Pre-Prep News, Friday 13 May
Read here about our first full week back in the classroom this term!
From Mrs Ross
It was a delight to join in with the Reception boys singing 'Frère Jacques' this week with Mr Power. Digby demonstrated partner singing, with actions, whilst turn-taking beautifully!
Play times at Pilgrims' are busy, with all kinds of opportunities provided for outdoor adventure, investigation and collaboration. The boys wear their trainers so that they are free to run, cycle, build, play ball games, and climb safely.
Please continue to ensure that your son has a coat at school in case of rain. Our Pilgrims enjoy playing outside, whatever the weather! It is also important that your son has a sun-hat at school with sun cream applied on sunny days. I have included some snapshots of play this week.
Diary dates
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Tuesday 17 May |
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Duck eggs and incubator arrive |
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Friday 20 May |
All day |
Year 2 trip to Aquarium |
| Saturday 21 May | am |
PPA Sponsored walk and fête |
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Friday 27 May |
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Ducklings collected |
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Tuesday 7 June |
All day |
Reception Class trip to Marwell Zoo |
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Friday 10 June |
1000-1100 |
Pilgrims' Play session for pre-school children |
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Friday 17 June |
0845-0915 |
Pre-Prep Celebration Assembly for parents |
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Monday 20 June |
1900 |
Pre-Prep Move-Up meeting for parents |
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Tuesday 21 June |
0900 |
Whole School photo |
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Friday 24 June |
1000-1100 |
Pilgrims' Play session for pre-school children |
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Tuesday 28 June |
New Boys' Day |
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Wednesday 29 June |
am |
Dress rehearsal: Ocean Commotion |
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Thursday 30 June |
1800-1845 |
Ocean Commotion performance for parents |
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Friday 1 July |
1400-1530 |
Pre-Prep Sports Day |
Pilgrims' Shell awards
Year 2 - to Scipio S for his effort and enthusiasm when researching a sea creature of the Great Barrier Reef.
Year 1 - to Teddy J for showing such enthusiasm in our Topic sessions.
Reception - to William O'K for his care, focus, and determination in his drawings of animals.
Notices
Mrs Walker, Forest School Teacher, writes:
Do you have any old flat or fitted bedsheets that are no longer wanted? I would like to have a collection available for den building as an alternative to sticks and leaves! I will leave a box labelled Forest School at the entrance to the Pre-Prep for a week. With many thanks.
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Year 2
Considering this was our first full week back in the classroom, it was only right to fill it from top to tail with exciting activities! The boys have worked so hard on every different challenge that has been sent their way and have immersed themselves completely in our learning on the Great Barrier Reef. We have had the school’s new bank of Surface Go’s out three times: to challenge ourselves on Times Table Rock Stars, to research a sea creature living in the reef and to test out the Stylus pen as a drawing tool. It seemed only right that our Maths lesson on clockwise and anticlockwise turns involved sea creatures too!
We have made collective and individual mind maps to help us gather and make sense of the wealth of information about the particular habitat of the Great Barrier Reef. We have used pastels to recreate one of the many types of colourful fish that inhabit this 'heart-stoppingly beautiful' (Patrick B’s words, not mine!) ecosystem. Writing in role, the boys have taken on the identity of a sea creature to brilliant effect.
The boys have discovered various ways they can help in their day-to-day lives to protect the fine balance of life in a coral reef. Ensuring plastic is recycled, is one such way. Thank you to all donations of plastic bags and bottle tops. Who would have thought that these items would find a second lease of life as jellyfish? They will be on display in the classroom from next week so do come and see them.
Times Tables Rock Stars
All boys have a log-in that is stapled to the inside cover of their Reading Record. If everyone could find 15 minutes a week to play at home, along with the time spent each week in class, their quick fire times table foundations will be fantastically strong as they move up into the Prep.
Please do get in touch via vford@pilgrims-school.co.uk for any questions or queries you may have.
Mrs Ford
Year 1
The boys were thrilled with the finished Pirate Ship role play corner and had great delight in dressing up as pirates. In topic sessions they have created pirate collage paper plate faces. They gave their pirate a name too which was great fun. Learning about famous pirates was of great interest and facts were gathered to create WANTED or 'Who am I?' posters.
In Maths this week, the boys have been learning about adding multiples, using arrays, and doubling numbers. Arrays took quite a lot of practice as rows and columns can become confused, so we went over this several times.
The boys have thoroughly enjoyed our weekly sessions in the IT room with Mr Williams. A very big 'Wow!' was heard as we entered the room and saw the new gleaming devices ready for us to use, one each. They are learning how to log onto the new Surface Go devices and have created some posters using Microsoft Word and will be exploring coding over the coming weeks. Fabulous learning, listening, remembering and creating going on.
Another super full week. Well done, boys.
Mrs Huntley
Reception
The Reception boys have had a busy week sorting and classifying different animals ahead of our imminent arrivals; duck eggs at point of hatch. 'Eggcitement' is brewing!
It has been wonderful to overhear conversations. For example, 'does a snail have one leg?' and with the help of our new Surface Go laptops we discovered that a snail does in fact, have one foot.
Some boys extended their counting skills, counting in twos. After sorting animals into groups according to how many legs they each had, they set to work to record their findings with the aid of non-fiction books. They took great care in the detail and, of course, checking the number of legs on each animal, along with their correct colour and markings.
In Maths, we have been looking at doubles; at first using our fingers and then looking at the spots on dominoes, with some super long domino trains being created along the way. We also looked at animal legs, these being the same on both sides.
Mrs Kent
Library
Every Tuesday, the Reception class pop along to the library for a story with me before morning break. It has been so lovely sharing stories with the class this year and talking about the books we have been reading at home. This Tuesday we talked about pets and how important they are to us. We read the brilliant book, My Pet Goldfish by Catherine Rayner and followed this by a wonderful visit to the school's pet goldfish pond.
The boys quickly pointed out the biggest fish and wondered how big it would get. Thank you, Reception class, for a lovely morning; always a pleasure to have you.
Mrs Leslie
Forest School
Magic was in the air during Year R’s Forest School session this week. The boys created some wonderful natural magical wands and made a spell for something to happen in nature. I was most impressed with some of their spells. Some boys were introduced to drilling and had a go at trying to drill a hole in a small disc, whilst others explored the Arboretum and found some homes for our soft animals.
This week, Year 1 boys went on the hunt for some dragon eggs which had to be picked up very carefully whilst wearing a fireproof glove! Inspired by their discoveries, the boys made some wonderful woodland dragons. Some created a den for their dragon and others made mud dragon eggs!
Year 2 were very lucky to have a visit from Carol Rawlings, member of The Hampshire Ontological Society. She chatted to the boys about the Peregrine Falcon and shared her knowledge about this amazing bird. The boys were thrilled to catch a glimpse of both the female and male birds as well as watching the chicks on the live feed. Towards the end of the session the boys had a chance to ask Carol some questions. She very kindly gave all the boys a Peregrine Falcon badge from the RSPB.
Here is a link to the live feed to see the Peregrine Falcons at Winchester Cathedral.
Mrs Walker
