Koalas

Welcome to Koala's Class!

Hello and welcome to the Koala's class page.
Miss Revy and Mrs Brooks teach the koala children. 

We are really excited for all our learning this year as we have lots of fun things planned!

Our P.E day is Thursday.

We change books each Tuesday and Friday.

Lots: The Diversity of Life on Earth

We are thoroughly enjoying reading a book about our diverse planet. What new words have you learnt? What do they mean?

Extinct

species

diversity

microbe

fungi

Book Covers

We have been busy designing new front covers for the books to show the diversity of life on our amazing planet. 

Champion Gymnasts!

This half term, we are being champion gymnasts. We have been learning to present, jump, roll and balance. Who deserves an Olympic meldal?

Fantastic Mr Fox

For our guided reading, we have begun reading Fantastic Mr Fox by Ronald Dahl. We have read chapters 1 and 2, where we were introduced to the setting and main characters. We read an extract from chapter 2 about the setting then drew a map, to show what we know about the wood and the farms from the book. What amazing illustrators we are! 

In my magic box there is….

For our English learning this week, we are reading a poem by Kit Wright called The Magic Box. We have made a magic box and filled it with objects we find interesting. We then thought of adjectives, similes and metaphors to describe the objects. We used our ideas to write our own poems. What amazing imagination we have!

Visit from Santa

Santa sent us a message today to say he was proud of how hard we are working. He used his Christmas magic to send some gifts to school. How lucky we all are!

Christmas jumper day

We all looked very festive in our Christmas outfits. Thank you for your donations to Save the Children.

Christmas Decorations

We have made some beautiful decorations and hung them on our tree at school. We will bring our decorations home next week. 

The Snowman

Next week, for our English learning, we are going to be reading The Snowman. We will be describing the setting and characters using adjectives, similes and metaphors. I shall add photographs of the children’s amazing writing as the week progresses, so, watch this space…

Pantomime: Aladdin 

We have enjoyed watching a pantomime at school today. We watched the story of Aladdin. Can you tell your grown up what the story was about? Who were the main characters? Where was the story set? What was the funniest part of the story? 

Nativity

This week, for our English learning, we have been reading and writing the Nativity story. We used adjectives, similes and metaphors to describe the characters and setting. We thought about our choice of punctuation and tried to correctly use full stops, commas, question marks, exclamation marks and brackets. We have done a brilliant job! 

Letter to Santa

This week, for our English learning, we have enjoyed learning how to write a letter. We used the skills we learnt to write a letter to Santa. What are you hoping Santa will bring for you? What are you going to leave out for Santa and his reindeers on Christmas Eve?

Children in Need

We all looked amazing in our Children in Need outfits. Thank you for all your donations. 

One Kind Word

This week is anti bullying week. The theme this year is one kind word. We thought about what bullying is and how it can make a person feel.
 

We learnt the phrase:

one kind word can change someone’s day.

We decided what kindness looks like. We thought of the words: share, enjoy, include, understand, join, respect, play, together, help, welcome, friends, feeling.

Have you been kind today?

Amazing artists

We have been putting our creative skills to good use. We have used chalk to create a fire background and then used black paper to cut out building silhouettes. Do you like our Great Fire of London pictures? 

Remembrance Sunday

14th November 2021

Thank you to Nevaeh for bringing her collection of army artefacts to share we us. We found this very interesting and it certainly helped us with our learning about Remembrance Day. 

Brakenhurst

What a fabulous day we had outdoors. We took part in some problem solving games and did an outdoor treasure hunt. 

Diwali

We have been learning about the Hindu celebration of Diwali. We read the story of Rama and Sita then found out how Hindus celebrate. Diva pots are placed on window sills to light up the house, celebrating new beginnings and Rama and Sita returning safely to their home. We made salt dough and used it to make diva pots. Do you like our designs?

Bonfire Night

For our History learning, we have been finding out about the Gunpowder Plot, when Guido Fawkes and Robert Catesby plotted to blow up King James I and the Houses of Parliment. Was the plot successful? Who found out about the plan? What did King James think?

We made breadstick sparklers as a treat for our good learning this week. 

Paddington

This half term, we are reading A Bear Called Paddington by Michael Bond. We have read chapter one, where Mr and Mrs Brown meet Paddington.

Where did Paddington get his name?
What is Paddington’s favourite food?

what happened when Paddington slipped on a patch of strawberry jam?

Does Paddington like to drink tea?

We can’t wait to read on and find out what happens next. We will keep you informed. 

Do you like our book cover designs?

Do you like our Paddington art?

Home Learning

Well done to all the children who have been busy over half term completing their homework challenges. Look at all this amazing work. 

Busy Bakers

This week, we have been helping Thomas Farriner in his bakery. We read instructions for how to bake a loaf of bread, followed the instructions to bake some bread then wrote our own instructions. What delicious, well risen bread we made!

PE: Explorers on an Expedition

This half term, for PE, we are learning how to use a range of controlled movements on the theme of exploring. We have been packing binoculars, telescopes, wellington boots and food into our bags then travelling on planes, boats, jet skis and buses. We had to make our actions big and clear and move like a champion dancer. 

The Great Fire of London

We have begun our first topic of the year: The Great Fire of London. 

We have learnt lots of fascinating facts so far. Can you tell your grown up when and where the fire happened. 
 

As part of our learning we had a visit from the fire service. We found out how the modern  fire service helps us in many ways today. Was there a fire service in 1666? How was the fire put out in 1666? How has fire fighting changed since 1666? What dangers might start a fire? How do we help to prevent a fire? 

Dear diary…

This week, we have been reading the diary of Samuel Pepys. We have enjoyed pretending to be at the fire and writing our own diaries using personal pronouns, time phrases and lots of adjectives for description. What a brilliant job we have done! 
 

Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King

As part of Black History Month, we have learnt about Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King. We thought about inclusion, fairness and treating others with respect. What have you done this week to shows others respect, fairness and kindness?

Fire Service

We have enjoyed meeting some fire fighters. We learnt about dangers and how to keep safe. We enjoyed looking at a fire engine and all the equipment. We had a turn at sitting in the fire engine. Who would like to be a fire fighter when they grow up?

Historical Narrative 

We have enjoyed writing a historical story about The Great Fire of London. We used amazing adjectives, similes and metaphors to describe the fire, timber framed houses and cobbled streets. We hope you enjoy reading our amazing writing. 

 In my Heart, a book of feelings 

We have enjoyed reading a book about feelings. In the story, a girl describes her feelings using adjectives, similes and metaphors. We have been busy thinking of synonyms for feelings adjectives. For example happy: excited, delighted, joyful, ecstatic, over the moon, gleeful or calm: relaxed, chilled, serene, sedate. 
 

How are you feeling today? why? Do our feelings stay the same all the time? 

Fabulous Fruit Salad

We have been finding out what our body needs to stay healthy. We explored the types of foods our body needs and the amounts of each, looking at the eatwell plate. For our English learning, we made and ate a fruit salad then wrote a recipe with ingredients, equipment, instructions. Our instructions had to include time phrases to sequence the instructions and imperative verbs to clearly explain what to do. What fruit did you put in your fruit salad? How did it taste? 

History: Chronology

This week, for our History learning, we have answered the question: when did the great fire of London happen? We looked at chronology and made a time line, using key phrases such as before, long ago, past, present and future. We also added key dates such as the date the fire started: Sunday 2nd September 1666. 
 

What super historians we are! 

Geography: Where did the Great Fire of London happen?

This week, for our geography learning, we have answered the question: where did the fire happen? 
 

We looked at a map of the United Kingdom and named, located and labelled the 4 countries of the UK, their capitals, Nottingham, Calverton and the 4 compass points.

Design and Technology

Do you like our fox and star sliding mechanisms? We had to design a background (the brambles in the woodland) then draw a fox that we placed on a handle. We cut a slit in our backgrounds so our foxes could walk through the brambles. 
 

I think you will be impressed with our designs. 

Life Education

We were very lucky to meet Harold the giraffe. He visited our classroom to help us learn about keeping our bodies fit and healthy.

Did you know our heart pumps 35 million times per year? 

What fabulous facts did you learn? What does your body need to stay healthy? How many bones do you have? Which is your smallest bone? 

Stars of the Week

Congratulations to both our stars this week: Rhys and Thea.

They have both had an amazing week of learning and both are well deserved.

Rhys, you are a delight to have in our koala class. You are so gentle, kind and caring. This week, you have done some amazing writing. You remembered finger spaces, capital letters and full stops. All your letter shapes were neat and clear. 
 

Thea, you have had a busy and very productive week. It is great to see how determined you all with all learning tasks and how well you persevere when faced with a challenge. This week, your instructions for how to make a salt dough hedgehog were a very high standard. You used a variety of time words and imperative verbs. Very impressive!

British Wildlife

Our new topic this half term is British wildlife. We begun our topic by making a list of all the things we already know about British wildlife and then made a list of all the new information wanted to discover. We came up with some amazing ideas. 
 

Tallulah thinks oak, beech and holly trees grow in woods.

Jude wanted to discover if deer live in British woodlands.

Aydn thinks hedgehogs are nocturnal. 
 

This week, as part of our science learning, we are finding out what a habitat is. We are then going to delve deeper into a British woodland habitat and try to find out all the species of plants, trees and animals the live in a woodland habitat. 
 

We look forward to sharing some photos with you as our learning progresses. Watch this space....

The Hodgeheg

As part of our topic, we are reading The Hodgeheg by Dick King Smith. We have read the first four chapters. In guided reading, we have been working hard on making inferences. This means we had to think about how the main character, Victor Maximilian St George (Max), was feeling at various points in the story by ‘reading between the lines.’

Poor Max has had a bump to the head. He can’t work out how to get across the busy, suburban road safely. What will happen next? Can you make a prediction? Will Max persevere? 

Instruction Writing.

These are our picture maps, ready for our golden writing.

What time words and imperative verbs have you used?

Happy Birthday

Happy 6th Birthday to Harley and Happy 7th Birthday to Declan. Enjoy your celebrations. 

Stars of the week

Congratulations to Alfie and Tallulah, our two shining stars. 

Tallulah, you are so kind, considerate and caring. You have loved reading The Tale of Peter Rabbit and your golden writing was outstanding. We have a future author in the making. You make us so proud!

Alfie, you are a delight to teach. You make us proud every day. This week, your Tale of Peter Rabbit was amazing! Your handwriting was neat and joined and the vocabulary you used was excellent. 
 

Well done to both our stars! 

Easter Bonnet Parade

Thank you to our koala families for taking part in our Easter bonnet competition. The designs are creative, unique and very detailed. All you hard work is very much appreciated. 

Beatrix Potter

This week, for our English learning, we are finding about about the famous author: Helen Beatrix Potter. She was a Victorian children’s author and illustrator who was born in 1866. She grew up in London but moved to Hill Top Farm in the Lake District. Find out more about this famous author using the web link below. Where did she get her ideas for her stories from? What is your favourite Beatrix Potter story? How many pets did she have? 

We will share our work as the week progresses. Watch this space! 

Happy 6th Birthday, Harley!

We hope you enjoyed your celebration with your family. Thank you for sharing birthday sweets with your koala friends. 

Stars of the Week

This week we have chosen:

Ella and Olivia. 
 

Ella, you are one of the most kind, caring and nurturing people we have met. You are a super role model, who always does the right thing. You work hard, persevere and produce work of a very high standard every day. This week, your Easter story was excellent- full of amazing adjectives and well punctuated. 
 

Olivia, just like Ella, you are delightful, kind and considerate. Again, you are a role model who lots of your koala friends admire. I enjoyed reading your Easter story. Your handwriting is beautiful, cursive and joined. We are so proud of you.

Super sewers

This week, for our design and technology learning, we are learning how to sew. We are using binca and wool to make a running stitch. This is our first practise. We shall let you know how we get on. We will need to persevere, concentrate and be a team player to produce some good results. 

Stars of the week

This week, after much deliberation and another fabulous week of learning by all our koala team, we are pleased to tell you our two stars are Sophia and Ronny.

Sophia, we are so proud of how settled, grown up and sensible you are. You take delight in all you learning and enjoy being presented with tricky challenges. You have had your ‘head down’ and been focused all week. This has meant you have produced some top quality work. What a Manor Park role model you are!

Ronny, you have returned to school after the lockdown with a fabulous attitude to your learning. You have been concentrating and taking pride in working independently. You are focused and, as a result, producing longer pieces of writing. What an independent year two learner you are! 
 

Well done to both stars this week. 

The Great Koala Bake Off

We have been busy baking cup cakes. We are going to decorate them to look like the colour monster. We look forward to showing you our finished cakes but mostly to eating them. Our classroom smells like a bakery. What a fabulous baking team we are! 

Decorating our Colour Monster Cupcakes 

We have made butter cream, added food colouring and used various decorations to make our colour monsters. 

William Shakespeare

We enjoyed celebrating Shakespeare week by zooming with Miss Maddison to act out A Midsummer Nights Dream. We are amazing actors and actresses. 

Welcome back!

It is our absolute pleasure to welcome all our koala families back to school. We have missed you so much and are delighted to see you once again. The children have settled in very well. We are so proud of you all. 

Happy Mother’s Day

We have made beautiful cards to say thank you to our grown up for looking after us and loving us. Enjoy your time on Sunday. 

Happy Birthday!

Many happy returns to Lucy who turned 7 today. Enjoy your celebrations with your family. 

Stars of the week 

It is delightful to announce our first two koala stars of the week: Ellis and Tallulah.

All of the koalas have have a brilliant first week back to school so it made our job of choosing just two people rather tricky.

In the end, we chose Ellis for persevering with some tricky maths work on fractions, where he had to find a half and a quarter of shapes and objects. Also, he has been his usual happy, cheery and positive self all week. He has cheered up some of his friends who were a bit upset at the start of the week. What a kind boy you are! 
 

We also chose Tallulah for remembering all our Manor Park values all week. Her writing, in particular, stood out. She has used amazing adjectives, similes and metaphors to describe the Colour Monster. What an amazing author she is! 

You’ve Got A Friend

Look at our lovely little learners singing and signing You’ve Got a Friend. 

The colour Monster by Anna Llenas

We are enjoying reading The Colour Monster by Anna Llenas. Please enjoy listening to the story using the link below:

Colour Monster Pom Poms

We have been busy making monster Pom poms. Here they are in progress. Look at our super concentrating. We look forward to showing you our finished product. 

Home Learning

Week Beginning 4th January 2021

We can see that you have already been busy with your learning at home. Look at the amazing work below. Which Manor Park values can you see being demonstrated here? High expectations, concentration and being ready to learn are all clearly seen. 

We just received our reply from Santa. Have you got yours yet? 

Super heroes

In January, we will begin a new topic: super heroes. We will find out what a super hero is and learn about some real life super heroes from the past and from today. We will find out about Florence Nightingale and all the work she did that shaped hospitals, care and the NHS. We will find out about super heroes of today such as fire fighters, doctors and nurses. We will think about who in our family is a superhero and why. 

Christmas Party

We enjoyed our Christmas party games. We played four corners, musical statues, pass the koala and sleeping lions. 

A big congratulations to our two stars this week, Aydn and Amelia-Lily.

It was a pleasure to hand out both certificates. Both children were surprised they had earnt star if the week but also very proud and grateful.

Aydn, we hope you know what a kind boy you are. We see your kind, caring personality shine through every day at school. Your friends appreciate this too. We also love greeting you in the mornings because it cheers us up to see you Cheshire Cat grin! Well done for persevering with some tricky Maths this week where you had to add totals using pounds and pence.

Amelia-Lily, we have enjoyed getting to know you over the past few months. You always smile and do well with all your learning tasks. It’s good to have such a positive outlook and I hope you keep this as you grow older. Well done for writing an amazing Edgar the dragon story this week. What beautiful handwriting you have!

Edgar the Dragon 

This week in English, we have watched a short Christmas film about a dragon called Edgar. We found this very amusing and felt a bit sorry for Edgar. We are now planning and writing our own Edgar Christmas stories. 

Presents from Santa

We were very excited this afternoon as we had a virtual call from Santa. Santa said he was busy exercising his reindeers and wrapping presents. He told us to look outside our classroom door as he’d left a surprise. Guess what it was?...

...He had left a sack of presents. Here we all are with our presents. 

Koalas are super scientists

We have made a brilliant start to our science day. We asked the following questions:

What does a scientist do?

What’s cool about being a scientist?

We initially thought scientists wore goggles, lab coats and mixed potions. We found out the actually scientists have many roles including engineering, biology, biochemistry, physics and health care. 
 

Would you like to be a scientist when you are an adult? Why? 

What does ice look like?

We asked the question, what does ice look like? We answered the question by using our observation skills to look at ice cubes. This is what we observed:

I can see air bubbles (Jude).

It is beginning to melt (Henry).

There is a line down the centre (Kyran).

It feels wet and slippery like a worm (Charlie). 
The ice is transparent (Alfie). 

Our big question

After observing the ice, we thought of new questions we would like to investigate. As a class, we chose the following question as our main investigation:

On which material will the ice melt the fastest? Will it be on paper, metal or plastic? 
 

We look forward to sharing our results and conclusions. 

Our Hypothesis

We hypothesise that the ice cube will melt the fastest on the paper because the paper isn’t as strong as the plastic or metal. We think the ice will melt more quickly on the paper then seep through. 

Stars of the week

This week, Miss Revy and Mrs Brooks have chosen all the koalas for their brilliant Nativity performance. We were pleased with how they worked together as a team to make their scenes. They spoke clearly and confidently and sang and signed the songs well. Some children, who were worried about speaking out or are normally shy, surprised themselves by just how well they did. I hope you all enjoy watching the show just as much as we enjoyed performing it. We all had a Santa’s little helper ginger biscuit as a treat for doing so well. 

Money

This week, we have looked at the value of coins and notes and we’ve then been making totals using pounds and pence. Here are the koalas concentrating on their money work. Well done if you got a wristband today for concentrating, persevering and being ready to learn.  

Shining Cricket Stars

It was our last cricket session this week. I’m sure Freddie Flintoff would be impressed with our throwing, catching and batting skills and how accurate we were. Thank you to our cricket teacher. We had fun whilst we were learning lots of new skills. 
Can you tell your grown up how many different types of throw we learnt? When we throw over arm, how do we aim accurately? Where do our finger and eyes point? As we step forwards, where do our feet point? Which part of the stunt do we aim for? 

Our Manor Park stars this week are Alexus-Rose and Nancy.

Alexus-Rose, it is our pleasure to know and teach you. You are considerate and always willing to lend a helping hand to your koala friends, You have displayed high expectations in all your learning this week. We are especially pleased with your Maths work, where you challenged yourself to tackle some gold tasks involving making totals with coins and notes. 
 

Nancy, your family should be so proud of what a kind girl you are. You put others before yourself and look after all your koala friends. You have displayed our concentration value this week, when writing your letter to Santa. Beautiful, cursive letter formation, correct use of punctuation and your spelling really impressed me and Mrs Brooks. 

It is the month of advent and we have begun preparing for Christmas. We have made Christmas cards, baubles for our tree and have written letters to Santa. Watch this space and we’ll keep you updated on all the lovely seasonal things we are doing. Your child will bring all the amazing things they have made home at the end of term. 

Look at our lovely learners concentrating on their letters to Santa. We are impressed with the quality of writing and I’m sure Santa will be too. 

Letter update: Your letters were posted on Friday 4th December so keep a look out for your reply. We’d love to see your replies when you get one. 

Make a wish...

We have been decorating baubles to hang on our Christmas tree. As we hung them up, we each made a wish. What is your wish for 2021? How will you achieve your hopes and dreams? 

Calendars

We are busy being creative this afternoon. We have begun doing a piece of art to make into a calendar. The finished pieces are nowhere near ready but here is a little look at the start of the process. We hope you like the finished product when you receive it. 

Nativity Story

In English this week we have been busy reading and re writing the Nativity story. Can you tell your grown up why this is a special story for Christians? What happened on the very first Christmas? Here are some of our story maps and nativity stories. Again, more great writing by all the koalas. So many great writing features seen such as neat letter formation, commas, full stops and exclamation marks. It was a pleasure to teach these lessons. 

Pantomime and Christmas Jumpers

The children all looked fabulous today in their Christmas outfits and they enjoyed watching Cinderella and having a milkshake and Christmas cookie. A lovely treat to finish a busy week. 

Christmas Dinner

Today we enjoyed our Christmas school dinner. We have a tree in our classroom and listened to Christmas music. What a delicious lunch we had!

Stars of the week

This week, we are saying a huge congratulations to Sophia and Ella. They are our two shining stars. 
 

Sophia, you have worked so hard to improve your writing. I can see fingers spaces, capital letters and full stops. Your letter formation is neat and clear. You have used high level adjectives, similes and metaphors to describe a castle. Your poem was outstanding! Also, you are delightful to be around and to teach. You are so kind, caring and helpful. You are a very valued member of our Koala team- thank you!

Ella- what can I say? You are such an asset to our class. You are so thoughtful, considerate and kind to all our Manor Park friends. You are a perfect role model and always, always follow our golden rules. You tackle all your work with enthusiasm and a smile, even when you find you are being challenged. It is our pleasure to know and teach you. 
 

Well done both girls. 

It is so quiet in our classroom. You could hear a pin drop! Busy doing our golden writing. This week, we are writing poems that describe castles. I’ll add some of the finished pieces later today. 

Marvellous Maths

The year 2 children have begun finding out about money, how to recognise coins, make totals and give change. We made a brilliant start this morning and I have attached some photos of the children’s work for you to see. 

Virtual Nativity

We are already busy practising for our Christmas Natvity. We will film our Nativity and put it online on Monday 7th December. I hope you are looking forward to watching our performance.

Quick Cricket

Today, we practised our batting skills. Look how accurate we are! Can you tell your grown up how to hold a cricket bat? How many hands do we hold the bat with? Where does each hand go? Which side of the bat touches the ball? How should you stand?

Well done to Alfie, Olivia and Declan for earning their handwriting pen for their correctly formed, cursive and joined script. 

Stars of the Week

Can you guess who our 2 stars are this week? I’ll give you some clues! Both our stars have done an amazing job of their golden writing. They have both made huge improvements to their writing. They have sounded out, formed their letters correctly and used amazing adjectives, similes and metaphors. Is this you? 
I’ll let you know on Friday. 

Super Stars

Did you guess correctly? Yes it’s Kyran and Lucy Louise for their golden writing. Equally brilliant and great improvements seen by both. 
 

Kyran, you are so kind, warm hearted and such a delightful boy. We love teaching you. Keep up your super efforts.

Lucy Louise, I am so pleased to have you in our class. You always make good learning choices and are a role model for all. What a gem you are! 
 

Well done to both children. We are so proud of you. 

Dick King Smith

Next week, we are starting a new author focus. We will read books by Dick King Smith. Our first book will be The Sheep Pig. Have a look at the front cover. Can you predict what the story might be about? Who are the main characters? 
 

Have a look at the website below. What can you find out about the author? What other books has Dick King Smith written? Where did he get his ideas for his stories? 

The Small Knight

This week, in English, we watched a short animation about a knight who found a map that would lead him to a golden sword. We have each written a story about the knights adventures using adjectives, similes and metaphors. The children enjoyed sharing their completed stories with each other. I hope you enjoy listening to our stories. 

Cricket

Some more photos from our cricket lesson. More great bowling and throwing skills demonstrated by all the children. What a multi talented class we have!