Seedlings

Coding in Class Seedlings

This week in Class Seedling we have been working on our computing skills and have been learning the early stages of computer coding. This begins by us practising to control programmable robots by inputting a set of instructions. This is the first step to creating our very own algorithm. We have also been using desktop and laptop computers to control objects on screen. The trickiest part is when something goes wrong and we have to fix it. This is called debugging. Have a look at the pictures below. They show us hard at work completing our computing lessons!

Seedlings Visit Beacon Hill

Yesterday, Class Seedling went on a trip to Beacon Hill to support their geography skills and to learn more about the human and physical features of the local area. Mr Baker was delighted to see a blue sky in the morning and the weather was fine all day for the class to walk from the lower car park to the summit of the hill. Along the way the children looked at trees, volcanic rocks and other features of the natural environment. They also used maps to track their route and identify sculptures on the way through the woods. At the summit the children could see for miles and picked out the many geographical features of the county. After lunch they negotiated a different route down the hill, played on the park, got lost in the labyrinth and spotted a range of trees around the tree trail. Everyone had a great day and you can see more by looking below. Have a look!

Exploring Physical Features of Australia and the UK

This week, Class Seedlings have chosen to show off to you some of their work on physical geographical features. This term, they have started a topic comparing our local area to Australia, titled ‘Home and Away’. They will be comparing animals, climate, culture and geographical features of the two countries over the next few weeks. This week they have learned how the natural physical features of the two countries are different and have worked in pairs to create some fantastic models to represent the two countries. Have a look at our awesome work!

Year 2 Trip to Beaumanor Hall 2019

In the last week before the Easter holidays, Year 2 visited Beaumanor Hall for their first ever school residential visit. Day 1 was a pirate themed day and Mr Baker alongside his first mate Mrs Waterfield met up with 16 excited pirates and parents at the hall itself. During the day the children learned about real pirates, took part in pirate games and even did some pirate singing. In the evening they enjoyed a hot meal in the hall before building a real camp fire in the woods. After some tasty hot chocolate the children settled down in their bunks to get some sleep before day 2. Day 2 start with a fabulous cooked breakfast which gave the children plenty of energy for the nature themed day ahead. The children then spent several hours exploring the grounds and finding out about the plant life and animals that live around Beaumanor. Finally the tired children had a picnic lunch before their parents came to take them home again in the afternoon. Have a look at the slideshow below to see some of the highlights of the trip!

Car of the Future Update . . .

After bringing you news of our trip and information about our car designs in the articles below, today we would like to show you some photos from our 'Car of the Future' design show. We have worked hard all term to design and build prototypes of our dream cars and last Thursday we opened our classroom up to our parents to show off what we had built. Have a look at the highlights!

Designing Cars of the Future

Seedlings have been learning about materials and the history of transport in their topic 'Blast to the Future'. In the past week they have been using this knowledge to design, write about and build prototypes of a car for the future. Below are pictures of the children working on a computer programme to create their designs and some pictures of the initial stages of building their prototypes. Come back later this term to see how they turn out or if you are a Seedling parent, come along to the Seedling design show later this term.

Seedlings Visit the Transport Museum

Seedlings have begun their new topic entitled 'Blast off to the future'. The topic will see them investigating transport through the ages before designing their own cars of the future and building them as a prototype in class. To inspire their learning the children went on a trip to Coventry transport museum to see how vehicles have evolved and how they may look in the future. The children really enjoyed the trip and took part in several workshops run by the museum experts as well as touring the museum itself. Have a look at the pictures below and look out for details of our design show that will be opening at the end of our topic.

Seedlings Healthy Eating Cafe

Seedlings have been learning about their bodies this half term and have been finding out how to keep themselves healthy. They have learned about bones, named body parts, experimented with how strong teeth are and created healthy meals. This week the parents were invited to a healthy eating cafe and worked with their children to create a balanced meal. The children also showed off their topic books and you can see pictures from the afternoon below.

Poetry Corner - Poems Based on 'The Sound Collector'

This week Seedlings have been creating their own poetry based on the poem 'The Sound Collector' by Roger McGough. Click on the video to hear some of us perform our work or look at our writing below to read our poems.

Can you her our description of the different sounds we thought of in our poems. We are really proud of the vocabulary we used!

Roger McGough

The Original Poem Our Poetry Display

Our Poems

Seedlings Carnival Time!

Class Seedling finished their summer term topic this week with a South American carnival for their parents. The afternoon included a chance for the children to show off all they had been learning to their parents and a carnival dance performance outside. Have a look at the pictures below to find out more about the celebrations.

First we prepared the classroom with our fab work...

Then we got dressed in our carnival masks...

After that the parents arrived, we performed for them and showed off our work...

Summer Term Topic Work

This term the Seedlings have been working hard learning about the rain forest. The topic has centred around the animals
that live in this habitat and how they are suited to where they live. Across the term the children have completed research about animals, learned about the different layers of the rain forest and even raised their own butterflies from tiny caterpillars. Have a look at the fantastic work that has been going below.

We used books, ipads and the computers to research facts about animals in the rain forest. We then chose our favourite creatures to paint and write about. We tried to really carefully observe the animals when drawing and painting them so that our paintings were as close to real life as possible. We also used our best writing to create fact cards for our classroom display.

In the last few weeks we have been raising butterflies in our classroom. Look at the pictures to see how the tiny caterpillars changed into beautiful butterflies!

Here are some poems we wrote about the fantastic butterflies...

Beautiful Butterfly
When I open my eyes I see nectar all around me.
All around me I hear people talking and chatting.
In the air I smell sweet juicy fruit.
With my wings flapping I feel ready to explore the world. Up…up…up and away!
By Oscar F

Beautiful Butterfly
Opening my eyes   I can see the yummy nectar in front of my face.
All around I hear children as loud as an elephant.
On the ground I taste some … FRUIT. I’m ready to FLY!   My blood pressure is fine and healthy.
FLY…FLY…FLY high into the boiling sky.
By Jacob

Beautiful Butterfly
Opening my eyes I see my friends and family gliding around me.
Everywhere I can hear the stomping of children as loud as a spinosaurous.
In the air I can smell the lip-smacking taste of… FRUIT and I’m drawn towards it!
Wings flapping, heart beating I fly out of the net and start to suck the succulent nectar.
UP… UP…UP… AND AWAY!
By James

Beautiful Butterfly
Opening my eyes I see lots of butterflies flying around me. All around I hear sad people crying.
In the air I smell delicious honey nectar.
I feel my heart beating and my lungs breathing.
Up…up…up and away!

By Dylan

Beautiful Butterfly
Opening    my   eyes   I see all   my friends getting the nectar.
All   around me people are screaming.
In the air I can smell the nicest flowers.
My wings are beating and ready.
By Reuben

Beautiful Butterfly
Opening my eyes I see my friends and family getting the sweet nectar from the flowers. In the air I hear my heart beating and the flutter of my wings. All around me I can taste the sweat, smelling air floating in my face. In the air I taste the sweet nectar. Fly…Fly…Fly high into the sky!!!
By Nora

Extraordinary Butterfly
Opening my eyes I see danger all around.
All around me I hear children screaming outside.
In the air all I can smell is nectar that’s really sweet.
Wings flapping and I need a friend to play with.
Up…up…up… and AWAY!
By Matthew

Amazing Butterfly
Opening my eyes I see lots of beautiful butterflies.
All around I hear is the buzzing from busy bees as loud as a trumpet.
I can smell lovely nectar.
In my heart all I feel is love.
Fly…fly…fly…high into the sky
By Cerriann

Beautiful Butterfly
Opening my eyes I see my brothers and sisters flying over
me.
I hear stomping giants.
In the air I’m drawn of nectar.
Wings flying I feel alive and ready to go.
Up…up… and away!!!
By Kellan

Beautiful Butterfly
Opening my eyes I see butterflies getting nectar like bees. All around I hear leaves jangling on branches.
In the air I smell sweet squishy juicy fruit.
I feel embarrassed because I was a caterpillar and now I’m a butterfly.
Up… up… up… and away!
By Hattie

Seedlings Visit Tropical Bird Land

This week the Seedlings started their new topic called 'Rumble in the Jungle'. To get them inspired for their learning about rain-forests and habitats, they visited Tropical Bird Land. During the visit the children saw a range of rare and common birds and began to learn about their habitats. They got to feed the birds, hunted around a bird trail and even had several of the birds perched upon them. It was a fantastic day and the children learned a lot!

Can you tell your parents about these birds that we saw?

Year Two Beaumanor Hall Residential

This week the children in Year 2 went on a two day visit to Beaumanor Hall for their first residential. The children arrived at school dressed as pirates in keeping with the theme of the first day. They travelled by car to Beaumanor and then said goodbye to their parents before exploring their cabin and setting up their rooms for the night.

Day 1

The first day was a pirate day and the children took part in a range of pirate themed activities. This included a treasure hunt, learning about the history of pirates and some pirate themed active games. Later the children had dinner in the hall and played some more organised games in the sports hall. They then headed back to the cabin to have hot chocolate before heading to bed.

Day 2

On the second day the children were up and about early to have breakfast in the cabin before packing up their cases. The second day was a nature themed day and the children searched for minibeasts in the woodland area, completed some pond dipping and went on a wild bird trail. The day ended with some tired children (and teachers) meeting parents in the car park to head home. Everyone had a great time and the children were really well behaved.

A big thank you to Mr Baker and Mrs Waterfield for giving up their evening to run the trip.

Seedling's Medieval Banquet

On Thursday, the Seedlings held a medieval banquet in the hall for their family. This was to celebrate and show off the learning that they had completed during their castle project 'May the fortress be with you'. The children served the adults at the feast, showed off their work from the topic and performed a medieval style dance as entertainment. The event was really well attended so a big thank you to all the parents and grand parents that came to support us in our celebration of learning. Have a look at the photos below to see more.

Seedlings Visit Lincoln Castle

This week the children in Seedlings went to visit Lincoln Castle to find out about how a real castle worked and to learn more about the way people lived in medieval times. The children really enjoyed exploring the castle and completed a range of workshops whilst at the castle. This included handling artefacts, learning about weapons and taking part in a real medieval banquet. This was a great way to spark start the learning for their topic work this term! Have a look at the photos below to find out more about the day.

Fire, Fire!

This term the Seedlings have been learning about things related to fire in their topic 'Fire, Fire!' They have been learning fire safety with the fire service and a real fire engine came to visit them. Using this knowledge they then wrote instructions about how to be a fire fighter and put out fires. They have also been learning about the 'Great Fire of London' and created fact pages and artwork in their topic books relating to this event. Have a look at the photos below to find out more!

The Fire Service Came to Visit Seedlings

Have a look at our work!

The Parents came in for our end product afternoon...

Seedlings Become TV Stars

To finish of their topic 'Famous For Five Minutes' the children in Seedlings became famous for five minutes by starring in a piece for ITV Central News. The children celebrated their topic with an end product gallery for the parents and invited the TV crew in to film what was going on. The children really loved showing off their work, meeting the presenter and found out first hand how a broadcast is put together. Have a look at the photos from the day and click on the link to watch the finished programme!

http://www.itv.com/news/central/update/2017-10-26/school-stories-van-gogh-and-picasso-in-mini-museum/

Vincent Van Gogh

The Seedlings have been learning about the famous painter Vincent Van Gogh as part of there topic 'Famous for Five Minutes'. They have found out about the artist's life and looked at some of his famous work. In class they then learned about colour mixing and practised different brushstrokes to create their own work on a canvas. These can be seen below and in our school hall. Have a look!

ave a look to the left to see us busy at work in our art studio (Class Seedling). Then look below at our finished paintings. You can also see some more of Van Gogh's work by clicking the link below.
Starry Starry Night

Famous for Five Minutes Inspiration Day

This half term the Class Seedling Topic is 'Famous for Five Minutes'. The children are learning about a range of significant historical figures and using their lives to learn about different time periods. They have been learning about dates and beginning to investigate chronology. Today they held their inspiration day and all came to school dressed as a famous person. During the day they talked to the class about the person they were impersonating, learned where they fit in history and drew self portraits. Have a look at the Seedlings below and see if you can name the famous people they came as today!

Learning About Our Local Area

This half term the Children in Class Seedling have been learning about the human and physical features found in our locality and comparing them to those found in Australia. They have been on two trips to explore our local area. One around the village and across to the nature area. The other was a very rainy trip to Beacon Hill. The pictures below show some of the places the children explored and the learning that took place.

At Cossington Meadow

At Beacon Hill

Year 2 Visit Beaumanor Hall 2017

Last Wednesday Year 2 stayed overnight at Beaumanor Hall. Day 1 was made up of a range of pirate themed activities. Day 2 was nature themed. The pictures below show what the Year 2 children got up to on this visit. Have a look and talk to your child about their favourite part of the residential trip.

Little Red Riding Hood

In Seedlings this week we have been learning the story of Little Red Riding Hood. We have made a picture map of the story and put actions to the words to help us remember all the different parts of the text. Next week we will be innovating on the story which means changing parts of it to make it our own. Have a look at the videos of our story. What do you think of our actions and expression?

Seedlings Learning About Judaism For RE Week

This week in Class Seedling we have been learning about Judaism as part of our whole school RE week. below is some of the work we completed and facts we found out about the Jewish faith.

We went to see the Orthodox Synagogue in Leicester. Look at our visit below.

Back at school we created these mixed media collages of the building.

We wrote these sentences to show what we had learned on our trip . . .

At the synagogue I enjoyed seeing the crown. I found out that Jewish people have a perticular diet. - James

At the synagogue I enjoyed eating the matzos. I found out the scroll is made of ded cow skin. - Luke

At the sunagogue I enjoyed look at the Mezuzah. - Courtney

At the synagogue I enjoyed looking at the torahs. I found out Jewish people only beliv in one god. - Neve

At the synogogue I enjoyed lisning to the storys. I found out Sabath is from Friday to Satday. - Isaac

At the synagogue I enjoyed conting the stars of david. I found out that Jewish people baleav in one god. - Oscar

At the synogogue I enjoyed fighnding out the Mezouza and eating the Matzos bred. - Hattie

What was your favourite thing about the trip? What were the important five things our Jewish friend asked us to remember about his faith?

Seedlings get shipwrecked on a mysterious island...

To start our topic Class Seedling were shipwrecked on a mysterious set of islands. During the day we role played setting off on a voyage in our boat, being shipwrecked, exploring the islands and eventually working out where we have arrived. We used clues to work out we were on the Galapagos Islands and will now be learning all about them in our topic work. Look at the pictures from our exciting day!

Welcome to Seedling Class

Welcome to our healthy cafe!
The children designed the menus thinking about a balanced diet and what the body needs to run well. They enjoyed showing off their work to the parents and grandparents who joined them. Seedlings hope you liked the food!

Year 2 Poetry Corner - I wish I had a . . .

Year 2 have been writing poems based on a poem they learned called 'I wish I had a dragon'. They have turned the poem into their own by wishing for their own favourite creature. Please read them and let us the authors know what you think! Click on a page to make it bigger and easier to view.

Shrove Tuesday

Class 2 have enjoyed learning about Pancake day/Shrove Tuesday. We explored the Christian meaning behind the day and how it marks the beginning of Lent. As part of our learning, we had fun following a recipe to make pancakes and then finally we got to eat them!

We also read and reviewed a funny book called 'Mr Wolf's Pancakes' that has an unusual twist at the ending.
Have a read at what Robyn wrote about the book...

Book Title: Mr Wolf's Pancakes

Author: Jan Fearnley

Fiction or Non-fiction: Fiction

What is the book about? It is about a wolf who wants to make pancakes. He asks all his neighbours to help but they don't want to help. At the end of the story, Mr Wolf holds the pancakes out of the window and the neighbours smell it and Mr Wolf lets the neighbours in. Because the neighbours were so mean, Mr Wolf ate all the pancakes and the neighbours!

Rating: 5 star

What ages and interests is this book suitable for? Why? I would say it's for people 4 to 8 years old because they would find the story funny.

Inspiration Day to Warwick Castle

To start our new Foundation Stage and Key Stage One topic of 'Kings, Queens and Castles' , Class 1 and 2 visited Warwick Castle on 13th January. Class 2 had a wonderful, sunny and jam-packed day exploring the castle: from looking at the artefacts in the stately rooms, bravely going down to the jail and walking up the ramparts. The children even got to re-enact the Battle of Hastings and met Henry V111 and his wives! Have a look at some of our photographs below.

Talk for Writing

This week the children have been learning to retell an adventure story, 'Aristotle' by Dick King-Smith, off by heart. They have been learning to do this using a story map and some actions. This will build a strong basis on which the children will soon write their own adventure stories.

You can see some children retelling the story on the videos below and an example of a story map.

Writing instructions
In our history topic, we have started to explore Victorian home life. Class 2 have also been recently learning to write instructions in English lessons. Over the last week the children have had the experience of baking a yummy Victoria sponge cake and have all written a set of instructions so someone else could bake one, just like they did in the Victorian times.

Have a read of some of the children’s work below. I think we have some budding cooking writers or ‘Bake off’ contestants!

History walk around Cossington village

In history this term Class 2 are looking at ‘Homes in the Past’. We have started by learning to identify different types of homes e.g. detached, terrace, flat, etc. and have been discussing similarities and differences we can see when look closely.

On Monday 16th September Class 2 went for a walk around our varied and beautiful village. The children collected data on the types of homes they saw, took photographs on our school iPads and braved the turning British weather!

On returning to school, the children have reflected further on what we have seen and have produced lovely oil pastel pictures of some of the homes around Cossington.