MATHS

In maths, our children have been learning about the concepts of 'big' and 'small'. They explored a range of objects, comparing their sizes and identifying whether items were big or small.

04.11.26 SCIENCE & DT

After reading the story The Little Red Hen, we decided to make bread in the cookery, just like the hen did in the story. The children enjoyed exploring all the ingredients, including flour, oil, salt, yeast and water. They helped to weigh the ingredients correctly, mix them together, and every child had a turn kneading the dough. It was a fun and engaging activity, and the children were very excited to see how the ingredients changed as they worked together to make bread.

02.11.26 ART: Fireworks

The children were very interested in our Attention Time Bucket, which had a fireworks theme. Jane, our teacher, launched rockets, fired party poppers, and popped balloons to create exciting "bang" sounds. The children then used toilet roll tubes and paint to create their own colourful fireworks pictures, exploring different colours, patterns, and printing techniques as they worked. The children made their own Catherine wheels using glue and glitter. 🎆🎨✨We hope you all enjoy Bonfire night!

 

23.10.26 HALLOWEEN SENSORY PLAY

The children really enjoyed exploring the Halloween-themed sensory play stations, engaging with a variety of textures, colours, and materials. They showed curiosity and enthusiasm as they investigated the different activities, using their senses to touch, look, listen, and explore. The children were eager to interact with the Halloween resources and had lots of fun discovering new sensory experiences. 🎃👻🕷️

22.10.26 LITERACY

We have been reading the story The Very Hungry Caterpillar's Trick or Treat. The children enjoyed exploring and counting the different Halloween-related objects within the story. 🎃🐛

The children enjoyed taking part in our own Trick or Treat game linked to our Halloween learning. They were presented with two choices, 'Trick' or 'Treat', and had to decide which one to pick. If they chose Treat, they received a sweet or chocolate. If they chose Trick, they had to take off their shoes and socks and place their feet into a tray of cold noodles, pretending they were wriggly worms. The children showed great curiosity and excitement as they explored the different textures, with lots of laughter and screams of "Yuck!" throughout the activity! This fun experience encouraged decision-making, turn-taking, and sensory exploration while helping the children engage in Halloween-themed learning. 🎃👣🪱😆

22.10.26 DT

The children enjoyed creating their own 3D bats as part of our DT activity. They painted a toilet roll insert black and carefully added two wobbly eyes and two ears to create the bat's face. The children then attached black pipe cleaners to the bottom of the toilet roll to make the bat's feet. Once finished, we hung the bats upside down on our class tree. We talked about how bats are nocturnal animals and sleep during the day, helping the children to learn more about the world around them while developing their creative and fine motor skills. 🦇🎨

21.10.26 SCIENCE

This afternoon, the children enjoyed meeting some fascinating creatures during the Creepy Crawly Roadshow, which visited our school. They had the opportunity to see a variety of giant bugs and reptiles up close. Some of the children were very brave and chose to touch or even hold some of the animals, including a snake, millipede, and snail. The experience generated lots of excitement, curiosity, and conversation as the children learnt more about these amazing creatures. 🐍🐌🕷️

21.10.26 ART🎃👣

The children enjoyed making Halloween cards today. We painted their feet black and used their footprints to create spooky mummies. The children helped add wobbly eyes and strips of white tape to complete their mummy designs. There were lots of giggles and laughter as we tickled their feet with the paintbrush, making this a fun and memorable Halloween activity for everyone! 👻🧡

 

19.10.26 SCIENCE IN ATTENTION TIME

The children enjoyed watching their teacher, Jane, lead a Halloween-themed 'Attention Time' session using a range of interesting multi-sensory objects and a scientific experiment.

Jane used fizzy vinegar and bicarbonate of soda to inflate a monster balloon. The children watched with excitement as the balloon grew bigger and bigger. They showed great curiosity and engagement, observing the reaction.

After watching their teacher create a ghost using rice, the children were eager to have a go themselves. They showed good engagement and curiosity as they explored the materials and created their own rice ghosts, developing their creativity, attention and fine motor skills.

19.10.26 HARVEST FESTIVAL HART FIELDS

Anacondas have had a lovely morning. We walked to Hart Fields Residental Care Home and presented them with some of our donations from our Harvest Festival Collection.

16.10.26 SENSORY RELAXATION

On Friday Afternoon Anaconda's had a lovely sensory relaxation session, we had 3 different stations where the children got to explore vibration beds, hand, foot and head massage and a foot spa, the children really enjoyed themselves and we all had a great relaxing afternoon

15.10.26 PHSE

The children have been spending time with the PAT (Pets As Therapy) dog. The children were encouraged to approach the dog calmly and gently, helping them to develop their confidence and understanding of how to interact safely with animals. The children used communication skills to greet the dog, make choices about whether they wanted to stroke or observe, and share their thoughts and feelings about the experience.

The session supported the children's social and emotional development, promoting empathy, kindness and respect for living things. It also provided a calming sensory experience, helping the children to relax, engage and build positive relationships. We talked about Ronnie the dog's appearance, and what he likes to do. We found out Ronnie was 10 years old.

14.10.26 COMMUNICATION & ART

The children collaged Postman Bear using small squares of coloured paper, developing their fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination as they carefully picked up, positioned and stuck the pieces. The children communicated their colour preferences by using a choice board, demonstrating their ability to make choices and express their interests. This activity supported communication and language development, encouraged independence in decision-making, and promoted creativity through selecting and using different colours in their artwork.

13.10.26 COOKERY & PHSE

The children explored a variety of fruits using their senses, talking about how they looked, felt, smelt and tasted. With support, the children peeled oranges into segments and helped to chop apples, pears and bananas, developing their fine motor skills and learning about safe food preparation. The children worked together to place the fruit into a bowl and mix it to create a fruit salad, encouraging cooperation and turn-taking.

09.10.26 FUND RASINING CRAFTS  - ART

The children enjoyed making pumpkin suncatchers this afternoon. We collected a variety of colourful autumn leaves, including orange, red, yellow and brown leaves. After drying the leaves, we glued them onto our cardboard pumpkin shapes and covered them with PVA glue to seal them before leaving them to dry. Each child made two beautiful pumpkin suncatchers.

We are looking forward to selling our autumn crafts to help raise money for Springwell School. 🎃🍂😊

08.10.26 WRITING

The children have been practising and refining their pencil grip and  working on their early writing skills, making purposeful marks, tracing, and becoming more confident in forming letters in their name 😊

07.10.26 ASSEMBLY

The children really enjoyed Sam’s sensory assembly. He brought lots of interesting multi-sensory objects that captured the children’s attention, including blowing up balloons and letting them go, blowing bubbles, and launching flashing rockets around the room. The children were highly engaged throughout the assembly and enjoyed exploring the different sights, sounds, and movements of the sensory activities. 

The assembly ended with the children joining in with singing songs and playing with a parachute. This provided a fun and interactive ending to the session, and the children thoroughly enjoyed taking part.

06.10.26 PSHRE  & COMMUNICATION

The children have been developing their PSHRE and Communication skills during lunchtime. They are learning to make choices by going to the dinner hatch and selecting what they would like to eat. The children communicate their choices in a variety of ways, including pointing to foods, using symbols on the iPad, or verbally naming the foods they would like.

They have been working hard to eat and drink as independently as possible, practising the use of cutlery and developing their self-help skills. The children have also been exploring a range of new foods and are learning to express their likes and dislikes, helping to build their confidence in communicating their preferences and making independent choices. 😊 Well done Anacondas!

 

05.10.26 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT

The children were delighted exploring the soft play area and developing their physical skills. They practised getting in and out of the ball pool, moving through the balls, climbing the stairs, crawling through tunnels, balancing and navigating across the net bridge, and sliding down the slide. These activities helped to develop their coordination, balance, strength, and confidence while having lots of fun with their friends class. 😊

02.10.26 WONDERFUL AWARD

Amaka received the 'Wonderful Award' in assembly this afternoon. She has been a superstar! She has been fantastic at communicating and shown a fantastic attitude to learning. Well done, Amaka! Keep up the amazing work! ⭐👏🎉

30.09.26 LITERACY

After reading our story again, the children took part in a matching activity. We recapped the characters and events from the story, helping the children to recall key information and support their understanding. The children then used this knowledge to complete the 'character' matching task. 😊

30.09.26 MATHS

In Maths, our children have been developing their sorting and patterning skills through a range of colour activities. They sorted a mixture of coloured bears and animals into the correct colour groups, identifying and matching objects by colour. The children have also been matching and continuing colour bear sequences, helping to develop their understanding of patterns, observation skills, and early mathematical concepts. 😊

29.09.26 LITERACY

The children enjoyed listening to our new Literacy story, ‘Postman Bear’. The children have been helping Bear to write party invitations. Together, we placed the letters into envelopes, added addresses and stamps, and then posted them into our class post box. The children were excited to take part in the process and enjoyed pretending to be postmen and postwomen as they delivered the invitations.

28.09.26 ART: BLOCK PRINTING

This afternoon, the children have been doing 'Attention Time' activities and block painting an Autumn tree, using autumnal colours. The children used a choice board to select their preferred colour.

25.09.26 PHSE

As part of our Macmillan Coffee Morning, the children had the opportunity to choose their own cake for snack time. They enjoyed making their choices and sharing the experience with their friends.

25.09.26 EDUCATIONAL VISIT

The children enjoyed a walk to Lidl to explore the variety of fruits and vegetables available. Staff supported their learning by drawing attention to the different colours, shapes, sizes, and textures, encouraging the children to share their ideas and observations.

23.09.26 LITERACY- MARK MAKING

The children had a go at drawing Supertato this morning. The teacher provided them with a potato template, and they were encouraged to add a flowing red cape, a black eye mask, bright red boots, and a classic superhero belt. The children needed a little support to complete the activity, but they were very engaged and enjoyed creating their own superhero characters. Afterwards, the children took part in some free colouring activities, colouring in Supertato and the different vegetables featured in the story.

 

22.09.26 ART: CREATING SUPERHEROS

The children have enjoyed creating a superhero version of themselves using their footprint as the superhero's body and their handprint as a bright red glowing cape. They enjoyed trying on a variety of superhero masks and chose their favourite one to wear. The children showed great enthusiasm throughout the activity and were excited to see their creations come to life. These paintings are amazing!

21.09.26 LITERACY: SUPERTATO

Over the past three weeks, the children have been enjoying the story Supertato. They have taken part in a variety of sensory activities linked to the story, including exploring different vegetables using their senses and mashing potatoes and peas. The children have been learning to identify the main characters, such as Supertato and Evil Pea, and have enjoyed matching objects from the story.

18.09.26 ART: VEGETABLE PRINTING

Today in Anacondas we read our sensory story of Supertato. During the story, Supertato rescued the carrots from Bad Pea, so during our Art lesson today we did printing with potatoes and carrots.

17.09.26 ASSEMBLY

We had our assembly on the school yard this morning. Sam had prepared a variety of sensory trays and activities for the children to participate in, linked to our whole-school topic, 'I Need a Hero'. The children made glow in the dark glasses, rings and necklaces. When we visited the dark sensory room, they were excited to see their creations glowing in the dark. We also brought a tray of spaghetti back to the classroom, and the children thoroughly enjoyed exploring it through touch and play. They showed curiosity and engagement as they investigated the different textures and sensory experiences provided throughout the morning. The children participated well in the activities and appeared to enjoy the opportunity to explore, create and learn through sensory play.

16.09.26 COOKERY - VEGETABLE SOUP

Today in Anaconda Class we had so much fun exploring vegetables. We cut up all the vegetables, smelt them in preparation to put them in the soup maker.  We tasted the soup this afternoon. However, Anacondas were not too fussed with the result after all our hard work.

15.09.26 MATHS

In Maths, the children have been developing their counting skills through singing number rhymes, including "One Potato, Two Potatoes", and have shown enthusiasm and engagement throughout these activities. 

14.09.26 TEES VALLEY MUSIC WORKSHOP

This morning, Tees Valley Music Service visited our school to work with the children. The children thoroughly enjoyed taking part in a fun and engaging music session. They sang a range of songs, including the well-known favourite 'Five Little Speckled Frogs.' During the session, the children had the opportunity to explore and play a variety of musical instruments. They also all had a go at playing the ukulele, showing great enthusiasm and developing their musical skills. 

 

14.09.26 FINE MOTOR SKILLS

The children enjoyed taking part in dough disco this morning. They have been developing their fine motor skills and hand strength through manipulating dough to music and movement.

 

10.09.26 ART

The children have been practising their glueing and sticking skills while creating frog collages based on the song: ' Five Little Speckled Frogs'. They were engaged, happy, and enthusiastic throughout the activity, showing good concentration and enjoyment as they carefully selected and stuck the scrunched up tissue paper onto their artwork.

09.09.26 COOKERY & PHSE

Today, the children enjoyed making delicious chocolate cupcakes. They were excited to help measure the ingredients, pour them into the mixing bowl, and stir the mixture together. The children took turns cracking eggs, mixing the batter, and carefully spooning it into cupcake cases. 

The children were engaged throughout the activity and demonstrated good listening skills, teamwork, and enthusiasm. The children demonstrated excellent turn taking skills, patiently waiting for their turn and sharing the resources with their friends.

05.09.26 ATTENTION TIME

Today, the children took part in an 'Attention Time' session. They were encouraged to focus their attention and listen carefully, as they observed a range of exciting objects in Jane's bucket. The children showed great interest and enthusiasm as they watched Jane playing with dancing, light up, musical caterpillar, the extra bouncy power ball, and they showed anticipation as Jane blew the bubbles from the wand. Jane then drew a large frog on a and demonstrated to them how to paint it green using a dabber. As Jane painted she said: 'Dab, dab, dab!' The children then had a go at painting their own frog with paint using a sponge dabber. The session helped to develop their attention skills in a fun and motivating way. 

04.09.26 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT

The children had great fun playing in the yard this afternoon. They enjoyed using the outdoor play equipment, developing their physical skills as they explored the climbing apparatus, slide and swings.