This week we are learning how to write the letter ‘W’ correctly. We noticed this morning that it is similar to two vs put together. Part of tonight’s homework is the ‘W’ formation booklet.

See you tomorrow,
Mr.Cook

Happy Mother’s Day! We hope you love your card and your ladybird, Mum!

I hope it was kept a suprise until this morning. See you tomorrow!
Mr.Cook

After another week, working away as Park Planners – our park is looking fabulous. We’ll need to try and write some more descriptions for our park next week – and see what adventures our park takes us on . . .

Have a lovely weekend – hopefully Mums, you’ll enjoy our surprise for Mother’s Day!
Mr.Cook

This week we are working on Wordbox 5 within our Word Building Pamphlet. It is great revision for your child’s sounds, and develops one strategy to reading – blending. We have been working on this in class this week. Some of us are now blending words with 5 sounds – WOW!

Our words this week are:

Mr.Cook

This week at home you should be using the ten frames to develop your understanding of number.

There are lots of suggestions in the pamphlet. It can be found below:

CLICK HERE Early Level Numeracy Parent Handout

Mr.Cook

This week our letter formation is the letter ‘V’ which makes the vvvvv sound when it talks. We did lots of different V-activities this morning. Our V-jigsaw and V-pasta formation pictures were just two of them. You have your V formation page in your homework booklet to do tonight. 🙂

Mr Cook

We all got our sports clothes on for Sports Relief today. We loved getting to do the Sports Relief Dance in the playground at break time. It was so funny watching Mr Cook run at lunchtime.

Have a great weekend,
Mr.Cook

P3FS have entered Hobbycraft’s Easter Bonnet Competition on behalf of Lochardil. They’ve done a fantastic job.

It’s YOUR turn to take part now. Get down to Hobbycraft and vote Lochardil as your winner. Voting takes place over the next two weeks!

Over the last week, when growing our beans, we realised a few things:

The beans grew – or our new word germinated – better in the dark than they did in the light.

The organge juice and the vinegar killed the beans.

Both the water and the soda water made the beans grow.

We want to now find out WHICH is better – soda water, or plain tap water. We will put both of these into the dark. Hopefully our beans will germinate and we can plant them in the garden.

Mr.Cook

It was a busy afternoon in the Park Planning Office. Making signs and labels, booking appointments, telephoning builders and writing lists were just some of the activities we got up to.

Here’s hoping Adventureland is just spectacular!
Mr.Cook

Our cress has been growing by the window-sill for over a week now. Today we added a few finishing touches to make our cress look like a funky-dude with spiked hair.

I hope you make some yummy cress sandwiches!
Mr.Cook

Our cress has shot-up over the weekend, and is almost ready to be taken home. Today in writing we learned how to write a list of instructions – writing what we did in order to grow cress.

Roll on the cress sandwiches . . .
Mr.Cook

We learned about St. Patrick’s Day. We created these fantastic handprint pictures which make a four leaf clover . . . very clever, we hear you say!

Mr.Cook

We have been learning about the names of different 2D shapes. We’ve also been learning how to describe them – giving their number of sides, corners and faces. It’s quite tricky when we describe them when we can’t see them using the ‘Feely Bag’. We’ll continue to work on that. We’ve started looking for shapes in our everyday environment. Check out what we’ve found in the playground:

Have a great weekend,
Mr.Cook

Today’s experiment was all about water. We wanted to find out how plants use water. We’ve used celery and food colouring to try and find out. We’ll check the progress tomorrow.

Good news . . . our cress is growing!

Mr Cook

Our task from Theresa this week is to find out ‘What makes plants grow?’. We’ve decided that we’re putting plants and flowers in our park – but we’re not quite sure how we’re growing them.

So far this week we have done two experiments. The first is about growing cress. We’re trying to work out where the cress will grow best – the light or the dark?

The second is about the different liquids that make plants grow. What will make the beans grow best . . . water, soda-water, orange juice or vinegar?

Be sure to pop back and find out our results!
Mr.Cook

Now we’ve said good bye to Urquhart Castle, after our fantastic visit yesterday, it is time to say hello to our Park Planning Office. We’ll be using this office quite a bit over the next few weeks as we continue to create our park for our Adventureland topic. This week we’re learning about plants – we’ll be back with an update about that shortly!

Mr.Cook

Today P1C, P1M and P3FS spent the day at Urquhart Castle – learning about weapons and armour that the knights used to use, visiting the castle ruins and searching for our friend Nessie. We even fed Nessie some of her favourite shortbread, but she must have been too shy today.

We’d like to thank Di and her team at Urquhart Castle for assisting us with our trip. We’d also like to thank all of our helpers who volunteered. The weather was gorgeous. The weather dance Mr Cook did this morning definitely paid off . . .

Mr.Cook, Mrs McArthur and Miss Shimmield

This week we had another letter from our friend Theresa Green. She asked us to create ourselves as Park Planners – making sure that we chose a new name, the right clothes and the tools for the job. You can see our park planners below.

As we’re going to the castle on Monday – it’s time to say good bye to our very own Urquhart Castle, and hello to our Park Planning office.

Remember your packed lunch for Monday . . .

Mr.Cook

We have chosen Mackenzie this month due to the fantastic ideas that he’s made for our Adventureland topic. He’s worked hard developing his teamwork skills. Well done Mackenzie!

Mr Cook and P1C

Yesterday, P3FS came down to visit our class to share the magnificent stories they’d written.

We loved hearing about the adventures of the Princes, Princesses, Witches and Vampires.

We’re really looking forward to going to Urquhart Castle with P3FS and our neighbours P1M on Monday.
Mr.Cook

Today is one of Mr Cook’s favourite days in the whole year . . . Pancake Day!!! Because we don’t have a cooker, we couldn’t make real pancakes, but we improvised and made playdough pancakes instead. It was really exciting!

We practised warming up our fingers at the dough disco!

I hope you all have pancakes for your tea – I certainly will be!

Mr.Cook

I cannot believe that we’re into our second week after the half-term break. It’s now full-steam ahead to Easter, with many exciting adventures in-between.

Uquhart Castle Visit
A reminder – we’re visiting Urquhart Castle next week, Monday 10^th March 2014. Please ensure your child has a pack-lunch, water and suitable clothing for the excursion. This will be a fantastic end to our topic!

New Topic – Adventureland
Our Storypath topic – Adventureland – is now under way. We were very excited receiving the letter from our community member, Theresa Green, last week – and have already started creating our park. Encourage your child to share what they’ve been learning in the topic with you at home. Check out our class blog for photographs and developments.

Our Park Dedication will take place after the Easter break . . . I’ll be in touch with more information nearer the time.

PE – Remainder of Term 3
PE will continue to take place on a Monday and a Wednesday. Until Easter we will be developing our Balance skills.

Showing
Your child, if they wish, can choose something to bring along and talk about with the class on the following date during their ‘Showing Time’:

World Book Day
This Thursday, 6^th March, we’re celebrating World Book Day. The dress-up theme is ‘Fairytales and Rhymes’. Mr Cook’s got his costume ready, and can’t wait to see what you all dress up as . . .

Fairtrade Fortnight
Lochardil are supporting Fairtrade Fortnight. We have a box at reception that we’re collecting food labels with the Fairtrade Logo on them. Have a look at home and see if you have any Fairtrade Food Logos lurking around on packaging and send in with your child.

 Numeracy Games for the rest of the term are as follows:

Look forward to another busy few weeks,
Mr.Cook