Another week, another stack of submissions for the blog arriving in my Inbox. Top of the list is another birthday celebration. This week I’d like to wish a big Happy Birthday to Mackenzie who is 14. Cracking photo Mackenzie and great job on the candles!

But first, I have to catch up on a couple of bits that didn’t quite manage last week’s blog and what better way to start than with a hedgehog alert!  Katie had a very special new visitor to her garden. ‘Spike’ stopped by for a spot of lunch on Wednesday which caused great excitement!  Wonder has he made a return visit Katie?

Weekly superstar Cena also had an exciting week keeping up his learning at home. He’s been reading stories with dad whilst playing look and find within the storybook..

..made a homemade lava lamp..

..and enjoying going out for walks..

He even enjoyed a bit of relaxation in the hot tub..

..but not before he’d made a snozzcumber sandwich as part of The BFG topic he’s studying..

Eve also made her own delightful sounding sandwich..

..as well as spending time on her trampoline and popping out to see the horses, ducks and chickens..

Back in school, it was a big week for Georgia and Subhaan; they handled the changes we had made in school brilliantly. Mrs Fletcher was so impressed with them. They both got fully involved in the learning activities which included marbling ink..

..decorating a helicopter from The BFG..

..making edible play dough..

..and spending time planting in our sensory garden..

On to this week and Eve has been putting her Living Skills learning into practice whilst making pizza and cornflake tart. She couldn’t wait for the pastry to cook so mum improvised and set chocolate instead 🙂

Cena has also also been baking; he’s made a cake and worked on his fine motor skills whilst adding the toppings..

He has made a bubble fish too which is part of this week’s activity file..

Brilliant effort both of you.

Xavier has enjoyed a great week in school studying a variety of subjects, as well as getting in a few games of Uno in between subjects.  Each morning, he’s completed his English challenge; a timed word search in which he has to beat his time from the previous morning! In Maths, he has been developing his understanding of Venn diagrams..

..whilst in Geography, he has demonstrated his knowledge of the locations of countries around the world..

Science has been a particularly practical subject this week, in addition to labelling parts of the body..

..he has carried out an investigation to find out which items float or sink. Xavier predicted what would he thought would happen before trying them out in a bucket of water. He predicted the majority of them correctly! 😊

Back at home and Aliyah is keeping up with her Maths and English learning as well..

..whilst Katie has once again been demonstrating her excellent cooking skills. Love the rainbow kebabs!

Well done you two. Kyle has been using his creative skills to write a book called ‘Dreams’ for which he has designed and drawn the artwork.  Think my favourite is definitely the big blue monster Kyle, a friendly one of course!

Which brings us to Kyle’s continuing outdoor adventures; this week he has been on a 12.5 mile walk. Immense Kyle!

Mrs Taylor has updated me as usual on your reading and writing. Justin has been writing ‘All about me’; I’m interested to know how you scared mum and dad Justin?

Congratulations to Liam who has topped the Literacy Planet Leaderboard during the week.

You can also check out a selection of the books you’re all reading at home.  What a well-read bunch you are!

Keeping with the English theme, Mrs Holland has shared the progress that pupils from her English groups and form group are making. Jaydon, Hasnain, Katie and Mariam are flying through their spellings on Spellzone.  Khadir and Katie have also topped the Literacy Planet Leaderboard this week.  Great effort everyone.  Daisy has completed several book reflections on Seesaw. Think I have to agree with you on that one Daisy..

Amanda has written a recount in the form of a storyboard on Seesaw.  Who won Amanda? The dog or the hoover?

Birthday boy Mackenzie has been revising his knowledge of homophones.  Think I’ve learned a new word there as well Mackenzie..

Katie has been cheering us up by writing about the things that make her laugh..

What’s more, she’s risen to the challenge of creating a masterpiece with items from around the house..

..and helped dad build a new swing..

Non-stop Katie!  Meanwhile, ‘daily dipper’ Peter, has been enjoy regular swims in his outdoor pool. Looks amazing Peter..

Lastly, Mahdi has put together a little montage of his favourite memories from his first year at New Bridge! It’s been amazing to welcome you into the New Bridge family Mahdi!

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Another group of pupils who are keeping up their learning each week are Mrs Coleman’s group.  We’ll start with Tes, and I need to take a deep breath with this one as it’s fair to say he’s been busy!  He’s completed his learning activities on Seesaw every day which have included matching colours, shape sorting and exploring the senses..

He’s been out on his scooter to the shops..

..and found old costumes and had lots of fun trying them on..

He’s baked a very impressive cake..

..and even managed to create some wonderful bubble fish..

We’ve also got time for a quick sunflower update!

Mrs Coleman sent sunflower seeds home to everyone in her group at the start of the lockdown and Tes has sent in a picture of his sunflower. Very impressive! We just need that sun back now. Keep us posted.

James has been practising his pencil control and I have to say it is coming along very nicely indeed! Such neat writing. Well done James!

He has also been helping mum to sort the fruit and vegetables ready to cook. James sorted them into bowls, counted them and then sorted them into fruits and vegetables. Check out the videos for his amazing work!

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Rounding up the group, Arthur and Jamie have both been exploring their senses and locating items of colour around the house. They’ve enjoyed the little hunt to find the different coloured items and then taking pictures of them. They have also been working on measurement using squares. Superb effort guys!

 

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Coming back into school, Miss Hayes has shared with me everything her group have been learning about this week:

“Firstly we chose large rocks to paint. We used different colours to make them stand out when they are placed in the sensory garden next to the lavender plant we planted last week. Subhaan enjoyed exploring the texture of the paint mixed with glue and we added essence to the paint so he could distinguish the colours through scent..

Georgia used different colours to create a marble affect..

..and Katie used different styles of painting to make patterns whilst Maryam preferred to use one bright colour for her stones. 

Sweet strawberry snakes were delicious. We cut up strawberries and bananas and used vanilla frosting to stick them together and make a snake body. We finished them off by adding googly eyes. 

We used our hands and feet as stencils to make parrots. As parrots have lots of colours we used different paints to shows this. The pupils were very happy with their creations..

Rhythm sticks was fun. We tapped our sticks in time with the song and the actions as they were said..

We have made crispy cakes using melted chocolate and Rice Crispies mixed together. We decorated them with smarties to add some colour. They tasted lovely!

As part of Miss Carter’s planning, we made bubble fish using paper plates, various colours of paint and homemade paint brushes. Afterwards we stuck on eyes and a mouth and we think they look bubbletastic!

Art was fun. We used tin foil as a base instead of paper and made patterns on it using different colours of paint. Maryam had more fun pulling faces. 🙂

We also made nature portraits using items we collected during our nature outdoor education..  

Music was a little bit different. We had our virtual Live Music Now lesson with Mr Exton-McGuinness on the TV. We sang songs whilst playing our instruments and listened to him play the ukulele and the trombone..

We made pom-poms to use in our morning routine where we ‘make up, shake up and dance to the Vengaboys!’”

I think I know where I’d like to hang out next week! Absolutely amazing everyone.

What a fantastic week!

Until next time, take care, stay safe.

Gavin

Click here for this week’s news from Graham

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