Week commencing 07-06-2021
This week the Badgers have been out in the Forest School making models of some of the animals we’ve captured on the wildlife camera… This week we all made model hedgehogs.
The Badgers are still doing great work in the kitchen, and they are all building their confidence and getting ready to progress onto the next cookery stage!
Everyone has picked their Euro Teams to follow for the football, and we’ll be using the matches to practice different maths and English skills.
Continuing the Euros theme, the Badgers have created artwork of their chosen teams’ flags in Forest School, as well as decorating some of the tree stumps and stepping-stones… and themselves! ?
We had some guests delivering a First Aid course, and what with the work the Badgers had done previously in the year they really did impress the instructors with their knowledge of DRABC and the recovery position.
Finally, we’ve continued with our work on learning about the months of the year, and most students can name all of the months, and a few can actually get them in the right order, which is a big step!
Star of the Week is Harrison, who has managed to not only spell his surname independently, but form all of the letters correctly!
Our WOW moment is for all of the Badgers, who applied their previous learning in the First Aid sessions and showed what they had remembered.
—————————————————————————————————————————————
Week commencing 24-05-2021
The Badgers have had a busy final week; we’ve been outside in the Forest School creating Stick Men for other pupils to find, and then we made a short stop motion video of the Stick Men ‘appearing’ in forest school, walking down the path and climbing out of our twig-bin! (You can watch the video below) Whilst outside, we also learned how to use loppers safely, and made some extra staffs for shelter building and added some other bits to the hedgehog house.
As the Badgers loved making the video, we had a go at creating some more weird creatures to film in our art lesson, and then we could learn to edit the videos in ICT lessons. We also managed to finish off our canopic jars from our lessons on Ancient Egyptians!
We had our first attempt at making scrambled eggs in a pan, and this was a brilliant success. All of the pupils knew how to be safe, and they all paid attention and didn’t burn their eggs!
WARNING – The content of this video may not be suitable for all pupils.
—————————————————————————————————————————-
Week Commencing 10-05-2021
The Badgers have been outside this week, dispersing seed bombs in the best way possible… by throwing them around the Forest School! Hopefully, the dried seed bombs will offer enough protection to the seeds from any birds and bugs that might want to eat them before they get a chance to grow. We’ve also planted some willow in order to build a new willow den, so once that gets big enough we can start to weave it together.
In cookery the Badgers have moved on to using pans in the kitchen, and they showed real care and consideration when using the equipment to cook beans on toast.
In ICT the Badgers have continued their brilliant work learning how to edit photos in numerous ways, and we had some fun adding our own creative flair to some portraits.
Our phonics lessons are progressing so well that ALL of the Badgers have earned a WOW moment, as they have shown a willingness to work together to solve problems and spell words. If you look at the photos this week, you will see our ‘beta’ phonics game in development, that everyone has had a go with!
Our Star of the Week goes to Macy, who joined us this week for her first online maths lesson. She did exceptionally well, and it was great to see her again in class, even if it was over Teams!
—————————————————————————————————————————-
WC 03-05-2021
This week Badgers have been creating 3D shapes out of Polydrons to understand how nets work. They created cubes, tetrahedrons and square-based pyramids, and then had a go at making some REALLY intricate and impressively sounding ones, like the icosahedron and the stellated dodecahedron! We might not remember the names, but practicing putting them together was a real challenge and it tested out fine motor skills. However, the Badgers all showed real perseverance, and overcame the challenge!
We’ve re-potted all of our windowsill plants, as they have really taken off and need a bigger home before we transfer them outside as soon as we have the weather on our side. The lesson was very messy, but we managed to practice some independent living skills with a hoover when tidying up!
We had our first experience of ‘fake snow’, which turns out to be a great sensory experience that’s surprisingly easy to clear up! We froze some to see which textures we liked best.
Having practiced our 3D shapes, the Badgers had a go at building a giant pyramid, as they’ve been learning all about Ancient Egyptians!
Finally, we’re having a big push on learning our months of the year. We’re doing really well with our days of the week and ordinal numbers, we just need to crack those pesky months!
Our Star of the Week this week is Zara, for her excellent attention to detail and levels of tenacity when creating shapes out of the Polydrons, and our WOW is for Cody, who has worked outside to help coppice some willow that we will be replanting in order to create some willow shelters and tunnels around the Forest school area.
—————————————————————————————————————————-
WC 26-04-2021
This week Badgers have had a very creative week. We made our own seed bombs in the Forest School that are full of wildflower seeds, and we’ll be scattering them next week once they’re dry.
We’ve continued to build our skills in the kitchen and we’re building our confidence with frying pans… Harrison Purdy has earnt himself Star of the Week because he did so well cooking independently!
In ICT we’ve begun to edit photos, learning how to crop, filter, rotate and flip images, as well as discovering how to add our own creative flair with electronic pens and brushstrokes.
In the DARTS sessions our Badgers have begun to use MIDI programs to add drums and synth sounds to their Superhero music… at the rate they’re working we’ll have a full Superhero movie soundtrack by Summer!
In Maths we’ve looked at nets for 3D shapes, as well as making our own jigsaws out of 2D shapes to complete a 100 square!
Finally, we’ve had a creative session for our well-being, making flowers out of modelling clay!
—————————————————————————————————————————-
WC 19-04-2021
Badgers had a really good week this week. They’ve had art sessions outside decorating the Forest School area, as well as planting some more trees in the grounds. The Badgers have been practicing their phonics and spellings in English, as well as learning to follow instructions. The instructions they followed this week were to help them make eggy bread for a snack in their Independent Cookery session. We’ve also had another visit from DARTS, where we made our own recordings for a Superhero theme tune. Finally, in maths, the Badgers have been working on understanding the difference and applying the concept into practice for between ‘1 more’ and ‘one less’.
————————————————————————————————————————–
WC 22-03-2021
The Badgers have had a creative final week as we approach Easter; They’ve made some great Easter Egg baskets, as well as some Easter chocolate biscuits. The Badgers have been practicing making biscuits over the last few weeks, and the difference between these biscuits and the first ones they made is massive!
We had an egg-tasting session (not chocolate eggs!) during our cookery session on Tuesday, and the Badgers tried scrambled eggs, poached eggs, and eggy bread. After the holidays the Badgers will be learning how to cook their favourite type of egg independently, in order to diversify their cookery skills and further build their confidence in the kitchen.
Using the days of the week, the Badgers have been practicing giving instructions to their peers by taking it in turns to order the days. This has allowed everyone to practice their communication and listening skills.
Finally, the Badgers have practiced putting each other into the recovery position so that they would be able to help someone in need. They’ve all done really well with remembering the order in which to do it, and it’s great to think that they’ve learnt something that is potentially life-saving!
—————————————————————————————————————————
w/c 08-03-2021
This week Badgers have continued to work on their baking and cooking skills in order to become more confident and independent when in a kitchen. We’ve worked a lot with shapes, using them to create monsters for a wall display, as well as figuring out ways to accurately count corners/edges/faces of 3D shapes.
We’ve continued to look at real-life superheroes and thought about the special skills these key workers need in order to do their jobs.
Some students had an opportunity to work with people from DRAX again, this time building a rain gauge out of recycled bottles. The other students had an introductory lesson from DARTS to start thinking about creating their very own superhero theme tune!
——————————————————————————————————————————
w/c 01-03-2021
The Badgers have been extremely busy this week! We’ve spent quite a bit of time in the kitchen, as one of our focuses this term is ‘following instructions’. Well, what better instructions to follow than a recipe for chocolate cookies? The Badgers have also been working on their Independence Skills by cooking beans on toast, but now with very limited input from staff… We’re hoping that by the end of the half term some students will be doing this COMPLETELY independently.
For English, we’ve been reading ‘Real Superheroes – a Celebration of Key Workers’ and looking at the people in our community that help us, keep us safe, and do all of the jobs in the background that keep the world turning.
We also spent time in the Forest School area practicing our Djembe drumming! As the weather is still a little on the cold side this is a great way to keep warm, make lots of noise, and have some fun – but we can still practice listening skills, counting, following a beat and keeping a rhythm.
w/c 22-02-2021
Badger’s star of the week is Ellie, for using a structured method to accurately figure out subtraction questions, and our WOW moment has been Cody, having settled into his first week back after such a long-time off school.
The Badgers have come back after half term and got straight back into their routine; they’re still working on cooking a healthy snack independently on Tuesday mornings, and they’ve all started work on understanding ‘more’ or ‘less’, as well as understanding the concept of subtraction and simple methods to work it out accurately and independently.
We’ve also had an online science lesson provided by the people at DRAX, and all the Badgers made simple models to help explain evaporation and precipitation.
————————————————————————————————————————————-
w/c 01-02-2021
Badgers have enjoyed their first week back as a small group, as it’s given us an opportunity to really focus on some new skills. Even though Tuesday was a snow day, we’ve still had a busy week. We’ve looked at finding different shapes in our environment, as well as matching and making patterns using different colours. Ellie Penfold has tried really hard to find different ways to check her patterns are accurate, and this has earnt her the coveted reward of Star of the Week.
Macy has joined in with online bingo on a daily basis, and her mum needs a special shout-out for making extra bingo cards because they ran out!
The class have really started to embrace the phonics sessions in the morning, working on letter and sound recognition, as well as practicing making each individual sound. Harrison had a WOW moment when he joined in with a video and pronounced nearly all 44 sounds correctly.
————————————————————————————————————————–
Badger/Otter Class
18.01.21 – 22.01.21
This week, the students have done some fantastic work in their English and maths. We have been focusing on Jack and the Beanstalk in English as part of our wider topic on ‘New Beginnings.’ In maths, the class has been focusing on number with some students working on their rounding skills and others on working out which numbers come ‘before and after.’
While we miss the students who are not in school, it has been great to see them take part in our online lessons via Teams. This has enabled everyone to see their friends and will have no doubt helped the students’ mental health and wellbeing.
Star of the Week:
We have decided to keep nominating stars of the week as it is important that the students’ hard work is noticed and appreciated.
Last week, Kaiden was our winner for a huge improvement in his maturity and behaviour.
This week the in school star of the week is Simran for outstanding work in English and Maths.
It was a truly difficult choice as there were many others who impressed throughout the week.
Not forgetting those at home, we have our first Virtual Star of the Week winners.
It has been impossible to just pick one so congratulations to Emily and Macy for logging onto teams every day and continuing to do your school work from home.
