Our Lady and St Kenelm Catholic School
Bringing out the best in everyone, for the benefit of all, in the spirit of Christ.
Our Spring Learning Journey
Easter 🐣 Celebrations continue.......
Our Easter 🐣 Bonnet Celebration Parade - You are all so creative ( well done 👏 parents) your children looked AMAZING and enjoyed the whole experience. 🐣🐥🐤
The Last Supper - the children were so respectful, knowledgeable and reverent. It was truly wonderful, we invited Father Stefan in to share our learning. Also Mrs Finnegan came in with our Swedish visitor to take part in our Holy Week celebration.
It was wonderful to welcome parents into " stay , play and pray" on our journey through Lent .
Holy Week in Pre School - starting with Palm Sunday. The children acted out what happened on that important day !
Look at all the learning which takes place on a Typical Day in Pre School 😊
In Forest school this week we searched for different materials to build a house 🏠. Some of us had to use our muscles to pull and drag huge logs, but we did not give up we displayed resilience and perseverance.
The children are loving our focus story this week which is " The Three Little Pigs". They have enjoyed acting out the story, painting the characters, creating a journey map and building houses 🏠 using a variety of construction kits and cardboard boxes. The rich language and teamwork is wonderful to see and hear. They are taking so much pride in their individual creation that they are now displaying them and writing their own names on a label for all to see.
The children had a challenge in Forest 🌳 School as they had to find the bear cards hidden in trees, bushes , holes, the mud kitchen ,,,,,,,,,,, they managed to locate all 30 of them.
As part of our " Journey through Lent" we visited the stations of the cross around School, it was so lovely to celebrate the older Children's work. We even found our station which was the third one " When Jesus fell for the first time "
The children were so surprised when they saw a basket 🧺 on pre School 's doorstep full of food. There was cake, fruit, lemon, honey and even some teabags. Also a get well card who was the basket for? The children chatted to their talk partners and suggested it was for Grandma. We then acted out the story of " Little Red Riding Hood".
Look how grown up we are - we had our dinner today in the big hall with key stage one. The lunch bunch and ALL the staff thought we were AMAZING. 💕
We really love 💕 sharing books with our friends and teachers at Pre school, and we are lucky that we get to take books home 🏠 to share with our families . This helps to develop our communication and language skills, helps to unlock our imagination and develop a love for books. The children have learnt some new words such as print, author, title, beginning, middle and end - all related to books and stories. They are beginning to find print in the environment and record their findings " Great reading detectives "
The children have been sequencing the story of " The Bear Hunt" and then talking about the key events. They have been practicing their cutting skills, pen control and painting.
During continuous provision some children acted out the story of the "Bear Hunt" and used the computers to direct the ship to the treasure. The children are beginning to use directional language and talk about familiar routes.
Our focus book 📖 is " We're going on a bear 🐻 hunt" during our PE session we discovered a rucksack 🎒 and it was full of exciting objects to help us on our journey. We practiced our large movements as we travelled different ways on our Bear Hunt . WE COULD NOT BELIEVE OUR EYES 👀 WHEN A REAL BEAR 🐻 APPEARED 😯
After class worship today we went into forest school and celebrated all the wonderful things that God had created. Caleb independently made a cross, other children went on a Bear Hunt and remembered a lot of the new vocabulary we have learnt this week in Pre school. The mud kitchen was a busy cafe serving a range of sandwiches 🥪, drinks and even wiggly worms - made out of wet, rolled soil. The children were excited when they found a dark tunnel and some brave ones went "through" it. Amazing learning and social interaction!
We have started our journey through " Lent" we changed the prayer cloth to purple and put the stations of the cross around our prayer area . We focused on making the sign of the cross and what it actually means when we are blessing ourselves. We lit 🔥 four candles 🕯 on our cross on the floor of Pre school. As a class we created the third station of the cross " When Jesus fell for the first time" and displayed it in the entrance area in school 🏫.
We were so excited 😆 when we arrived at Pre school and saw " cooking " was on the visual timetable. The children predicted we would be making pancakes 🥞. We thought about what ingredients we would need and we discussed hygiene and why it was important to wash our hands before cooking 🧑🍳. Mrs Pugh was our Head chef and with the help of our AMAZING children our pancakes were delicious. Back in class once our tummies were full we listened to the story "The Runaway Pancake" and created our own pancake design in the creative area. Then during our PE session in the afternoon we did team races using the frying pans and the beanbags. 😊
As we began our new term in Pre school we talked at what we had done during the holidays - I told the children 👶 that I had visited dinosaur 🦕 land with my family. Where I met a lovely Keeper called Andy who offered to look after our dinosaur 🦕 egg 🥚 until it hatched, and he said it could live with him and all the other dinosaurs 🦖. All the children agreed this was the right thing to do. So we wrote some letters and created some beautiful pictures and wrapped the egg snug in a blanket and placed it ALL in a box. We happily passed it to Pat our Postman once we had written the address on the front and also put the stamps on it . Bye 👋 Bye baby egg - we will miss you 🥰
"World book day " was so much fun 🤩 and we all looked great in our costumes. Our focus book was called " The invisible "which sparked lots of discussion about the main character and her family. .
The children loved our PE session when we used the small apparatus and thought about different ways of travelling and challenging ourselves. We learnt how to jump safely off the equipment and three of our boys taught us how to do a star, tuck and pencil jump with confidence. Some children practiced bunny hops over the benches, while others crawled, slid, shuffled and walked along the narrow/ wide benches. They had opportunities to aim bean bags into the hoops, throw small hoops onto the cones. The children are aware how important it is to exercise to keep our bodies healthy, after our warm up they will say " my heart is pumping " or " it's beeping "
The children have really developed a sense of " community " within Pre school forming good relationships with their peers. They are becoming aware of how others might be feeling and developing appropriate ways of being assertive. They are able to play with one or more children extending and elaborating play ideas.
We are continuing to develop our large movements through riding our scooters, trikes and balance bikes outside. Also by practicing our ball skills through rolling, throwing and catching them - this really develops our hand and eye co ordination. The children are now confident to suggest ways of moving around the hall in a safe way, showing awareness of others.
This week in class worship we learnt all about " What happens in a church, and what you would find in there" the children had the opportunity to draw their own experiences of being in this wonderful place of worship. These masterpieces have been displayed in our class RE book for all to see. Mrs Pugh shared her wedding 👰 album with the children which they loved - so they decided to act out their own version of a wedding 💒.
Physical development is one of our prime areas of learning - and we are developing these skills daily in Pre school in many fun ways. Look at how we develop our fine motor skills.
On " Number Day" we went to the phizz lab and made some cup cakes 🧁 with Mrs Pugh. She was so impressed with their cooking skills and could tell who bakes at home. Oliver said " The mixture was gooey " Zofia noticed the mixture had changed colour when the butter was added to it. Zane said " It smells like spices" as the egg was added. When looking at the weighing scales Levi suggested they looked like a clock. Caleb said " I make cakes with my grandad at home."
This week is about" Growth and Change" we have been discussing how we as individuals have changed since being a baby, we reflected on our God given talents, and even discussed what we would like to do as a job when we grow up. Some children wanted to be a doctor, firefighter,builder, artist, policeman, ice cream man and even a princess. This gave us an idea to get the dressing up clothes out and to get into character.
The children 👶 love to play the game " Giants Keys 🔑 " during circle time. They have developed their listening 👂 and turn taking skills , which is wonderful to see.
We decided that if we sang some gentle rhymes to the egg 🥚 it might want to hatch and come out and meet us all. We displayed a lot of confidence to be able to stand up and sing 🎶 in front of our peers. We even used appropriate finger puppets to support our songs ! We were convinced we saw the egg rocking in time with our singing.
The children decided they thought there was a dinosaur 🦕 in the egg - so when we went to forest school the children worked together to see if they could find any other dinosaurs. They located somewhere they thought they would drink and eat. They discovered secret holes and even dinosaur footprints 👣. The children were great explorers 🧭 and so excited 😆
This week we have taught the children about Baptism and how important it is to us on our spiritual journey. The children have bought in photos of their Baptism and shared them with their friends, these will displayed around our prayer area. 😊 We used lots of new key words linked to this celebration such as holy water, god parents, font, priest and church.
The children truly enjoyed and showed such respect as they acted out an actual " Baptism " they got into character and were AMAZING!
We love 💗 the game "Duck, Duck, Goose" we run so fast - and got so excited 😆 during our PE session! We enjoyed working as a team to play the parachute 🪂 games , we soon learnt that we had to work together to make things happen .
The dinosaurs 🦕 arrived in Pre School stomping through the paint 🎨 and leaving huge footprints 👣. The dinosaurs also were very noisy. Can you recognise any of the dinosaurs?
The children have enjoyed learning the 2D shape names-counting their corners and sides. We did some dance moves to match the shapes with Mister Maker, which was a lot of fun. The children explored and investigated the new 3D shapes, Savanna suggested " It looks like a pyramid" and Levi said " I found a semi circle Mrs Ray". Such clever children who want to learn ! 😊
This week we are thinking and talking about different ways to keep our mind and bodies healthy. We enjoyed exploring the colourful ribbons and using our large gross motor skills to travel around the playground. Also we went on an adventure to the HUGE FIELD we played hide and seek, tag, rolling down the hill. Some of us found a massive branch and sat on it like a horse and galloped around the field. We all used our listening ears to hear the beautiful birds and the traffic down in Halesowen.
This week in Pre school we have been focusing on the story " The Colour Monster" talking about different emotions and recognising when we feel those feelings. We learnt that " yellow " represented " happiness " whereas red meant anger. Please ask your child about the different colours and which emotions are linked to them.
The children were so excited when I told them that our surprise visitor was ........ " The Animal Man" We felt so proud of all our children as they listened beautifully to Mo and shown such respect and care towards the animals. Wow 🤩 they were brave!
Firstly Mrs Pugh and I would like to thank our lovely 🥰 families for all their beautiful and thoughtful gifts at Christmas- we felt truly spoilt. We hope you all shared a wonderful Christmas with family and friends.
A new year and some new friends to play with in Pre School- it is so exciting. The new children have settled really well and the existing children have been so kind and helpful towards them ( we feel really proud of them) 😊
The children were very thrilled when we discovered a giant egg 🥚 in our garden. They began to predict what was inside it ? Who does it belong to? Where did it come from? What things do we need to do to look after it, and keep it safe?
