In preparation for Chinese New Year we have been learning about the celebrations and traditions linked to this festival. We listened to the story of 'the great race' and discovered why each year is represented by an animal. The children were interested to find out which year they were born in and also the year that the adults were born in. Our visitors were all asked their year of birth and we researched the Chinese Zodiac for them using the internet.
We finished off our week by sampling some Chinese food and eating with chopsticks. 

 The weather has been very mild so far this month until the excitement of Tuesday. Some of the children came into school excited and talking about the weather forecast suggesting snow. Mid morning the snow came! The children watched from inside and outside depending on their preference, and were all hoping for a thick covering. unfortunately that didn't happen but we made the most of it with snowy pictures and paintings, showing the snowmen we will build if it does snow heavily!

One of our the children's favourite authors is unanimously Julia Donaldson. This week we have read the story of 'Stick man' and the children love it! We thought of our own endings to the story and the children were very imaginative. Stickman was rescued and taken home by a boat, aeroplane, raft and even a hot air balloon. Using our own collection of sticks the children made their own representations of their rescue plan. 

The children have settled back into the school routine quickly after the Christmas break. These are a few of the activities we have enjoyed this week. 

We watched the pantomime performance of Cinderella in the hall today. It was fabulous, the children were gripped by the drama of it. We have followed this up by reading alternative versions of Cinderella but the pantomime version was overwhelming voted as the favourite one!