he children have been interested in every element of the Nativity story and today we are delighted that Father Stuart is coming to visit to talk about and retell the story of the First Christmas. We will explain to the children who he is and ask him to talk about his role in the church. The children will have the opportunity to ask him questions about this as well as about the characters and events in the story. Next week we will compare his retelling with the version of the story that the children are going to make and check that there is nothing that the children would like to add. Finally we will remind the children that this story is recorded in a special book called the Bible. We will talk about the fact that a range of faiths also have important books.

The Art Society has asked us to create artwork linked to the Brambly Hedge stories and hedgerows in particular. Last week, for inspiration,  we watched the Brambly Hedge autumn video and looked at pages of the book. The children were interested in creating artwork to represent the rosehips, blackberries and leaves. Marsaili and Kai told us that we would need to use black paint and we could print blackberries. Fiadh said that we could cut out the blackberries when they were printed. Sebbie told us the rosehips were oval so we would need some oval paper. Ben said that we could use red paint to create a berry, Fiadh suggested using little bits of red paper. The children will be able to choose whether they would like to represent blackberries or rosehips. If they do blackberries they will be printing with bubble wrap to create a berry print. If they choose to create a rosehip then they will need to snip tiny pieces of red paper to stick onto their template using a mixture of red paint and glue. The children will also need to cut out leaf shapes.

We will begin today by recalling the story ‘stone soup’ that we shared yesterday. Then we will explain that we are going to create some ‘worry stones’ today - these will be on sale on Saturday. Each child will roll a dice and tell us (using subitising skills) how many pieces of clay they need. Then they will need to take the correct number of  small amounts of polymer clay in different colours. Children will check with their partner that they have the correct number of pieces. Next they will knead each piece until it is soft and pliable before combining the colours and twisting them together to create a marbled or swirled effect. We will remind them to be careful and not overmix, or the colours will turn muddy (Sebbie told us that we might want to use all the colours and then make an oval shape). They will then need to roll the marbled clay into a ball and press their thumb into the center of the ball to create a comfortable indentation for rubbing. (Jamie told us that we would have to flatten it! Fiadh said that we would have to squish the clay.) Then the children will have another go, rolling the dice again etc. Once all the worry stones are completed we will bake them.

Today we have our third gymnastics PE lesson led by Game On. The children will still be changing for this so all PE kits need to be in school. 

Friday

Today we are going on a trip to the Berkhamsted Art Society exhibition. Thank you so much if you have volunteered to come with us - without your support we could not go on these outings.

The children have contributed work (linked to the Brambly Hedge stories) for the exhibition and will have the opportunity to meet artists and to look closely and talk about several creations whilst they are visiting.