a pool of cold water! The children absolutely loved every second!

As well as 'Growth Mindset', the children worked on their independent skills throughout the week. This included making their own beds upon arrival, having their own role within the centre (from hoovering their room to setting up the table for breakfast) and also, making their own lunch each day! The children really thrived this week and Mr Fowler, Mrs Wellings and I are so very proud of them!

Our story this week has been A Loud Winter's Nap. Poor tortoise wanted to sleep through the cold winter and told his animal friends this by using a DO NOT DISTURB sign. We have learned that some animals hibernate during some months of the year and become more active again in Spring. 

In Phonics this week we have learnt two more new phonemes (air, er).  We have used these sounds to read and write new and more challenging words.  

Using our story as inspiration we learned how to use water colours to wash the background within our picture. We then practiced our brush skills by adding a tree, our cutting skills by creating a ladder using straws and finally our drawing skills by drawing a tortoise. We built our picture up over the week and secured new vocabulary.

We have used other resources to represent tortoises in different ways. Just look at our outdoor learning where we built tortoises using crates, tyres and planks. 

In maths we have been embedding our knowledge that we can make 5 in different ways.  We have learned a song about 5 children on the bus, for example 3 stand up, 2 sit down, 4 stand up, 1 sits down.  We have represented this using our 5 frames.

In class we have been learning about Winter and have talked about how we can help to look after the birds during this season. In class we made bird feeders too and hung them in the trees.

We tried looking for birds but they can be difficult to see when they are so far away. We used binoculars to help us see them a little more clearly.

We also sat very quietly in our outdoor classroom and listened to the sounds of the forest... we could hear birds tweeting which was such a lovely sound to hear.

This week the Y6 children who did not go to Plas Gwynant have learned lots about the culture and traditions surrounding Chinese New Year. They have discovered that 2023 is going to be the 'Year of the Rabbit'. 

They have made some adorable clay rabbit ornaments as well as planning, designing and cooking Spring Rolls as a Chinese New Year treat! The food reviews we've had from staff and the children suggest that the Spring Rolls were delicious, well done Y6!

Here are the Y6 children in action - who knew they were such brilliant chefs? They even made sure the kitchen and preparation areas were spotlessly clean after use! 

This week the children have been learning about the Chinese New Year. We listened to the story ‘Peppa’s Chinese New Year’ which helped us learn about this celebration.

The children have been busy all week exploring activities linked to the Chinese New Year. They enjoyed role-play and trying to pick up foods using chopsticks.  Our creative work this week helped us learn to use scissors to make Chinese lanterns, and using different materials to decorate ‘lucky’ red envelopes, in which we put chocolate money! We were really focused as we enjoyed mark making, drawing pictures and using chopsticks. Our special ‘concept’ word this week was ‘loud’, in connection with the loud noises of the fireworks!

We ended our week with a special visitor who helped us learn some important messages about staying safe when we walk along the pavement. We learned how to cross roads safely too.

Our story this week is Fletcher and the Snowflake Christmas. We have really enjoyed reading this book, it has helped us learn all about the season of winter and how difficult snow fall can be for small animals. We have learned lots of new exciting words that we can use to talk about this chilly season. 

In Phonics this week we have been learning more new phonemes (ur, ow, oi and ear). We have been reading lots of words that contain these phonemes and trying to use them in our writing.

In our creative activities this week we have explored a new technique where we used a white wax candle and drew snowflakes on white paper.  Of course, we couldn't see what we had drawn! But we were shown that if we added paint over the wax our pictures magically appeared.
We have practiced our skills in drawing and painting when we created pictures of Fletcher in the frosty forest. And we also created some creatures using the play dough.

During Math's we have been learning how to find one more and one less using lots of different equipment such as our five frames, cubes and counters.  We have also been singing number rhymes to help us understand the different values of numbers.

On Wednesday we were very excited when we woke up to a world covered in snow! We dressed up warm in our winter coats and went outside to explore.  We were fascinated to find ice in the tyres on the playground. We looked closely using the magnifying glasses and saw lots of little bubbles inside.  As we held the ice we noticed that it began to melt, leaving our gloves a little bit soggy.

We also had a special visitor who taught us all about crossing the road safely. We learnt that we should always stay close to our adults and hold their hands. We practised using the Puffin crossing, by pressing the button and waiting for the red man to turn green. We also practised how to cross a zebra crossing.