Welcome to Iris Class
Here you will find regular updates of our current learning, ways to help at home and topic knowledge organisers. If possible please find time to have a look at these updates especially the photographs with your child. If you have any questions or comments please feel free to come and talk to us or email the school office. Thank you for your support, we look forward to working with you and your children.
Key Information
Library Day is Friday - Please remember your book if you have taken one home.
Forest School is on Thursday Afternoon - Each child needs Wellington Boots, waterproof trousers and coat and appropriate clothing for the weather.
Dance is on Thursday morning - No special clothing is required.
Week 1
It would be foolish to hope that every January term might begin with snow but oh, what joy to have been so lucky this year! A world transformed, a playground covered in beautiful ice, children enthralled by throwing snowballs and watching their white footprints manifest their running. The inside of the classroom could hardly hope to meet such heights but we were glad to return to our school normalities, exploring new textures and mark making possibilities in messy play, strengthening our dexterity in dough gym sessions and, of course, forest school. We also enjoyed the sensory story of Room on the Broom - especially enjoying the whoosh of the broom flying down to the ground and such a likeable cast of characters - and made our own wands and horrible beasts out of chocolate cereal cakes.
Week 2
We continued to explore the creative potential of feeding off Room on a Broom this week. We used chalk and glitter to make our own magic drawings, inspired by the 'Iggety, ziggety, zaggedy, zoom' illustration and enjoyed mixing potions in our own cauldrons. In more practical magic, we watched the interesting interaction of dyed oil and water during our 'attention autism' sessions.
Week 3
This week we have been enjoying the sensory story of Whatever Next, a lovely tale of soaring lunar ambition fulfilled by the endless mutability of cardboard boxes. Using sponges we made our own grubby teddies, although our enthusiasm for bright hues made ours rather more colourful than Baby Bear after his return via the chimney. Inspired by his exploits, we also made sandwiches, carefully following instructions and waiting until the whole sandwich had been made before tucking into our feasts.
Week 4
The story of Whatever Next has truly come to Iris class this week. We have really enjoyed being in boxes, especially when they transform in to adult-powered rockets, and have used the toys and props form the sensory story to re-enact the tale during choosing time. We have also been honing our sandwich making and took great pleasure in using sponges to create a magical blue moon to add to our classroom. Amongst that we had high levels of participation during playcircle, with lots of children taking good care of their dolls, carefully following instructions to brush their teeth and wash their face.
Week 5
A new sensory story for our last two weeks of term: The Way Back Home, a lovely story that explores how making friends, even on the final frontier, improves all problems. We liked the Martian so much that we made our own alien, using straws and pipettes to blow abstract green shapes which, once we added googly eyes, made some delightfully uncanny extra-terrestrials.
Week 6
Continuing with themes from The Way Back Home has been a lovely source of inspiration. Whilst our exploring has been limited to a strictly terrestrial sphere, we have nonetheless tested boundaries. A tuff spot of shaving foam was a lovely way for learners to play alongside each other, absorbed in the sensory exploration and finding bravery in getting unknown textures on their hands. As we couldn't get to the moon, we brought smaller moons to Iris class, mixing and rolling out biscuit dough to make some really rather tasty moon shaped biscuits - much easier to squeeze into an afternoon than lunar landings.
