Holtsmere End Infant and Nursery School

Chestnut class

Maple class

Chestnut Class -Week 1 

WC 11.09.23

We have had a great first week at school! We have been very busy meeting new friends and exploring all the wonderful learning opportunities there are in Reception.  In Maths, we looked at the number four and went on a hunt to collect four objects in the playground.   We are all settling in very well!

Chestnut Class -Week 2

WC 18.09.23

We have continued to have a great time in school and learning all the class routines.  In Maths this week we have been practising subitising using a dice.  

Chestnut Class - Week 3

WC 25.09.23

This week we have enjoyed reading 'Owl Babies'. We have learnt about nocturnal animals and we have also been building nests.

Maple Class - Week 1

WC 11.09.03

Everyone has settled in well and we have had a brilliant first week at school. We have had lots going on this week and enjoyed some great learning opportunities. 

Maple Class - Week 2

WC 18.09.23

We have had a busy week in Maple! In Maths this week we have been practising subitising using a dice.

WC 02.10.23

This week we have enjoyed creating a giant nest outside and continuing to learn about owls.  We also created some lovely self portrait paintings.  

WC 09.10.23

This week we have been very busy in Reception.  We have been ;learning about Harvest.  We have read the story of The Little Red Hen.  We decided to bake some delicious bread rolls.  We have enjoyed learning how to juice oranges and lemons and we made some yummy orange juice.  

WC 16.10.23

This week we have been looking at the signs of autumn and went on an autumn walk. 

We also enjoyed our stay and play sessions when our families came to play with us in our classroom.  

 

WC 30.10.23

We had a fantastic seasonal change day. Looking at the changes that had occurred this autumn.

 

We had a brilliant sparkly Friday to learn about Bonfire Night.

WC 06.11.23

We have been learning about the past this week.   We looked at what years World War 1 occurred and learnt about why we have remembrance day.   We learnt at the famous artist Monet and his painting 'Poppy Field'.  When decided to use watercolours to create our own version.  

This week we also learnt about Diwali the Hindu festival of light.  We created Rangoli patterns using paint and had great fun taking part in a Indian dancing workshop.   

 

WC 13.11.23

We have been learning about our skeleton and have really enjoyed reading the story Funny bones.  We investigated the human and animal skeleton and looked closely at bones. We also had great fun leaning the skeleton dance!  

Children In Need 2023

WC 20.11.23

This week we have been learning about birthdays and how they are celebrated.  We learnt how to play some party games and planned a 5th birthday party for Jigsaw Jenie.  We had a great time celebrating! 

WC 27.11.23

This week we have been learning The Nativity Story.  We have discovered what happened during the very first Christmas.  We have also made our  own class advent calendar and are excited to count down to Christmas at school.  

WC 04.12.23

This week we have been learning about the Jewish festival of Hanukkah.   We learnt about the miracle of  the Temple as a oil lamp burnt for eight nights but it only only had enough oil for one night.   We ate doughnuts as oily foods are eaten to remember the story of the miracle.   We also played the dreidel game and enjoyed lighting a menorah candle.  

Christmas!

WC 11.12.23

This week we have been getting into the festive spirit.  We started the week making gingerbread men and had a great morning with our parents during Deco day .  We really enjoyed our Christmas dinner and the pantomime in the afternoon was a lot of fun.  We have had a very busy week!

 

WC 08.01.24

This week we have been had a busy start to the new year.   We have begun our new topic around transport.  We learnt the story 'Mr Gumpy's Outing' and enjoyed retelling it on the boat.  We have been looking closely at boats and had fun exploring the concept of floating and sinking.  

Chestnut class were very pleased to start forest school again!

WC 15.01.24

This week we have had a great seasonal change day.  We noticed all the changes that have occurred this Winter.  

Nursery                          Year 1                          Year  2

WC 21.01.24

This week we have had a very busy week.   We enjoyed role playing a train ride and continued to learn the story 'The Train Ride'.   We had fun carrying out a traffic survey and learnt how to tally what vehicles went past as we watched.   We have been looking at 2D shapes and have enjoyed printing with them.   

WC 29.01.24

It has been another busy week in Reception.  We have been learning about aeroplanes and have been reading 'Emma Janes Aeroplane'.  We looked at the globe to find where all the cities were that were mentioned in the story.  We have also been making paper aeroplanes and had fun seeing how far they could fly.  In Maths, we have been learning about 3D shapes and went on a shape hunt in the playground.     

WC 05.02.24

We have had a great time learning about Chinese New Year this week.  We tasted noodles, prawn cracker and rice.   We learnt the story of 'The Great Race'.   We also made our own Chinese Dragon and created a fantastic dance!  

WC 12.02.24

We have celebrated Pancake Day this week.  We read 'Mr Wolf's Pancakes' and have been writing shopping lists of all the ingredients needed to make pancakes.  We learnt all about Shrove Tuesday and helped create the pancake mixture.   We were then very lucky as Miss Razzaque made yummy pancakes for all the children in Reception!   

WC 12.02.24

Art week has been fun.  We looked at the artist Piet Mondrian.   We looked at the primary colours that he used in his work and created our own collage versions of his artwork.     

WC 26.02.24

This week we started our topic around Africa.  We have read Handa's Surprise.  We tasted all the delicious fruits from the story.   We also had a special African Drumming sessions with Mr Banks, our music teacher.  We have had a great week!   

WC 04.03.24.                                                                            

World Book Day 

This week we had a great World Book Day.  The whole school followed a 'Wild West' theme after reading 'The Wildest Cowboy".   We enjoyed a drama workshop, learning a line dance, practising being cowboys and girls, using a lasso, dropping a snake in a boot, horse riding races and creating cactus paintings.  It was a brilliant day!   

WC 11.03.24

This week we have been reading the African folk tale 'Too Much Talk'.   We have enjoyed acting the story out and loved looking at the Kente patterns in the illustrations.  We looked at African Kente cloth, and then we used calico fabric to create our own giant Kente design.  We had great fun!

Science Week:

We did an experiment looking at what happens when you add food colouring and washing up liquid to milk.  We were amazed to see the milk magically separate as we added the washing up liquid.