2016-2017
Smalley's Summer Show 2017
Well done children, what a super show.
Thank you for all of your hard work and effort.
'Eggciting' times ahead!
As you may have seen, we are expecting chicks in the last week of term! Mavis currently has a clutch of 7 eggs that she is incubating and doing a very good job with. Today she has been moved into a separate hutch so that she can incubate in peace and get ready for her chicks.
Incubation and chick development takes 21 days which is amazing that a new life can be made in just 3 weeks. Today is day 10 so we have carefully checked the eggs development. This is called 'candling'. To candle an egg you need to shine a torch at the bottom of the egg in a very dark room. As you can see, by day 10 the egg will show lots of veins and blood vessels- this is called mapping.
Mavis has done a good job so far and her chicks are developing. The eggs are half way there so keep your fingers crossed for the due date!
If you have anything you'd like to know about the hens, or Mavis and her eggs just remember you can ask Miss Tulley or Mrs Reckless :-)
Ready, Steady, GO!
Much fun was had during our EYFS and Key Stage 1 Potted Sports event this morning. Thank you to all the children who worked so hard to gain points for their team and thank you to all the supporters who came to spectate. A special thank you to our PTFA for providing the refreshments and for our Sports Leaders from Heanor Gate School; we couldn't have done it without you!
Please enjoy some of the action shots......
Fun Day Thursday!
Class R had so much fun using the parachute today! They worked so well as a team, taking turns, listening to instructions and enjoying themselves 😀
Easter Treats
This week Class R made delicious Easter nest cakes and decorated them with mini eggs. They carried them home in their Easter baskets that they made with Mrs Smith.
HAPPY EASTER!
Afternoon tea with my Mummy!
How wonderful to welcome our Mummies and special ladies to our afternoon tea today.
We wanted to say a special thank you for all that you do, each and every day.
Mummies and other special ladies in our lives, including Grannies and Aunties, were treated to some lovely singing, presentation of special work, a poem, a gift of flowers and piano music. Our special guests also enjoyed freshly baked scones, baked with our own Smalley eggs (thank you Mrs Mason), shortbread with strawberries (thank you Mrs Straw), freshly baked cakes (thank you Mrs Pace) and of course plenty of hugs and time to chat. The children enjoyed their freshly baked biscuits made by our kitchen staff - thank you.
Thank you so much everyone for coming - it was really super to see you all. If you were unable to make it, we hope you enjoyed your special gifts.
Happy Mother's Day xx
Spring has sprung!
We have seen some signs of Spring in Class R this week. The bulbs we planted in the Autumn are now flowering and the Forsythia bushes are in bud. All the children have painted a beautiful daffodil and these are displayed in the classroom. Ava, Bobby and Holly showed their artwork in Gold Book Assembly today.
Reading for Life!
During Book Week 2017, special assemblies were held with lots of special guests. Our guests included Lucy Truman, who came to speak to the children on Tuesday about her work as an illustrator. Lucy also gave a masterclass to Class 4, where they designed some beautiful book covers. On Wednesday Tess, Oliver and Iris spoke about their favourite books, visiting Heanor library and making bookmarks. On Thursday, we welcomed Mr Huntington, who is the headteacher at Heanor Gate Science College; he came to read his favourite children's book 'The Highway Rat' by Julia Donaldson. Our very own Dr Shelton shared her wonderful book that she had written as part of her studies - she spoke to the children about everyone having the potential to write a book and that everyone has a book inside them
On Friday, we held a special whole school assembly where each class shared the work they had been doing.
Thank you to everyone who visited our school and to everyone who shared their work during our assemblies this week.
Book Week - Teacher Swap
As part of our book week in school, we held a teacher swap! Teachers went into other year groups to share their love of reading. This was enjoyed by pupils and staff alike.
Tasty Toast Day!
Class R enjoyed an early snack today to celebrate National Toast Day. What a yummy start to the day!
Class R New Term Letter
Dear Parents/Carers,
Please find attached a copy of our new term letter.
Many thanks
Mrs Smith
I love my life!
We enjoyed thinking about the lyrics of this song in our assembly today. Please enjoy and share at home too.
Perfect end to the week!
What a great end to the week - all of Class R were in Gold Book Assembly showing their wonderful artwork and Literary work. After the snowfall last week it inspired us to paint pictures of Snowmen and to link with our Space topic some children painted and drew Aliens.
Well done Class R Mrs Smith and Mrs Evans are very proud of you!
To Infinity and Beyond....
The children are really enjoying our Earth and Beyond topic. They are using their imagination to fly into space in our new space rocket tent and in our small world area. They have all designed and made a planet to create our wonderful display.
Phase 3 Letters and Sounds with Mrs Shelton
Thank you Phase 3 for a fantastic first week!
My group have been working hard this week on the 'ch' sound and learning our tricky words. Please use your tricky words book mark to spot these words in your reading books.
Tricky words: you, they, all, are, my, her, he, she, we, me, be, was.Over the next few weeks we will keep working on these, so we can read and spell them confidently and we will be practising the sounds 'sh', 'th' and 'ng'. We will also be looking at the alphabet, introducing the names of the letters.
Keep up the good work Phase 3
Mrs Shelton
Class R New Term Letter
Dear Parents/Carers,
Please find attached a copy of our new term letter.
Many thanks
Mrs Smith
Gold Book Assembly
Congratulations to the children in Class R who were in our Gold Book today. They had made beautiful shimmering snowflakes and had written about their Christmas holiday in their Busy Bee book. All the children have settled back into school after the Christmas holiday- well done!
Pantomime Fun with Cinderella!
Today we welcomed the production of Cinderella into school. The children enjoyed singing and dancing along as well as the boos and cheers! There were lots of opportunities to say "Oh YES there is!" and "He's behind you!" too!
Thank you children for being a super audience.
Christmas jumper day!
Merry Christmas from all of us in ClassR!
Party time!
Class R had a wonderful time at their Christmas party! Lots of lovely food, party games and a dancing competition. Happy Christmas! 🎅🏼
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas
Well it's the first of December and Class R are well and truly into the spirit of Christmas!
They have been busy in Santa's Workshop designing and making toys, designing their own wrapping paper, painting characters from the Christmas Story and decorating the tree.
Hey Ewe!
We're very excited that the tickets for our production of Hey Ewe have gone on sale.
We can't wait to show you all of our teamwork in our baaaarilliant production!
Some parents have been asking for the tunes to accompany the song lyrics; due to licensing laws we are unable to put the full versions of the songs onto the website. However you can access a 'taster' of the songs on the Out of the Ark website. Please follow the link below:
http://www.outoftheark.co.uk/hey-ewe.html
Our Reading Workshop 15.11.16
Thank you so much to all of the parents and children who attended our reading workshop this evening; it was wonderful to see so many of you.
We hope the information was helpful and the classroom activities and handouts gave you an insight into current expectations around reading.
Together we can help your child be the best reader that they can be.
Together we can help your child be life long readers.
Here is the link to the video which helps with the pronunciation for segmenting and blending words:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwJx1NSineE
Here is the link to Oxford Owl where you can register free and access over 250 online books. This website also supports Mathematical learning.
https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/for-home/://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/for-home/
Here are the the links which Mr Redgrave mentioned for great book recommendations:
Please let us know what you think.
Thank you again for your continued support.
We love books!
A big thank you to Cathy, a librarian from Heanor library for bringing a wonderful selection of books for us to look at and share with each other. We worked in small groups to choose our favourite book for Cathy to read to us.
We remember
Thank you for this special Lego homework to commemorate Remembrance Day 2016, Jack.
Fabulous books!
Classes 2-6 have been lucky to have a visit from Kathy, a local librarian with extensive knowledge about children's books. Kathy set each class a challenge to discuss, evaluate and recommend the best children's picture book. She told the children about her involvement in the Carnegie & Kate Greenaway Book Awards, where she helps to choose the nominations for the best children's books. Thank you so much Kathy for working with our children - there was a wonderful buzz about books!
Class R and Class 1 - it's your turn tomorrow! Enjoy!
Phase 6 Letters & Sounds
As requested by the children, here are two links for the online games that we have been playing with irregular verbs.
Enjoy!
http://www.eslgamesplus.com/irregular-past-tense-esl-grammar-jeopardy-quiz-game/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/starship/english/blastrocket.shtml
Film Night - October 2016!
The PTFA held their first film night of the academic year with the children watching the very apt 'Chicken Run' following our new arrivals!
The children had a fantastic time and the event raised almost £300!
A huge thank you to Mrs Ufton, Mrs Worth and all the staff who supported this event.
Lizzie in class 5 won the competition that evening to pick the next film!
We look forward to seeing you there.
Enjoy some pictures below!
Wishing you all a Happy Harvest!
On the last day of term we enjoyed performing our Harvest assembly. The hall was bursting as parents, children and bags of Harvest gifts filled the hall.
Our Reception, Class 1 and Class 2 children led the festival with an array of beautiful songs, smiles and poetry. Our Key Stage 2 children and Performance Club also supported this special Smalley tradition.
Thank you so very much for all of the generous Harvest gifts - as you can see from the photos, the kindly donated Tesco banks were filled to the brim and distributed to the nominated people in our local community. This year we asked our school children and parents to nominate special people in our local community who may have been ill, suffered a sadness or just go above and beyond. I know from the bags that I delivered, the gifts certainly put a lot of smiles on a lot of faces.
Wishing you all a Happy Harvest and a safe half term.
PHASE 6 VERBS, VERBS,VERBS, VERBS!
In Phase 6 Letters & Sounds we have been looking at what happens to verbs when we put them into the PAST TENSE. We have explored how the /ed/ can make 3 different sounds but still be spelt the same - /d/ as in smiled, /t/ as in jumped and /ud/as in painted. How will you use this to help you with your spellings?
Some verbs completely change when they are put into the past tense......can you think of some verbs which do not just add the suffix /ed/ onto them in the past tense?
e.g. write - wrote speak - spoke
Make a comment of 10 irregular verbs and there's a merit waiting for you! Good luck!
Hello Autumn!
Today Class R went on a walk looking for signs of Autumn. They spotted the leaves changing colour and falling from the trees. They saw fungus growing on the ground and on a tree and they described the weather as cool and damp.
Thank you to Mrs Slater, Mrs Ufton and Mr Crawford for helping us on our walk today.
Autumn is here!
Gold September Festival 2016!
Friday was a very special day that will live long in the memory of those that attended. As part of our awareness raising this month for Gold September a mini festival was held after school. There were a number of fun stalls, crafts and games as well as a very popular BBQ!
During the afternoon we unveiled our new playground in memory of Eddy Parry, a very special boy who attended our school and tragically lost his life to Bone Cancer. We were very pleased that Eddy's parents; Jon and Claudia, were able to attend the playground and open it with us.
Part of the playground are two new personalised basketball nets, located in the area which Eddy loved to play. A huge thank you to Jamie Eaton for his support with this.
Also, our past pupil Sam came to present a huge cheque after his amazing achievement cycling from London to Paris during the Summer holidays. It was brilliant to see him.
Jon, Claudia, Sam, Martin from Derby Wheelblazers and myself all took shots to officially open Eddy's Court.
A few children then attempted wheelchair basketball and took some more shots along with trustee of the charity, Graham Salisbury.
It was a fitting tribute and occasion for a very special boy. During the last month well over £1000 has been raised for Gold September. This is a wonderful amount of money and a huge thank you to everyone who has contributed in any way.
A few pictures are attached below and a more comprehensive video will be posted very soon.
'Be a hero for a hero'
All the children in Class R supported the Gold September charity by dressing up as a Super Hero for a day. Thank you to you all it was a great day!
Superhero staff at Smalley!
On Superhero day for Gold September, it was clear to everyone that we have superhero staff who go that extra mile each and every day! What a team!
Massive thank you to all!
Saturday spaghetti treat!!
After providing a healthy clutch of eggs, we thought our girls deserved a tasty treat, so today our hens enjoyed MARMITE SPAGHETTI! They loved it and even chased each other with it in their mouths!
Shed building!
Today our gardening development project acquired a new addition! A shed for storing all of the chicken supplies, like food and bedding and also some of our gardening equipment in. My Dad (rather a clever handyman!) has been busy making it at home and then we built it up at school this afternoon. We're rather pleased with it - what do you think?
Thank you for the kind offer of slabs from Mrs Pancisi and Mrs Meek - I'll be in contact soon.
A tasty class treat from Miss Tulley & our hens!
How exciting! In Gold Book today, Miss Tulley presented each class with a vanilla sponge to share. Miss Tulley had baked the cakes with our very own Smalley Chook Nook eggs! Thank you Mavis, Matilda, Betty, Blossom, Gracie & Goldie and of course our Star Baker - Miss Tulley! What a team!
Introducing...
After reading through hundreds of name ideas, we have finally decided on 6 names for our new school chickens.
Introducing: Mavis, Matilda, Betty, Blossom, Goldie and Gracie!
I'll name that chicken in 1!
We have had a fabulous first week back at school and so have our new arrivals!
The children arrived back this week to the surprise of seeing that we are now the home to six new chickens.
They have settled very quickly and are already laying eggs.
It has been lovely to see children, staff, parents and grandparents go over to the chickens and meet them over the course of the week.
A huge thank you to the team that gave up their holidays to ensure the chickens have a fabulous new home.
Also, thank you to the PTFA for providing the funding for this.
They have been an instant hit!
The children were set a challenge by Miss Tulley today to name the chickens.
The names will be announced in due course alongside a picture so we can all call them by name!
What a brilliant start to the new year! Enjoy some pictures below!
First Week Fun!
Class R New Term Letter
Dear Parents/Carers,
Please find attached a copy of our new term letter.
Many thanks
Miss Hill
Our first day at BIG school!
