Willow week beginning 4th September

We have loved welcoming Willow Class back into school after the Summer holidays and they have made a fantastic start to the academic year, settling into their new routines and working hard in lessons. Part of our week has been focused on introducing our new topic 'Hunting to Farming' which will involve us exploring life in the Stone Age and how this changed over time. We kicked off the topic by joining up with Oak class to create some hunter gatherer tools and resources. The children worked together to make baskets which they used to forage for berries with. Many of us found this a challenge but did well to persevere and adapt our designs as we went. We talked about what would have been available to Neolithic people at the time and how they may have made hunting/ gathering tools. Once our baskets were complete, we used natural resources to create our own paintbrushes before having a go at painting using what we had collected. We enjoyed these activities and they led us to think of many questions to explore throughout our Topic. 

On Friday, we also introduced our class reader for the half term which is 'Stig of the Dump' by Clive King. We used the front cover to make predictions before using parts of the setting description to create our own images of how we imagined Stig's cave to look. We looked for specific details from the text to add into our caves and these are displayed in our reading corner alongside our book recommendations. We are really enjoying the story so far and are looking forward to finding out how Stig and Barney's friendship grows. 

You may have heard the children talking about the 'Not yet yeti' this week and our class has our very own yeti which is there to help remind us and encourage us to work hard in order to get better at things we might find tricky. This is part of a whole school approach to support the development of resilience and to help the children recognise that, with hard work and determination, they can achieve their targets and get better at things they work towards. If you spot somebody wearing a yeti sticker this is because they have shown positivity and resilience in order to improve at something particular. 

Willow Class have made a fantastic start to the term and we are very much looking forward to learning more about our Topic next week as well as all of our other subjects.