Year 1-2

Welcome to Picasso Class

 Welcome to Picasso Class.

Class Teacher Mr Webb

TAs Mrs Hill Mrs Hird

We are looking forward to starting our learning journey together!

Stixx Machine:

This week Picasso Class were lucky enough to have Mrs Suer visit with the Stixx machine. This clever machine uses newspapers, that the children had rolled, to create strong sticks. The children then worked with a partner to secure them together using cable ties. These were then used to make chairs. 

EE visit to Walnuts:
As part of KS1’s Enabling Enterprise topic of ‘Community Café’ we were lucky enough to be able to visit Walnuts. The children had been planning their own café and were so excited to be visiting their favourite one. One child even told us that he was too excited to sleep the night before. After a short walk up to Main Road we received a fantastic welcome and were taken to our VIP area. Here the children were given a chance to try “the best milkshake ever” or a “delicious smoothie” (quotes from children).  We were then able to ask the helpful staff lots of questions about their business. Some particular highlights were: “How much do you earn?” and “Do you get your food from Lidl?” The children learnt a great amount and were able to remember lots of trade secrets. We would like to thank Mr and Mrs Ciftdal and all the staff at Walnuts for an amazing time. The KS1 staff will be writing a 5 star review for Trip Advisor.

Thursday 2nd March 2017

As part of this term's topic, 'THE ENCHANTED WOODLAND', Years 1, 2/1 and 2, are looking forward to visiting a woodland called Groombridge Place.

At Groombridge Place we are hoping to be able to enjoy an outside walk, using our' super senses' to observe nature's beauty and magic. We will be collecting fallen treasures found on the way to use in our art work on return to school.

The children will be made aware of woodland safety rules, things that shouldn't be touched or eaten, for example.

Let's hope that the weather will be kind to us!

Mr Webb, Miss Gayson and Mrs. Michie

                                                      World Book Day!

What a wonderful world book day we have had. The children all came in this morning very excited to show their wonderful costumes. We talked about each others book characters and read some of our stories. We then read The Lorax, wrote letters, made posters and our own Lorax! We also had the chance to work with children from KS2 which was very fun.

To introduce our dinosaur topic we all went on a dinosaur hunt. We got into pairs and got our explorer hats and binoculars and we went hunting for dinosaurs. When we found a dinosaur we used our sounds to read their name and wrote it on our fact sheet. We found lots of dinosaurs that we hope to learn more about.

Colchester Zoo

18.04.16

What a wonderful day we have had today at Colchester Zoo! After the long but exciting journey we finally arrived at around 11am ready to explore. The children spent the day in their groups finding out about lots of different types of animals from countries all over the world. We saw a variety of different monkeys, lizards and insects, as well as tigers, hippos and zebras. The children even had the chance to feed the giraffes and elephants, which was lots of fun and very exciting!

After lots of exploring we finally all made our way to the gift shop to buy ourselves some treats before heading back to the coach.

Thank you to all the children for representing Longlands so well and also a big thank you to our parents helpers.

Take a look at our pictures and videos below to see what we got up to throughout our day at colchester zoo.

Welcome Back!

11.04.16

It was so lovely to see so many smiling faces on a Monday morning, full of enthusiasm and ready to start the summer term. Our first day back has been very exciting! As part of our new topic, Paws, Claws and Whiskers the children found out in the morning that they would be receiving a special visit from a pet owner and their dog. The children were very excited to meet the owner and the pet. We spent the morning learning about questions and coming up with questions that we could ask the dog owner to find out more information about how to look after and care for dogs.

Later on in the afternoon the dog owner brought her dog Ally along to meet all the children in KS1 and answered some of their questions in an assembly. The children then got to watch Ally perform some tricks in the classroom and had the opportunity to stroke her if they wanted to.

Here are some pictures of the children with a special visitor Ally.

Happy Easter Everyone!

24.3.16

Today the children took part in the Longlands traditional Easter Bonnet Parade and once again it was a huge success.

The children thoroughly enjoyed parading around the playground and showing off the wonderful Easter bonnets they had created at home.

It was lovely to see so many parents had made their way to the school to see the children take part in the parade too. I would like to thank you all for supporting your children in making their hats and wish you all a very Happy Easter.

Enjoy the Easter break and I look forward to seeing you all in the new term!

Rio De Vida

22-3-16

Today the children had the chance to show off all the wonderful topic homework they had been busy creating over the last couple of weeks. Once again it was clear to see how hard the children have been working at home and I was very impressed once again with how much effort has been put into the topic homework.

The children have really enjoyed talking about and discussing their homework with the class and we all had great fun putting on our carnival costumes we had designed and dancing to some carnival music!

I would like to say a big thank you to all parents and carers for supporting your child with their topic homework, I really do appreciate it.

World Book Day

3-3-16

What a great day we have had today in Picasso class!

The children all came in full of enthusiasm and excitement to show off their wonderful costumes to the class and what great costumes they were.

We started the day by reading the book 'The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig' by Eugene Trivizas. We really enjoyed the story and discussed how the Author had twisted the original version of the 'Three Little Pigs.' So we decided that we would create our own stories with a twist. We thought about the fairy tale 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears' and how we could change it. The children had some great ideas such as 'Revenge of the Bears' or 'The Three Girls and the Angry Bear.' The children then set off to work with their partner and began planning and writing their new version of the Goldilocks and the Three Bears Story. Throughout the morning we also had two special visitors pop into our room to read us a story. Our first visitor was Miss Owen who read us two stories. Our favourite was 'Good Little Wolf' by Nadia Shireen. Then later on in the morning after play we were visited by Mr King who was dressed as Funny Bones and read us a Funny Bones book. It was great fun!

But our day didn't end there. In the afternoon some of the children went to Monet class and some children from Monet class came to Picasso class to work with us. It was great to see the children working so well together and sharing their ideas. To finish the day off the whole school came together to share all the wonderful things the classes had been doing to celebrate World Book Day.

It was a fantastic day! 

Rio Carnival Day

22.2.16

Today we were transported to the hot, colourful streets of Brazil for our very own carnival. We first needed to dress the part so we created some wonderful headdresses using bright colours, feathers and sequins. We then had to have the right moves for a carnival so we learnt some Brazilian dancing by moving like the rainforest creatures. We then had to create the music for the carnival. We had bass drums, bells, rainmakers, tamborims and small drums. We created the sounds of the rainforest using our instruments.

In the afternoon we all came together to have a fantastic carnival. We each got a chance to show our dancing. We got the chance to play in the Brazilian orchestra and we cheered and showed some brilliant carnival spirit.

What a great way to start off our new topic Rio De Vida!

Chinese New Year

8-2-16 ~ 12-2-16

This week the children have been busy learning about Chinese New Year. They retold the story of the animal race and learnt that this year is the year of the monkey.

In art the children had lots of fun making their own Chinese fans and using bright colours to paint a lions head. To finish off the week the children worked as a class to create a vegetable stir fry which we later enjoyed all together with some other traditional Chinese food such as prawn crackers and spring rolls.

It's been great fun learning about China and Chinese New Year!

Enabling Enterprise Challenge Day!

As usually the children had great fun during our enabling enterprise day and it was great to see so many of them trying really hard to use the challenge skills.

The challenge day was all set around politics and the children worked together to create their own political party. They learnt about different ways of voting and decided which way they liked the most and why. They created a campaign poster to highlight the areas their party would improve. They created a rosettes and a logo to support their party and finally they worked together to write and deliver a speech to the rest of the class about why their party was the best and why the class should vote for them.

At the end of the day and after all the parties had delivered their speeches the children voted for the party they would choose.

It was once again a great day!

Towers, Turrets and Tunnels

Today the children had the chance to show off all the wonderful topic homework they had been busy creating over the last couple of weeks. Once again it was clear to see how hard the children have been working at home and I was very impressed with how much effort has once again been put into the topic homework.

The children have really enjoyed taking about and discussing their homework with the class and we all had great fun watching Isla and Oliver in their Jenga competition!!

I would like to say a big thank you to all parents and carers for supporting your child with their topic homework.

JUMP ROPE DAY

03-02-16

For the past six weeks Picasso Class have been busy learning and developing their skipping skills to prepare for our jump rope day. As a school we decided to take part in the British Heart Foundation's Jump Rope event to help raise money not only for the British heart foundation but also for our school.

The day started off with a whole school assembly to get everyone thinking about what we were raising money for and why our heart is such an important part of our bodies.

Picasso Class then went back to the classroom where they learnt about the importance of keeping a healthy heart. The children then created their own healthy heart posters. After this Picasso Class joined the other KS1 classes in the playground to take part in the jump off. They took part in a 7 minute workout, skipping races in their houses and then finished off by showing off all of the new skipping skills they had learnt over the past six weeks. It was amazing to see all the children having fun and being so active!

Take a look and the pictures and videos below to see the children in action!

 Christmas Party Day 

Today the children had their christmas party and what a great day it was. We started the morning by making and decorating some delicious snowmen biscuit, which were very tasty!

Later on, in the afternoon all of EYFS and KS1 gathered together in the hall and danced to some christmas songs and played a few party games, before heading back to the classroom to share lots of scrumptious party food.

Thank you for all the food that was contributed towards the class christmas party. I would also like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and look forward to seeing you all again in the New Year.

EYFS and KS1 Nativity

Straw and Order

Today the children preformed their last performance of Straw and Order to their parents and what an amazing last performance it was! The children have worked so hard over the past few weeks to learn all the new songs, where they needed to be and of course their lines, which they delivered so clearly in all performances.

I am so proud of all the children and how well they performed in this years Nativity play, they were all amazing and should be very proud of themselves.

Memory Box Homework

16.12.15

Today the children had the chance to show off all the amazing homework they had been busy creating for our Memory Box topic. I was amazed by the effort that so many children in Picasso class had gone to, to complete the homework grid.

We enjoyed a lovely morning sharing all of their work and particularly enjoyed looking at all the wonderful family tree and memory books. It was lovely to hear the children talk about their families and memories to the rest of the class. 

Take a look below at some of the amazing family trees that the children created and also a video created by William, interviewing his Nanny Dot.

I would personally like to thank all parents for supporting your children with their homework, I really do appreciate it!

                                                        Rocksteady

3-12-15

Today we all had a very exciting morning. We all became rockstars! We were all shown each instrument by Matt from Rocksteady and some of us even got the chance to play in a band. We learnt to keep the beat and the rhythm of the song by clapping to the beat of four. We then needed some of our class to play in our band whilst we kept the beat. At the end we put it all together for a fantastic performance of our song! 

St Andrew's Day Celebrations

1-12-15

Today the whole school came together to celebrate St Andrews Day and what a great day we had!

It was lovely to see so many children making an effort to wear something blue to school and bringing in things from home to share with the class.

The day started with an assembly where the children learnt about the story of St Andrew and why he is the patron st of Scotland. We also had a parent from the school who came along especially to talk to the children about some Scottish traditions.

Can you remember the story of St Andrew or any scottish traditions?

To celebrate the day the whole school were set some challenges. The class had to imagine what they thought the Loch Ness monster might look like and create a class Loch Ness monster. They also had to work in their houses to create a tartan for their house, which would be judged by the house captains and a winning tartan would be chosen to represent the house. Finally the children also carried out some role play and imagined they had spotted the Loch Ness monster. They then used this to help them write a description of what the Loch Ness monster looked like.

To end the day the whole school came back together for a celebration assembly to share all the work they had done throughout the day.

It was a great day and I'm sure that Picasso Class are looking forward to the next day of celebrations for St David's Day in March.

SWAC Visit

30-11-15

Today the children recieved a visit from Bexley's School Waste Action Club. The day started with an assembly in which the children learnt the difference between litter and rubbish and how we can help look after our environment by remembering to use the 3 R's. Can you remember what the 3 R's stand for?

Later on that day the children carried out two activities focused on the second R, reuse. The children learnt that rather than recyclying scrap paper we could also keep it and reuse it to make something new. The children were taught how to make an envelope out of a piece of scrap paper and also turned another piece of scrap paper into a beautiful marbling picture.

Going Green!

9-11-15 until 13-11-15

This week we have been Going Green. We have been working in teams and learning all about how we can save our planet! We have learnt about what an environment is and we have analysed our own school environment to see how eco-friendly we are. We thought of ways that we can help the school to be more green! We created our own campaign and made posters to spread the news around the school to make sure we are a green school. We produced a role-play to send out our campaign message to others and created our own top tips for presenting. Lastly, we spoke about all that we have learnt in an assembly and showed all our wonderful work.

Superhero Innovate Week!
19-10-15 until 23-10-15

In KS1 we have had a very exciting week. We began the week by designing our superhero costumes, we have made masks out of paper plates and we have made belts and cuffs. We thought carefully about our designs and motifs. Then we followed this by going on a trail. Professor Slime an evil villain had left us fiendish instructions, hoping that we would follow them. But what he didn’t know was that we had transformed ourselves into a band of mighty superheroes. We found them quickly before other children could find them and make bad choices. We made a plan of how to turn his instructions into instructions fit for a superhero. We created posters to advertise this. We finished the week by creating a comic strip of our adventures throughout the week. This work has now been put on display.

6-10-15

Real Heroes Visit Our School!

We were very lucky that today we had a visit from some real heroes in our local area, police officers. We prepared questions to ask them so that we could find out more about their lives, jobs and exactly what they do day to day.

The police officers who came were extremely friendly and answered all of our questions. they also allowed us to see the items that they carry around with them and explained what they were for. Some children got to try on their vests and hats! We are now going to be writing about a day in the life of a police officer putting ourselves into their shoes and seeing what it would feel like to be a hero!

Superheroes

14-9-15

This week Picasso Class found out that their Topic for the first half term was SUPERHEROES! All of the children were very excited and were very keen to share who their favourite superhero was.

To start the topic off all the children created their own superhero passport. They had to think about a name they would like to be called, what super powers they might have and design a costume to wear. The children also had lots of fun creating their own handprint superheroes and taking part in some superhero photography. Take a look below at some of our superheroes in action!

Welcome to Picasso Class

What a lovely couple of days we have had so far in Picasso Class. We have lots of fun and exciting topics planned for the year ahead,so make sure you check this page regularly to see what we have been up to.

Miss Foley