Hello everybody and welcome to Redwood class!

This year in Redwood class there are 8 children, Vickey is the teacher and the staff are called Hayley, Ged, Lisa, Rachel and Taylor. We have been very busy settling into our new classroom and getting to know all of our new friends. Be sure to check out this page regularly as this is where you will find all of the latest news and photos which shows all the lovely progress we are making during the term.

Redwood Class Residential Trip 11th & 12th July

Our second residential trip went really well. The children had a lovely time and even though the weather was wet, we had great fun at the disco, the restaurant, the arcades and the swimming pool.

Redwood Class Residential Trip - 4th & 5th July

Some members of Redwood class (and one from Willow class!) enjoyed our first residential trip of this year. We stayed in specially adapted caravans at Presthaven caravan park in North Wales. We had lots of fun going for a walk along the nature trail, having our lunch in the restaurant and enjoying the character show and music in the disco. We also enjoyed socialising with our friends in the caravan.

The Queen's Birthday Celebrations

This week we have been enjoying lots of activities to celebrate the Queen's 90th birthday and we even had a special party at the end of the week. It has been lots of fun and the children have really enjoyed the party and birthday themed activities. We have  been using presents, party hats and candles in our numeracy activities. We have been practicing our mark making whilst making special birthday bunting to decorate our stall. We have also made special crowns to wear for the party in art. Our sensory story was all about the Queen and how everyone forgot her party but then surprised her at the end of the day with balloons and party poppers. The week ended with a garden party which unfortunately due to the bad weather had to held in the sports hall but the children enjoyed all the classes different stalls which included, making flags, decorating cakes, face painting and garden games. Finally, we even had a very special appearance from Her Majesty herself which the children were very excited about.

Alien Invasion/Space Topic

This half term we have been very busy learning all about aliens and space. The children have all enjoyed our sensory story 'Whatever Next'. which has involved us flying in a rocket up the chimney onto the moon and having a picnic there. We have enjoyed wearing our space boots and space hat and looking at the stars and moon projected onto the ceiling.

Summer 1 - Educational Visits

We have had some lovely class trips this term which have been made even better when the sun has been shining. First we went on all day trip to Redbridge school to take part in a sports festival. There were lots of other schools there and we got to do lots of fun activities like, rebound, parachute games and ball games. It was nice to visit a different school as well. We also went to the World Museum to explore the space area, we enjoyed looking at the big rocket and watching Tim Peake on the big screen. We also visited Spaceworld soft play centre which was lots of fun, we enjoyed going down the slide and building a tower using the giant lego bricks.

Alien Invasion/Space Literacy Activities

We have been very busy this term making marks in alien goo and space dust and using puffy paint to make moon pictures. We have also enjoyed making glittery stars for our wall display. We have also enjoyed reading the story 'aliens love underpants' and some of us have been using alien pictures to create our own alien story.

Alien Invasion/Space Numeracy Activities

Our numeracy activities have been based around the counting song '5 little men in a flying saucer', we have been listening to the rhyme and using switches and the touch screen to activate it. We have also been exploring different shapes whilst reading the story 'aliens love underpants'.

Spring 2 Topic 'The Farm'

This term Redwood class are learning all about the farm. This will include learning about farm animals, features of a farm and food that is grown on a farm. We are also going to visit some farms on our educational visits. Please read our curriculum leaflet for this term to see more details about what we will be learning about. Please also check back here regularly to see the latest photographs of what we have been up to.

Sensory Story - Rosie's Walk

Our sensory story for this term is all about a hen called Rosie who goes for a walk across the farm, but there is a pesky fox called Freddy who is following her because he wants to eat her! Rosie manages to walk past the pond, the hay, the flour mill, the beehive and through the fence and get back in time for dinner but poor Freddy falls in the pond, in the haystack, gets covered in flour and gets chased by the buzzy bees. The children have all enjoyed the sensory elements of the story such as feeling the hay, getting wet in the pond, listening to the bees and getting covered in the flour.

Literacy Activities - The Farm - Spring 2

Out literacy activities have involved us reading stories about farms and farm animals, learning about the different sounds farm animals make and following instructions when playing with the farm toy set. We have also enjoyed mark making in flour and bird seed!

Numeracy Activities - The Farm - Spring 2

Our numeracy activities have involved looking at filling and pouring using materials found on the farm such as hay, sand, water and mud. We have also been singing '5 little ducks' number rhyme. Some of us have also been learning about money in our farm shop and discovering which objects are heavy and light.

Maths through Play Week - Chinese New Year

We had a very special week from February 8th to February 11th, which was focused upon learning maths through play activities linked to the Chinese New Year. We enjoyed a trip to the local Chinese supermarket and we even had a mini Chinese restaurant set up in our class. We also enjoyed a special Chinese music workshop with a dragon dance and the week culminated with a whole school Chinese banquet - we all enjoyed some new tastes. Have a look at the photographs to see all the fun we had!

Me and My Family

Our new topic is me and my family so the children of Redwood class will take centre stage. All of our learning will be focused around each individual child and their likes and dislikes. We will also be doing lots of work on our body parts. Keep checking back regularly to see the latest news and photos from this topic. In the meantime please read our curriculum leaflet, which details the content of specific sessions over the term.

Me and My Family Sensory Story

Our sensory story this term is all about us!!! Our class mascot Rusty tells us the story of when he visited each child's house and what their favourite thins to do was. Charlotte loves to play peek a boo, Emily loves bubbles, Eva loves playing with play dough, Millie loves playing catch, Poppy loves watching the gingerbread song on the ipad, Sange loves eating his yoghurt, Sian loves to play the bells and Zac loves to dress up. The story is a multi-sensory experience as the children get to sample each child's favourite things. We also look at the staffs favourite things, and experience being at an Everton match, cleaning up, cooking, putting make up on and having a dance!! This is a consistent session that the children enjoy once a week.

All About Me Books

As our topic is 'Me and My Family', we asked the children to send in some baby photos of themselves and some photographs of their families so that we could make 'all about me' books. The children were given choices about which photographs they wanted in their books, such as photographs of their friends in school, their favourite baby and family photos and photos of their favourite toys and activities in school. There was also a page for them to show us what their favourite colour is. The books have been laminated and placed in the reading area in class for the children to access whenever they choose to.

Learning Outdoors

In Redwood class we love to take our learning outdoors. We have a weekly class trip on a Monday morning and this term we have been visiting some of our favourite places, these have included the café, the park and the shops so far. It has been lovely to see the children so excited to visit places they are familiar with. We also love to play and learn in our outdoor area - weather permitting!!!

Numeracy - Spring 1 term - Me and My Family

For some of the children in the class, numeracy this term will be focused upon working towards specific individualised targets through number rhymes such as '5 currant buns' and '10 in the bed'. Some of the children in the class will also be working towards a wider range of learning objectives through a variety of different activities focused on problem solving, number and shape, space and measure.

Literacy - Me and My Family Spring 1 2016

Some of the children are focusing on developing specific, individual skills through mark making this term using different stimuli associated with ourselves and our bodies such as toothbrushes in toothpaste, brushes in shampoo and sponges in body wash. Whilst some of the class are focusing on a wider range of targets delivered through different activities focused on reading, writing, speaking and listening.

Physical Development - Spring 1 2016

We are always working on our physical development throughout the school day. We all have specific MOVE targets that we work on daily with our MOVE worker Ged and we also have weekly hydrotherapy and rebound sessions. Many of our daily routines are also structured around developing our physical development, such as using our walkers every day to get to the dinner table or being in our standing frame for morning greeting.

There's no such thing as a Gruffalo...................

As part of our topic 'If you go down to the woods today' we have been doing lots of learning about the Gruffalo and lots of our activities have been based around the story. We have enjoyed making Gruffalo pictures using natural materials in our art lesson. We have been mark making in scrambled snake and Gruffalo crumble. We have also been counting the Gruffalo characters and using them in our numeracy and ICT activities. We have loved listening to the story and watching the movie and we even went all the way to Delamere Forest to meet the Gruffalo himself!!!!