Welcome to Cherry Class

Welcome to Cherry Class! We work together to make learning fun for each other. We are the Cherry Champions who are taught by Mr Genders, Mrs Allen and Mrs Marshall.

Week beginning: 22nd January 2024

In maths this week, we’ve begun to look at understanding numbers to 20. We used class resources to show how we could represent numbers in different ways and have been creating and matching stem sentences to the numbers 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 and 19.

As part of our weekly reading we’ve been enjoying sharing the ‘Monster Sprouts’ ebook. This book was also sent out as part of each child’s weekly read.

As we continue with this half-terms history topic, we’ve been looking at creating a timeline for Neil Armstrong, and have continued to research more facts about the moon landing. We also discovered that trainee astronauts train underwater when on earth.

In art, the class have created their own painted moon landscape. We had fun applying the paint and PVA glue in a different ways, as well as using our custom made ‘Splat Protector’ to help us create our individual night sky. The completed pieces were very impressive.

Week beginning: 15th January 2024

What a fantastic week we've had! We have been treated to a wonderful visit from Mr Allen (no relation to Mrs Allen) and his mobile planetarium. We discovered lots about Neil Armstrong, space and the stars and are excited to recall some of this knowledge at tonight’s stargazing event.

As part of our maths, we’ve been revising our shape facts as well as looking at ‘understanding 10’, which has including creating our own fun table top game. We were able to create our own copy of the game so that we can play it again at home.

Our recommended book this week was, 'It's Only Stanley' by Jon Agee. We thought that it is "a very, very, very silly and funny book with great pictures." - We also enjoyed sequencing the events of the story.

In art, we've begun to investigate different ways that we can create different forms. This week we experimented with the Chromebooks and learnt about layering to help create more detailed pictures.

As Cherry scientists have researched the five different animal groups and learnt lots of facts whilst sorting animals into mammals, birds, fish amphibians and reptiles. In PE we started our yoga lessons and impressed Mrs Allen with our monkey inspired stretches and balances. Whilst in gymnastics we have continued to focus on floor work and have considered the importance of body control.

Week beginning: 8th January 2024

Happy New Year! The children have come back full of fun and enthusiasm. We’ve begun 2024 with a bang, and have been working hard on using our phonics skills to help write some sentences about hopping hens, messy dogs and fearful adventures. We've also had fun exploring our new online eBook library of letters and sounds through the Oxford Owl website. 

In maths we’ve been investigating shape, by learning some of their names, identifying their properties and using them construct and sort. We even used cylinders, cuboids, cubes and triangular prisms to create a tower that touched our ceiling.

As part of this week’s PSHE we’ve used the book, ‘Today I’m Strong’ By Nadiya Hussain and Ella Bailey to talk about  finding our inner strength, we discussed all the things that we love about school, we had such a wonderful variety of ideas. We then learnt to draw our own tigers that feature in the story.

Whilst in P.E. as we begin gymnastics, we’ve practised balancing on our patches (large body parts, like our front, back and shoulders) and our points (small body parts, like our hands, feet and elbows). We then created some routines and performed to the rest of the class.

Week beginning: 27th November 2023

The Christmas spirit was definitely in the air this week. The children got to paint their own Christmas tree on the classroom window and watch CBeebies's unique stage adaptation of the classic poem 'The Night Before Christmas'. They sang-a-long, danced, booed and cheered as the characters endeavoured to stop The Wish Taker from ruining Christmas. After the performance, as part of this week's 'Star Write', the children created letters of gratitude to the cast.

We also learnt about advent and began to open our own book advent. Over the last week every child has been bringing in copies of their favourite books. These have been wrapped and numbered and each day we get to share a story with the class as part of their 'Beoley Bookworm' activity. We are very excited to discover what wonderful stories the children have chosen.

We've also begun to create some AMAZING artwork based on author and illustrator, Jon Klassen. Unfortunately, we're are unable to share the completed pieces until 15th December, as they are part of their surprise Christmas boxes.

Week beginning: 20th November 2023

Within this week’s Floppy’s Phonics, we have been using book 16 to focus on the sound /ow/ (as in owl) and /ear/ (as in ear). As well as book 17 to focus on /air/ (as in hair).

This week we also took our maths outside, as the class confidently created some ‘first, then, now’ stories and matched them with their number sentences.

In the classroom, we were then able to use ten frames and rekenreks to help solve a range of addition problems. Including this tricky one:

Kim is playing a game.
She needs 10 points in total to win a prize.

•   On her first go, she scores 6 points.
•   On her second go, she scores 3 points.

How many more points does Kim need to win the prize?

We were really impressed with how the class used and explored their chosen maths manipulatives to solve these problems.

As part of our English we been reading the brilliantly dark-humoured, 'I Want My Hat Back' by Jon Klassen. The children have been using their sequencing, inference and predicting skills to investigate the story further, as well as showing their understanding of using a range of punctuation within this week’s ‘Star Write’.

Week beginning: 13th November 2023

Within this week’s Floppy’s Phonics, we have been using book 15 to focus on the sound /ur/ (as in purse) and book 16 to focus on /oi/ (as in oil can).

We've also welcomed three headteachers from local schools into our classroom. The class were excited to talk to them about our learning. They were able to show them our great comprehension skills within our Beoley Bookworm activity, our confident approach to phonics, our wonderful knowledge when using question marks accurately in our writing as well as the ways we can investigate number bonds to 10 within maths.

The children have also enjoyed using a newly updated ‘Maths Zone’. Some have been using the investigation tray to create their own maths games whilst others have used the working wall and the wall whiteboard to practise using part-whole models and bar models.

On Friday it was interesting to find out about the wonderful work that BBC’s Children in Need does supporting children with disadvantages around the UK. We had fun taking part in the SPOTacular spot game, we designed a new bandana and even learnt to draw our own Pudsey Bear.

Week beginning: 6th November 2023

We’ve had a lovely first week back at school, within this week’s Floppy’s Phonics, we have been using book 15 to focus on the sounds /ar/ (as in arm) and /or/ (as in fork).

Our mini history topic has been based on Remembrance. The children have been learning that Remembrance means to remember people or events that happened in the past, we’ve also discovered why we wear poppies and have been history detectives as we found out about The British War Medal. We were able to pay our respects by taking part in a whole school remembrance assembly as well as creating some remembrance rocks within class. 

Meanwhile in English, we have been reading the ridiculously funny book, The Worst Princess by Anna Kemp and Sara Ogilvie. We’ve been using the book to understand how to use exclamation marks accurately, recognising that they can be used for commands or for surprise, anger and excitement. The children have had fun performing some sentences with exclamation marks as well as writing their own sentences during this week’s ’Star Write’.

In maths we have been writing number sentences by looking at addition fact families. The class have begun to recognise that the order of an addition sentence can be varied. We used part-whole models, ten frames and bar models to help us solve some questions as a class.

Week beginning: 23rd October 2023

Within this week’s Floppy’s Phonics, we have been using book 14 to focus on the sounds /-oo/ (as in cook) and /oo/ (as in spoon).

This week we had our final visit from Katie, the Police Community Support Officer, who has been in talking about her role within the community as well as listening to readers. She surprised us with a special visit from the police van. The class got to look around it, were allowed to be 'locked' away in the holding cage at the back (which they all found very exciting) and got to press the button to start the siren. What a wonderful treat.

In maths the children have loved using their new rekenrek resource. These will help the class visualise and learn essential maths principles. A huge thank you to Mrs Bartlett for helping source them for our class.

As part of this term Geography topic, the class have had fun (despite the weather) using fieldwork and observation skills to study different areas within our school.

The teachers are really proud of the effort that the whole class has put in to their first half-term in Year 1. We hope you all enjoy a well earned rest.

Week beginning: 16th October 2023

Within this week’s Floppy’s Phonics, we have been using book 13 to focus on the sounds /ee/ and /-igh/ (as in knight) as well as book 14 to recap the sound /-oo/ (as in cook).

A huge thank you to all of the adults who were able to attend this week’s Year 1 reading and phonics inspire workshop. It was very well supported and we really appreciate your contribution. The new yellow phonics folders will now be going home daily to help support your child’s learning, and don’t forget to use the online Floppy’s Phonics resources through the Oxford Owl website to help revise and revisit sounds. www.oxfordowl.co.uk

Our focus in English this week has been on handwriting. The children have been working hard to form their letters correctly as we aim to rewrite Joe Banana’s letter to Mr Big, but in our best handwriting. We also had a virtual visit from Mr Big author and illustrator, Ed Vere, as he taught us how to draw Joe Banana. The collection of drawings were OUTSTANDING (you can see a couple below). Here is a link to video if you’d like to have another go: Draw with Ed Vere

Mr Genders had a rest from reading stories to Cherry Class as one of the children took over and read her copy of Boo! by Jonathan Litton to her friends. She read with lots confidence and expression we were very proud.

As part of this week’s maths, Cherry class have been successfully using table-top games, giant resources, a range of written puzzles and an online activity to help use the part-whole model to see how numbers can be split into parts.

Week beginning: 9th October 2023

Cherry Class has thoroughly LOVED reading our new text, Mr Big by Ed Vere. We have danced, waggled and cheered our way through the story. The children then contributed lots of ideas to help fill up our working wall and have used conjunctions and adjectives to help sequence a retelling of the story in this week’s ‘Star Write’.

In maths we have been creating number lines outside and showing how to find ‘one more’ and ‘one less’ as well and demonstrating how many jumps there are from one number to another.

As part of this week’s P.E. lesson, the children had a go at trying to take ‘sweets’ from the monster (Mr Genders) in a game of ‘Monster Tag’. The children had to quickly change direction, jump, run and dodgy the woggle in order to collect the most ‘sweets’ for their team.

This week we also met Katie, our local Police Community Support Officer. She spoke to the class about her role and responsibilities, shared some of the equipment that she uses and talked about when to dial 999 (our emergency number). The children had LOTS of questions and we’re lucky that she has volunteered her time again over the next two weeks to help support our class with their reading. Every child will have the opportunity to read with her and I’m sure that they’ll learn more interesting facts about her role.

Week beginning: 2nd October 2023

As we continue to delve deeper into ‘Our School’ geography topic, we used Google Maps to locate Beoley First School within the UK and then went on a virtual walk where we discovered that the our classes are named after lanes and roads around the village. Our class has taken its name from Cherry Pit Lane.

We have also been really impressed with the wonderful effort and attitude towards our writing challenges. As a class, we are using our working wall, our weekly WAGOLL as well as our “Clever Year 1 writer checklist” to help us create some great pieces of independent writing.

Within our PSHE lessons, we talked about our families and Mr Genders shared images and information about his own family (and of course he was keen to share that he and his wife are former UK Piggyback Wife Carrying Champions). We then considered the importance of friendships and used a pyramid to rank which qualities we consider to be the most important. Our opinions were very similar.

We've also had LOTS of fun having a game of 'Grumpy Gorillas' on Friday afternoon.

Week beginning: 25th September 2023

We began our week with a wonderful Science VR experience as we used virtual reality headsets to travel through the human body and discover about the circulatory system, our skeletons and the digestive system, which involved travelling through a slimy river of poo.

LOTS of Beoley Bee’s have continued to be given out, including one for a beautifully painted rainbow that was created at home and then gifted to Mr Genders. Such a kind and thoughtful gesture.

In maths we’ve been practically counting forwards and backwards as well as finding “one more” and “one less” from a given number.

Whilst in PE, as part of our fundamental movement lessons, we’ve learnt the rules to ‘Baseball Tag’. A fun, quick paced game where you have to stay alert. Unfortunately, it was far too quick for Mr Genders who was caught lots of times.

Week beginning: 18th September 2023

Once there was a break in the bad weather, Cherry Class went on their first class trip. Unfortunately, it was only several yards down the road to post our letters to children's author, Karl Newson. We did however take this opportunity to continue to discuss the ways that we stay safe in school.

As part of our Science we worked in teams to create life sized body diagrams which we then labelled before discussing our Science question of the week; "Which body parts do we rely on to survive?"

We've also continued to look at how to login to our school Chromebooks and had fun this week using Chrome Canvas. We'll be using this software to create some digital versions of our landscapes.

Week beginning: 11th September 2023

The children have been working hard to create some thank you letters for ‘I Am A Tiger’ author, Karl Newson. As well as creating some of their own mouse characters. We’re looking forward to our trip to the post-box next week to send them all to him.

Within maths, following an assembly on democracy and after holding a whole school vote on whether they would like a school cinema night, Cherry Class were challenged to group and sort the polling slips into groups of 5.

Whilst in art, inspired by the work of Lebanese-American, Etel Adnan (who was known for her vibrantly coloured, abstract landscapes) we have been experimenting with different compositions as well as the use of colour.

Finally, in PE we have begun our fundamental movements and have enjoyed incorporating several games into our learning including ‘Danger Zone’ and ‘Follow the Leader’.

Week beginning 4th September 2023:

We are excited to be back and ready to have lots fun. On Wednesday, we were welcomed with a mysterious package addressed to Cherry Class. We were then thrilled to discover that best-selling children's book author, Karl Newson had sent us a lovely signed copy of his book, 'I Am A Tiger'. We loved sharing the story and it has inspired this week's art and handwriting.

We've also been finding out about our school's achievement cards and our newly adapted 'Beoley Bee' awards as well as how we can use the talking pegs in the classroom and the stop rule if we need to. A super busy and fun week.

Week beginning 3rd July 2023

Orienteering with Moss Class in Outdoor Learning

Week beginning 26th June 2023

Wellbeing Week

This week has certainly done wonders for our wellbeing! We began the week working with Sophie, who showed us how to use the tumble track and helped us to become creative cheerleaders. Tuesday was Sports Day where we all demonstrated resilience and ambition. Well done children, you were all Cherry Champions!

On Wednesday we continued to show resilience and ambition as we climbed up the Redpoint climbing tower. Thursday saw us singing with Mr Wingfield and the rest of the school as we performed ‘Wonderful World’. It certainly felt that way when you were singing children! We rounded off the week with a whole school ramble led by Mrs Bartlett where we asked lots of inquisitive questions about our surroundings. We hope your children are relaxed and content as they enter the weekend!

Week beginning 15th May 2023

We’ve been travelling all over the school this week as we explored ‘position and direction’ in Maths. The children have enjoyed marking out routes for their friends on the playground and giving each other directions to follow. This tied in with our recent work on fractions, as we incorporated ‘whole’, ‘half’ and ‘quarter’ turns into our instructions. We’ve also been honing our dance skills by using the ‘Cha Cha Slide’ to reinforce ‘left’ and ‘right’. Our ’Clever Writing’ is in full flow as we focus on our new ’Clever Writing Rules’ and remember these each time we write. This week we are using the prefix ‘un’. Please ask the children what it means and if they can give you any examples.                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

Position and Direction in Maths

Creating cliffs in Outdoor Learning

Painting landscapes in Art

Week beginning 8th May 2023

It was wonderful to see family members writing with the children at the Inspire Workshop yesterday. Thank you so much to those who attended. We will be using your ‘I Spy’ clues over the next couple of weeks! Packs have been sent home in book bags for those who didn’t receive them. We hope you can see what resilience and ambition your children have and why they come home tired out each evening! We have been focusing on our handwriting across the curriculum this week and have been given some secrets for improving it. If you’re very lucky the Cherry Champions will share them with you!

In Maths this week we have continued to explore 'division' using concrete resources to reinforce this skill. The children have been able to use previous work on 'arrays' to help with this.

Mrs Bartlett, Mrs Taylor and Moss Class worked with us to produce some beautiful 'natural crowns' in Outdoor Learning. We're sure you'll agree that they're fit for any king or queen!

Week beginning 1st May 2023

We had a wonderful time celebrating the King’s Coronation on Friday! We began the day by meeting the man himself as he posed for photo opportunities. Mr Genders read ‘The King’s Hats’ to us all during ‘Buddy Reading’ time and we also worked collaboratively to create coronation necklaces using pasta and electrical tape. 
The afternoon consisted of more teamwork as we enjoyed a tin can alley, an obstacle course, naming a teddy bear, guessing the number of sweets in a jar and some very tasty treats! A huge thank you to Mr Irving for organising it all for us!

More pictures of the celebrations are available in the ‘main gallery’ section of the website.

Yoga with Mr Veness

The above text inspired some yoga work based on ‘balance’.

Week beginning 24th April 2023

We continued our seaside theme this week by creating some fantastic poetry using the senses. In Maths we used our skills of counting in twos, fives and tens to help us group objects. Don’t forget to practise your ‘Supermoving’ at home!

We have been reflecting on the forthcoming Coronation and researching our new King. 

Two highlights for us this week were watching Seafield’s fantastic ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’ assembly and learning more about scripts and exploring the beautiful books that have been very kindly donated by Dr. Wingfield and Sophie. Thank you so much Dr. Wingfield! There’s no better gift than a new book!

Week beginning 17th April 2023

It has been lovely to welcome the children back for their final term in Year 1! We hope you all had a restful Easter break. Our History topic this half term is ‘The Seaside’. We have been discussing seaside vocabulary and now know what a ‘pier’ and a ‘charabanc’ are. Please ask your children for renditions of our seaside songs and tongue twister. At least two of them should be very familiar! Our English work on poetry has involved the comparison of two seaside poems. This lead to some wonderful poetry work inspired by a rest in a deck chair. We have been counting in twos in Maths and used this skill to help us count sets of objects more quickly. Some of us were even able to compose our own word problems!

Wishing the Cherry 🍒 Champions and their families a relaxing and peaceful Easter.

Easter Team Activities

Easter Baking with Mrs Marshall linked to 'weight' in Maths

Week beginning 20th March 2023

Creativity was key last week as we prepared for a special day whilst reflecting once again on last month’s value and assembly theme of ‘kindness’. ‘Animal groups’ have been our focus in Science this week as we grouped and named various sets of animals in preparation for our zoo trip which was a wonderful experience for us all. The giraffes, orang-utans and chimpanzees were amongst our favourites! Thank you to Mrs Bartlett for organising the trip for us.

We Went to the Zoo, Zoo, Zoo!

Week beginning 13th March 2023

Many thanks to those parents and family members who were able to attend the Maths Inspire Workshop this week. It was wonderful to see the children demonstrating their Maths skills. You will find the online resources in the 'Websites and Games' star above.

Week beginning 6th March 2023

We’re sure you’ll agree that we couldn’t be more proud of the Cherry Champions after their class
assembly this week. They showed incredible ambition by speaking in front of an audience, amazing creativity in their drama work, impressive resilience throughout our rehearsals and a great deal of inquisitiveness throughout the entire process. Fantastic work children! You certainly know how to show kindness to others! We have some new word knowledge thanks to our assembly; see if you can remember what ‘script’ and ‘rehearsal’ mean. It also gave us an opportunity to write a review in English.
‘Outdoor Learning’ was brimming with excitement thanks to the snow on Wednesday!

World Book Day 2023

Week beginning 13th February 2023

Look what we discovered in Outdoor Learning this week! (Thank you Mrs Bartlett!) 

Can you remember what the special name for an animal’s home is? Which other places were homes for creatures in our school grounds?

See if you can discover any more on your travels at half term! Happy hunting!

HUGE CONGRATULATIONS to one of our Cherry Champions who was awarded ‘first place’ in the St Leonard’s ‘design a flower competition!’ His design was one of over two hundred entries! All of the Beoley entries were creative and ambitious! Well done children! We are extremely proud of you all!

Week beginning 6th February 2023

Look out for our ‘Recommended Reads’ here on our class page. Please ask us why these books are so fantastic!

We reminded ourselves of our Internet Safety Rules this week as part of ‘Safer Internet Day’. Can your children remember them?

Thank you to Mrs Bartlett and Moss Class who helped us to take part in this year’s ‘Big Schools’ Birdwatch’ as part of our Outdoor Learning. How many different birds can your children now name?

Number Day 2023!

We thoroughly enjoyed Number Day and began by discussing what we wouldn't have if it wasn't for numbers - dates (and more importantly birthdays!), time, sports score lines and addresses were just a few suggestions!

We shared our Maths expertise with the Seafielders by playing a variety of Maths games in the morning and completed addition problems using football shirt numbers. We loved taking part in a variety of number activities in our teams with pupils across the school in the afternoon.

Week beginning 30th January 2023

We’ve been doubling everything in sight this week in preparation for Number Day! Our creative skills have been put to excellent use when making ‘doubles cards’ for our peers. The text 'Supposing’ has inspired some fantastic ‘freeze frame’ work; the photos are so impressive that we have decided to use them to create our own book! Our work on ‘sound families’ in phonics is helping us to spell an increasing number of new words. Well done children! It has been wonderful to hear the children discussing how we can ‘turn a negative into a positive’. This demonstrates a mature understanding of our PSHE work.

Doubling

Freeze Frames in Drama

Northern Lights inspired artwork in Outdoor Learning

Yoga with Mr Adams

Week beginning 16th January 2023

Our creativity has continued to go from strength to strength this week as we discovered lots of ways to make twenty, five new word meanings and how to make pizzas and terrariums! Mr Adams has also been teaching us some yoga techniques to help us with our listening skills. We’ve all be floating around a calm and peaceful classroom as a result! The text ‘Wildflower’ has inspired some beautiful artwork. Don’t forget your entries for the ‘Snowdrop Weekend’ competition. We were excited to be able to show Mrs Bartlett our Maths skills using some of our new resources and shared some very ambitious thinking. Well done children.

Week beginning 5th December 2022

The elves have been busy at work in Cherry Class this week, flexing their creative muscles! We are sure you'll be feeling very festive when you see our Christmas craft boxes! We have revisited the Christmas Story in English, working hard to order and retell the story. Rehearsals are well under way for our Christmas Service - we are singing like angels! We look forward to seeing you at the service next week.

Our trip to Lower Smite Farm

Week beginning 21st November

We had a ‘super’ time on our first school trip together this week! We were extremely proud of the Cherry Champions’ listening skills and observations on the coach. Our writing is based around the trip and will be a great opportunity for the children to show off their wonderful writing skills. Tens and ones have continued to be a focus in Maths this week and the children have been working hard to say the ‘teen’ numbers correctly. Earthworms have provided us with some fascinating facts in Science - did you know that the longest worm is three metres long and that there would be around two million worms living underneath a football pitch?! We will be worm hunting as part of Outdoor Learning next week!

Week beginning 7th November 2022

‘Courage’ has been our focus again this week as we discussed Remembrance Day and designed our own bravery medals. We had the opportunity to see some real medals and learnt why the ribbons have different colours. Take a look at our beautiful poppy display on the classroom window. Superworm has been busy carrying out lots of activities ending with –ed… he baked, raced and jumped to name just a few! Mrs Marshall showed us how to make healthy eating exciting whilst teaching us a new skill. Thank you Mrs Marshall. We have been very pleased to award lots of ‘ambitious’ and ‘resilient’ stickers these week. Well done children. We are very proud of you.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

Happy Half Term!

Hubble, bubble... this week we’ve been writing spooky recipes using some revolting adjectives. Our instructions were so clear that we were able to create a potion that would be admired by witches and wizards across the land!

We finally met our Mystery Person! Glenda Glitter is the cousin of Goldilocks and Snow White and has been amazed by the Cherry Champions’ resilience this half term. We were so proud of the children’s singing in church yesterday - a perfect example of this month’s value of cooperation. We would like to congratulate the Cherry Champions on a very successful half term. Thank you for all your hard work children.

Dance with Sophie

Observational drawing of pumpkins

Cooperating whilst playing new board games

Following instructions to create a spooky recipe

Week beginning 3rd October 2022

Our ‘mystery visitor’ continues to inspire our inquisitive natures as they leave more clues as to their identity. We now know they enjoy baking and have goldfish! Some of the Cherry Champions have also enjoyed baking with Mrs Marshall this week as they developed their teamwork skills by creating some delicious cookies. Our investigative skills have been put to the test in Science where we posed some fantastic questions about the body and used the library and our Chromebooks to discover the answers - this prompted some important discussion around internet safety.

Creating Autumn leaves using watercolours...

Can you guess the identity of our mystery person?

Learning about our bodies in Science...

Baking with Mrs Marshall to practise our weighing and measuring skills...

Week beginning 19th September 2022

This week we have been using our Science and Maths skills to answer lots of questions - 'Do the tallest people have the biggest feet?' 'Does everyone with dark hair have dark coloured eyes?'

We compared our heights/lengths by drawing around each other on the playground and strengthened our understanding of 'longer, shorter, tallest and shortest'.

We have enjoyed sharing our favourite books and we look forward to sharing them at the Inspire Workshop next week. 

Week beginning 5th September 2022

What a wonderful first three days the children have had in Cherry Class! The children have

settled quickly into their new routines and have been busy choosing and sharing with the help of the texts 'You Choose' and 'The First Slodge'.

Please remember to send in any certificates and rewards that the children receive outside of school so that we can celebrate these with their friends.

Congratulations Cherry Champions! We are extremely proud of you all.

Week beginning 11th July 2022

Chameleons, bees, chicks and pirates have been the topics of conversation in Cherry Class this week! We have been learning about reptiles as part of our Science topic and Red Mason Bees thanks to Janice at the Worcestershire Wildlife Trust. Look out for them - they are smaller than an adult thumb nail! The chicks in our classroom have been growing rapidly and Mrs Bartlett and Moss Class invited us to a ’Pirate Party’ where we took part in; problem solving, creative activities, lots of teamwork and cooking! Thank you Mrs Bartlett! We are extremely proud of the Cherry Champions as they approach the end of Year 1. We have been looking back through our books and reflecting on our incredible progress. Congratulations children!

Wellbeing Week 4th-8th July 2022

'Stressbox'

Redpoint Climbing Tower

Week beginning 27th June 2022

Jumping like kangaroos and hiding like chameleons has formed the basis of our learning this week! We have been measuring and comparing our long jumps in preparation for Sports Day and using impressive questioning techniques to discover the whereabouts of various creatures hidden in the school grounds. We conducted an investigation to discover whether the children with the longest feet completed the longest jumps - ask us about our findings! Mrs Marshall demonstrated ‘candling’ with our eggs from the incubator. We are all eagerly inspecting them each morning! News to follow!

Candling the eggs

We have a television star in our midst!

Constructing our own versions of the Sydney Harbour Bridge in DT

Week beginning 20th June 2022

We all demonstrated amazing ambition and resilience on Wednesday at the Agility Festival in Bromsgrove. It was wonderful to see the children interacting with the organisers, attempting new activities and trying their best. Well done Cherry Champions! We have broadened our learning about Australia this week by discovering facts about kangaroos, Australia’s deadliest animals and boomerangs! The children have been busy posing interesting questions and deciding the best ways to find the answers. Please ask us about our fascinating facts!

Moss class very kindly invited us to join their 'Woodland Learning' this week. Please ask us about some of the problems we solved. Great teamwork children!

Some Seafielders shared their fantastic stories with us this week. We thought they were incredible! Cherry Class are going to design some book covers for them...watch this space!

Week beginning 13th June 2022

There has been great excitement in the Cherry Classroom this week! We are looking after the incubator that Mrs Marshall has kindly organised so that the school can watch chicks hatching! This links directly to our Science work on life cycles, but also to our work on animals. Thank you Mrs Marshall! We were also thrilled to receive a parcel containing five new books for our book corner as a thank you from the Chair of the UKLA Book Awards. We will be reviewing them over the next couple of weeks! We have been busy posing questions for our topic on Australia and have produced some incredible Aboriginal Art that required great resilience.

Week beginning 6th June 2022

It was heart warming to see the excitement on the children’s faces as they proudly showed their parents the fruits of their hard work on Wednesday. We are sure that you are all very proud of their achievements and the confidence that they had to discuss their learning with you. This week we were very excited to receive a letter from Sophie’s Mummy and some of her students at the University of Birmingham thanking us for our help with some book research. We were pleased to hear that the students had the same favourites as us! We are very proud of the ambition and resilience that the children have demonstrated this week. Well done children.

Investigating position and direction in Maths

Week beginning 23rd May 2022

What a busy week! This week we have been stream dipping, learning about fractions using pizzas and biscuits to help us and celebrating the Queen's Platinum Jubilee with the rest of the school! This included making an unusual version of the first class stamp, which we shared with all of our peers!

We would like to congratulate the children on all of their hard work. We are extremely proud of you all and know that your parents will be too when they come to see your work next half term! We wish you all a relaxing break and a lovely extended bank holiday weekend!  

Platinum Jubilee Celebrations

Our First Class Stamp allowed us to demonstrate participation and kindness as we worked as a class to create it and then shared it with the rest of the school.

A Tuesday Morning Spent Stream Dipping

Investigating Fractions

A Class Book Celebrating Our School Trip

Week beginning 16th May 2022

This week we bid a fond farewell to our froglets and remaining tadpoles. They are enjoying their freedom in the ponds of Mrs Marshall and Mrs Sweeney! Updates to follow. Outdoor Learning and Science this week involved looking at parts of plants and planting seeds. The Cherry Champions are now fully prepared to transform your gardens! We have continued to work on our portrait masterpieces and look forward to the 'big reveal' next week! Congratulations to the Cherry girls, who tool part in a football festival with the Moss girls this week. We are very proud of the way you represented our school girls!

Combining 'fractions' in Maths and Art to begin our detailed portraits. 

Constructing our own versions of 'Compton Verney' using a variety of resources in DT. 

A Grand Day Out to Compton Verney!

Friday 13th May 2022

Amir Khan asked for a child’s hand to be included in his portrait to convey his kindness. Can you spot it?

We were quick to spot that this is a rock star! Can you see the clues?

This portrait was created without taking the pencil off the paper! Can you spot the animal?

This sculptor, Willard Wigan produces tiny sculptures that would fit on a pin head! He uses a human eyelash to paint them!

This actress’ hair is blue because it’s her favourite colour!

This artist uses tiny pieces of electrical tape to create his art and we are very proud of him!

Week beginning 2nd May 2022

The snake’s skin that Mrs Marshall kindly brought in this week was a fascinating addition to our studies of reptiles in Science. We discovered that only one type of lizard sheds its skin in one complete piece. Please ask us if we can remember which one! We now have several froglets, so we are redesigning their environment to ensure they don’t escape! We have enjoyed being part of an exciting project where we have been asked for our opinions on some inspiring texts. More news to follow! Congratulations to the children who designed some fantastic cardboard models. Some excellent examples of our incredible imaginations!

The books for our exciting project...

This week's pond discoveries. Please ask us all about them!

Observational drawings of the parts of plants. See if we can name them all!

Frank, one of our twelve froglets. 

Week beginning 25th April 2022

Did you know that if you could hop like a frog, you would be able to cross a football pitch in just four jumps? Cherry Class have demonstrated how they’ve come on in leaps and bounds this week, by settling quickly to their learning and helping each other. The froglets have now started to grow arms and legs and have been enjoying munching on broccoli! They inspired a pond dipping session with Mrs Marshall today. Please ask us about our discoveries! The book ‘I Saw Anaconda’ by Jane Clarke gave us ideas for some creative writing and helped us sort various animals into groups. Congratulations on a wonderful week Cherry Champions!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

Problem solving in PE.

Pond dipping with Mrs Marshall.

The tasty spinach that we have grown ourselves!

Wishing the Cherry Champions and their families a restful Easter break! Thank you for all your hard work children. We are extremely proud of you all.

We have been using the text 'Pip and Egg' by Alex Latimer and David Litchfield to support our Science work on life cycles. This beautiful story about friendship has also helped us to learn more about the life cycles of eggs and seeds.   

The tadpoles have moved house! They now live in a new container and are being cared for by Mrs Taylor over the holidays. She has discovered that they love to eat broccoli!

We bid a fond farewell to our wonderful Mrs Davy in church on Friday. (More pictures in the 'gallery'). Thank you for everything that you have done for the school Mrs Davy. We will miss you very much, but are excited for your new adventures!

Week beginning 28th March 2022

We welcomed yet more visitors into Cherry Class this week – our friends, the tadpoles, along with the text ‘Tadpole’s Promise’ by Jeanne Willis and Tony Ross. We have been fascinated by the changes that we’ve noticed in them in just a week! We are wondering what they’ll look like on Monday morning! Many thanks to Mrs Taylor for organising this. We have been learning about capacity in Maths, thinking about the volume of liquid in various containers. Our selection of playground games continues to grow thanks to Mr Veness. We have been enjoying playing ‘Swim, Fishy Swim’ this week, currently named ‘Swim Tadpole, Swim’! 

A huge thank you to Seafield Class who gave us a gift recently - a book! What a brilliant way to demonstrate the value of kindness.

Week beginning 21st March 2022

We put our listening ears to the test this week by identifying various types of music. Jazz, Latin, Rock and Bhangra were on the menu and we were very successful! Well done children! We have enjoyed making predictions in Science as we decided on the best method of releasing our polar bears from their ice cubes. Please ask us about this experiment! Our beautiful handwriting has been put to good use as we created something special for Sunday. Enjoy celebrating the children’s progress when you see their creations! Our alligators from last week’s ‘draw along’ with Mr Genders are now on show on the windows. We hope you are impressed!

Unfortunately Cherry Class were unable to attend a dance festival this week, so instead we held 'Cherry Fest' in school! Congratulations for teaching the whole school some groovy moves Cherry Champions! 

Science experiment - what is the quickest method to melt an ice cube?

Exploring 'mass' in Maths

Week beginning 14th March 2022

Google Earth has been helping us to explore the world this week as we begin our new topic on Polar Lands. We have been learning about penguins and polar bears. Can you guess which land we began with?

Our dance is almost ready for the dance festival next week. We are extremely excited about the performance! Look out for another performance on the website!

We have also been practising to be ’Kindness Superheroes’, inspired by the book ‘There’s a Superhero in Your Book’.

We revisited the ways in which we stay safe in school and made a display of them in the corridor for everyone to see. Please ask us how many ways we can remember.

Mr Genders very kindly led a 'draw along' on Red Nose Day linked to the book 'Alan's Big Scary Teeth' by Jarvis. Look out for a display on our windows! Huge thanks to Mr Genders.

Red Nose Day Draw Along Fun with Mr Genders

Pupil Voice - Staying Safe in School

Week Commencing  7th March 2022

Spring has almost sprung, so this week in Science we searched for signs of Spring around the school grounds. Ask us what we spotted and how we knew that they were 'signs of Spring'.

We had two new Cherry Champions this week - two Giant African Land Snails who arrived with Mrs Taylor one morning! We learnt that they are hermaphrodite and that the largest one produced the smaller one all by itself!

Another 's' to add to the list is our new text 'Supertato' by Sue Hendra and Paul Linnet. We have enjoyed writing descriptions using adjectives to describe the various characters. Congratulations on some fantastic writing this week children!  

Week commencing 28th February 2022

What a busy week! The Cherry Champions have got off to a flying start this half term! We’ve been learning about ‘measure’ in Maths, consolidating our understanding of terms such as ‘longer’, ‘shorter’, ‘longest’ and ‘shortest’. World Book Day was a perfect celebration of all things ‘book’ with some incredible decorated potatoes and outfits. We used this special day as an opportunity to explore new texts and shared them with each other. Our DT work this week involved designing and making Tudor houses using sheet materials. We have constructed some very sturdy structures. Well done children!

World Book Day

Designing and making Tudor houses in DT

Identifying 'longer' and 'shorter' in Maths

'Potting on' in outdoor learning

Week beginning 7th February 2022

We've been celebrating our progress in writing this week by comparing our very first pieces of Year 1 writing with the most recent ones. Wow! Each and every Cherry Champion can clearly see how hard they've been working on both their phonics and handwriting as well as the content of their work. What ambitious writers they all are!

We were extremely excited to learn about 'curling' in PE this week! Thank you to Mr Veness for teaching us some brand new skills! 

We have been honing our performance skills by performing to an audience (Moss Class) in Music. We have also been exploring Latin dance and music.

It was 'Safer Internet Day' on Tuesday, so we spent time discussing how to stay safe online using the song that Buddy the dog taught us. See if you can remember it children.   

Safer Internet Day

Beoley Bookworms

Curling

Our seascape!

Week beginning 31st January 2022

Something fishy has been going on in the Cherry Classroom this week! We've been studying real fish and have created some fantastic observational drawings. Many thanks to the children who have brought in some wonderful 'fishy texts'. These have greatly enhanced our learning, as have the incredible fact files that some of the children have produced at home. 

We received a letter from the real Rainbow Fish who asked us to create some fish for his shoal.

A 'real life' visit to Pudding Lane inspired a fact filled lesson that was lead by one of the Cherry Champions. This enabled the children to explore their inquisitiveness by asking some probing questions! Well done children.

Week beginning 24th January 2022

Another busy week for the Cherry Champions!

This week we've been creating a giant seascape linked to our study of 'fish' in Science. The book 'Tiddler' by Julia Donaldson also provided inspiration for this.

We've continued using the Chrome Books and have learnt how to 'log in' in preparation for some work on 'Purple Mash'.

We are extremely proud of our 'bird' and 'tree' displays which showcase our fantastic artwork as well as our knowledge of birds.

Our learning about the Great Fire of London has been enhanced by some fabulous music and drama work linked to the topic. The children have excelled at singing and acting! Well done Cherry Champions!

Week beginning 17th January 2022

This week we've been creating paper flames as part of our new History topic. Can you guess what it is? Please ask us about the facts, rhymes and songs that we've learnt so far! 

We've been studying how birds build their nests in Science and used our weaving skills to create some fabulous nests using egg boxes and natural materials.

We travelled to India in Music and enjoyed listening to Bhangra whilst learning about Indian musical instruments.

We are very proud of the beautiful handwriting being produced across the class and celebrated this by displaying our 'morning writing' all week this week.

Week beginning 10th January 2022

It's been another busy week in Cherry Class. We've been studying the seasons and have created some beautiful winter trees using twigs and clay. After observing the trees outside, we then recreated them. We've also noticed all the beautiful colours in the skies at the moment and celebrated these in some 'wintry artwork' using watercolours.

Our Science topic this half term is 'animals' and this week we focused on 'birds'. Mrs Marshall brought Sarah the school chicken in and we were able to study her closely. We also produced observational drawings of a real birds' nest. The programme 'Secret Life of Pets' on ITV also featured some interesting facts about birds. Test us to see if we can remember any of them!

Week beginning 3rd January 2022

A very Happy New Year to the Cherry Champions and their families!

The children have returned full of ambition and have settled into their routines very swiftly. We are extremely proud of them. 

Mr Veness continues to introduce new games to the children on a weekly basis. We have noticed a considerable improvement in listening skills, following instructions and teamwork as a result. Thank you Mr Veness.

These 'teamwork skills' were clearly evident in Maths this week as we continued to explore the hundred square by playing Snakes and Ladders and devised tricky number clues for our friends.

December 14th 2021

We couldn’t be more proud of the Cherry Champions’ creativity and ambition after watching their performance this morning! WELL DONE EVERYONE! YOU WERE ALL AMAZING!

We wish the Cherry Champions and their families a peaceful Christmas and would like to thank you all for your ongoing support. 
See you in 2022!

Week beginning 6th December 2021

We have been designing and making food holders for Rodney the Reindeer in DT this week. Our design brief was to create a container that hung around Rodney's neck and held his food. As you can see from the pictures, he has been well fed! Well done children. Excellent folding, measuring and cutting skills. 

Tinsel Man has continued leaving us problems to solve this week. These included:

Somewhere you would put something if you wanted to be kind to someone.

The name of something we do in PE that involves cartwheels and forward rolls.

He's certainly making us think! We wonder where he'll be next week! 

Week beginning 29th November 2021

This week Traction Man introduced us to Tinsel Man! Each morning he is hiding in a different place in school and we have to solve a problem in order to find him. This week's clues were...

You use this to open doors, but there are also lots of these on this instrument.

This animal keeps us safe.

What are five lots of five?

One of the Cherry Champions very kindly brought in a Christmas story to share with his friends this week. We all loved the story and were very grateful for his kindness.

We've been investigating the waterproof nature of various materials in Science this week. Traction Man needed a new waterproof jacket, so we tested a number of materials to see which would be best. As you can see, the testing was very thorough!

We have been learning how to compose and present letters this week. The children linked this to their PHSE work and came up with three wishes for Christmas. These were linked to the true meaning of Christmas and we discussed the fact that 'Christmas is in our hearts, not under the tree.' The content of all the children's letters and standard of their handwriting was so impressive that they were all awarded a 'Writer of the Week' certificate. Congratulations Cherry Champions!

Week beginning 22nd November 2021

As part of our PHSE work and linked to this month's value of 'friendship', the children created a 'Friendship Rainbow' to welcome people into the classroom. We discussed the attributes of a good friend and then voted according to the ones we considered the most important. Top of the list was 'kind', closely followed by 'helpful'.

We have been reminding ourselves how we stay safe in school and use our 'Keeping Safe' board in the classroom to prompt our thinking. This display shows our talking pegs, the zebra crossing, a hand to remind us of our five people who we can talk to, the 'Stop Rule' and our school attributes and values which guide us each day.

Week beginning 15th November 2021

This week we took part in a whole school narrative writing activity using the same stimulus. Have a look at the picture below. What would the setting of your story be? How would you describe the characters and what would the dilemma be? How would it be resolved? The children have learnt about nouns, adjectives, settings, dilemmas and story openings and endings and produced some fantastic pieces of narrative writing which will form part of a whole school display. Well done Cherry Class!

The text inspired a troll 'draw along'. What brilliant observation skills!

We've been busy building brilliant bug hotels! Mrs Marshall gave us lots of marbles for our teamwork.

Our batting skills are developing well thanks to Sam the cricket coach. Some excellent strokes this week!

We were delighted to receive our 'friendship cards' linked to our value of the month and PHSE work. It was wonderful to see the time and care taken by the children for their friends. We also have a 'Gratitude Board' in class set up by Miss Hanson. This enables us recognise what we are grateful for in each other.

Week beginning 8th November 2021

Remembrance enabled us to revisit the value of 'respect' this week as we discussed the significance of poppies, medals and the two minutes silence. The children were extremely respectful when observing the silence and made us very proud. 

We produced a collaborative poppy using our fingerprints and some individual flowers using a range of media. These are proudly displayed around the school. 

One of the Cherry Champions inspired us to create our superhero alter-egos! We thought of names for ourselves and created the three superpowers that we would most like to possess! Look out for 'Red Ninja Turtle' on the playground. He can turn into metal, climb and has super strength!

Week beginning 1st November 2021

The second half of the Autumn Term started with a bang as we learnt about onomatopoeia and all the words that can be used to describe the sound of fireworks. This was followed by discussion about Guy Fawkes' connection to Coughton Court and some beautiful firework art created with pastels and chalk.

The 'Cherry Stores' shop is open and has been helping us to learn about money and the values of the various coins. The children have enjoyed 'buying' various items and working out how much they cost.

We reorganised the class library into the sections of 'fiction', 'non fiction' 'annuals and magazines' and 'newspapers'. This has helped to strengthen our understanding of fiction and non-fiction texts.

Our Science learning has involved sorting various materials and discussing their properties. Have a go at sorting materials at home. How many can you name?

Week beginning 18th October 2021

There was magic in the air this week as Cherry Class created recipes for their own spells. We used a variety of ingredients to create some interesting mixtures and then used our senses to describe them using a range of adjectives. These included 'stinky', 'gooey', 'fresh' and 'lumpy!' Thankfully we didn't have to use our sense of taste! Our Maths skills enabled us to count the number of spoonfuls required and to order our spoon sizes from largest to smallest. Many thanks to Austin for providing the potions!

We have used our DT skills to create windmills from 'The Little Red Hen' story. We also enjoyed using the Lego and Duplo.

Happy Half Term to all of the Cherry Champions and their families. We hope you have lots of fun! 

A selection of 'Beoley Bookworms' morning activities...

Week beginning 11th October 2021

The children were Cherry Champions in every sense of the word as they walked up the hill to St Leonard's on Thursday and sang beautifully in our whole school Harvest Celebration. It was lovely to hear the school singing as one.

The story of the Little Red Hen has been our focus for our Harvest work this week. We have enjoyed creating artwork and puppets connected with the story.

We discovered carrots in the garden with Mrs Marshall and posed some inquisitive questions connected to our Science work.

Mr Veness has been teaching us more playground games to improve our teamwork. We have played 'Swim Fishy Swim', 'Rainbow Circle', Hopscotch, 'Colour Corners' and 'Poison Tree'.

Week beginning 4th October 2021

Introducing...Traction Man! Each week someone will be chosen to take Traction Man home for the weekend! We encourage the children to complete some writing about his adventures and to take/draw pictures of them. We look forward to seeing what he's been up to this weekend!

We continued to learn about and explore our senses in Science as we tasted and smelt various fruit and vegetables. Ask you child if they can remember some of them!

Nina the archaeologist came to talk to us about the dig that has been taking place in the village. We learnt about the materials that could survive underground for hundreds of years and discovered that the village is three to four hundred years old!

We have been developing our knowledge of number using the hundred square to identify odd and even numbers.

Each week we are learning a new playtime game. So far we have played 'Grandmother's Footsteps' and 'Stuck in the Mud'. The children have demonstrated excellent teamwork and have made us proud by encouraging each other.   

Week beginning 27th September 2021

This week has been thought-provoking, busy, scientific and musical as we've been using adjectives to describe toys and characters in our writing. 'Also an Octopus' has inspired our creativity and helped us to begin to plan stories.

Our Science work has developed the language of measure in Maths as we compared the lengths of our hands and feet as well as our heights.

We have explored our school using our large map and the Bee Bots and have discovered how to debug them if they travelled in the wrong direction.

We also made a new friend...more to follow next week!

Week beginning 20th September 2021

Do your parents recognise the landscape below? Can you remember which artist we're studying at the moment?

This week we've been exploring our skeletons with Mrs Taylor and learning about the important jobs that our bones do. We then put our skeletons to the test in PE whilst taking part in Mr Veness' Outdoor Adventurous Activities!   

News from two different households has inspired some report writing this week and also enabled us to fine tune our listening skills as we discovered all the facts. 

We have enjoyed designing and beginning to set up our new outdoor learning area with Mrs Marshall. More to follow!

Week beginning 13th September 2021

This week we have been exploring the school grounds using directional language and instructions. After studying our local environment, we produced some fantastic landscapes in the style of David Hockney. We used these to create our own mini gallery and discussed our favourites, giving reasons for our choices. 

We loved learning more about cricket this week and particularly enjoyed playing 'volcanoes and craters' as part of our ball skills session.

Don't forget about the 'belonging' Values Homework! We have enjoyed discussing the various groups and clubs that we belong to in PHSE. 

Cricket

'David Hockney' landscapes

Exploring our imaginations with the help of 'Just Imagine'

Sharing dinosaur jokes with Mrs Marshall

Gymnastics with Mr Veness

Congratulations on a fantastic first week Cherry Champions!

Week beginning 6th September 2021

Wow! We have been so impressed with the way in which the children have quickly settled into life in Cherry Class. We have enjoyed a jam-packed week of writing, reading, number work, artwork, gymnastics, ball skills, map work in Geography and singing, all the while reminding ourselves of our school routines and attributes. Has it really only been five days?!

Congratulations on working so hard and demonstrating such resilience children! We can't wait for next week!

This week's text...

Each week we have two 'Writers of the Week'.

Happy Holidays Cherry Champions! Arrrrrr!

Wellbeing Week

Week beginning 12th July

Please ask us about our wellbeing learning activities!

Mindfulness colouring for a competition to help raise funds for the Brighter Beginnings Eco Project.

Practising meditation!

Learning to recognise how our outdoor environment contributes to our wellbeing. 

A 'daily mile'.

Cherry Champions' Sports Day. Thank you Mr Veness and Mrs Allen!

Focusing on colour, texture and detail using the book 'Whose Eyes Are These?' as a stimulus. 

Gymnastics and cheerleading with Sophie from SJ Academy.

Gymnastics on the Tumble Track.

Boccia and archery with Mr Veness.

Demonstrating ambition and resilience with the help of the Redpoint climbing tower.