Welcome to Unicorn Class

Bridgwater Carnival

To kick start our local history topic on Bridgwater Carnival, we were visited by the carnival club. They told us all about the history of the the carnival, it’s links with Guy Fawkes and they even let us try on some of the costumes worn on the carts. We learnt all about the tradition of squibbing and Jacob had a go at holding one up for us to see!

Gardening Club Scarecrows

After spending the last few weeks planting wild flower seeds, sunflowers, chard, carrots and peas, the gardening club decided we might need help protecting our crop from unwanted pests. They worked in teams to create these 2 fantastic scarecrows!

Hatching Chicks

After waiting for a long 21 days, we were delighted to welcome 17 chicks into Unicorn class. The children were very excited and have enjoyed learning about life cycles. They have all held the chicks and are loving having them in the classroom, learning how to care for them and observing the changes that occur as they grow. 

Teddy Bear Biscuits

In DT this half term, Unicorn class have been doing some cookery. Today they made Teddy Bear Biscuits. They worked as a whole class with one group making vanilla dough and cutting out the bears faces, one group making chocolate dough and adding the teddy's ears. Whilst the final group decorated the bears by adding features to their faces. The children worked brilliantly together and the biscuits were delicious! 

Taunton Cricket Festival

Our year 1 and 2 children had a lovely afternoon at the County Ground, Taunton. They joined lots of local schools and moved around a carousel of activities to help them learn the skills needed to bat, bowl and field successfully. 

Dinosaur Dig

Our reception children have enjoyed being paleontologists. They used their critical thinking skills to decide which tools to use and how best to uncover the dinosaurs hidden within the eggs. When the dinosaurs were out of their eggs, the children identified them by looking closely at their features. Messy but fun!!!

Coronation Celebrations

The children in Unicorn Class have loved learning about the coronation of King Charles III. Our year 1's have written some super newspaper reports and we were fortunate to have a visit from artist Darrell Wakelam. Darrell helped the children create an amazing 3D picture of St Edwards Crown, which they then painted and added the finishing touches to with Mrs Greedy during the afternoon. At the end of the week the whole school gathered at Middlezoy village hall for a lovely coronation tea, that was prepared and served by our wonderful PTA. Thank you to all of the parents and family members who supported the event and well done to all of Unicorn class for performing brilliantly! 

Happy Easter

Thank you to all of our Unicorn parents and family members for supporting our Easter Assembly at St Michael's Church. The children did a super job of performing the Easter story, singing some wonderful songs and parading their fabulous bonnets!

Unicorn class have had a lovely last day of the spring term. This morning we made chocolate crispy cakes. Each child broke the chocolate, mixed in syrup and butter before melting it all together. They then took turns to stir in the rice crispies before decorating their cakes. This afternoon we had an ‘egg-citing’ easter egg hunt. After finding all 48 eggs, we sat down to eat them whilst watching Peter Rabbit!

British Science Week

To celebrate British Science Week, we became scientists for the day. We investigated magnetism, looking at which materials were attracted to magnets, explored floating and sinking, used our senses to try to detect what we could smell in the mystery pots and planted our own sunflower seeds, thinking about what plants need to grow. We were also given the challenge of making a floating boat from a variety of materials, once we had made a successful boat, we had to see how many gems it would hold before it started to sink. In the afternoon we made our own moving hovercraft and our own rocket, which we later launched in the hall to see which design went the highest. There was some excellent thinking and high-level scientific questions being asked as we discovered and explored!

World Book Day

Exploradome Visit

A very exciting start back after the half term!! We were visited by Exploradome. We were taken on a journey around the world to look at different habitats. We learnt about the different environments within the habitats and how the animals that live there are adapted to that environment. We also thought a little about our impact on the environment and how we can make positive changes through recycling. A fantastic hands on experience. Thank you to the PTA for funding this amazing enrichment opportunity.

Paignton Zoo

We had a lovely day out at Paignton Zoo. The children loved seeing the animals and learning about how they adapt to their natural environment in the wild. They also learnt that many of the zoo’s residents are critically endangered because their natural habitats are changing. 
 

Puppets
 

This term we have been learning all about puppets. After putting on some puppet shows, we designed our own glove puppets. We practiced our sewing skills before each child independently used a running stitch to secure the front of their puppet to the back. The details and final touches were added with some careful cutting and lots of fabric glue. I think the children all did a fantastic job and should be very proud of their amazing work!

Chinese New Year

This week in Unicorn class we have been learning about the Chinese New Year. The children have enjoyed learning the story of The Great Race along with the many traditions and customs that are followed by Chinese people at this time of year. To end the week we went into the playground and performed our own dragon dance, we also had a banquet of Chinese food, which we tried to eat using chop sticks 🥢

Collaborative Art

Darrell Wakelam, a local artist, came to spend the day with us at Othery. He helped the children to create a wonderful castle to mark the start of our topic next term, 'Kings, Queens and Castles'. The children all worked with Darrell and independently created this beautiful piece of collaborative art work! Well done to all of Unicorns for listening carefully, developing their skills and being creative! 

Prickly Hay

Unicorn class put on a fantastic nativity play, 'Prickly Hay'. The KS1 children loved performing it to their family members, who were a wonderful audience. Thank you to all of the adults who came to watch the show, supplied the marvelous costumes and helped the children with learning their lines so fluently! 

Ham Wall Trip

Despite the very cold misty weather, we had a great time exploring Ham Wall on the Avalon Marshes. Our guide took us on a sensory seasons walk and we looked for mini beasts. We also saw lots of different ducks enjoying the lake.

Toys from the past

We have really enjoyed the start of our new history topic, ‘Toys Past and Present’. To get some first hand experience of old toys, we invited parents in to school to share any old toys that they still have in their families. We ran a carousel in the hall and were able to try out lots of the toys for ourselves. The children listened carefully to what they were told and asked some excellent questions! 
 

Remembrance Day

In unicorns class this week we have been learning all about Remembrance Day. The children have learnt what we remember and why. They have also learnt about the significance of the poppy flower and the work of the RBL. We also enjoyed creating a beautiful wreath and making some recycled art poppies. 
 

On 11th of November at 11am, the children ‘planted’ their recycled poppies and laid a wreath before standing in silence for 2 minutes. The children were incredibly respectful. The wreath is being taken by some of the children to Othery church for their service on Remembrance Sunday. 

Halloween

Some of the older children from Middlezoy visited us to help the younger children in Unicorns hollow out and carve their pumpkins. It was lovely to see the children of different age groups supporting one another. Great team work! 

Black History Month

Today we looked at the abstract artist Alma Thomas. The children wrote fact files about her life and achievements. They then created some artwork in her style. Each child in Unicorns made their own square, they chose 2 colours and mixed the colours to create a graduation from one colour to the other. We then put the pieces together to create 6 circles. Beautiful! 

We are all artists!
 

The children are reaching the end of their unit on Henri Rousseau. Today they sketched their final jungle composition ready for painting next week. They all thought carefully about gaining a perspective by adding a foreground and background, they also thought about where to place their ‘hidden’ animals so that they looked like they were hiding in the foliage. 

Shabbat

This week the children have loved learning about the Jewish holy day Shabbat. They made their own challah rolls and we celebrated today with lighting candles, eating the challah bread and listening to Jewish music! 

Weekly Update

_{This week the children in year R have been learning more letter sounds and are beginning to blend them to read simple words, in maths they have been counting and have began to correctly form numbers 1 and 2. Our year 1 children have been listening to stories by Jill Murphy and have written some recounts about their own experiences. In maths they have been looking at comparing numbers using inequality symbols and have begun to learn about the place value of a 2 digit number.} 

_{In the afternoons the children have continued to learn about the Torah and made their own mezuzahs, they also enjoyed learning about the locations and features of mangrove forests around the world.} 

_{As a special treat our ks1 girls were visited by Freya from Bridgwater community sports trust, who gave them a taster session of girls football.} 

Another busy week!

Unicorn class have had another busy and productive week! 

In the mornings our reception children have started to learn their first letter sounds and will soon begin to learn to blend them together to read simple words! Our year 1s have been recapping their knowledge of numbers to 20 and have begun to problem solve. They have also been busy writing the story of ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’. Whilst our year 2’s have done some super descriptive writing about ‘Bob the Man on the Moon’, and have begun learning their times tables. 

During the afternoons, we have been on a senses walk in the school garden and have been pond dipping to see what lives in the garden pond. We have also continued our learning of rainforests and the Jewish Torah. 

Year R have also taken advantage of the sunshine and have spent lots of time learning outdoors!

Welcome back to school and a special welcome to all of the new Reception children who have joined us at Othery. All of the children have come into school with big smiles on their faces and they look incrediably smart in their school uniforms. The children in Unicorn class have had an exciting and very busy first week back! The reception children have been exploring their new classroom and outdoor learning areas, aswell as making some super self portraits for our classroom display board. The Year 1's and 2's have been busy with reading, writing and number. They have also enthusiastically begun our new topic on Rainforests and have started to learn about the Jewish religion. The children discovered the meaning behind the Jewish celebration of 'Simchat Torah' and we held a mock celebration in our classrooms.