Cygnets

Welcome to Cygnets!

Here are some activities the children in Cygnets enjoy doing

Autumn 1 Topic - Knowing me, Knowing you

Our first topic this year was 'Knowing Me, Knowing You'. The children had the chance to learn about themselves and talk about those people that are special to them. The children really enjoyed sharing photographs of people that were special to them and talking about where some of the pictures were taken.

As part of our topic we enjoyed a visit from Sergeant Duncan. He talked about the role of a police officer and some of the different tasks a police officer has to do. He also let us look at some of his equipment and try on some police hats. We then had the chance to look and sit in his car and hear the sirens and see the lights!

In this term we also celebrated Harvest. We made Scarecrow hats and learnt the song 'I'm a Dingle Dangle Scarecrow'. The children really enjoyed performing to the rest of the school in our Harvest assembly.

Autumn 2 Topic - 'Let's Celebrate'

We started our topic with a birthday party for our class bear, Brambles. The children invited their own bears and dolls to join in the party. We made party hats, played games and decorated biscuits.

We have also learnt about other celebrations such as Bonfire night and the story of Guy Fawkes, Divali and the story of Rama and Sita and Christian weddings.

Odd Sock Day

During anti-bullying week we took part in Odd Sock Day. We wore odd socks to show that everyone is different but we are all equal. We really enjoyed making our own 'Odd' socks to show we are all unique and had fun watching and dancing to 'Andy and the Odd Socks'. We all agreed that we should choose Respect!

Andy and the Odd Socks - 'CHOOSE RESPECT'

This song was written for Anti Bullying Week 2018. Directed by James Tonkin A Ninja Pig Production 2018 A very special thank you to all the kids that helped us make our video! Andy and the Odd Socks are patrons for the Anti Bullying Alliance.

Children in Need

The whole school took part in supporting Children in Need. The children really enjoyed wearing non-uniform and raising money for charity.

Spring 1 Topic - Fairy Tales

In Spring 1 we started our new topic about Fairy Tales. We kicked off the topic with our Fairy Tale day where the children were allowed to dress as characters from different tales. We had knights rescuing princesses, Fairy God Mothers casting spells and some of our princesses accesorizing even more in the junk modelling area.

We have really enjoyed this topic as you can see below. It has allowed the children to use their imaginations from drawing pictures of Fairy Tale characters, creating their own Small World land, to thinking how pictures of Fairy Tale lands make us feel and think. What questions do they make you ask?

As well as Fairy Tales, the children also had the opportunity to learn about the Chinese New Year. They heard the story of how the different animals were chosen for each year and learnt how Chinese New Year is celebrated. The children particularly enjoyed making a Dragon and performing their 'Dragon Dance' around the school. The children also had great fun preparing and eating some Chinese food.

Music Time

The children were also very lucky to have some special music lessons. They first thought about different sounds that might go with pictures using a variety of different instruments to create sounds such as thunder and lightning. The children then had a lesson about drums where they explored the different sounds they made and played a game of 'call and response'. The children are really looking forward to the next session.

Spring 2 Topic - Let's 'Seed' how it grows

For the second part of the Spring term we looked at things to do with plants and how they grow. Planting wild flower seeds in our flower bed, beans and peas in our raised beds and experimenting with growing cress. The children really enjoyed getting their hands muddy, lets hope their hard work pays off with beautiful flowers and maybe some crops we can harvest.

Shrove Tuesday

The children learnt about why Shrove Tuesday is important to Christians and that it signifies the start of 'Lent'. They had some really good ideas about things that people could give up for lent but they also all agreed how hard it might be to do so for 40 days. We then had a great time making, decorating and eating pancakes and taking part in pancake races with Ducklings class.

World Book Day

This year our theme for 'World Book Day' was characters from a story. All of the children made an amazing effort dressing up and really enjoyed sharing books, stories and talking about their favourite stories and characters.

Summer 1 Topic - Magnificent Minibeasts

The start of the summer term signifies a move away from plants and growing to learning about Magnificent Minibeasts. The first challenge the children had to take on was looking after live caterpillars. The children took very good care of them and took great delight seeing them change from caterpillar to cocoon and then to butterfly where we then released them.

As well as learning about butterflies, we also learnt about Spiders, Snails and slugs and Bees. They were especially amazed at why snails and slugs are slimy, how spiders spin their webs and couldn't believe how Bees make honey. If you don't know, why don't you look it up, but be warned it's a little disgusting which is why the children loved learning about it.

Talk for Writing

In 'Talk for Writing' we have learnt the story of 'The Ginger Bread man' and followed instructions to make a fruit salad. The children really enjoyed putting their cooking skills to the test when following the instructions as shown below.

Our 'Talk for Writing' focus in Spring 1 was the story of 'The Three Billy Goats Gruff'. The children had the opportunity to learn ad retell the story and then innovate their own story map changing the goats to any animals they wished. Our class story below was called 'The Three Pigs Gruff'.

Our class innovated story of The Three Pigs Gruff

In the second half of the Spring term the children took on the new challenge of learning and writing their own versions of 'Jack and the Beanstalk'. The children really took to the challenge of learning longer story and not only were able to perform the story amazingly it also really inspired their writing

The start of the summer term saw us start a new Talk for Writing story, 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar'. All the children knew the story and thought it would be easy to learn. They discovered even the easiest stories have their challenges. They all showed great 'Determination' when re-telling the story, especially when trying to remember all of the different foods the caterpillar ate on Saturday, can you remember them?

The Very Hungry Caterpillar - Animated Film

In the internationally acclaimed The Very Hungry Caterpillar, a tiny caterpillar eats and eats...and eats his way through the week. Taken from The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Other Stories collection. Based on Eric Carle's picture book.

British Values

Throughout the year Cygnets will learn about British Values. During the autumn we have learnt that every one of us is special, different and individual and that we should always respect one another. We have also discussed why we have rules both in and outside of school and how we can use them to help us make sensible decisions.

Phonics

In phonics we are revising the phase 3 phonemes and tricky words. The children are getting more confident spotting the letter combinations in words when reading (sounding and blending), and they are using them more and more in their writing (segmenting words to write). The children love showing off their phonic knowledge so encourage them to read and write where ever they are.

E-Safety

The children have also participated in 'Safer Internet Day' where they learnt about how to be safer online. This years theme was to do with giving permission, especially with regards to sharing pictures on social media. The children had lots of practise giving each other permission to play games, help make models or share books. By the end of the afternoon, they were fantastic at it.

For more information about Safer Internet Day, follow the link below:

Safer Internet Day Website

Useful Links

Please find below some useful websites that you can use to help support your child at home. As we progress through the year we will add more sites that relate to the current learning.

Phonics Bloom - Phase 3 games Games to help develop phase 3 sounds.

Phonics Play - Phase 3 games Phonics games to help develop your child's phonics

Down on the Farm A game to help recognise the number 1-5

Oxford Owl eBook Collection A collection of eBooks for different ages ranges you can enjoy with your children.

St Christopher's Churchof England Primary School

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