Week Ending 3rd March 2017

Our value for this half term is "Trust."  On Tuesday, Foxes Class presented an assembly to the other children about what trust means, and how important it is to trust and to be trustworthy.  They illustrated their ideas with posters and a short piece of drama, and finished up with a song that everyone joined in with.

There have been lots of FOOD related activities this week, tying in with our Creative Curriculum topic for this term. Hamster Class children have been enjoying activities based around their book for this week, which is "The Little Red Hen."  They found out that corn needs water and sun to grow, and talked about how bread is made, completing their investigation by sieving flour like the miller in the story.  They also made Little Red Hen nests, and counted how many chocolate eggs they put inside!

Tuesday was Shrove Tuesday - Pancake Day!  The children made their own pancakes, with different toppings, which they had for their snack.  They finished off the day with a pancake race!

Otters Class had a Tudor banquet on Thursday!  They made cheese tarts (including making the pastry), marzipan sweets and gingerbread.  They also had jelly and pottage - all foodstuffs that people from Tudor times would have recognised.  The children dressed as kings and queens to enjoy their feast in the classroom.  It was a busy, but very enjoyable afternoon.

Rabbits Class meanwhile, didn't eat the food that was placed in front of them - their task was to draw it!  They were presented with whole and half sections of red, orange and green peppers, and had to observe and reproduce them in charcoal.

On Friday, the whole school celebrated World Book Day, with everyone dressing up as a character from their favourite book.  Once again, parents and children put in enormous efforts to create some fantastic outfits - we had princess and pirates, witches and wizards, crocodiles and cats, and even a monkey with a bright blue bottom!  Please enjoy some photos from our fabulous fun day.

Week Ending 24th February 2017

The children returned from their half term holiday on Monday, full of enthusiasm for MATHS WEEK!  The week was all about bringing maths to life, with fun and exciting activities, brain stretching challenges and lots of investigative practical work.  This is just a taster of some of the things that have gone on this week...

On Monday, Hedgehogs Class started their week with a trip to the supermarket!  They went out in the minbus in small groups, and visited three different stores in Leighton Buzzard and Dunstable, They looked at prices, money, and how numbers are used in a variety of ways when out shopping.

Key Stage One children looked at shapes and investigated tessellation.  Squirrels Class found out about fractions by making "pizzas" with paper plates and tissue paper and slicing them into halves and quarters. They then set up a pizza restaurant in the classroom and practiced using money and giving change.  Meanwhile, Otters made a lovely colourful fruit stall in their classroom.

Key Stage Two children had a lot of fun with measuring.  Badgers Class did a survey and analysis of the wrist, neck and foot measurements of children and adults throughout the school.  They went outside with trundle wheels and made a record of various measurements in the school grounds.  Rabbits had a messy time, using paint to see how many footprints it would take to cover a metre.

Deer Class researched and created a "Maths Quiz" for Badgers children to do.  This took the form of a Treasure Hunt around the school, with children having to do calculations based on, for example, the number of door handles in the building.  The children in Badgers had a wonderful time and thoroughly enjoyed it.  Deer Class children also took part in a "Spaghetti Challenge", where the goal was to construct the biggest 3D structure that they could using dried spaghetti and marshmallows!

Thursday was an extra special day, as we had a visit from The Happy Puzzle Company, who came in with a selection of maths games for the children to enjoy.  This is a newspaper report of the day, written by one of our Year Five children:

NUMBER DAY

Yesterday, the children of Eaton Bray Academy took part in a Number Day as part of their Maths Week, which has been happening at their school for the whole week.

During the week, the pupils at Eaton Bray did different maths related things like creating a zoo and going to the shops. I spoke to a student from Year 5 about what she liked about Maths Week and she said, “I liked Maths Week because it was a change from our normal school day.”

The whole school each had a turn to do some maths puzzles with Happy Puzzle Company. The children worked in small groups to solve puzzles and the older children were really competitive and keen to get on to the next puzzle before the other groups.

On the same day as the Happy Puzzle Company visit the pupils of Eaton Bray Academy also had to dress as a number or something to do with maths.  There were lots of amazing costumes including mobile phones, clocks and dice.  Prizes are going to be awarded during the assembly later in the week, to the people with the best costume from each class.

Overall the children seemed to really enjoy maths week and they can’t wait for another one! 

And so to Friday, which was a very exciting day for Squirrels Class... Having made paper plate pizzas earlier in the week, now they had the chance to make pizza for real!  On Friday morning they went off in the minibus into Leighton Buzzard, where they were the guests of Pizza Express restaurant.  They were given expert instruction in making authentic Italian style pizzas, and found out some interesting information about pizzas - do you know that the Marguerita pizza was named the Queen Marguerita of Savoy?  And that the colours of the pizza reflect the Italian flag - a white pizza base, red tomato sauce, green herbs?

The children all made their own delicious pizza, which they then brought back to school to enjoy in the classroom for their lunch.  Many thanks to Pizza Express, who offer this to schools free of charge.

What a busy time!  It really doesn't seem like it's only been a week since we came back from half term - well not to staff anyway...