The Owls

Communication and Interaction Inclusion Centre

Summer Term 2023

Castles & Knights - Southsea castle Year 2

We looked at castles this term and used this opportunity to learn how to make some DT fixing. We used folds in the card and cut to join them together. Year 2 children went to Southsea Castle to find the parts of the castle we had been making.

Ducklings

We had 5 ducklings and we watched them hatch all wet and soggy, dry out to become fluffy yellow ducklings which were able to swim very easily in a very short time. It was so much fun to watch them swim in our little indoor pools!

Popell Barn Farm - Year R

The children we so excited to see the farm arrive at school. They had time to spend with the animals, feel and talk about what they could see and ask any questions they wanted to the farmer. They found out about the farmers day and all about what the farmer fed the animals.

We continued to learn about vets after the farm had gone.

Manor Farm - Year 1

The year 1 children visited Manor Farm. They fed the animals, looked at the farming equipment, learnt about the history of the farmhouse and pretended in the school house to be at school in the Victorian times.

Longdown Activity Farm - Year 2

The year 2 children visited Longdown dairy farm. The watched the cows being milked, fed the animals and learnt about the farming day.

They really enjoyed give a bottle to the baby goats.

Creative Arts Week

The children enjoyed a week of drama, dance, music and art based on the topic of ‘Around the world’.

The Hobgoblin theatre company came and used drama to tell us a story about Jack and the beanstalk, which has an English origin.

This was followed by drama workshops. We also had American line dancing and Mexican dance session, Steel pan sessions and Samba drumming.

Children worked in their classes to produce something related to the topic, and Owls produced some Aboriginal printing.

Mini beasts

Our next topic was all about mini beasts. The children loved learning about the Hungry Caterpillar and we watched some real caterpillars go into cocoons and develop into butterflies.

We the let them fly free to have their best life. We also studied some snails and ladybirds and the children were fascinated by the trails the snails left behind. We made some caterpillars using our DT split pin fixing skills.

Sports self-challenge day

We have also enjoyed Sports self-challenge day this term. The weather was beautiful and the children enjoyed trying out new tricky challenges. They worked really hard together and enjoyed the event. Well done Owls!

Spring Term 2023

Andy Goldsworthy

As our spring term art week, the children learned about Andy Goldsworthy and looked at a large variety of his pictures of natural sculptures.

They used natural items to recreate his work and looked for patterns in his pictures.

They also used beans, pulses and pasta to create their own circular patterns.

Circus Week

This topic encouraged the children to develop their balance & co-ordination skills as they had daily sessions for a week, learning how to perform circus skills with a circus performer.

The balanced plates on sticks, juggled balls, scarves and feathers and even use stilts and tightropes.

On the last day the children dressed up and the circus came to school!

Learning Superheroes

The children were focused on the superheroes around them in their own school community, looking at what people do in their days that is like one of our school learning superheros’ characteristics.

They then painted their favourite learning superhero.

Growing plants & Cress!

The children have been learning about plant growth and they decided to plants some bulbs and cress seeds to see how far theirs might grow.

The cress grew quickly and we experimented to see what happened when half of it was put in a dark cupboard to grow.

They carefully observed the shoots over a few weeks.

They then watched their bulbs begin to grow and will hopefully see them flower in the new term.

Chinese New Year

The children celebrated the Chinese New Year by making lanterns, Chinese writing signs and lucky moneybags, which contained chocolate coins.

They found the writing tricky but preserved and did a good job.

They used their cutting skills to make slits in the lantern and make their bags

Spring & Easter

Now spring is in the air, the children have been searching for signs of spring.

They have thought about the changes and the new life they can see.

This also tied in with learning about the Christian Easter story and why we have Easter eggs as a symbol of new life.

They also had an Easter bunny sensory story.

They enjoyed an Easter egg hunt and made Easter cards.

Autumn Term 2022

Welcome

The new Owls have settled in really well this year and have enjoyed making new friends and learning new routines.

Our days have been very busy with new opportunities for learning and experiencing some new things.

Autumn

The children have been learning about the seasons and we listened to the story of Percy the Park Keeper ‘After the storm’.

We used our senses to investigate autumnal objects and we tried to describe what we observed.

Nursery Rhymes

This half term we have been learning all about Nursery Rhymes.

We read the book ‘Each Peach Pear Plum’ by Janet and Allan Ahlberg.

The book is full of Nursery Rhyme characters and we followed our story map and then used actions to help us remember the story.

We enjoyed learning new and old rhymes.

We looked at historical artefacts that might have been found in the kitchen of the Nursery Rhyme character, Old Mother Hubbard.

Our Bodies

In science we have been learning about our bodies, how we are all different and similar.

We learnt body parts and looked at our eye and hair colour, and how big our hands and feet were.

We also looked carefully at ourselves and created self- portraits

Monster Names

 We have been learning about writing our names correctly and practising in lots of different ways. One way was to paint it and fold it, to create a reflection and turn it into a monster!

Maps

Our year 1 & 2 Owls have been learning about the local area and what makes up a town.

We looked at maps and then as a team created a new town map with our own choice of features.

Lowry

We have an art week based on the artist Lowry.

We looked at his work and recreated our own ‘Our Town’ pictures with gloomy skies and dull factory buildings with lots of Lowry style figures.

We also looked at the factory work and learned how to use a loom and did some weaving of our own.

Christmas

We have had lots of fun preparing for Christmas.

We made decorations at our Santa’s workshop, played party games and danced at our Christmas party and made cards, calendars and mini trees for our families.

Merry Christmas everyone!