Class Photo Gallery

2024 - 2025 Class Photo Gallery

Fruit Salad! 

Following on from our fruit themed World Book Day activities on Friday, we made and ate fruit salad for special snack on Monday! Just like Oliver did in the book we have been reading - ‘Oliver’s Fruit Salad!’.
We all remembered that we needed to wipe the tables, wash our hands with soap and wear an apron before we started handling the fruits and other equipment, to stop any germs spreading that might get into our tummies and make us feel unwell.
We then began by using a tin of mandarin segments in juice as a base for our fruit salad. The children learned that a mandarin is a small orange similar to a tangerine or clementine. They were able to say that the juice was a liquid and the segments were a solid - great links to previous learning!
They then learned how to hold a knife correctly for cutting with their dominant hand and also how to hold the fruit they were cutting in a safe manner (like a bridge that the knife goes through the middle of) so their fingers were safe. Each child chose a fruit to add and everyone then cut up that fruit and popped it into the bowl! To finished the children each had a turn at stirring the fruit salad together!
The children then enjoyed the fruit salad as a healthy special snack! I was very impressed as even the children who were unsure tried it! 👏
We then learned about how this would be one of our portions of fruit and vegetables for the day. The children discovered how it is recommended that we eat 5 portions a day! 🍒🍓🍇🍎🍉🍑🍊🍋🍍🍌🥑🍏🍈🥝🥭🥥🍅🫐🥕🥬🥦🥒🥗🌽🧅🫑

EY Picture News - Connections

Story: The Princess of Wales has recently shared portraits drawn by her and her children, to help raise awareness of how we connect with each other.

Question: How do you have fun with your family?

We carried out speaking and listening activity about things we like to do when spending time with our families. 

We then drew a picture of our friend today like the members of The Royal Family - Catherine, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis did whilst spending time as a family.
We looked carefully at our friends features, eye colours, hair styles etc...

Multiskills at St. Benedicts

Ten Reception children took part in a ‘multi-skills’ event at St.Benedict school.
The children took part in lots of different physical activities, including: keepy-uppy with the balloons, balancing coits on their heads, jumping over hurdles, skipping (this was definitely our trickiest activity) hockey skills, dribbling a football, bouncing and catching balls, and tennis skills.
The children have had a great afternoon and did St.Mary’s proud with their listening, participation and manners!

All about Me! Life Education Visit.

Sarah, from the Coram Life Education team, visited us in class. She came, along with her friend Harold the giraffe, to teach us all about ways to look after ourselves both physically and emotionally.
We learned how we need water, a healthy variety of foods, regular exercise, fresh air, to keep our bodies clean and plenty of sleep to keep physically healthy. We learned all about how Harold does this.
We also learned about ways we can help ourselves if we are feeling sad or worried about anything. This included talking to a trusted grown up or a friend, playing a game or singing a song to take our minds off things, spending time with people we love who can help us, getting outdoors and getting some fresh air in nature too.
The children did amazingly well staying engaged for almost an hour! They listened brilliantly, eagerly shared ideas and Sarah was very impressed with how knowledgable all of the children were.
As a special treat at the end Harold let all of the children come out to meet him one at a time! 🦒🥰

EY Picture News - Feeling Proud

Story: The Times newspaper recently asked young people aged between 18 and 27 what they thought about their lives and life in the UK.

Question: What or who are you proud of?

We discussed that we all achieve things that make our families proud of us, and that we can also feel proud of ourselves linked to our EY Picture News: Feeling Proud.
We then wrote a certificate for someone we are proud of.
Take a look at who we wrote our certificates for and for what reason.

Ash Wednesday and Lenten Promises

We held our Key Stage prayer and liturgy to learn all about Ash Wednesday. We learned how Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent - the period of 40 days where we count down to Easter.
Our altar was purple as purple is the liturgical colour of Lent. We learned that the priests in church will be wearing purple during Lent too.
We discovered it is called Ash Wednesday because people who attend Mass on this day have a cross drawn on their forehead by the priest made from holy ashes, that the priest has blessed, created from burning palm crosses from last year’s Palm Sunday. We have all been given the mission to go out and please God and Jesus by fulfilling the Lenten promises we have made and have displayed in our prayer area as a paper chain.

EY Picture News - Girls can have short hair too...

Story: A girls’ football team in York has launched a campaign called, ‘Girls can have short hair. Get Over It’, hoping to change stereotypes in the sport.

Question: How does hearing kind words make us feel?

After learning about this week's EY Picture News; Judging Others. We discussed that when people go to the hairdresser, sometimes they don't know how they'd like their hair to look. The hairdresser will give them some ideas by showing them pictures of different styles. We looked and discussed about different styles; long, short, wavy, spiky.

Our challenge this afternoon was to design a new hair style for ourselves. We did this on 'Purple Mash' using a paint programme. We thought about; what style of hair we would have? Will it be long or short? What colour hair will we choose? Will it be straight, wavy, curly, spiky?

We wonder if you can recognise us with our new hair styles?! 😉

We also enjoyed playing football together outside on the big yard too! We even got to wear proper football shirts as well! We can all play football whoever we are and have fun! 

Planting Seeds

After reading 2 books in our literacy and topic sessions - The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle and A Seed in Need by Sam Godwin, we have planted our own seeds to care for over the coming weeks!

We have learned all about how seeds need warmth, light, water and nutrients to grow well. We have planted them in clear pots with compost and given them water. We used trowels to fill the pots carefully and a watering can to water them with. We will be checking on them each day and we will keep you updated each week so you can chat to your children about how their seeds are growing and progressing! 🌱

Space Party Day!

What a wonderful, fun filled day we all had! 

Below are some photos of the day.
* parade through school in the amazing costumes that the children and their families worked together to create
* portraits of ourselves in our costumes
* party games and dancing - Zach and Ariyanna won musical statues and Nova and AJ were the joint winners of musical bumps! 👏
* a special space themed mystery reader! 👽😉
* special snack in front of Mrs Sibbald’s favourite programme when she was a little girl - Button Moon!
* making and eating alien slime! AKA jelly!
What a wonderful way to end the half term and our topic on Space!

Alien Slime!

On space party day, we made alien slime to have for special space day snack! It was really lime jelly but alien slime made it sound much more exciting! 😂
We looked at the jelly to begin with and talked about how it was a solid. The children had a feel and a smell of a small piece of it. They described it with vocabulary such as solid, squashy, squishy, gooey, sticky, wet, slimey, sweet, fruity, tangy and sweet.
The children then observed as we added hot water to the jelly cubes. They thought it was melting but we discussed how it was actually dissolving , breaking up and mixing with the water to make liquid jelly. We then added cold water and put the jelly in the fridge to set, turning back into a solid.
We were very impressed with how all of the children tried the jelly even if they were unsure! Well done everyone!

Safer Internet Day

This afternoon we spent a session with Mrs Murphy who taught us about keeping safe while online. She chatted with us about the internet and how we use it to play games, watch videos, and talk to friends and family. But sometimes, there are things on the internet that aren’t what they seem. They might try and trick us, and we learnt that the word for these tricks are called “scams”.

Mrs Murphy taught us that we can stay safe on the internet if we remember a few rules:

1. Stop and think
2. Ask a grown up for help
3. Don’t share personal information
4. Click carefully

During the session we had to think of a trusted adult who we can ask for help when online. We then had to draw this person and label them. We came up with ideas such as; our mams, dads, teachers and police. We then using an adult in a room as a scribe had to choose a way that we could remember to stay safe online.

Thanks you to Mrs Murphy for running the Safer Internet session and thank you to those grown ups who attended too, we hope you also enjoyed the session.

EY Picture News - Climbing Everest

Story: Nepal’s government has announced permit fee increases for climbers attempting to summit Mount Everest.

Question: Would you like to climb a mountain?

We got ourselves ready and dressed to go on a walk up Mount Everest linked to our EY Picture News: Tourism.
We thought about: Where we were going? What we would pack? Will we take snacks and drinks? What we would wear? We tried to remember the new rules for walking up Mount Everest; not to walk on your own, to use a guide, how much it will cost to walk up the mountain during the good weather seasons.

Do you think we look ready for a walk up the mountain?!

Famous Astronauts from History

The children have learned what an astronaut is - a person who is trained to travel to, work and live in space. We have been learning about some famous astronauts from history.
Yuri Gargarin - first human to go into space.
Valentina Tereshkova - first woman to go into space.
Neil Armstrong - first person to walk on the moon.
Tim Peake - British astronaut who spent more the 6 months in space.
Mae Jemison - first black woman to go into space.

The children listened to the information about each astronaut and then had to decide which astronaut they found the most inspirational. The voted by standing up when the person they were voting for appeared on the screen. They then had to explain why they had chosen that astronaut and why they think they are inspirational.

EY Picture News - Sports! 

Story: Tennis player, Emma Raducanu, has revealed she would like to meet fellow young sports star, Luke Littler, following his recent World Championship win.

Question: How do you become the best at a sport?

We enjoyed playing darts like the World Darts Champion, Luke Littler linked to our EY’s Picture News, we held our own ‘Reception Darts Championship 2025’.
We had a great morning, we all had our names drawn out of a hat to see who would be playing each other. We had some practices and then we played a game for points. Everyone’s points were totalled up and the two people with the highest score were going to play in the finals. There was some great sportsmanship and we shook hands after the match to say well done on the game.
Two friends played against each other in the finals this afternoon at snack time, it was a close match but one friend hit a single bull earning her 25 points giving her the final win.
She got to hold up the trophy for the ‘Reception Darts Championship 2025’!

Making Ice - Liquids, Solids, Freezing and Melting!

After learning about the winter weather of snow, ice, frost and hailstones, we decided to try and make our own ice!

We looked at, touched and experimented with water, learning that water is a liquid which is wet, runny, can spill, pour and drip and changes to the shape of any container! The children came up with that we needed to make the water really cold (like it can be outside in winter when we get ice) to change it from a liquid into ice, which we learned is a solid. They thought it might turn to ice in the fridge (but, after feeling inside, decided that wasn’t going to be cold enough) and then thought about the freezer!

We went to the staff room and poured some water into an ice cube tray and put it into the freezer! We have also looked at some ‘ice pops’ which were in liquid form. The children felt them and described them using words such as; squishy, squashy, bendy, floppy, runny and they made the link that they were a liquid . The children all put one in the freezer in hope something will happen with them...

We returned to the staffroom the next day and checked the freezer… and the tray of water had turned into ice cubes. We learned that the liquid had frozen and had turned into a solid! This now kept its shape and couldn’t be poured! One friend was very brave and volunteered to check it couldn’t be poured by us tipping the tray over above his head! He was so confident it was now ice after looking at and touching it!
We then took an ice cube out and had a look at at and a feel of it. The children came up with words such as hard, tough, like a mountain, like a diamond, freezing and not runny. However, the ice cube started turning back to a liquid when we held it… we learned that this is called melting!
When we returned to class we added the vocabulary liquid, solid, freezing and melting to our vocabulary window. 
Finally, we had frozen ice pops as a special snack! The children talked about them in terms of solid, liquid, freezing and melting at different stages whilst eating them! They loved it when some solid remained at the top of their ice pop and some liquid gathered in the bottom that had melted that they could drink at the end!

EY Picture News - Building New Homes

Story: UK Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, has stated that building new homes is a ‘top priority’ and the government has announced changes to planning rules, to make house building in the countryside easier.

Question: What do you love most about your home?

The children sent in photos of their favourite room in their homes and then shared their reasons why they like it the most with their friends. 

Winter is here! 

After reading 'Here comes Jack Frost' by Kazuno Kohara this week, we have been on a winter walk around the school grounds this morning to find evidence that it is winter! We talked about how we need to wrap up warm in winter to protect us from the cold outdoors. We discussed how we needed coats on - fastened up - hats/ear muffs/hoods, scarves, gloves/mittens and our fluffy socks inside our wellies!
We found lots of evidence that it is winter when we got outside - we were real winter detectives! Take a look at the photos of the evidence that we found...

EY Picture News - The Great British Birdwatch!

Story: Birdwatch is an annual UK-wide citizen science project, held in January, in which people help gather data to support the work of scientists.

Question: What do you know about birds?

The children then all used their fine motor skills to create bird feeders to hang in their gardens to attract the birds and feed them during these cold winter months!

EY Picture News - Anti-Bullying Week

Story: This year, Anti-Bullying Week takes place 11th-15th November, with the theme choose respect.

Question: How can we help make our class and school a happy place?

During our EY Picture News: Anti-Bullying Week, some of our School ‘Happiness Ninjas’  from Year 4 and 5, came to talk to us about what they do in our school to make it a happier place. They were wearing their ‘happiness ninjas’ T-shirts! They chatted to us about different ethos’s of what makes a happy and kind school, and the different things that we can do to help spread these ethos’s too!
We found out that we can become a ‘happiness ninjas’ from Year 1 and upwards. They even have a ‘happiness ninja’ club they go to where they can wear their T-shirts and do nice things. We were very lucky as they even let us try on their ‘happiness ninja’ T-shirts!

They left us some ‘happiness’ posters for us to colour in and then display around our classroom, to make our classroom a happier place.

Thank you to our school ‘happiness ninjas’, we think you have inspired the reception children into becoming ‘happiness ninjas’ as they move up through the school.

Remember, remember the 5th of November...

The children have been learning all about Bonfire Night and the reason why we celebrate it every year on 5th November.
We read a fiction book based on the true events of the gunpowder plot - ‘Remember the 5th November’ as well as a non fiction book all about the life of Guy Fawkes and the children have learned a number of things…
Over 400 years ago, which is a very long time, a man called Guy Fawkes and a group of his friends came up with a plot (a type of plan) to blow up the Houses of Parliament in London, to kill the King and his government. The king at the time was called King James I. Guy Fawkes and his friends plotted to use gunpowder in 36 barrels to commit their crime! Luckily they were found out and they didn’t carry out their plot so the Ming was safe. All that time ago, King James decreed that 5th November should be remembered every year in Great Britain as his life had been saved - hence why we still celebrate Bonfire Night today!
The children also found out ways in which we celebrate Bonfire Night today - bonfires (often with a model of Guy Fawkes on), fireworks, sparklers, sharing special foods like hot dogs, jacket potatoes, soup, bonfire toffee and toffee apples as well as by wearing warm cosy clothing!
Our book of the week has been ‘Sparks in the sky’ all about how a little girl called Bo and her family celebrate Bonfire Night.
Take a look at all of our exciting learning we have been doing about this annual event... 🔥🎇🎆

EY Picture News - Hopes and dreams!

Story: A 23-year-old British climber, Adriana Brownlee, has become the youngest woman to summit the world’s fourteen highest mountains.

Question: What is your dream? The children came up some some great ideas of their dreams!

Peter Bear has been inspired by Adriana Brownlee who we learnt about in our EY's Picture News today and has decided he wants to walk up a mountain too. He has never done it before and was not sure what to take with him. We helped Peter Bear decide what to put in his rucksack for his walk up the mountain. We thought about: It takes a long time to walk up a mountain and you don’t know what the weather will be like. What clothes will he need? What should he wear on his feet? Will he need anything to eat and drink? How will he make sure he won’t get lost?

We used a cutting skills to cut out the things we thought he needed and stuck them to his rucksack.

EY Picture News - Music

Story: Following a ten-year campaign, music exam boards have announced they will be now including Sikh sacred music, also known as Kirtan, on their syllabus.

Question: What musical instrument interests you?

EY Picture News - Gifts

Story: UK Prime Minister, Sir Kier Starmer has faced questioning and criticism recently for accepting free gifts.

Question: Why do people give gifts?

The children  have made a pocket hug for someone they care about linked to our EY Picture News - Gifts.

They thought about: how we would you want to decorate our hearts? What colours the person we were making it for would like! Who we would like to make it for! How do we think they will feel when we give them their gift?

Take a look at our beautiful pocket hugs...

EY Picture News - Office Working

Story: E-commerce company, Amazon, has told all staff they need to return to the office five days a week, ending the option to work from home.

Question: Would you enjoy working in an office?

We did some sorting and packing of some Amazon orders linked to our EY Picture News.
We thought about: Which box would be good for this size item? Why? Which package is the biggest/smallest? Which package do you think is the heaviest? Why? Is the biggest package always the heaviest?

EY Picture News - Books by Authors of Colour

Story: Book publishing company, Penguin Random House UK, has revealed a new book-vending machine, which aims to make works by writers of colour more visible in schools.

Question: What do you love about books?

We watched Hannah Lee reading her own story ‘My Hair’. We discussed that the character in the story loves her hair in so many ways. We chatted about what we love about our hair and how we like to have it.

Our challenge linked to this today was to try out some hairstyles for our characters using they play-dough. We hope you like them!

#EYpicturenews #BlackHistoryMonth #books #protectedcharacteristics #UNrightsofachild #britishvalues

EY Picture News - Wildlife Photographer of the Year

Story: The Wildlife Photographer of the year shortlist has recently been announced, with just 100 photos left in the competition.

Question: Why do people take photographs?

EY Picture News - Unexpected

Story: Space agency, NASA, says the two astronauts, Sunita Williams and Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore, stuck on the International Space Station won’t return to Earth until next year.

Question: Why do our plans change sometimes?

2023-2024 Class Photo Gallery

EY Picture News - Olympic and Paralympic Games

We have been learning how this year there will be the Olympic and Paralympic games in Paris, France. The children learned that to be really good at sport takes lots and lots of practice; running, balancing, using a bat and ball, throwing and catching, jumping and swimming.
The children had a PE session was linked to the Olympics and Paralympics . We were split into teams and chose our countries we wanted to represent - linked to countries we have been finding out about in our 'Around the World' topic.
We then took part in some events linked to running, jumping and throwing.
Well done to Brazil who won our Olympic Games and took the gold medals on the podiums!

Jesus is with us...

We have been sharing the story of the Ascension, where Jesus returned home to heaven to be with God, His Father.
We listened to the Bible story and learned how Jesus told his friends before ascending into heaven, that although they would no longer be able to see Him, He would always be with them.
We then visited church to see the Tabernacle, the special place in church where we believe Jesus is present.
We looked carefully at the Tabernacle and talked about what it looked like and how it had been made to look so special as a home for Jesus.

We then had a quiet reflection time to talk about how we know that Jesus is still with us. The children all came up with thoughtful ideas of how they know Jesus is with them. Look at the wonderful ideas the children thought of:
I know Jesus is with me when…
... the clouds part in the sky
... I play with ice outside

... I give Mardie a kiss
...I have good food to eat
... I feel the wind
... I am outside
... I see a rainbow
... I do nice things with my Daddy
... I have fun
... I feel loved
... my baby brother smiles at me
... I see all the animals in the world
... I play with my brother
... I play with my family and friends and when I look at the Tabernacle
... I feel Him in my heart

EY Picture News - Challenge Yourself! 

We looked at this weeks Picture News Poster. What can you see? What did we like or dislike about this picture? What do you think the people were doing?

Story: Scottish runner, Jasmin Paris, has become the first female runner and one of only twenty to complete what is thought to be the world’s toughest race; the Barkley Marathons in Tennessee, USA.

Question: How can you challenge yourself?

We then all challenged ourselves with a 'mini marathon' doing 10 laps up and doen the grass! Every child completed the challenge running 1 mile each! 

EY PictureNews - Being Banksy

We looked at this weeks Picture News Poster. What can you see? What did we like or dislike about this picture? What do you think the people were doing?

Story: A new artwork, from the mysterious street artist Banksy, appeared in North London overnight in March and has since been covered in plastic and surrounded by wooden boards to protect it.

Question: What art do you enjoy?

EY Picture News - What does it mean to be rich?

We looked at this week's Picture News Poster. What did we like or dislike about this picture? Has anyone ever been on boats like these before? Do you think many people have boats like these? Why? What do you think this week’s news story could be all about?

Story: Poverty-fighting charity Oxfam has released a report, which found that if current wealth trends continue, the world will have its first trillionaire within 10 years.

Question: What does the word ‘rich’ mean to you?

A visit from Gerald! 

We had a visit from the Life Education Services and Gerald the Giraffe. Sarah taught us all about our bodies and how to keep them healthy. We met Gerald the Giraffe, and we helped him with his morning routine; washing his face, brushing his teeth, brushing his hair.
We talked about exercise and danced and moved our body parts. Our hearts were beating fast after this so we knew we’d exercised.
Finally we lay down on the floor, had a rest and talked about how our bodies need rest and to sleep.

EY Picture News - World Book Day

This Week's Story: Across the UK and Ireland, the charity, World Book Day, will be holding its annual celebration on Thursday 7th March (we as a school are celebrating on Friday 8th March) and this year’s campaign, ‘Read Your Way’.

Question: What do you enjoy about books?

Look out for pictures of our World Book Day celebrations on Friday! 

EY Picture News - Farming 

We looked at this weeks Picture News poster and talked about what we could see. What we liked and disliked about the picture? What do you think this week’s news story could be about?

Story: In countries across Europe, tractors have been blocking city streets and motorways as farmers protest against certain European Union rules.

Question: What do you know about farming? What do you find on a farm? How do farmers help us all?

Mardi Gras! 

In RE we have learned that Mardi Gras is a festival that is also celebrated on Shrove Tuesday. The children found out that Mardi Gras is a carnival that is celebrated in February to mark the end of the pre-lenten season in many countries, such as America, Brazil, Italy and Germany. We used a globe to look where these countries are in the world. There is music, dance, colourful parades and costumes during Mardi Gras. The word Mardi Gras means Fat Tuesday - (like pancake day) from the custom of using all the fats in the home before Lent in preparation for fasting and abstinence. In the Mardi Gras parades the people wear beautiful masks and costumes as well as beaded necklaces.
The children all made these fabulous beaded necklaces that they could wear in a Mardi Gras parade! Take a look at them, aren't they fantastic!

EY Picture News - Drinks!

We looked at this weeks Picture News poster and talked about what we could see. We discussed that the poster shows some plastic drink bottles.

We thought about: Do you like the look of these drink bottles? What do you like or dislike about them? I showed the children my drinks bottle (with the label still attached) Do you like my drinks bottle? Do you think my drinks bottle looks the same as these? How are they the same or different?

Story: Coca-Cola has announced it will temporarily be removing labels from Sprite and Sprite Zero bottles to trial ‘label-less’ packaging in some areas of the UK.

Question: How do you choose what drink to buy?

We then looked at lots of different drinks we might like to consume and tried out making our very own healthy fruit smoothies for snack! 

Planting!

After reading 2 books in our literacy and topic sessions this week - 'The Tiny Seed' by Eric Carle and 'A Seed in Need' by Sam Godwin, we have planted our own runner bean seeds to care for over the coming weeks!
We have learned all about how seeds need warmth, water and nutrients to grow well. We have planted them in pots with compost and given them water. We used trowels to fill the pots carefully and a watering can to water them with. We will be checking on them each day and we will keep you updated each week on how our seeds are growing and progressing! 

EY Picture News - Fashion!

This week’s story is all about a new BBC television programme called Style It Out. The programme is a fashion competition, where 9 children get the chance to be clothes designers and put together different outfits.

We discussed: What is fashion? Would this competition be something you might enjoy? Do you have a favourite outfit? What does it look like? How do you feel when you wear it?

The children taking part in the television show competition must make all of their clothes using second-hand materials. We thought about: What does second-hand mean?

Second-hand means it is not new and someone else has already used or worn it. Using clothes and materials second-hand is good for our environment, because it means we don’t throw as many clothes away and we don’t need to make as many new ones.

Question: Where can we get clothes from?

As we grow, we all need to get bigger clothes because the clothes we have become too small. We looked at the attached sheet which shows where and how people get clothes.

We discussed: When you need more clothes, do you know where they come from? Have you had any second-hand clothes before? Maybe given to you from an older brother or sister, from a friend or bought from a charity shop!

Get Well Soon Cards

In RE we have been learning all about how Jesus came to show God's love and welcomes everyone into God's Kingdom. We learned how this includes people who are unwell. We learned how Jesus takes care of people who are sick and shared some stories where he healed people to show God's love. We talked about how we can help people who are unwell to feel better. The children shared lots of ideas including giving them a hug or a kiss, taking them to the doctors or the hospital, making them good food to eat, messaging or ringing them to check in on them, getting them their medicines or sending them a small gift or card to cheer them up.
We talked about how Fr. Kevan goes to visit people in hospital who are unwell so we decided to make some Get Well Soon cards for him to take to cheer some of the patients up who are unwell in hospital.
The children listemed and followed instructions well to make their cards. We will next be composing prayers to go inside the cards for the patients in hospital to read. We are hopeful they will make those poorly people feel better. We are trying hard to be kind and love everyone like Jesus taught us.

EY Picture News - Self Driving Cars

We looked at the Picture News Poster.

We discussed: What can you see? What do you like or dislike about the picture? What do you think this week’s news story might be about?

The picture shows a Mercedes car that had been designed to be a possible self-driving car.

We discussed: What do you think a self-driving car is? Have you ever seen any self-driving cars before?

It has been in the news that some self-driving cars may be on the roads in England, Scotland and Wales by the end of the year 2026. We discussed what year it is now, 2024 and counted up to 2026.

We discussed: What do you think about this? Would you like to go in a self-driving car? Why? Do you think we will see lots of self-driving cars on the roads in a few years’ time?

We looked at the world map to see where this weeks story events related to… the United Kingdom.

Question: What must a self-driving car be able to do? We used the attached sheet to discuss these ideas.
Before we have self-driving cars, the people who do sign them will need to make sure they are even better than a car with a driver.

We discussed: Do you think self-driving cars will be able to do all of these things in the photos? Which do you think will be the most difficult to teach cars to do? Why? Would you like to be able to drive a car one day? Do you think you will or do you think all the cars will be self-driving by then?

EY Picture News - Learning to Read...

This week’s news story is all about children learning to read. A university in Spain has been studying how well children learn to read and understand what they are reading. They have been looking at children reading books and children reading from a screen like a tablet, phone or a computer.

We discussed: Do you like to read at home? Do you read by yourself or with someone else? Do you always read and look at books you can hold, or do you sometimes read and share stories on a screen? What do you like the most?

The university in Spain found out that children learn and understand what they are reading much more when reading a book you can hold, rather than on a screen.

We discussed: What do you like about reading a book? Is it holding the book, turning pages, lifting flaps, looking at pictures?

We looked at the world map to see where this weeks story events related to… Spain.

When people look at and read a book, they choose one they think they will enjoy. We looked at some different books on the screen.

We discussed: Which book would you chose to look at and read? What makes you think you would enjoy this book? Do you like story books (fiction) or books that tell you information (non fiction) the most? Do you have a favourite book at home or school that you love to read again and again? What is it? (We looked through the EY Picture News homework)

We then all visited our school library to look at, share and enjoy some books, 

Snow! 

As part of our work on winter, we read a non fiction book all about snow. We learned that snow is frozen rain and that snowflakes are actually tiny drops of ice which are formed in the freezing cold clouds and fall to earth!
The children learned about other things related to snow too including - what snowdrifts and blizzards are, how snow ploughs clear the roads during snowy weather, what we should wear in the snow and all about animals and people who live in the snow all year round near the North and South poles! We learned how a mode of transport used there is a snow mobile - we all thought we would like a go on one!
During exploring time, the children all then got to explore our fake snow! They loved it! The talked about what it felt, looked, smelled and sounded like. They also experimented with different patterns and marks that could be made in it and how it could be moved and manipulated!

A Winter Walk! 

This week we went on a little winter walk around our school grounds looking for signs that we are in the season of winter, using information we have learned from the books we have been reading. Evidence we found…
* We could feel the cold air.
* The wind was freezing.
* We had to wear lots of layers to keep warm.
* The trees had no leaves as they had lost them in autumn and they’ve not yet grown back because it is too chilly.
* some buds were starting to appear on the trees preparing for the new leaves to grow when the springtime months come around.
* There was water on the grass, but it hadn’t rained. We learned that this was from frost and ice that had been there this morning and had since melted and turned back to a liquid in the winter sun.
* Some thistles still had frost on them - we thought they looked like snowflakes!
* Some branches had been blown off the trees trees during the stormy winter weather.
* We found catkins hanging on one tree, we had learned in the 'Secrets of Winter' book that some birds like to eat these in winter.
* In a garden of a house next to school, we could see some evergreen trees and plants/bushes (we learned these are plants and trees that don’t lose their leaves).

EY Picture News - Emojis! 

These faces are emojis. Some people add emojis in messages they send to other people. They may send them in messages on their phones, tablets or computers. It can be a way to show people how you feel without writing a word. Emojis have been in the news because one boy, aged 10, has asked a company that uses them to change one that he doesn’t like.

We discussed: Have you seen people use emojis before? Have you ever used one? Do you like them? Do you have a favourite one?

We looked at a map to see where this weeks story events related to… Oxfordshire, UK.

We then looked at some of the different emojis people send in messages to other people.

We discussed: If you were sent one of these emojis, what do you think it would mean? Does everyone agree? Does anyone think it means something different? Do you think they help us to know how someone is feeling? Do they tell us why someone is feeling that way?

EY Picture News - Antarctica!

The picture has been taken in Antarctica.

We discussed: What do you know about Antarctica? Do you know where Antarctica is? Do people live there? What animals do you think live there?

It has been in the news that more plants than ever before are growing in Antarctica.

We discussed: Why do you think there are not many plants in Antarctica? Usually, there aren’t many plants because it is so cold and there is so much ice there. Why do you think that some plants have started to grow in Antarctica?

The world is getting warmer, which means Antarctica is getting warmer too. The ice there is slowly melting so more plants can grow.

We discussed: Do you think the ice me,ting and more plants growing in Antarctica is a good thing? Why?

Where we live, we need and want lots of plants to grow, but in Antarctica, animals, such as penguins, live on ice. If the ice melts, their homes get smaller.

We looked at a world map to see where this week’s story events related to… Antarctica. We even looked at the globe too.

We then look at some pictures of some of the things we can all do to slow down the world getting warmer (climate change).

We discussed: Which of these things do you and your family do? How do you think this helps?

EY Picture News - Robots! 

A new robot, called Digit, is being tested in Amazon’s warehouses.

We discussed: Have you heard of the company Amazon before? What do you know about Amazon? Have you or someone in your family ever bought anything from Amazon before? How do you buy items from Amazon? How do the items get to your home?

Amazon has many big warehouses, where they store all the different items that they sell. In the warehouses, there are lots of jobs to be done including putting everything Amazon sells on shelves, finding what each person wants to buy and packing it into a box ready to go out. Amazon is trialling, which means trying out, these new robots to help them pick up and move empty boxes so they can be ready to use again.

We discussed: Do you think using robots to do a job like moving boxes around is a good idea? Amazon wants the robots to work together with people. Would you like to work with a robot? Why?

We looked at a world map to see where this week’s story events related to… Seattle, USA.

Robots are being used by Amazon to try and help people. We looked at some pictures, which show jobs or things that people do.

We discussed: Which of these things do you think a robot can do or will be able to do in the future? Are there any that you think a robot will never be able to do as well as a real person? Why? What else do you think robots may be able to help us with on the future? Would you want a robot, like Digit, in your home? If so, what would you like it to do?

EY Picture News - Money! 
We looked at the picture news poster to see what we could see. This person on the picture is learning how to use money to buy things.
It’s is in the news that some children have not been taught enough about money at home or at school to help them use it when they become grown ups. 

We discussed: What do you know about money? What do you think you need money for? What about when you area grownup? What do you think grownups need money for? Where does money come from? Have you ever been given any money? If so, what did you do with it? 

We looked at a world map to see where this week’s story events related to… the United Kingdom.

We thought about the question ‘how important is it to understand money?’
All grown ups receive money. They may receive it in cash or it may go into their bank. Grown ups need to pay for lots of things, but they also need to be careful with their money to make sure they have enough for all the important things they need. We looked at a sheet, which shows some of the things that grownups pay for with their money.

We discussed: Which do you think are the most important things grownups need to spend money on? What do you think are the ‘treat’ things they can buy if they have some money left? If you or a grownup has some money that they don’t need or want to spend, what can you/they do with it? 

EY Picture News - Footwear! 

This week’s news story is about Kelvin Kipman, who has run a marathon in Chicago, USA, with a record breaking time of just over two hours.

We discussed: What is a marathon? Do you know anyone who enjoys running or has run a marathon before?

A marathon is just over 26 miles.

We discussed: How hard do you think it will be to run this far? What do you think people will need to do before they run a marathon e.g, practise runs, eat healthy, sleep well?

Runners choose what trainers they run in and Kelvin Kiptum chose to wear Nike Alphafly 3 ‘super shoes’.

We discussed: What do you think a ‘super shoe’ is? What do you think runners, like Kelvin, will think about when they choose what shoes to wear e.g, which will be the comfiest, which will help them to run the fastest?

We looked at the world map to see where this weeks event were related to… Chicago, USA.

We next looked at some different types of footwear.

We discussed: Which type of foot wear do you wear a lot? What do you like to do when you are wearing them? Do you choose different types of footwear to do different things?

EY Picture News - The Sycamore Gap

This week our news is all about a sycamore tree. It is found between two hills along the famous Hadrian’s Wall that was built a very long time ago to separate England from Scotland. Many people enjoy walking along Hadrian’s Wall and have had photos taken of themselves with this tree during their walk.

We discussed: Has anyone ever been on a walk along Hadrian’s Wall before? Do you like walking in the countryside? What do you or don’t you like about it? What might you see while walking in the countryside?

It has been in the news that someone, without asking permission first, has chopped this tree down. It was found already chopped down by some people walking. (We watched the video to show the tree before and after it had been felled).

We discussed: What do you feel about this week’s story? Why do you think someone has chopped this tree down? What you you say to the person who chopped it down?

We looked at the world map to see where this week’s story events related to… Northumberland, UK.

We next listened to the children, who are sharing a place that is special to them.

We discussed: Do you have a place that is special to you? Where is it? What makes it special for you? How would you feel if your special place got damaged?

EY Picture News - Black History Month

We are now in the month of October and every October we celebrate Black History Month.

We discussed: What is history?

History is all about things that have already happened. it may be a very long time ago or not that long ago. Black History Month celebrates the amazing achievements of Black people and this year we are particularly looking at women. It may be women who are great singers, written books, had great success on something such as fashion, sport, business, medicine.

We discussed: Do you know any amazing women? Who are they? Are they famous (e.g., you have seen them on television) or is it someone you know well like someone in your family or a friend? What have they done that you think is amazing?

We looked at the world map to see where this week’s story events related to; United Kingdom where we are celebrating Black History Month.

We next looked at some ways we might celebrate something that someone in our family or a friend has done. (See attached sheet)

We discussed: Have you ever celebrated something that someone you know has done? Maybe your friends or family celebrated something you did? What was it? How did you celebrate? How did the celebration make you feel?

We next had a look at a song about Mary Seacole; a nurse who helped soldiers, who had been hurt in the war.

Whilst exploring, we practised our sewing skills like the amazing nurse, Mary Secole, did whilst sewing up soldiers wounds. We also learned that lots of black women wear their hair in plaits or braids which look amazing so we did some maths work measuring plaits of hair using non standard measures. 

EY Picture News - World Records

The new Guinness World Record Book for 2024 is now available to buy from shops and online.

We discussed: Does anyone know what a Guinness Word Record is? Does anyone have a Guinness World Record Book at home?

The picture shows 15 year old Simeon Graham, who has broken three world records this year, managing to achieve the most juggling catches in one minute with. Five, six and seven objects.

We discussed: What is juggling? Have you ever had a go at juggling before? How do you think people learn how to juggle? Is it something you would like to learn?

We looked at a map to see her this week’s story events related to: London, Guinness a World Records global headquarters.

We then had a look at some of the new world records for this year.

We discussed: Which of these world records do you like the most? Why? If you were to break a world record, what would you do? How do you think people break records? Do you think it’s easy to do?

Bears!

We have been learning all about bears! We have learned about different types of bears and the habitats around the world that they live in. We also enjoyed reading and creating a story map for the story, Goldilocks and the 3 Bears. We then used puppets to act the story out! 

As well as this we created invitations to our own bears at home, inviting them to a teddy bears' picnic in school! We brought all our bears in and introduced them to all our firneds. We also made jam sandwiches for a special snack and enjoyed eating them outdoors at a real teddy bears' picnic! 

Take a look at all the fun we have had learning about bears...

EY Picture News - The Moon

It has been in the news that a space agency from India has sent a space shuttle to the Moon. The space shuttle, which does not have any astronauts (people) on board, is the first space shuttle to successfully land near the Moon’s South Pole.

We looked at some pictures of the moon.

We discussed: Where do you think the Moon’s South Pole is? We pointed to the South and North Pole. Why do you think the space agency in India wanted to send a shuttle to the moon? Why do you think they did it without any astronauts?

As no one has ever landed near the South Pole of the Moon before, India wanted to be the frost country to do it. Now that they have landed on the Moon, they will be able to explore and find out more about it.

We discussed: What do you already know about the Moon?

We looked at the world map to see where this week’s story looks at events related to… India.

We then looked at the pictures and talked about some facts about the Moon. 

We discussed: Would you like to find out more? What would you like to find out? How do you think finding out more about the Moon could help us in the future?

EY Picture News - School Buildings

It has been in the news that some schools have not been able to open at the start of the year because their building are not safe to go in.

We discussed: What do you think could be wrong with the school buildings? What do you think might happen if the buildings are not fixed? How would you feel if you were told you couldn’t start school because the building wasn’t safe? Do you think schools should shut if they are not safe?

We looked at the world map to see where this week’s story events related to… the United Kingdom.

We next listened to some children who were telling us all about someone who makes them feel safe.

We discussed: Who helps you feel safe? What do they do to make you feel safe? Do you think you help anyone else to feel safe? Who?

EY Picture News - Lifejackets!

This week's news story is about a new law that the government (the people in charge of a country) are making in Canada.

We discussed: What is law? Why do you think we have laws? What do you think might happen if someone breaks a law?

The new law in Canada is that all children aged 12 or under must wear a lifejacket on a boat. If children are found not to be wearing one, the grown-up in charge will have to pay a fine (this is an amount of money they must pay because they broke the law).

We discussed: What is a lifejacket? Why do people wear them? What does a lifejacket do? Do you think this new law is a good idea? Why?

We looked at the world map to see where this weeks events related to… Canada.

We then looked at some different types of boats. 

We discussed: Which boat would you most like to go on? Why? Are there any you wouldn’t like to try? Do you think everyone should wear lifejackets on all these boats? Why?

I wonder if your child can tell you about what we have been learning about in Picture News? Can they remember what we should wear when on a boat to keep us safe?

2022-2023 Photo Gallery

EY Picture News - Wimbledon! 

This weeks new’s story is about the famous tennis tournament, Wimbledon, which is happening right now.

We discussed: What do you know about tennis? Have you seen the Wimbledon tournament on television? Is there anyone in your home, who really likes tennis? Do you know any of the rules of tennis? Is it a sport you have tried before, if not, would you like to?

What do you think makes a good tennis player? A good runner, strong arms, someone who loves the sports?

We looked at the map to see where this week’s story events were related to.

We then looked at some prizes we may win when we take part in a competition or a game.

We discussed: Have you ever won any of these prizes before? What’s as it for? Do we always win a competition because we are the best at something? Is it sometimes good luck? Do you always have to win? How does it feel to win something?

EY Picture News - The Countryside Code

This week's news story is all about a government organisation, called Natural England, who have teamed up with Shaun ten Sheep to help people learn all about the Countryside Code.

We discussed: What is the countryside? What might you see in the countryside? What do you think the Countryside Code might be?

We watched the video (Shaun the Sheep Countryside Campaign - www.nationaltrail.co.uk/en_GB/countryside-code-and-shaun-the-sheep/  Which shows Shaun the Sheep and his friends explaining more about the Countryside Code.

We discussed: What do you think Shaun the Sheep and his friends are trying to tell us?

We looked at the world map to see where this week’s story events related to.

We looked at and talked through the poster about the Countryside Code.