History week

This week, we had a fabulous time learning about our family history. The children brought in photos of their grandparents and talked to us about them. It was also fantastic to see grandparents coming in to talk to Bumblebees about their childhood, their time at school and teach us some games and songs from the good old days!

The children looked at lots of black and white and sepia photographs and compared them to colour photos we have today.

They also compared old books with yellow and slightly torn pages and faded pictures to books we have today. Moreover, they learned how to differentiate between old and new toys and had lots of fun along the way. 

Bumblebees also loved playing Snakes and Ladders with one of our visitors! They were interested to learn that when she was a little girl she had milk in bottles and had to take cod liver oil at her school!

Thanks to Karen, who brought some old style bottles in, the children could compare the packaging of milk in the past with today's packaging. 

We also had a visit from one grandma who has been working at our school for 19 years and whose children came to Upland Primary School. She shared some photos of the old buildings with us.

The children noticed that the old building was made of bricks and that the new building is made from wood. They told us that the roof of our new school doesn't have a chimney and that the windows are a different shape. 

The children enjoyed getting messy with Granny's soap flakes and learned how to play hop scotch! 

A big THANK YOU to all our visitors for making this week memorable and exciting!

Diwali

This week , Bumblebees have been learning about the celebration of Diwali. We had a look at countries on the map of the world and found England and India together. We then listened to a short clip of how Diwali is celebrated and looked at Indian clothes and jewellery. The children enjoyed looking at a real sari and learning words to describe it. 

We then found out more about Diwali by listening to the story of Rama and Sita and acted it out. The children were particularly taken with the 10 headed monster, Ravana, who at first pretended to be a nice old man, and many of them wanted to play his part!

One of the highlights of the week has been a visit of one of the parents wearing the most beautiful traditional sari! She braved the heavy rain to share her culture with us. Thank you so much from all the morning and the afternoon Bumblebees!

In maths, we learned about 2-d shapes, Rangoli patterns and had a go at making our own Rangoli patterns as a team!

We also made books about the story of Rama and Sita and made up our own stories, too!

Outside, we had a go at being fire fighters, putting out fires in houses and all over the place. Diwali is a beautiful time but remember that candles and lamps can cause fires, too!

Autumn celebrations

Over the last 2 weeks, we have been learning about Autumn and the festivals that take place during this season. The children went on an Autumn walk around the school and thought about what they could see, hear, feel and smell. We then made a book together.

The children took part in many seasonal activities such as picking up the pumpkins of different sizes to see what they feel like and had a go at scooping the seeds out and making a pretend pumpkin soup.

They also learned about how and why Halloween is celebrated and enjoyed learning songs, especially the one about the 5 little pumpkins as it involved acting out how the pumpkins were feeling!

The children also had a go at making Autumn pictures that involved printing with bottle corks.

Have a look at our favourite activities on the Busy Fingers table!

And here is some spooking writing inside spiders...

We have also been thinking about what the weather is like in Autumn and about what kind of clothes we wear to protect us from the rain.

In addition, we have been getting ready for the Bonfire night. We made lots of firework pictures, listened to the sounds fireworks make, learnt a song about fireworks and played different instruments.