Welcome the the first blog post of the new year, and a new look EBA blog for 2018! We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year.
The children have all returned to school happy and enthusiatic after the Christmas break, and have made a start on their topic work for this term. This is what the different classes will be learning about this term:
Deer and Foxes - Gruesome Greeks
Badgers and Rabbits - Wondrous World
Squirrels and Otters - Legendary London
Hedgehogs - Once Upon A Time
Hamsters - People Who Help Us
Badgers Class have begun some work on mountains. They made a list of mountain facts and in groups presented their ideas to the rest of the class. They used atlases to locate the mountain regions across the world and search for individual mountains such as Mount Everest.
Deer Class have been looking at Ancient Greek pottery, and have designed their own amphorae, decorating them with traditional Greek patterns and illustrations. They have a new display board in the classroom which features a wonderful painting of the Minotaur, created by the very talented Mrs Young!
We have welcomed some new children to Hamsters Class this term, and they have settled in nicely and are already enjoying their time in Nursery.
On Wednesday, we received a rather exciting delivery at school - a little blue shed which will contain the "EBA Free Little Library" - part of a national scheme to promote reading outside. The library will be filled with lovely books and will live out in the playground, where children will be free to take a book whenever they wish and return it when they have finished with it. This has been possible thanks to some of the money that was raised over the Christmas period, and a generous donation received from Nisa (convenience store) Making A Difference Locally charitable scheme.
On Thursday, EBA Sports stars took part in their first tournament of the new year. This was a Year Six Tag Rugby Tournament at All Saints Academy in Dunstable. Once again the team performed with great credit to the school, showing off the hard work they have done in PE lessons. Tagging, speed, sidestepping and support were all in evidence in every game, as was a terrific team spirit, win or lose!
Despite not winning the tournament this time, we competed well in all games, and won more games than we lost. Our Year Six children represented the school impeccably, showing great behaviour and attitude, and most importantly, having great fun!
Thursday was also the day of Year Five EBA Enterprise, and this week they began learning about some interesting herbs that they will be using in their Masterchef sessions this term - fennel, tumeric, yuzu and flax. They had a variety of different smoothies to taste, which included fruit and vegetables blended with these exotic flavours. The children found the tastes interesting, and while some enjoyed them, not all were entirely convinced! The next stage is to devise their own smoothie recipes, using unusual ingredients. We look forward to seeing what they create!
Otters Class had a lovely treat on Friday. Last term they did some work on Australia, and learnt that the digeridoo is a traditional Australian instrument. This week they got to hear someone play the digeridoo! Mr Tees, who is one of our peripatetic music teachers came in to give a demonstration of this skill - everyone was very impressed!
Hedgehogs Class are very happy with their new outdoor classroom. On Friday they used the area for some Active Maths. The children had to work in teams to find ten objects, helping to familiarise themselves with the number ten and to practice their counting skills.
We are looking forward to lots more opportunities to take classroom activities outside this term as Spring progresses and the weather warms up...!