Ferrari experience for Eddy

It was such a pleasure this evening to join Eddy as he got to ride in a Ferrari 458 Spider.

Two of our parents Mr and Mrs Brough kindly offered Eddy this amazing experience after hearing how hard he is fighting after his latest treatment. Eddy has a passion for cars and speed and it was wonderful to see his beaming smile in the car.

Eddy was also fortunate enough to receive a goody bag full of Force India Formula One items.

A huge thank you to Mr and Mrs Brough for organising this for Eddy. We always say at Smalley that we are a big family who care and look after each other and this is yet another example of this.

A great way to start the weekend. Enjoy the pictures below.

Congraduations!

We are missing you already :) 

Please enjoy our last video of Class 2013/14

CAN YOU HELP?

Calling all our lovely parents, carers, neighbours and friends - we would love your help.

I'd like to create an audio cd resource bank for our school. Please, if you have any story cd's that you would like to donate we would be very grateful.

Some examples of these could include; Roald Dahl stories or Paddington Bear (you may even have some of the promotional ones that you get free in the Sunday papers).

 Thank you  

Sports Day fun at Smalley

We had lots of fun last week at our annual sports day.

Children worked in their house teams and completed a wide range of events earning points.

This year there was a World Cup theme and Brazilian music was playing all afternoon whilst each team also adopted a country from this years tournament.

The winning house this year was Falcons.

Thank you to the PTFA for organising drinks for the children. Thank you also to all the parents for a wonderful turnout as usual to support our children.

A huge thank you to Mrs Naylor from Open Gate and her team of Sports Leaders, many of whom were ex Smalley Pupils.

Finally, a massive thank you to Mrs Shaw for organising the event. We really appreciate all the hard work that has gone into putting on an event like this.

Our Potato Harvest!

This morning 'Team Two' harvested their potato crop in the sunshine and it was glorious.

The children counted 287- wow!

We hope that you enjoyed eating your potatoes for tea this evening.

'Eat Happy' at Smalley

This afternoon we have loved baking healthy pizzas in Class 2. Please enjoy sharing this video with your families. 

KS1 SATs 2014

Please click on the link below to see the SATs results for 2014. A massive well done to all our Year 2 pupils. A huge thank you as always to our dedicated staff for all their hard work. Finally, thank you to all our parents for their support.

Another fabulous day!

The weather has been really gorgeous and we have had a fabulous day on the park. After registration we walked over to the field for a game of 'Rounders'. The children played well in their teams and it was lovely to have so much space. After the game we headed back to the classroom garden for a cool drink of squash, some biscuits and fruit. 

During our second session of the day we ventured off into the woodland to identify different trees. We named twelve varieties- wow! The children were very enthusiastic and they loved helping each other.

After our woodland walk we made our way back to the classroom for a lovely picnic. We found a shady spot and laid our blankets down! The children ate their delicious packed lunches and they relaxed whilst playing noughts and crosses or did some colouring with their friends.

During the afternoon the children practised their balancing and climbing skills in the adventure playground. We even found time to visit the shop and buy an ice-cream.

At the end of the day the children had fifteen minutes free time where they chose to play with the balls or run around with their friends. Gosh they were TIRED but not as tired as me!

We would like to thank our volunteers Mrs Swindell and Mrs Hull for their kindness and hard work. Also thank you to Mrs Hart and Mrs Shelton for your support.

Shipley Country Park

Enjoy looking at our short video - we have had a fun packed day!

Singing al fresco - wow!

It was a real pleasure today to go outside at playtime as the children were singing beautifully ready to open the Summer Fayre this Saturday.

I could have sat and listened to them all day and it is no surprise that the sun has come out this afternoon!

If you get the opportunity please do not pass up the chance to hear the lovely singing this Saturday! They will open the Summer Fayre at 12:00 noon.

I think it may be a good idea to have singing outside every day Mrs Mason?

Beautiful children, it made my day. thank you.

Making the right spelling choice

Last week in Phase 6 Letters and Sounds, we revisited phonemes such as 'air' and 'are' and  'ear' and 'eer' and thought about the correct spelling choices:

Stand up from your chair and give a big cheer to show how much you care about our new football gear!

Can you think of words with the 'air' spelling e.g. chair, or 'are' as in 'care'.

Or how about 'eer' as in 'cheer' or 'ear' as in 'gear'?

Happy Father's Day!

This week Class 2 have been thinking about the special men in our lives and what we love about them.  We hope you have a lovely weekend together and enjoy the cards, poems and hugs!

Art in the style of Mondrian

This afternoon we have been creating our own artwork in the style of Mondrian. All the children have been working really hard and using their concentration skills too.

Weighing it all up!

Team 2 enjoyed the practical approach to Numeracy this morning.  As you can see in the photos, the children were weighing different objects.  Some children were looking at which object was the heaviest and lightest and how they knew, some children were working out how many cubes certain objects weighed, some children were trying to make the scales balance, some children thought about what heavy and light objects they could think of, some children were estimating how many pototoes, carrots, beans and apples were equal to 1kg and some children looked at food packets and looked at how much they weighed. PHEW!

Thank you Mrs Hart, Mrs Shelton & Mrs Slater for your wonderful help this morning - such rich conversations - thank you.

EARN YOURSELF A MERIT

Look around your house or go to a supermarket with your parents.  

Can you find 7 things in the supermarket which weigh 1kg?

Post it on the website and the merit is yours.

Remember 1000g =1kg

A Special Assembly for a Special Lady

On Wednesday our Special Mrs Coulthurst retired from teaching. We will miss her so much but we wish her every happiness. Please enjoy sharing the gallery of photos with us - another fond memory.

Ready, Steady, Grow!

This week we have started to create our  Class 2 garden centre - Ready, Steady, Grow!

We have tidied around the paths and raised beds to make our school grounds look neat and cared for.

Please enjoy sharing our video and the practical learning that has taken place. 

GYMNASTIC FANTASTIC!

A special thank you to Miss Turner who has been coming into school this half term to work with children in Year 1 and Year 2.

Our children have learnt some super techniques for travelling, jumping, rolling, stretching and balancing.

Thank you to the children who have attended our after school Gymnastic club on a Monday afternoon too.

Happy Mummy's day x

Here are a few special messages for all you special mummies out there!

Have a lovely day!

Bye bye dinosaurs!

Team 2 have loved their

dinosaur and fossil fortnight!

We've learnt so much about these prehistoric creatures and thought of so many interesting questions to investigate.

You never know where a dinosaur might appear, as Jack found out today!

Until the next time we meet.........

Please post any wow facts that you find

or have found out.  

There's a merit to be gained

if you can post 2 comments.

Gold Book - well done!

Thank you Team 2 for all of your hard on telling the time this week.  Our aim was to make sure we could recognise o'clock, half past, quarter past and know what was 15 minutes before and after these.

A special thank you to these children who

appeared in the Gold Book on Friday.

Well done!

The Dangers of Electricity

Team 2 have enjoyed learning about where electricity comes from and some of the dangers.  The children have also been researching how to keep themselves safe when near electricity.

Here you are children - here are the links to the websites that you requested:

http://www.switchedonkids.org.uk/

http://www.crucial-crew.org/interactive-safety-game/electricity-safety.cfm

 http://www.juniorcitizen.org.uk/kids/electricalsafety/electricalsafety.php

http://www.eon-uk.com/EnergyExperience/85.htm

http://www.kiddesafetyeurope.co.uk/Documents/Kids%20Education.swf

Enjoy exploring.......

Thank you TTS

Wow - what a lovely surprise we all got on Thursday morning - in the children's words...... a lovely, nice,  new, squashy, super soft, bright and attractive rug!

NOW YOU SEE US.......

NOW YOU DON'T!!

Thank you so much TTS, we love it.

Someone's been looking!

Much excitment from our bird hide this morning as we spotted a few blue tits checking out our wonderful bird boxes that the children created as part of their homewrok.

Thank you again Mr Bates for helping us to put them up - it looks like they're going to make a lovely home for some gorgeous young chicks.

The bird boxes have landed! Thank you Mr Bates

A BIG thank you to Mr Bates as he helped the children to put up their Creative Homework birdboxes in the school playground.

We're looking forward to spotting the visitors who may check out our 5 Star bird hotels over the years!

Gold Book needlework!

All of the children helped their wonderful hand sewn birds take their first flight in Gold Book assembly this morning.

Here are 3 who have landed again.......

Look out for the others around school!

Thank you to our wonderful governor - Mrs Swindell - your kindness, encouragement and guidance has really helped the children with their needlecraft.

BRING YOUR FAVOURITE BOOK!

This Thursday is WORLD BOOK DAY!

To celebrate all the wonderful things that books bring to

our lives, we would like you to bring your favourite

book to school THIS THURSDAY.

Come and join Mr Crawford in the hall from 

8.30 a.m. on Thursday morning and start your

day off with a good read of your favourite book.  Hot

chocolate will be served too.

There will be special times during the day to read

and share your most favourite book with

your friends, including meeting up with your

'House Team'.

Looking forward to some good book recommendations.

Look out for your World Book Day voucher which

will be given out this week - this will give you £1.00

towards a book from your local bookshop.

Top Cookery Tips from Tesco and TTS!

We are lucky to have been chosen to trial some recipes for the 'eathappy project' organised nationally by Tesco and TTS.

We all feel proud at Smalley to be part of this.

Enjoy sharing this video with your friends and family.

Bird feeder Visitors

Look who flew into the sunny

school playground today!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/European_Goldfinch

Thank you for taking the photos Mrs Hart.

GUINNESS WORLD RECORD CHALLENGE!

Oh how we enjoyed the Dough Disco Guinness World Record Challenge today! Class R, Class 1 and Class 2 all came together in the hall at 10.00 a.m to start giving their fingers a workout by squeezing and stretching the dough.

All 84 children and 7 adults joined thousands of other people around the U.K. to try beat the current record of people sculpting with dough at any one time.

Here's the video that helped us with the challenge!

We're keeping our fingers crossed that we helped to make a new record - we'll keep you updated........how exciting!

Terrific Tuna Tarts in Team 2!

We had a great afternoon creating Tuna Tarts! The children worked well as a team as we discussed the ingredients that went into our recipe.

Gold Book - February 2014

A very big well done to the children who appeared in our Gold Book assembly on Friday.  It was super to see how proudly you shared your work with the whole school. Well done and keep up your hard work.

Look at the hailstones!

Perfect timing for the hailstones to turn up on our compound word day!  

The playground disappeared under all of the ice balls!

Thank you Ewan for taking the photograph.

Symmetry Spotting!

Thank you Team 2 - your symmetrical patterns that you created today were SUPERB!  The thinking that you did in your pairs was a pleasure to see and exciting to be part of.

Compound words

Hold on tight Team 2 as we launch into the world of 'COMPOUND WORD SPOTTING'!

Here is the link to the interactive games which we will be using!

http://www.firstschoolyears.com/literacy/word/other/compound/interactive/compound.htm

http://www.crickweb.co.uk/ks2literacy.html#compound%20words

Here is the powerpoint that we will be using in class - can you guess the different compound words?

Can you think of any other compound words?

Create a post with twenty compound words in and receive a merit - good luck!

Wow! Wow! Wow!

Mrs Rhodes and I were thrilled with the standard of the creative bird homework that was set for Year 2 children this half term.  It was evident that the children had spent a huge amount of time on their projects.  The children loved sharing their work with each other and showing it in Gold Book assembly. It was really lovely to hear all the things that the children had learnt whilst working on their projects -thank you mummys, daddys, brothers, sisters, grans, grandpas, aunties and uncles for all your support too.

Mrs Rhodes and I can't wait to make a display of your fabulous work Team 2.  

Thank you.

Sports Award for Mrs Rawlings

What a lovely surprise for Mrs Rawlings in our Gold Book assembly.

In recognition of Mrs Rawling's committment to sport, the Amber Valley Cluster of schools have named a special award after her.  The 'Ceri Rawlings Trophy' will be the prize for the school who win the Year 1 and 2 Basketball competition.

Thank you Mrs Rawlings and well done

- we're hoping to see the trophy at our school soon.

All things chocolatey!

There have been a few chocolatey faces leaving school over the last few weeks as we have enjoyed learning about how some materials can melt.  The children have used scientific words such as 'solid', 'liquid' and 'heat source' as well as planning and conducting a fair test by finding out which type of chocolate melts the slowest.

 What better way of celebrating the melting of chocolate with a batch of choclate cornflake cakes!  Thank you Mrs Shelton for your help.

Here's the recipe we followed:

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2451649/cooking-with-kids-chocolate-cornflake-cakes-

We have also enjoyed a lovely fruity ice lolly and choc ice too!  

All in the name of Science - of course!

Terrific Tuesday!

Enjoy sharing our wonderful day.

Oh No Dough!

This morning we have had a fabulous time making and baking bread. 

The children have been learning about the features of instructional writing and we have combined this area of learning with our science topic changing materials.

WOOLLY HATS AT THE READY!

Thank you for wearing your woolly thinking hats last Friday!

Super woolly writing from you all!

Please watch our video to see our super woolly hats!  

Some of us kept them on all day!

Please have a look at the film we watched in class

- we thought it was very interesting.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/how-wool-is-made-the-process-from-sheeps-fleece-to-woollen-scarf/13440.html

Well done to all members of Kestrel House this week. Your hard work and excellent behaviour enabled us to win the cup! Let's go for the double next week! Keep flying high everyone !

Thank you also, to all those children in other houses who congratulated Kestrels on their success - that is a very mature and kind thing to do and it was very much appreciated. It was yet another reason why Smalley school is such a special place to be!

Good Book - Team 2 - Flying High!

Thank you Team 2 for all of your super effort.  It's always tricky to pick just 6 children to go into the Gold Book, but Mrs Rhodes and I thought that these children had made an extra special effort with their work and have earnt themselves a place in our special Friday assembly.

24th January 2014

Congratulations to Ewan, Rocco, Emma, Joseph & Ella.

7th February 2014

Well done to Ewan, Holly, Joshua, Lizzie, Joseph and Ronny.

Creative Collage!

This week Team Two have had a fun afternoon creating their bird collages in our cross curricular science and art lesson. The children have been sharing ideas about natural and man-made materials. 

Big Schools' Birdwatch

There is much excitement in Class 2 as the children are preparing for the Big Schools' Birdwatch which runs from 20th January 2014-14th February 2014.

Team 2 are getting ready to feed the local birds during the cold weather and they are looking forward to seeing what arrives at the Smalley Bird Restaurant (the best for miles!).

Can you name some of these popular garden birds in the advert?

Please make a comment to let us know which birds you see in your garden or comment with any fantastic facts about the wonderful world of birds.

http://www.rspb.org.uk/schoolswatch/

http://www.rspb.org.uk/youth/

Merits and House Points available :)

Good look and happy spotting!

The house system has landed!!

Today our new system was launched in school. A lot of thought went into choosing the names but in the end we decided on names of high flying birds or bird families to represent our own high fliers here at Smalley!

All of our children and staff have been assigned to a house. We have a community feel here at Smalley and this is at the heart of our house system. Children from all year groups will work together as a team to achieve a common goal. Also, children will get chance to work with staff from different year groups on a regular basis. House Assemblies or House afternoons will encourage this and increase the family atmosphere that we already have in school.

Rewards

Children can gain house points for a number of reasons including; good behaviour, excellent manners, working hard, producing brilliant pieces of work,following the school rules, lining up smartly, playing nicely at lunch or break-time, helping or caring for others plus lots more. Any member of staff can issue house points.

The points are collected every week and a House of the Week will be announced in our Gold Book Assembly. We will have a trophy to present to the House captains and their coloured ribbons will be tied to the cup. The house of the half term will win an afternoon of rewards which will change on a regular basis.

Most importantly we intend to have lots of fun when working together in our houses. It will create competition but this will have to be friendly rivalry as we are all part of one big team here at Smalley and we must never forget that.

Keep checking the website for further details of the exciting things that are happening at school.

Wait a minute!

Team 2 had fun in their Numeracy session on Friday morning by estimating and then finding out how much they could do in one minute.  It made us all think very carefully about how long (or short) a minute really is!

Here are the children seeing how many bounces and catches they can do in a minute

Can you time yourself doing other activites at home.  How long does it take? 

We've also been looking at clocks with hands and digital clocks.

Have a look at what time you do certain things in a day - what time do you get up, go to bed, eat your lunch, play with your favourite toy?

Happy clock watching :) 

Gold Book Smiles!

A BIG well done to Leila, Billy, Emily, Isaac, Rowan and Lyla for all of your hard work - including super sleepover writing, kindness, confident story telling, brilliant addition, great knowledge of the 24 hour clock and excellent science work.  

Mrs Rhodes and I are proud of your achievements.  

What a super start to 2014!

Coming to a school near you..........

Please click on the link below to find out the latest exciting news about our new House System!

It's a cracker!

Hello everyone!  We hope you have had a wonderful Christmas so far.  

To start off the new year in good cheer, please post your favourite jokes so we can share them in class when we return to school.

A merit for your jokes - thank you :)

In the News!

What a lovely sight to see our children in the

19th December 2013 edition of the Ilkeston Advertiser.

Well done everyone for your hard work - what a super show!

If you'd like copies of the photos please call the Newspaper's office on 0115 9446160 and quote NILA NATIVITY RICHARDSON SMALLEY 1 (Group photo)  and NILA NATIVITY RICHARDSON SMALLEY2 (Midwife, Mary & Joseph)

Fun at the Panto - Oh YES we did!

Thank you children for your enthusiasm and participation at our pantomime of Beauty & the Beast - we were all certainly dancing and laughing in the aisles as the story unfolded!  Thank you to Gerry Graham's Touring Pantomime company for the super show.  Please enjoy the slideshow and share the fun with your families.

What a fabulous day to end the year!

Our School Council organised a fabulous day for us to finish 2013.

We had a special assembly celebrating some wonderful achievements and then our staff performed a very special version of the 12 days of Smalley Christmas!! The children certainly enjoyed it!

Children and staff looked very festive in their Christmas Jumpers and the cake sale was amazing. A massive thank you to those who brought cakes into school. They were fabulous!

Mr Crawford and Mrs Armitage watched Nativity 2 in the afternoon on our amazing new screen. It was just like being at cinema de lux but slightly better as we had free cakes too!!

It was lovely to end 2013 at school with so many smiles. A massive thank you to all. Enjoy Christmas and the holiday season, get plenty of rest and come back ready for an even better year in 2014!

We have all loved our Christmas production this year. Thank you for all your hard work children.

Please enjoy sharing these gorgeous memories with your family and friends.

From The Key Stage 1 Team

Christmas Cake Club

Thank you for making our 'Christmas Cake Club' really special.

Sleepover 2013!

We have had another wonderful time in 'Team Two' again today. The children have shared lots of ideas and we will be writing about this experience tomorrow.

Please enjoy sharing the video and photographs with your families.

The Great Fire of London

Team 2 have been learning all about the Great Fire of London.

This interactive adventure teaches you some more facts about the fire.  Explore the link below and let us know what you think.

http://www.fireoflondon.org.uk/

Please comment on this post with any information that you can remember about the Great Fire of London or type in a question that you would like the answer to.

1 merit when you comment.

Thank you

Marvellous Marzipan!

This week the children covered their cakes with apricot glaze and marzipan.

Feel proud everyone- you demonstrated beautiful manners and patience in our after school club this evening.

Gold Book Celebrations!

A special well done to the children in our Gold Book assembly today.  Kindness, super Science ideas, successful subtraction, number lines, hard work and concentration were celebrated in Team 2 today.

Keep it up!

Happy Hanukkah!

Browse more Jewish videos like this on Chabad.org/Video.

Hanukkah is a special Jewish fesitival.  It is an eight-day festival celebrating a time in history when the Jews won a battle against the Greeks to practise their religion freely.  This year Jewish people will celebrate the festival of lights from 27th November - 5th December.

Please watch the following video to have a look how Hanukkah (Chanukah) is celebrated.

Visit Jewish.TV for more Jewish videos

Cakes R Us!

We always feel proud to work with such wonderful children. We have had a  fun time during our after school club making Christmas cakes.  A special thank you to Mrs Hart and Mrs Slack for giving up your time- we couldn't have done it without you.

I've just taken my cake out of the oven and it smells really good! Hope yours does too.

We are looking forward to covering them in marzipan next week.

Children in Need - Team 2 style!

What a wonderful day we had on Friday - in so many ways.  The children all looked wonderful in their costumes and much fun was had by all as we tried to speak using our best pirate and princess voices!

The day was also about thinking about others and the children's sensitivity and thoughtfulness was lovely to see and hear .  There was a group of children who had even been practising a little show in honour of all the children who are helped by the money raised by Children in Need.

Please have a look through our slide show to help get a flavour of our lovely day.

Multiples & Times Tables

On Friday, Class 2 enjoyed playing on the Pumpkin game.  The children chose a number and then had  to recognise the multiples of that number:

e.g 2, 32.16 and 14 are all muliples of 2.

Remember in Year 2, we are currently learning to count in2s, 5s and 10s and learning to say our multiplication facts.  Those children who know these - well done - you can now practise your 3s and 4s, followed by 6s and 8s.

Here's the link to try the game at home:

http://www.mathplayground.com/multiples.html

Please make a comment when you have tried the game.

Have fun!

Firework poetry

Team 2 have been enjoying the firework season and they have looked at how to keep themselves safe when at displays.

Team 2 have also read a poem called 'November Night Countdown' by Moira Andrews and they have enjoyed writing their own version in pairs.  The children looked at their work and thought about how they could improve it by using more exciting adjectives - the children have then redrafted their poem and copied it up neatly.

Please enjoy listening to the children's super lines of poetry!

Children in Need - Ahoy there!

We have all had a fabulous day at school today raising money for Children in Need whilst having lots of fun!

The total was over £150 when I left school which is a great effort. Many thanks to our fabulous community for supporting the day.

Our suggested theme was Pirates and Princesses and everyone looked fabulous. All classes got chance to visit our new Pirate Ship in Class R, there were lots of happy faces to end the week!

Our staff as usual joined on the spirit of the day and looked fabulous in their outfits I'm sure you'll agree!

Each class took pictures throughout the day too which I'm sure will be on our website for you to see.

Monster Mania

Class 2 had fun last Thursday as they celebrated their class treat with a Monster party!

The children enjoyed dressing up in their choice of clothes and super costumes.  

Can you guess who is who - at times we found it quite tricky!

We had fun designing our own monster cupcakes and following instructions to make our own monster feet, monster paper plate hat and party plate!

We even had our own wizard who was busy casting spells!

Let's see if we can carry on the magic and earn another class treat next half term.

Well done!

Happy half term!

Champion Bunting Creators!

This half term the children in Class 2, as part of their homework project, were challenged to create their own bunting.  

Have a look at their fabulous creations!

The bunting is now hanging proud in our classroom

- thank you for your hard work.

Harvest Gratitude

It's always exciting when we receive a letter through the post at school! 

The children were over the moon to receive letters and cards of thanks from the local residents for their Harvest gifts. 

During Gold Book on Thursday, we shared the thank you messages.  Thank you again to our school community for your generosity - our neighbours were so thrilled.

Facts about Florence!

Team 2 have been working hard to find out facts about Florence Nightingale.

Children, can you help to create an online fact file by leaving a comment about what you have learnt about Florence?

Special Smalley Bake off!

 This morning Team 2 have really been using their listening skills to follow instructions. We have had a busy but fun time making cakes.

Enjoy them this evening.

Sharing with our Special Smalley Community

Friday was our wonderful school Harvest festival; we all agreed to say thank you for the precious gift of food. 

The assembly was led by Key Stage 1 children and we were all thrilled and proud to see performances of 'The Dingle Dangle Scarecrow' by our Reception Class and 'The Farmer's in his Den' by Class 1.

Class 2 projected their voices brilliantly as they introduced various parts of the celebration.  They also enjoyed performing their songs and recited a poem about all of the beautiful colours of the food we eat.

Thank you to the Key Stage 2 children for singing so beautifully and showing us how SQUASH, TURNIPS, PEAS, LETTUCE & THYME can have hidden messages about the important values of life:

1. Thyme for ourselves.
2. Thyme for each other.
3. Thyme for family.
4. Thyme for friends.

The grand finale was when all the children from our school placed an item of food on our 'HARVEST TABLE' and baskets were filled before our eyes!

Thank you so very much for your generosity.

 Smalley School gives to our Local Community

During the afternoon it was an absolute delight to take Class 2 children out into our special Smalley community to deliver the food hampers. We delivered to twenty nine flats and local bungalows. The children left the food on the neighbour's doorsteps and posted a special hand written harvest letter through their door. 

The children were thrilled to meet some of our school neighbours and we felt that we definitely put a smile on their faces as this was our main aim.

Thank you to everyone involved- we really do appeciate our community.

Sounds Amazing!

This morning it was so nice to hear two of our lovely children play the piano for us in assembly time.

They were both confident and proud......wow!

A monster visitor to Class 2!

A strange banging was coming from the cupboard!  When we opened it look who was inside!

Mike, from Monsters Inc, had been shopping and filled his shopping basket with lots of boxes.  He told the children that he was going to put the basket on a child's bedroom floor before hiding in their wardrobe!  The children were super scientists and sensible citizens when they explained to Mike that he had dangerous items in his basket and that everyone needs to take care around medicines.  Thank you children for your warnings to Mike - he sure was grateful that you had kept him, yourselves and other children safe.

We spoke about how some medicines sometimes look like sweets and the dangers of this.

Team 2 were brilliant at advising Mike what to do if they found medicine or unknown items around the home or on the floor.

REMEMBER never take medicines without having an adult with you and always tell an adult if you find anything unusual or unsafe. 

KEEP SAFE AROUND MEDICINES

Mike will be popping in again this week to see if there are any more ways to keep himself and his friends safe.

Harvest time!

All the children in Class R, Class 1 and Class 2 were busy last Friday rehearsing their contributions for the Harvest assembly on Friday, 18th October 2013 at 10.00 a.m.  Thank you children for working so hard.

Here are the words to our song that you asked for:

Thank you Lord for food to eat (sing 3 times)

Yummy, yum, yum, yum!

CHORUS

Alleluia, thank you Lord

Alleluia, thank you Lord

Alleluia, thank you Lord

Thank you for our food.

Thank you Lord for fish and chips (sing 3 times)

Yummy, yum, yum, yum

CHORUS

Thank you Lord for all your gifts (sing 3 times)

Yummy, yum, yum, yum

CHORUS

Parents and carers are very welcome to come to our assembly, it would be lovely to see you.

Meet our metre friends!

Children worked in pairs to create their metre person - they had to be very precise, as we needed people that were exactly 1 metre tall.  Children spoke about how many centimetres (cm) were in a metre (m) and why it is important to know how to measure accurately.

Once created, the children looked around the classroom and school for objects that were more, less than and the same as a metre.  Some children tried to find objects smaller than 10cm and some children tried to estimate the exact height and width of the doors in school.

CHALLENGE

Can you measure 3 objects at home and write their measurements.  Please post your answers on the website. 1 merit when you complete the challenge.

Thank you.

The beautiful colours of Harvest

Children in Class 2 have been thinking about all the wonderful colours of the food that we eat.   Here is a sneaky peek at some of the art work that we have been doing ready for our Harvest display in the hall. 

Team 2 have also been thinking about how a healthy diet can help to keep you fit and well.  The children have been using the words protein, fats, dairy, fruit and vegetables and carbohydrates (the children were very impressed that this word has 13 letters!)  We designed different plates of food and looked to see if they had the recommended amount of each food on it.

Well done children.

A Thursday Treat!

Wow - what a treat! It was wonderful to hear the sounds of 'Hot Shots' after school on Thursday afternoon.  The children and staff were working so hard to create some magical music (I think the Party Rings at breaktime helped!). It was a real privilege for me to stand and listen - thank you.  Our classroom door will certainly be open every Thursday afternoon - looking forward to hearing lots more awesome sounds! A special thank you to the tutors, Stuart and Tim, for providing such a wonderful experience for the children.

 Please have a listen.......

Link Romania Christmas Shoe Box Appeal

This week has once again seen the launch of our Link Romania Christmas Shoe Box appeal.  This is the fourth year Smalley School have decided to be part of this wonderful appeal, helping to bring smiles at Christmastime to those not so fortunate as ourselves.  To add to our excitement, Mrs Boyles will be travelling out to Romania to help deliver our boxes, visit the families and schools which are helped by this wonderful charity and create educational links for our children with schools in Romania and Moldova.  She will be blogging on our website during her visit so that the children are able to follow the journey of their boxes and share the experience with her.  

The children have enjoyed an assembly this week reminding them about what could be put into these family Christmas shoe boxes and each child will be bringing home a letter with a shoe box form attached at the end of the day on Thursday.  

It would be wonderful if we could beat last years total of 115 boxes, which would keep Mrs Boyles very busy delivering during her visit to Romania!  If you are struggling to find an empty shoe box to fill, any shoe shop will give you an empty box if you call in. 

Class 5 are also busy doing additional fund raising with their movie night which will mean Mrs Boyles can take extra  items out with her, particularly items which will be useful in the schools she visits.

Details of how to fill and package your box is on the leaflet.  Boxes can be bought into school as soon as they are finished but no later than Tuesday 5th November as this is when our collection lorry will visit school.

Happy Box Filling!

Gold Book Smiles

A very BIG (in Team 2 BIG word style- massive, huge, ginormous, colossal) well done to the children who have had their name in the Gold Book so far this term - we're looking forward to the next one.

Shapes galore!

Class 2 have been looking at the properties of 3D shapes.  They have been using words such as vertices, edge and face to explain the differences and similarities in the shapes. The children have enjoyed playing the shape mission on the computers so much that they requested the link on the website!

  http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks2/maths/shape_space/3d_shapes/play/

Here it is! Have fun!

Our Artists!

Another busy day in our classroom...........

 Thank you Mrs Swindell and Miss Williams for helping Team Two to brush up on their painting skills today.

Monster Art

We have had a fabulous afternoon creating friendly monsters ready for our literacy lessons!

Enjoy looking at your children hard at work.

Yummy Yummy in my Tummy!

Thank you to Mrs Walker and Mrs Annable for cooking another delicious lunch using our potatoes and beans- how brilliant is that?

A Woweeee Day!

What a fabulous start to our new school year.......

We have had a day packed full of fun and learning and that was just the staff!

This morning we harvested our crop of potatoes and beans. The children were thrilled to witness the potatoes coming out of the earth, their squeals of delight travelled across the playground. We collected nearly a bucket full! At luchtime we showed them to Mrs Walker in the kitchen and she agreed to cook them for school lunch tomorrow- WOW!

Please enjoy looking at our photographs.

During this afternoon we combined literacy and art. The children sat beautifully and listened to a story called 'The Birthday Surprise'. They then created fabulous birthday cards to present to each other through the school year. We will be giving the first one out tomorrow :)

And finally.............................

Aaaaah the slippers were a great success. Look at how comfortable amd cosy we are!

Are you interested in Athletics?

CALLING ALL YEAR 1 and 2 CHILDREN

There is a very exciting opportunity for children in Year 1 and 2 over the next few weeks.  An after school Athletics club will be ran by the Sport Development Team at Heanor Gate Science College.  It  will start THIS Tuesday from 4.00-5.00 pm and last for 3 weeks.  The sessions will cost £1 each session.  If your child is interested, please pop into school and pick up an information and consent form from Mrs Rhodes & Miss Hill.

Thank you

Robots!

We have been looking at famous buildings in London and we thought about what we would find in the Science Museum.  Please follow this link to find out more about it : http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/

We also thought about the different robots inside the museum and had fun designing our own - using common 2D shapes. Can you remember what 5, 6 and 8 sided shapes are called?

We enjoyed singing this song too - it made us giggle!

http://www.learnenglish.org.uk/kids/songs/robot.html

Welcome Back!

It was super to see all of you back from a very sunny Summer holiday today.

You all looked super smart and were all very excited to see each other.  You shared holiday news  and it was great to see you all enjoying playtimes and one another's company in the sunshine once again.  There was a lot of kindness as you helped one another to settle into Class 2 today and much excitement about our new starters in Class R. - thank you and keep this up please.

Mrs Rhodes, Mrs Hart and I are thoroughly looking forward to the year ahead which will begin with a topic all about London.

You were all very excited about  looking at your Royal Family challenge this evening - many of you could not wait to start it so you could earn awards for your new merit book.

Good luck and we're looking forward to seeing you again tomorrow.