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World Book Day

Thu 07 Mar 2019

Thursday 7th March is World Book Day 2019 and we have been celebrating by each class sharing a book from a different culture.

Each class started the afternoon by talking about what World Book Day is and why and how we can celebrate it. Find out below what each class got up to...

In Class 1 we read the story 'We went on Safari'. this was about a group of children in Africa going on safari and counting the different animals they encountered. Class 1 watched clips of a safari trip in the Masai Mara and we discussed the animals we saw. We then recreated this in the classroom with small world toys. We wrote a list of animals that we had seen in the book. It was a fun day going on safari.

In Class 2 we read the story Amazing Grace. Grace is a girl who liked to act out different stories so we had dressing up out and acted out in the classroom and wrote about Grace too. We also designed a ballerina dress like the one that was worn in the book.

In Class 3 we read and watched some Tinga Tinga Tales which are African folk stories about animals and why they look the way they do; Why the Elephant has a trunk and Why the Giraffe has a long neck. We looked at the bright colours in Tinga art and decorated some safari animals of our own. We listed the Tinga animals we spotted on our stimulus picture as well, which was a challenge because there were so many of them! We did some shared writing as a class and wrote our own African folk story called Why the Lion Roars. Which was your favourite story we shared?

In Class 4 we shared a story called “Not So fast Songolo” by Niki Daly. It was about a boy that lived in South Africa. His family were very poor and he has a very old pair of trainers they call “ tackies”. He helps his elderly grandmother to go into town and do some shopping. She finds it difficult to cross the road and get on the bus. She rewards him with a new pair of trainers. Following the story we did a book review of the story and we also made a shoe monster. We had lots of fun!

In Class 5 we looked at the different countries around the world which celebrate World Book Day and shared some of our favourite stories. It was brilliant to hear our friend’s favourite books retold by them! We then read ‘The Tiger and The Wise Man’ which was a fantastic book, enjoyed by all. After that we made our very own 3D tiger’s and discussed what we enjoyed about the story.

In Class 6 we looked at the book 'Mama Panya's Pancakes'. We loved the story and really enjoyed thinking about what we would put on our own pancakes if we were to make them. Some of the suggestions were; Chocolate, marshmellows, sprinkles, lemon, sugar and banana. What is your favourite pancake topping? After reading the story we then designed and drew our own pancakes! Yummy!

In Class 7 for World Book Day we read a story called ‘Handa’s Hen’. The children really enjoyed the story and listened very well. We all painted pictures of hens and looked at the features. We have lots of hens to put up in our classroom. Can you remember where the hen was hiding in the story?

In Class 8 read Handa’s Surprise, by Eileen Browne, a story set in Kenya. From the story we learnt about the different kinds of animals and fruits that can be found in Kenya. Handa’s Surprise is also one of our school library story sacks, so we were able to use the finger puppets of Handa and the animals to act out the story. The story was also very useful for practising our understanding of adjectives. We also watched two videos about children in Kenya, one who lived in the capital city, Nairobi, and one who lived in the countryside, and we were able to compare their lives to our own. We found lots of similarities and differences!

In Class 9 the children shared ‘Making Friends’, a book about tolerance. A girl moved in next door and Emily wasn’t sure how she felt about her because she was different. She spoke a different language and her family dressed and acted differently. Emily’s mum encouraged her to find out about the new girl. Emily discovered that even though Amira was different, they could still be friends. The children had a great time acting out and retelling parts of the story and thinking about the importance of respect and tolerance to people whose appearance, beliefs or activities may be different to our own. We enjoyed sharing other stories with our friends during the afternoon too!

In Class 10 the children shared a booked called 'Masai and I' which is all about comparing life of a girl who lives in London and a girl who lives in East Africa.We talked about the similarities and difference of both lives and in groups the children discussed and wrote them down. We then watched a video about a boy who also lives in East Africa in a tribe called the Maasai. Can you remember what the boy lived in? The children then learnt lots more information about the Maasai people and then collected these facts to create a factfile about them. Can you remember two facts about the Maasai people and tell your grown up?

At Westfield Infant School we love books and know how important it is to read so we all had so much fun reading a new story.

Year 1 Dinosaur Visit

Thu 07 Mar 2019

STOMP, STOMP, STOMP...

Today, the Year 1 children had an amazing experience, they met a dinosaur...

...honestly, we met a dinosaur, well two actually. One was a 6 week old T-Rex (can you remember what T-Rex is short for?) called Jack and the other was called Sophie and she was a bit older. She isn't fully grown yet but she is already HUGE. Have a look at our pictures to see for yourselves, we were surprised she was able to fit ion our school hall.

Our visitors who came along with the dinosaurs also had some fossils. They told us what fossils are, how they are created and what we can learn from fossils.

Can you remember how fossils are created?

What can fossils tell us?

We had the chance to see, touch and discuss a variety of fossils including a fossil of a piece of dinosaur poo, as you can probably guess we found this fossil particularly entertaining. We were also shown a T-Rex foot print that was bigger than we are, take a look at the photos to see it!

Of course, we wanted to get interactive with the dinosaurs and touch them. They were a lot friendlier than we thought and they didn't want to eat us. Considering T-Rex's are carnivores we were very surprised.

Can you remember the name for dinosaurs that just eat plants, and the name of those that eat both?

It was great to share what we have been learning in our topic lessons and also learn even more about dinosaurs through interacting with 'real' ones. We had so much fun, please take a look through the photos of our morning, you'll see that dino's aren't so bad after all.......

.....or are they!

Mrs MacLauchlan and Brumas tell us about their trip to India

Fri 01 Mar 2019

We had an exciting assembly this morning when Mrs MacLauchlan and Brumas Bear gave us a brief update of their visit to Southern India over half term.

Can you remember which transport she used to get there? How long did it take? She explained why the website write-ups were very detailed and showed many photos of the different schools she had visited. Do you remember that we are collecting evidence for the re-accreditation of the International Schools Award? We learnt that Mr Nevett was also every interested in this visit and wanted to update the adults supporting the Nevett Fund.

Mrs MacLauchlan read aloud a letter from a past pupil sending good wishes to the teachers and pupils he remembered. She explained that it was a lovely surprise and fantastic opportunity to meet up with him and his family. Can you remember what he had to do at 6.30am in the morning before he even went to school?

We were shown some photographs of our sponsor students (Sathish, Santhosh, Aishwarya) and reminded that they stay at the Jisu Niketan hostel and go to the Primary School that Father Dominic teaches at. This place was very special to Mrs MacLauchlan. Can you remember the name of your year group sponsor student? All of our sponsor students including Mrs MacLauchlans were all so pleased to meet her and Brumas. They were very happy despite having to sleep on the hard floor of the hostel. Can you remember where the children keep their belongings? We were shocked to hear that before the children even started their lessons they were up at 5:30am each morning to complete their chores - washing, tidying and cleaning. They look very smart in their uniform and they take responsibility for their own clothes. We were reminded as a school that without the sponsor money that these children receive, they probably wouldn’t be in school. The money keeps them in school and allows them to stay at the hostel, which is really important at such a young age.

We were told that Mrs MacLauchlan visited the Nursery, Primary and Secondary School in Pondicherry called St. Mathuias. This is the school that Sister Rose is the head teacher of. Mrs MacLauchlan, Mrs Leeson, Mrs Parkes, Mrs Dakin, Mrs Guest and Miss Hamilton have all visited here over the past five years. The photographs of the pupils sitting on the courtyard were lovely to see particularly as we were reminded of past fundraising that helped to transform this previously unsuitable area. In the summer time the muddy dust would blow everywhere and during the monsoon season the rain would flood it making it wet and sludgy. What an incredible difference this eco-friendly surface has made to the pupils who can be seen drinking their mid-morning milk sat down. Can you remember how the milk was delivered and served and what the children drank it from?

It was great to see the new classroom that we raised money for as well, with tables and colourful plastic chairs. This was compared to Father Dominic’s school. The pupils there have to work on the floor because there are no tables and chairs.

Gifts were presented to staff which included Miss Hussey who has been set the challenge of putting together a vina – one of the three instruments Mrs MacLauchlan and Brumas found for her. Recycling is slowly being introduced so all Mrs MacLauchlan’s gifts were wrapped in newspaper. Some beautiful clay vegetables were also bought and match some of the vegetables that are in the vegetable samba recipe that Mrs MacLauchlan found. Mrs MacLauchlans favourite dish was kingfish served with a vegetable curry. She showed us some of the beautiful garlands, necklaces and shawls that matched her very smart outfit which she bought in India.

Can you remember Brumas’ little adventure at the end of the visit? Shhhhhh! We can see that Rowland was VERY pleased to see him back at school!

Mrs MacLauchlan talked to Radio Leicester all about her trip. You will be able to listen to this on Saturday 2 March at 7.00 a.m.