Storytellers have joined the RSPB Big Garden bird watch this week to take our learning outside. Bird watching is a fantastic way for the children to learn about and appreciate all kinds of wildlife. Watching birds encourages empathy for living things and sparks discussions about nature’s balance. We try to incorporate this skill into activities such as our forest school. Some of our older nursery children watched, counted the birds they saw, and filled in a chart as they spotted them.

Valuable listening skills – Bird watching can significantly enhance a child’s listening skills by encouraging them to focus on the subtle sounds around them. Birds often communicate through chirps, songs, and calls that children learn to identify, which requires patience and careful listening. Over time, these skills can transfer to other listening tasks, making them more attentive listeners in everyday situations.

Responsibility – Bird watching helps children appreciate nature and learn about caring for the environment. Setting up a bird feeder or bath allows them to take responsibility for feeding birds. This also opens up conversations about natural diets and avoiding artificial ingredients in bird food. The children created their bird feeders by combining mixed seeds and coconut oil, which involved squishing them all together and pressing them into little pots to hang in their gardens at home; this experience can be shared with their families and sparks a talking point. 

Today at Storytellers, the children had so much fun rescuing winter animals frozen in ice. They used pipettes and pots to pour warm water over the ice, submerged it in a bowl of warm water, and watched the steam while learning about hot and cold and improving their fine motor skills.

It is a fantastic way to explore science through play.

The children enjoyed a delicious Christmas lunch today cooked by our wonderful chef Sam, everyone happily tucked in while wearing their handmade party hats! Great fun was had after lunch as they raced the reindeer, they had received in the crackers.

Wow, we could not be prouder of our little school! The children absolutely smashed both their performances and brought some twinkle to our toes !!! Singing, acting, bell ringing, recorders, and a solo …what an incredibly talented bunch of little people we have!

Thanks to everyone for making this possible, as it’s a massive team effort.

Christmas has arrived at Storytellers; the children created their letters to Father Christmas and were lucky to have our wonderful postman collect them! They have been assembling beautiful decorations and enjoying Santa's post office while often dressed in various festive outfits, which always bring a smile to everyone’s faces. 

Storytellers had a magical day visiting Father Christmas in his beautiful grotto; the children embraced everything on offer: riding reindeer, making snow angels, decorating gingerbread, and talking to Father Christmas and the elves. We enjoyed a delicious lunch together and even had chocolate cake to take home! 

Yesterday morning, a few of our tiniest people were helped by some of our biggest people to decorate the Storytellers Christmas tree as part of the St Petroc Churches Christmas tree festival. Nursery and KS2 have been busy making decorations, which are now adorning the tree! It looks spectacular, and everyone can view their tree along with over 70 other beautiful trees in St. Petroc Church. It really is worth a visit as it looks amazing, or as one of our little ones said, ‘Wow…sparkly!’ 

This tiny fundraising team has smashed it by raising £80 to support Children in Need. They have baked, made posters, decorated cakes and eaten spare sweets to save us from tidying them up! Watching them sell their little cakes was a pleasure as they were so proud, and rightly so! Well done, Storytellers team! 

Autumn 2

Snow Day

Last week beautiful Blisland was blasted with a blizzard. The children made the most of the snow with snowmen, sledges and snow-ball fights. It is a rare day but such a special one I'm sure children will remember for a long time.

Cross Country

We are up and running with cross country. The club is a very healthy size with 12 members. We have been running through the woods and been doing some hill training. Hopefully the mild weather will continue and we can get some longer runs in.

Christmas Play

Both Kensa and Nessa class have been busy learning their lines and learning the songs for our up coming Christmas play. Dates for the performances have been emailed out so make sure you check your diaries.

Parents Evenings

Kensa class have completed their parents evenings and Nessa are continuing this week. Thank you for taking the time to come in an discuss your child's progress. It is always a pleasure to share what we have been doing at school and to receive positive feedback from home. 

  While making Poppy paintings for Remembrance Day, the Children can begin to explore British Values. As and Early years settings we are required to promote British Values actively to ensure our young people leave school prepared for life in modern Britain. British Values are embedded into everyday practice. Remembrance Day will help children make links between their lives, their freedoms, and the values in England. Democracy, Mutual Respect, Tolerance, Rule of Law, and Individual Liberty are the values that settings are expected to incorporate into their practice. They are learning about these values when:

* They make choices and decisions and know that their decisions and choices can make a difference.

* They begin to understand that everyone is entitled to have different opinions or feelings that may be different from someone else, but learning that this is ok.

* They begin to learn about the importance of being kind and respectful of similar and different people.

* When they learn about cause and effect and that actions have consequences

* When thinking about the freedoms that they have in the things that they enjoy doing every day. 

Storytellers have been learning about Diwali, also known as the festival of lights, and many rituals and traditions during the event include light. Diya lamps are lit around the doorways and windows of people's homes. This symbolises the triumph of light over dark and welcomes Lord Rama home from the story of Rama and Sita. The children listen to a story about family traditions celebrating Diwali. They enjoyed creating their Diya lamps and decorating our entrance with Rangoli, a popular Diwali tradition –beautiful patterns made using colourful powders and flowers. People draw Rangoli on the floor by the entrance of their homes to welcome the gods and bring good luck!  

This week, we continue our season's theme by investigating Halloween. This festival signifies the move from autumn to winter and is always a great favourite for young children.

We have enjoyed reading a classic this week, “Room on a Broom” by Julia Donaldson. The story of a witch, a group of animals who help her, good manners, friendship and cooperation was fun to read aloud because of its rhythm and rhyme and opportunities for the children to join in.

The children thoroughly enjoyed the potion Station today. They measured out bicarbonate and various coloured vinegars along with a variety of Halloween-inspired pasta shapes and then watched the results. They were totally immersed in the process, which created some wonderful learning opportunities as we talked about the reactions that happened and the words we could use to describe them.

The children carried on this passion for potions within their role-play area, currently themed as ‘Meg and Mogs’ house. There have been many magic spells and rhymes as the children explored roles together. Having a selection of pumpkins around the room has offered an abundance of learning opportunities, from size ordering and counting to mark-making in various exciting ways.

 We are excited to see what next terms learning adventures bring …

Storytellers made pumpkin soup, which they enjoyed in the winter sunshine around the campfire, where they warmed their bread and watched the fire crackle and smoke. The children enjoyed scooping the pumpkin and pulling out the slippery seeds. Everyone explored the textures and smells as they prepared the soup and excitedly took the leftover peel outside for the squirrels to enjoy! This was some of the younger children’s first experience sitting around the fire and learning about our rules to keep everyone safe. They were fantastic at listening, and everyone enjoyed tucking into their soup before spending time playing with the mud kitchen

Blackbeard story

In Nessa class we have begun to learn a new story. It is an exciting Pirate tale featuring Blackbeard and Davey Swift. The two brothers are locked in a battle. The story climaxes with Blackbeard setting alight his ship to intimidate his enemy. Pupils have been learning and applying the rules of speech - inventing their own conversations between the pirates. Year 5 and 6 pupils will need to use pirate slang to enliven their speech. This week we have also been focusing on character descriptions. We will use a range of sentence structures to describe the character's appearance and mannerisms.

Next week, pupils will be acting out sections of the story before writing an innovation of our class text. It will be fantastic to see which direction their Pirate Tales take.

Forest School

This week year three and four went for a wander along the bridle way to collect some foliage as we wanted to make some natural clay tiles.
They looked for leaves with prominent veins which would help to make a clearer imprint on clay. Luckily, they found a wonderful variety along with some interesting seed heads. Once back on the field the children spread out their collected treasures and began by breaking off a small handful of the air-dry clay to knead in their hands until it is soft and pliable. Adding a few drops of water to the clay with there fingertips if it began to crack. They pinched out the clay and then gently rolled it out until about 5 mm thick. The children placed some foliage onto the clay and firmly rolled it in to imprint the pattern onto the clay, making sure that they didn’t press too hard and distort the shape. Watching the children’s delight as they peeled away the foliage to reveal a pattern was a pleasure. The children enjoyed some free time to create little birds and animals. Working with clay is an invaluable experience for sensory development, motor skills, self esteem, and self expression, problem solving skills, discipline, and pride. Clay also has a uniquely therapeutic quality that often settles and calm children; it keeps their attention for a considerable time. Clay is a unique art medium because it is highly responsive to touch and very forgiving. As soon as children are given clay, they immediately begin to mould and shape it. They become aware that they are in charge and have influence over the medium as it is quick to respond to their fingers. The feeling that they are in command of the clay gives children the confidence to try any project which opens the door to greater self expression and imagination. Clay also allows a child to learn to repair mistakes and therefore not be afraid to make them. Making mistakes is essential for self improvement but can be difficult and even an obstacle for some children. The forgiving quality of clay, and therefore the ability to readily fix mistakes, gives a child a sense of control over their project’s success which improves self esteem and self expression as they realise that mistakes are not going to stop their progress

After a successful blackberry hunt, the children eagerly put on their aprons and joined Mrs Pearce. They were not just spectators, but active participants in the cooking process. They weighed out the ingredients, cut up the apple, counted out the blackberries, and rubbed the ingredients together with their fingers; this proved to be somewhat sticky, but they were all fabulous at taking turns and waiting patiently for it to bake. Their sense of achievement and independence was evident in their beaming smiles and the delicious aroma that filled the kitchen.

   Cooking is one of the children’s favourite activities in Storytellers. It is an authentic experience where children can gain various skills, specifically in Maths. In addition, it can aid language and communication. When children can complete activities independently, their confidence soars. Following a recipe also helps children to learn to read for a purpose and follow instructions. In addition, they can talk about their likes and dislikes and healthy eating. When children are involved in preparing food, they are more likely to try out new tastes and flavours. The children's enjoyment of the cooking activity was evident in their eagerness to learn and their enthusiastic participation.  

The crumble was a scrumptious afternoon snack to enjoy in the autumnal sunshine.