divendres, 31 de març de 2017

Zoo trip

This week we have continued to learn about animals but we have focused specifically on zoo animals. We were very lucky to have a school trip to the zoo in Barcelona. The children had a fantastic time and they learnt a lot from our tour guide, who explained lots of things about the different animals in English. The children listened very carefully and they were all keen to answer her questions. They especially enjoyed seeing the different skulls which they had of different animals. 
The EYFS children (Cloe, Carla, Kai, Luke, Sergi, Julien, Katie, Ona and Mark) have been working on the rectangle shape. Sergi has developed very good pencil control and is now very confident to trace around different sized rectangles. He was very concentrated and able to draw accurately on the lines. Katie also did a great job of drawing rectangles. She recognises that they need to have four sides and she now knows the difference between a rectangle and a square. Kai is also making good progress with his shapes. When showing him two pictures of a rectangle and triangle, he was able to quickly distinguish between the two shapes and say the names of both of them in English.
In our zoo animals’ topic, we have focused on the story of ´dear zoo´. I was really impressed with Cloe as she knew the names of all the animals in the story and was able to hold up the correct picture of each animal as they appeared in the story. Luke was also extremely confident to name the animals and each time I turned the page in the book he instantly shouted out the animals´ name and did the appropriate action for each animal. When drawing zoo animals, it was great to see Julien´s concentration as he learnt how to trace a hippo, by putting his paper against the window. He was so proud of his result. When colouring in jungle pictures, I was very impressed with Ona´s ability to follow instructions. She has really developed her concentration and focus when completing activities. Ona listened really carefully to my instructions and selected the correct colour for each of the animals in the jungle.
Mark has settled in really well and I am really impressed to see that he is already using English words when speaking to me and asking me questions. He has been very happy this week and it was lovely to watch him at the zoo, as he interacted so well with the other children and is forming great relationships with the other children in the class. Unfortunately Carla has not been with us in school this week. I hope she is feeling better and can join us next week.  
The KS1 children (Jordi, Joana, Thais, Marcel, Arlet, Noa and Carla) have also been working on zoo animals. I was so impressed with Arlet and Marcel when watching them sing the song, ´down in the jungle´. They were attentively watching Jo and were copying every movement that she did within the song. They also sang the song fantastically with such enthusiasm. It was great to see them so happy and confident. Thais has also enjoyed learning songs about different animals. She is getting so confident to sing songs in English now and I have heard her many times this week singing the songs to herself. She is getting very good at the words and always looks so happy when she takes part in singing practise. When drawing zoo animals, Joana did a fantastic job drawing a giraffe by following a step by step guide. She was extremely concentrated and sat for the whole lesson, carefully drawing the animal, ensuring that she had correctly drawn each part of the giraffe and it´s features.
In maths, we have been learning about measurements and comparing different sized objects. The children started off with the concept of ´big´ and ´small´. Jo was very impressed with how confidently Jordi was able to cut out and organise the objects into the two groups. He then independently ordered all of the objects by size. He has a very good understanding of size vocabulary and can use this accurately in conversation. Carla has also developed a good understanding of size vocabulary. When putting all of the children in size order, Carla was confidently and accurately shouting out each time, which person was tallest and which was shortest. She is now also using this vocabulary in conversation, when measuring herself against her friends. During our zoo trip, it was great to see that Noa was using size comparison vocabulary when talking about the animals in the zoo. She remembered the story we read about big and small animals and when seeing the different animals she correctly identified whether the animal was big or small.
The KS2 children (Judit, Sara, Sara B, Sofia, Blanca, Tatiana, Pau, Arnau and Nil) have been working very hard on the magazine this week. Judit wrote some very good information about our new rabbit, Bonnie, as part of our ´farm news´ section and it was fantastic to see the vocabulary she used to write story in the style of a newspaper report. Sara did a fantastic piece of work on animal descriptions. She is becoming extremely confident to write in English now and she is now far less worried to make mistakes. Sara is sounding out her words fantastically and she very descriptive sentences about the different zoo animals. She was very proud of her work and I am looking forward to seeing it in our topic section of the newspaper. Within the magazine, Sofia was very motivated to find out information about the new developments which are currently happening in the school. She listened carefully as I explained about the changes which were happening and she then wrote a very detailed piece about our new dining room, to put in the magazine. Tatiana, was also very keen to find out about what was happening in the school. She asked many questions and was especially keen to know what was going to happen next in our new gym area. Tatiana listened very carefully as I explained the information and then wrote a very informative article about the gym to put in the magazine.
In maths, we have also been learning about size comparison. However, we have been focusing on the measurements of mm, cm and km´s. Sara B did a fantastic job of measuring out 100cm to create her own metre stick. She was very independent when marking out each cm on the ruler and she really understand the need to be accurate to ensure that the measurements she recorded were correct. Pau also did a great job, when creating his metre stick. At first he was very nervous and worried he would make a mistake, but once he started to measure out the cm´s with the ruler, he became very confident. He then independently selected objects which would measure more than a metre and measured these very accurately with his metre stick. Blanca was excellent when measuring the heights of all the different children in the class. She was extremely helpful and keen to ensure that all of the measurements were accurate. When realising that some of the children´s measurements weren’t quite right, she was determined to re-measure them so that we could record the correct height of each child. Arnau and Nil were very motivated by the topic of size comparison. They were both very enthusiastic when writing questions, such as, ´who´s hand is bigger- Arnau´s or Pau´s?´´ They both wrote their questions very independently and were keen to go around the classroom; measuring the different objects to find out the answers to their questions.

Thank you very much to all of the parents who came to help with our zoo trip. I hope everyone has a lovely weekend and I look forward to seeing you all on Monday.