Today we thought about how we could be a good friend, how we could show kindness to each other and no matter our differences, we will treat each other with respect.

We had a lovely day making friendship bracelets, sharing toys, sorting kindness scenarios and creating our own Elmer the elephant pictures. See the photo album for more photos!

We had a wonderful visit to the library this week. The librarian explained all about how the library works and how you can borrow 20 books for three weeks, and then swap them for 20 more! He then shared two exciting stories, and we had the opportunity to curl up with our own chosen books afterwards.  The children behaved beautifully and enjoyed exploring all the books. There are more photos in the photo album.

We’ve had a great week of learning in school this week.
It all started with an invitation being delivered to the class, inviting us to a surprise birthday party. Following this, we read our story of the week, ‘Kipper’s birthday.’
We then had a task on our hands to prepare for Kipper’s surprise birthday party throughout the week.
Each one of us contributed to the party, making hats, bunting and we all decorated cupcakes. We even learnt  about how people celebrate their birthdays around the world.
Finally, Friday arrived,we had the best surprise party for Kipper. We danced, played games and ate cake. What more could you ask for! More photos in the Reception photo album.

Today we have learnt all about our feelings during 'World Mental Health Day.' 

After reading the story, 'Colour Monster,' we thought about how we were feeling today and created our own monsters using play dough, paper plates and cardboard tubes.

Wearing yellow definitely made our classroom an even brighter place!

Take a look at the photos in the photo album to see what we've been up to

We have had great fun this week, learning about out skeletons and what the different parts of the body do. 

By the end of the week, we were able to label the different parts of the body and describe their functions.  Please take a look at the photo album for more photos.

We have been learning all about our families and where we live. There are more photos to explore in the photo album.

The Sunshine children have settled in beautifully into life at St. Mark's. We have started to make new friends and try out all of the exciting activities that are on offer. Take a look at the photos in the photo album to see what we have been upto. 

The children had a lovely visit to the church this morning. It was amazing to see their shocked faces on arrival as they saw the high ceilings and vast space. They enjoyed spotting and drawing the special features such as; the altar, font, pulpit, organ and stained glass windows.

Just before the Easter holidays, Reception took delivery of some caterpillars. heir growth was photographed over the holidays, and since being back at school we have observed them transforming into a chrysalis. We are awaiting the next stage of their life cycle now, hoping to have some beautiful butterflies fluttering around soon!

Today we had a visit from the Unconventional Menagerie who brought a range of nocturnal and diurnal animals (animals that are awake during the night and day). During the session, we had the opportunity to look at, hold or stroke the animals. Chris told us many interesting facts about where they live, how old they were and what they ate. We were all so brave and had a great time during the visit.

As part of our work on Anti-Bullying Week we all came to school dressed as superheroes. We started the week with an assembly by Miss Curran and the school councillors. They introduced the words “bullying” and “banter”. We had an understanding of what bullying means but had no idea of what banter is. We thought about the qualities that a superhero would need to stand up to bullies. We designed our anti-bullying superheroes with the characteristic they would possess. We learned that bullying can be hurting others physically, name calling and making jokes. We don’t want anyone at school to feel unhappy because of bullying so we know that we should help other people by telling a trusted grown up if there is a problem.

Our theme for Interfaith week this year was “All God’s Creatures.” We thought about how God made all the animals and made a wonderful world for them to live in but unfortunately we are messing it up. We had to think about ways in which we could help the animals who live in our local environment. Then we used our art skills to paint and collage pictures of animals we would find in our local area.

Today we had a visit from PC Washington. He brought along a police car for us all to see. We were so excited to sit inside, press the sirens and see the blue lights flash!

Today was ‘World Mental Health Day’. We all wore something yellow to celebrate.
We started today by having an assembly delivered by Mr. Nicholls dressed as a yellow duck and Mrs. Goodwin as a yellow chicken. They really made us laugh!

However, the assembly reminded us the purpose of the day was to remember to always talk to each other, to our parents, friends and teachers and share our thoughts and feelings.

During our carpet time, we listened to the story of ‘The Colour Monster.’

There were many different coloured monsters that represented different feelings.

Together, we shared how we felt, right at that very moment in time and made links to the coloured monster that we could be.

We had a great day making our own monsters using toilet rolls, designing our own monsters on paper plates and shared with an adult, as a discussion, when we feel sad, happy, scared and angry.

It was party day on Wednesday 20th December and the children in Reception and KS1 had a very special visitor. Even though it is his busiest time of the year, Santa came to visit St Mark’s and brought a present for each child on the nice list. Luckily, all the children were on this list! He couldn’t stay long though as he is super busy getting ready for Christmas Eve. We had a lovely time at our parties and the children enjoyed party food and party games or dancing. It was such a lot of fun.

The children in Reception have been learning about some of the traditions associated with Christmas. One of the traditions is to send a card to someone you care about. We looked at some images that we associate with Christmas and tried to represent them using different materials. We thought they looked wonderful!

The children in Reception and Year 1 took part in their Nativity “Born in the Barn” on Wednesday 20th and Thursday 21st December.

All of the children looked and sounded amazing. They learned all their lines and sang every song beautifully. The audience were so impressed with each and every child. It was a lovely way to end a long half term.

During DT week, the children in Reception were designing their own Gingerbread men.

First, we had to taste different ingredients to decorate our Gingerbread Man. We tasted blueberries, bananas, grapes, icing, skittles and chocolate chips. Some of us weren’t sure about the icing or the blueberries but nearly all of us enjoyed the sweets and chocolate chips.

We thought about how we could try and make our Gingerbread men as healthy as possible by adding fruit as well as sweets and chocolate.

Once we had designed them, we were able to start making them. We had chosen what we needed so the teachers were able to buy the right ingredients. We were all given a gingerbread man and used our plans to help us decorate them. We were so proud of our finished products! Then came the best part… eating them! Once we had shown our Mums and Dads what we had made, we enjoyed eating them.