Orange Class are currently enjoying our class book of Skater Dog. This is a very lively little character that finds himself in all types of mischief! We have been following different adventures of Skater Dog by reading his stories on the class whiteboard. Looking at the many colourful pictures, Orange Class have been working together to try and explain what is taking place in the story. This activity requires all class members to join in, and help to tell the stories with some of the popular sounds that are in the book. We have heard plenty of “Wooosh! Wheeez! and Arghhh!” around Orange Class.

Blue Class have been making great progress with our weekly French lessons. Having learnt the basics such as introducing our names and knowing our ages etc, we are now moving on to ask our friends about how they are feeling. We are also learning how to offer up a suitable response. Much of this work is carried out through the use of music.

Later on in the term and we will introduce Blue Class to a series of pictures. We will be using these to help tell our own Blue Class French story. Tres bien, Bleu Class!

One of the weekly highlights in Yellow Class is always our much anticipated singing assembly! We have been learning how to greet all our friends in Spanish. We started off the assembly with this welcome, and then went on to learn some new songs, as well as to have some renditions of some Yellow Class favourites. Different class members were invited to select their favourite song. All pupils were encouraged to join in, both through singing and signing. As you can hear in the podcast below, the Yellow Class singing assemblies are a great success!

Our table work in Class 1M has looked at sequencing and story telling, all based around the subject of horses. We are currently reading The One Million Dollar Egg as our class reading book. This features a horse as the main character. Class 1M have been forming complete word sentences all about the images that we have been seeing in the book. Phrases such as “people ride horses,” or “horses can gallop” have helped us with both our word recognition and our handwriting skills.

Our science work in Class 1G has focussed upon learning more about the human body. We have been looking at facial features, as well as learning more about the human body from both the inside and outside of our skin. We asked the pupils to recognise and identify the different parts on our own faces. We concentrated on whereabouts the eyes, nose and lips etc are located. All pupils completed a worksheet, matching up the words with the images. We also put together the features on a large felt face. You can watch one of our Class 1G pupils successfully completing this task in the video above.

We have been learning all about different styles of music in Class 2S and how we can recognise them. Our early work for the New Year focussed upon reggae – one of our favourites forms of music! We asked the pupils to think about what makes reggae sound different to some of the other music that we have been learning how to play and sing. New songs were introduced to Class 2S – Three Little Birds, Bassez Down and Brown Girl in the Ring. As well as learning the words, Class 2S have also been matching these up with the correct signing. You can listen to a short burst of our uplifting Class 2S reggae music in the podcast below.

Our P.E. sessions at the start of the new school year in Class 3J have been spent learning new techniques on the school trampolines. We wanted the pupils to understand how we can control our movements and carry out instructions such as how to stop. We also built into our routines different counting sequences to help us to keep our focus during the activity. The more experienced pupils added in techniques such as star jumps or tuck jumps. The Turney School trampolines are great resources in helping our pupils learn more about their own body control – they are also plenty of fun! You can find out more in the video above.

Class 11 is continuing to work hard towards our GCSE Art qualification. Part of our current work is based around identity and self-portraits. We have been looking at some of the works of art created by Pablo Picasso, and in particular, what made his form of art so unique. The children have studied the use of lines in his abstract drawing, and how these add to some of the self-portraits that Picasso was producing. We have re-created some of his more famous pieces of work, and then experimented ourselves with different types of materials and textures. Some pupils used charcoal; others worked in paint or line drawing.

This exercise will now move on to involve creating some abstract self-portraits by our Class 11 pupils. Using the school cameras, we will take some photographs of ourselves, and then use these as the basis in which to add in more abstract ideas. You can find out more about this process by listening to the podcast below.

Our P.E. sessions at the start of the new school year in Class 3J have been spent learning new techniques on the school trampolines. We wanted the pupils to understand how we can control our movements and carry out instructions such as how to stop. We also built into our routines different counting sequences to help us to keep our focus during the activity. The more experienced pupils added in techniques such as star jumps or tuck jumps. The Turney School trampolines are great resources in helping our pupils learn more about their own body control – they are also plenty of fun! You can find out more in the video above.

12th January – Secondary school ICT Club.

17th January – Blue Class trip to the Imperial War Museum.

19th January – Class 3J assembly.

2nd February – Class 10 assembly.

10th February – half term!

Class 11 is continuing to work hard towards our GCSE Art qualification. Part of our current work is based around identity and self-portraits. We have been looking at some of the works of art created by Pablo Picasso, and in particular, what made his form of art so unique. The pupils have studied the use of lines in his abstract drawing, and how these add to some of the self-portraits that Picasso was producing. We have re-created some of his more famous pieces of work, and then experimented ourselves with different types of materials and textures. Some pupils used charcoal; others worked in paint or line drawing.

This exercise will now move on to involve creating some abstract self-portraits by our Class 11 pupils. Using the school cameras, we will take some photographs of ourselves, and then use these as the basis in which to add in more abstract ideas. You can find out more about this process by listening to the podcast below.

Orange Class are incredibly excited ahead of our forthcoming trip to the Science Museum. We have been focusing heavily on various science-based topics throughout the term. Our trip to the Science Museum will pay particular attention to learning all about sound.

We have been playing in class with the homemade play dough that one of our members of staff very kindly made for us. This is a great resource when helping us with our sensory skills and sense of touch. We have encouraged the children to use their imaginations and try and come up with some interesting shapes in the play dough.

Perhaps the most important news in Orange Class however is the confirmation that our class Christmas tree is now standing! All of the children have had great fun decorating the tree and coming up with ideas for the design.

We have been playing many different number games in Yellow Class to help the pupils continue to improve their counting skills. These have included work looking at missing numbers in a sequence, as well as some counting songs. Ten Green Bottles and Five Speckled Frogs are both proving to be Yellow Class favourites!

We have also been using our class circle time to improve our flexibility and increase our physical awareness. Working with the Yellow Class big ball, each pupil took it in turns to explore the resource and bounce up and down under careful supervision. Encouragement was given from class friends with plenty of singing!

Our literacy work in Yellow Class has continued to have a strong focus on phonics. We are all greatly enjoying reading our current class book, Ridiculous.

We have been continuing our table work in Class 1G focussing upon helping the students to make sentences from a series of words. We have moved our vocabulary on to talk about the different forms of transport that we see around us. Using Communication in Print, we have been keen to get the students to match the symbols with the words. We have used this technique to form simple sentences such as “Roads are busy” or “Motorways are long.” We then advanced this exercise to include some writing to help complete the sentences.