Maisy The Mouse

We have had a very busy start to the Spring term, with a mouse called Maisy visiting us and leaving messages asking for stay for a short while. Unfortunately, Maisy was chased by a cross Mrs Valentina who found her nibbling a teeny, tiny, tasty piece of cheese under her bed! The children have written many messages to Maisy, including a 'welcome' sign;  inviting her to come to watch 'The Snow Mouse' at The Egg Theatre in Bath, as well as asking her to stay another five nights in school! Of course, if she were to stay, we would need to make her a dark, snug, cosy home to sleep in! We have created a class story map to tell Maisy's story of how she came to Croscombe School and the children are learning the story well, using the pictures to help them order the story. We have focused on the story starter 'Once upon a time' as well as connectives, such as first, next, after. In music, we added percussion to our story, thinking carefully about which instrument would create a good sound for the rustling of the long tall grass; Maisy scratching and scrabbling; Maisy creeping under the bed; Maisy nibbling the cheese; Maisy running away from Mrs Valentina. Some excellent choices were made, such as the cabasa for the rustling of grass. 

After a phonics lesson, focusing on the 'sh' sound, the children were keen to set up a shell shop, and were negotiating roles and taking turns to be the shop keepers and the customers. The children priced the shells and were using the language of 'pounds' and 'change' during their play. There was lots of sorting and counting involved.

In our structured Maths lessons, we have been learning about one more, and one less - and puppet 'Bad Bunny' seems to be quite good at making the vegetables one less! We have been singing maths songs to learn number order to twenty, such as 'One, two, buckle my shoe'. Jack Hartmann's 'Count to 20 and workout song' has proved a hit with the children! The children have been performing mouse songs, such as 3 blind mice on our outdoor stage. 

We have been exploring ice in our tuff tray and sorting animals which live in colder countries. We looked at the globe to locate Antarctica and the Arctic circle. The children realized that their hands were melting the ice, and not the sun, as originally thought. We carried out a simple Science ice investigation and made a prediction of whether the ice would melt quicker on the table, on the radiator, or in the fridge. We then recorded our results in a simple table, The children have been bringing in leaves with frost on and placing them on the radiator. Through this interest, we have chosen the text of Jack Frost to use as our art stimulus for our Family Winter Art day. 

For Understanding of the World and Speaking and Listening, the children shared their experiences of Christmas and we talked about our customs. We compared these to how people in Mexico celebrate Christmas. There were lots of similarities, but we particularly liked their pinatas, so decided to make one from papier mache and then smash it open to get the sweets! We also learnt that presents are left in shoes, rather than stockings, and children go out on the streets to sing and act out knocking on doors for a place to stay, just like Mary and Joseph! We have also been looking at maps, such as marking England and Mexico on a globe. We have discussed maps to help us find our way, and to show what a place looks like. the children made their own town maps, choosing what they would like. All the children wanted a park in their town! Our next mission is to create a map for Maisy the mouse from Bluebell class to the school hall, so she can get some cheese when hungry!

 


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