In Spring term in Art, Year 2 have been looking at the fantastic masks worn in the Mardi Gras parade. Mardi Gras is about music, parades, picnics, floats and excitement. They explored the concept of masks, patterns and colours. Designed their own mask inspired by animal print then spent the afternoon bringing their ideas to life. I am sure you would agree, they have done a fantastic job! 

Spring forest school! We had a great time exploring, taking risks and enjoying tasty treats. 

Year 2 took a trip to the church to explore what Easter means to Christians. 

This year we have enjoyed dressing up as our favourite book characters. We had a great time reading books, sharing our favourite stories and creating monstrous bookmarks. 

Year 2 have been working hard building their persuasive language trying to persuade Miss Beaumont to change her holiday destination to Kenya. 

Year 2 have been practicing their scientific skills as they investigated bulbs and seeds.

During the month of November, Year 2 have been collecting items ready to donate to the food bank. You are all so kind!

Year 2 have been busy in the kitchen creating tasty bruschetta.

We have had a fantastic time at West Midlands Safari Park today! We saw loads of animals on our safari, and were able to name them as we went round. Some of us could even tell our friends whether the animals were carnivores, herbivores or omnivores!

We then had a brilliant time in the Safari workshop for our Creature Feature session. We got to stroke a stick insect called Stanley, a corn snake called Harry, and a very soft chinchilla called Helena.

More marvellous cooking in Year 1 this Spring term. We made pizzas! Strictly speaking we had a ready made pizza base, but we did practise our chopping skills again by cutting up a variety of delicious ingredients to make our toppings! Feed back from the children the following day was that they went down a treat. An alternative if you want an easy way to make pizza at home is using a pitta or tortilla wrap as a base. Why not give it a go. Your budding sous chefs will be able to give you a hand.

As part of our Science unit 'All about animals, including humans', we learnt about the skeleton. We discussed how important our skeleton is, amongst other things, in keeping our organs safe. We then had a go at creating our very own skeletons out of cotton wool buds. We think you'll agree, they look pretty effective!

In the Autumn Term Year 1 made a salad starter. We practised our chopping skills. We made sure that we were safe by creating a bridge with our hands, so that we didn't chop anything off! It was a lovely way to begin our cooking journey in Year 1.

Year 1 have created some beautiful poppy-inspired artwork as part of our work around Remembrance day. 

Spring has sprung at Maidensbridge!

Reception have spotted lots of signs of spring around in and around our school grounds.

What signs of spring have you noticed?

Our Reception storytellers have been busy retelling, innovating and performing the story of The Gingerbread Man.

Our busy little learners created maps of the Gingerbread Man's journey through the story and enjoyed programming our Bee Bot Gingerbread Man to meet the different story characters.

The children were curious about the Gingerbread Man's name and researched why gingerbread is called 'gingerbread'. Senses were used as the children explored and read the instructions of how to grow. Our caring children have tended to the ginger each day and are waiting patiently for it to grow.

Reception had lots of fun predicting and investigating what would happen to the Gingerbread Man if he went in the water. After watching him disintegrate in the water, the children decided they needed to help him. They constructed bridges for him to safely cross the river and designed transport to help him escape the fox.

Our Reception Mathematicians have been busy practically exploring number bonds to 10. The children used lots of different resources to explore and solve number bond problems. Our role play number bond bus was a huge success.

Great work Reception!

Let's investigate!

Our Reception Scientists developed their prediction and observation skills as they investigated how to make snow.

With great excitement our Reception children had fun navigating obstacles on their bear hunt. They travelled under, over, around and through to reach the Maidensbridge Bear.

Each day we explored, created and learnt about a different story setting.

The children used finger paints to create long, wavy grass in the style of Van Gough's 'Wheatfield'.

After splishing and splashing through the Maidensbridge river tray, the used pastels to create a deep cold river in the style of Monet's 'Waterlillies'.

Lots of thick, oozy mud was made and sculpted with careful mixing and drizzles of water. Jackson Pollock inspired some great muddy splatter and spring prints.

A whirling snowstorm was created as the children independently revisited the skill of making paper snowflakes and they created some snow!

Caves fit for a bear were created in our role play areas and out of recycled materials. The children thoughtfully decorated the caves with drawings in natural colours.

The children in Reception demonstrate the SCARF value of friendship every day.