Show and Tell

One of the highlights of school for Nicholas is doing show and tells.  We started off with simple show and tells with something interesting to show and a bit to talk about, then we thought a poster would be a nice accompaniment, next we followed the trend of making a power point presentation to give the talk structure and we ended the year off with what we think really works well: a power point presentation, something interesting to show and a lot to talk about.  For the topic we always choose something that Nick knows a bit about, something that he can learn more about, something that he is passionate about and something that ties into we've done and/or relates to one of their topics at school.  Nicholas is very proud about the fact that his teachers always say his show and tells are very interesting and that they learn something new from him every time!

Teeth

This was round about the time when everyone in Nick's class started loosing their teeth so it seemed like a good topic at that moment.  He showed a couple of shark's teeth, one of his teeth and an adult tooth complete with root and visible nerves.  He also had an x-ray and a couple of photos of a 6 year old child's jaw showing the new teeth waiting in the gums to make their appearance!

Life in the Rock Pools

This was a really fun one to do.  We had a fine collection of stuff that we collected on the beaches during our wonderful holiday in South Africa (double beach holiday: Tweenie in Natal and Jacobsbaai on West Coast).  We constructed a poster with photos to go with it.  We also did a bit of research about creatures that thrive in the intertidal zone which was great because it meant learning about the stuff we saw and collected.  Nicholas was particularly interested in the food chain aspect which also tied in nicely with the topic of habitats so that was the angle it took in the end!  

Animal Vision

A few boys were doing power point presentations at this point so we decided to jump on the band wagon.  It's definitely a good way to give the show and tell shape.  Nick's first power point show and tell was on Animal Vision.  His choice of topic was inspired by one of our visits to the Natural History Museum and a workshop we attended there.  We focused of weird and wonderful eyes of the animal kingdom which tied in nicely with their science topic of 'eyes and vision'.  Looking back now I realise that we didn't actually have any artefacts to show but it went down well all the same! 

Eyes

Around the same time Nicholas went for his annual check up at the optometrist.  The doctor was most impressed with his questions and observations during the thorough examination.  She emailed us these photos of the back of his eyes for him to take to school.  They were very well received by the science teacher who encouraged Nick to do an impromptu show and tell about eyes to his class!

Volcanoes

Next topic was volcanoes simply because of Nicholas' obsession with them.  I thought it was a nice topic because it was a melange of History, Geography and Science.  We had a fantastic time exploring the topic from every different angle and it was a big learning experience for all of us.  To end off Nicholas did a little science experiment using his volcano kit to induce an eruption!

Birds

Nicholas choose this topic because of our trips to SA where we spent a lot of time bird watching with Oupa and Ouma and also because of a visit we had to the Natural History Museum. The added bonus was the boys were going on an outing to Bird World later that term.  I didn't take a photo of his artefacts but we had a lot to show like nests (a weaver's nest and a humming bird's nest), eggs (an ostrich egg and a quail egg), feathers (owl, eagle and peacock feathers) as well as some sound waves of different bird calls (for the boys to guess).  It's useful having friends like Caitlin who have the most amazing collection of exhibits for us to borrow!

St Paul's Cathedral

As you may remember we went on a class outing to St Paul's Cathedral during the May half term.  I decided to organise this because the boys were doing the Great Fire of London in History.  Miss Jackson asked if Nicholas could do a quick show and tell on the outing to summarise what they learnt.  He gladly accepted the invitation!

The Solar System

This was definitely Nicholas' best show and tell.  Apparently he spoke confidently for half an hour with all boys totally engaged.  I think the success came from the fact that space is one of his biggest passions and he really does know a lot about the topic.  We built a model of the solar system to go with the presentation, which all by himself, he turned into a prop for a quiz at the end of his talk.  The teachers were so impressed that they even got him to repeat it for the science teacher, the headmaster and the other class.  He was thrilled with when he earned a well deserved Semper Magis certificate for it!

The Age of Trees

As homework for the April holidays the boys got a choice of four projects to do in relation to the theme of spring and growing.  Nicholas choose trees.  We learnt quite a lot about the different ways  to identify trees and to estimate the age of trees.  We tied it in with mapping out all the trees on the green in front of out house, identifying them and estimating their age.  One of the old neighbours confirmed that we were roughly correct as he has lived here for 50 years and remembers when the different trees were planted!

  

The problem with having posts in the pipeline for so long is that sometimes some of the material goes amiss.  I can't find all the notes Nicholas made for each show and tell.  The purpose of the notes was to give Nicholas a chance to really think about what he was going to to say and to give to the teacher in case he forgot some facts.  The good thing is that he is learning to speak without notes which something he is confident and proud about!

Flowers, Fish and Other things

Once a term each class hosts an assembly where the boys put on a little show for the parents.  Nicholas' class' theme was 'All about flowers'.  It included some of their art, a bit of acting, some reciting of their own and famous poems and some singing.  The song, boem-di-ala, has become one of my favourites ... especially when Nicholas sings it!

Every year Donhead has an Art Exhibition displaying some of the boys' work.  This was Nick's class' display this year.  They sewed fish and made hot air balloons out of tissue paper.  Nicholas really enjoys doing anything arty and his teacher suggested that he joins the art club next year.  He thinks it is a great idea because he will still see his year 1 teacher once per week!

One day Nicholas came home with this drawing.  He used to draw beautifully before he started school but sadly doesn't have much time for drawing any more.  I was really impressed with his elephant.  He also brought home an impressive solar system a few months ago.  I love all the detail like the colour and size of the planets and the number of moons each one has.  He really does have an eye for detail!

You may remember my post about Danny's school's art auction.  Nicholas' school did a similar thing at the end of the year summer party.  Nick's class did butterflies (he is pointing out his orange and yellow butterfly).  It went for £350, crazy you might think, but some of the others hit the four digits.  Ssshhh in my opinion the Ursuline paintings were much better!

Vio-Vio-Violin

Nicholas is still doing violin lessons and even though he hasn't done any exams yet he is progressing nicely.  He does his lessons at school with a wonderful teacher who uses the Colour Strings method.  I'm not sure if I mentioned it before, but she played with the Lightning Seeds at Glastonbury a few years ago, pretty cool hey.  Every term they have a concert at school.  I always find it quite amazing to see how many little children play instruments.  Nicholas takes it all in his stride and shows no sign of being nervous!

Year 1 - Summer Term

Puffer Train

Some singing by the choir

Year 1 - Spring Term

"Squirrel sits up in his tree"

Some singing by the choir

Listening to the other musicians

Year 1 - Autumn Term

"Way up high"

Reception

"Hiding in the long grass"

Sometimes we even have concerts at home!

And Nick does a bit of composing from time to time too!

He loves this musical poster so I thought I would include it

(in case anyone else likes it too)

Back in time - Danny

In my attempt to 'catch up' I'm going back to June/July and the end of the last school year.  I'm not sure if I'll ever succeed but I've got quite a few posts in the pipeline that I'm going to finalise and just post.  So the next series of posts have to do with Danny wrapping things up at his nursery.  It all seems like such a long time ago now!

Last day at nursery

It's not actually that long ago that Danny was a pre-schooler with little care in the world.  Now he is a big boy at big school.  Our lives have changed so much over the past few months.  One of the best things about Danny's nursery experience is that he had a soul mate.  It's so nice when a feeling of friendship is mutual.  And with Danny and Isla it most certainly was the case.  It's a real pity that they won't be going to the same school but hopefully we can still keep their friendship alive!

Not a day goes by that I am not thankful that we made the right choice for Danny's nursery education.  He flourished under Mrs Stride's care, she really is a wonderful teacher, treating each child as an individual.  The teaching assistants (Miss Walsh, Lina and Anja) were so caring and loved Danny to bits (but who wouldn't love such a sweet little character).  Looking back now the nursery chapter of Danny's life is a wonderful memory!

Mrs Stride

 Miss Walsh

Lovely Lina

Anja

I got Danny to design a card for Mrs Stride's present and I must say I was shocked and impressed with the end result.  I promise it was all his own work!  I loved it so much I printed a few cards which we used for all the teachers.  I also took a photo of his message in the inside as a record of his handwriting at the time!

The front of the card

The back of the card

Danny's message to Mrs Stride

Mrs Stride always sang Danny's praise.  She brought the best out in him and gave him an excellent foundation for starting school.  She always made such a big fuss about his show and tells, not only how interesting his objects were, but also how impressed she was with his ability to talk about them in front of the whole class.  She also noticed that he was ready to start reading quite early on and so she started him on a reading scheme way back in April.  All this gave him a bit of a head start and a lot of confidence so I will be forever grateful to her!

Collecting earth worms for his spring show and tell
(it just takes a bit of prompting to come up with something interesting)

  

Reading one of his first books
(Top Cat by Julia Donaldson in the Songbirds reading scheme)

The nursery was divided into two classes: the older half (butterflies) and the younger half (caterpillars).  Most of the children progress from caterpillars to butterflies but because Danny is so young in the year he didn't make that transition.  There were also two sessions a day, one morning and one afternoon, some children did one or the other and some did both.  Danny only ever did mornings.  So not all the boys that moved on to Donhead from Ursuline are in this photo but in total there are about 16 of them out of 44 that came from the same nursery.  So many familiar faces can only be a good thing!

The class photo
(that I didn't buy, hence the poor quality)