What a fantastic performance the children delivered in Busy, Busy Bethlehem!

It’s been a busy, busy week in Beech Class! We’ve packed so much into our days, and the children have truly risen to every challenge with enthusiasm and creativity.

What a fantastic performance the children delivered in Busy, Busy Bethlehem! We are incredibly proud of every single one of them. Their hard work, enthusiasm, and dedication were evident in every line they spoke and every song they sang. Through this performance, the children learned valuable lessons about teamwork, confidence, and the joy of storytelling. They also deepened their understanding of the Christmas story, gaining insight into the roles of the different characters and the importance of community and kindness. It was truly heart-warming to see their faces light up as they performed in front of such a supportive audience. Thank you to everyone who came to watch and celebrate their efforts!

We also had a trip to the Pantomime the excitement began the moment we boarded the bus, with children buzzing with anticipation. The show was filled with laughter, music, and plenty of “He’s behind you!” moments that kept everyone thoroughly entertained. This experience not only brought joy and festive cheer but also enriched the children’s appreciation of live theatre. They observed how actors use expression, voice, and body language to tell a story and engage an audience—skills they can carry into their own performances.

In English, the children have created some beautiful descriptive writing about winter scenes. They used rich vocabulary and sensory details to bring these frosty landscapes to life, describing everything from the crunch of snow underfoot to the glitter of icicles in the sunlight. Alongside this, they created acrostic poems that celebrated the magic of winter. These poems encouraged the children to think creatively about word choice and structure while conveying their ideas in a concise format. Through this work, the children have enhanced their descriptive writing skills, explored poetic forms, and gained confidence in expressing their ideas.

 

In art, the children have been channelling their inner artists with some truly inspiring work. Year 1 students explored line drawings inspired by Paul Klee. They took on the challenge of drawing cats without lifting their pencils off the page! This exercise helped them focus on the fluidity of lines and the importance of observation and patience. The results were fantastic, with each piece showcasing the children’s creativity and individuality.

Year 2 children, completed their final pieces using pointillism, inspired by the techniques of Georges Seurat. This meticulous approach involved creating detailed images using tiny dots of colour. It encouraged the children to think about how colours interact and how small details come together to create a larger image. The finished artworks are truly stunning and a testament to the children’s dedication and focus.

It’s been a wonderfully busy and creative term in Beech Class, and we couldn’t be prouder of what the children have achieved!

Busy, Busy Beech go to Bethlehem!

 

What a fantastic performance our children delivered in Busy, Busy Bethlehem! We are incredibly proud of each and every one of them. Their hard work, enthusiasm, and dedication shone through in every line spoken and every song sung.

This wonderful production provided the children with valuable lessons in teamwork, confidence, and the joy of storytelling. It also deepened their understanding of the Christmas story, offering meaningful insights into the roles of the various characters and the importance of community and kindness.

It was truly heart-warming to see their faces light up as they performed for such a supportive audience. A huge thank you to everyone who came to watch and celebrate their efforts—your encouragement made all the difference!

I’m a Little Hadham student…Get me Out Of Here!

LIME

Lime were in a very imaginative mood this morning and everywhere you looked, a small group were busy making and playing! A group were taking it in turns telling stories in the digging zone, a monster appeared and began following people around the forest, the stick sharpening group were filing down their sticks on a log, the hammock was always busy (they did some wonderful sharing), a leaf/mud ice cream was made, a stick base was built and a rope swing was built and was perfect to dangle from. A very busy time indeed!

 

WILLOW

Willow were really enjoying learning about the Christmas Truce in WWI this morning and they brought this outside with them.  An army was patrolling and protecting their base from intruders but there was also a 6 year old in the army who kept getting in the way. The hammock was very popular again and one group basically stayed in it the whole time. For the first time in a while, a small group requested to play Eagle Eye, so they splintered off into the forest and found their best hiding places, so that the Eagle couldn’t find them.

 

EYFS

It was a momentous day for our worms in Wormworld. They were collected in the wormery last month and it was decided that they had served their time and should be freed back into the forest today. Half were freed in early years and they really enjoyed watching them wiggle away. When in the forest, the hammock was extremely popular, as always. But they were also playing some wonderful games; a monster was chasing them around and they were roaring with laughter. A see saw was also built but didn’t last long as it was too bumpy!

 

BEECH

Beech were worried when they found out that the worms needed to be freed. A group began digging a hole and made sure that they weren’t let loose before their new home was ready. When they were pleased with their luxury worm complex (complete with a stick fence), they began to rifle through the mud and pick out the worms and show them their new digs (this is a pun). A group that have been uncovering the paving slabs in the digging zone became obsessed with cleaning them up today. They were determined to have them spotless, so if you need your patio done, give them a call!

 

MAPLE

Maple had lots of games! A group created their own ‘I’m a Celeb’ game camping out in the forest, voted for camp leaders and took part in bushtucker trials. One trial was hanging onto the tree for 25 seconds and the other was putting your hand in a muddy bucket for 10 seconds! The muddy bucket in question was actually chilli dog mixture from a forest restaurant that had opened up. They also specialised in cookies! The digging zone was full of clay, so a couple of pots were made. They weren’t sure if they’d survive the week, as in the absence of a kiln, they just put them in the shed!

29th November

This week has been packed with exciting activities and learning! In literacy, we ventured into the magical world of poetry, inspired by the classic poem Wynken, Blynken, and Nod. Its old-fashioned language and dreamy images were a bit tricky at first, but we watched a beautiful classic old Disney mini-film to help us understand it better. Using our imaginations, we planned, drafted, wrote, edited, and finally published our own verses to add to the story. Everyone’s poems were unique and creative—our classroom felt like a little poetry workshop buzzing with ideas!

In maths, we explored multiplication in new and interesting ways. Some of us focussed on arrays and grouping and sharing while others worked on the 3 and 6 times tables, learning how they are connected. Through our grouping and sharing activities, we discovered patterns and relationships between the numbers. It was great to see how multiplying by 6 is like doubling our 3 times table! Everyone worked hard on their times tables and enjoyed applying their knowledge through the problem solving aspects of our lessons.

Science for our year 3’s got hands-on and super fun  as we learned how our muscles work. To make it easier to understand, we created a model elbow using cardboard, a split pin, and a rubber band. It was amazing to see how the “muscle” (the rubber band) pulls and how the “joint” (the split pin) lets it bend. Watching our models in action gave us a new appreciation for the incredible design of our own bodies!

In RE, we all took time to reflect on what Christmas really means. We talked about how different people might celebrate it in different ways—some focus on the birth of Jesus, while others think about spending time with loved ones, giving, and sharing. We also thought about what Christmas means to each of us. Everyone had such thoughtful ideas, and it reminded us how special this time of year is for so many reasons.

Our creativity continued in Design Technology, where we started an exciting soft toy project. We learned about the famous Steiff family, who made some of the first teddy bears.

We brushed up on our sewing skills, threading needles, practicing overstitches and learning to “tie off” were tricky but fun!   We have designed our own simple soft toys to cut and sew in the coming weeks.

To top it all off, we wrote letters and made Christmas cards for our Greek penpals, which filled the room with excitement. The week ended with a bang at the Christmas Bazaar, where we gave an amazing performance of John Lennon’s classic song, Happy Christmas (War Is Over).  What a way to end the week!

 

29/11/2024 Let the Christmas season begin!

This week in English, we explored the features of a biography while studying and learning about the remarkable Mary Seacole. We then collated and grouped information about Floella Benjamin, the author of our class book Coming to England. We learned about her early life and family, distinguished career, impactful charity work, notable awards, and significant contributions. As a final task, we crafted her biography.

In PSHE, the children engaged with an activity sheet titled The People We Share Our World With, which featured diverse children from the same town and street. Working collaboratively in groups, they explored similarities and differences among these children, considering factors such as ethnicity, gender, religious beliefs, customs, and festivals. The session concluded with each child creating their own personal fact file, celebrating their unique traits. The lesson highlighted the value of individuality, deepened the children’s understanding of inclusion and respect for diversity, and reminded everyone of the importance of respecting and appreciating the qualities that make each person special and different. As a Rights Respecting School, the lesson connected with the following articles from the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child:

  • Article 2: Every child has the right to be treated fairly and without discrimination.
  • Article 14: Every child has the right to their own thoughts, beliefs, and religion, and to practice them in ways that respect the rights of others.
  • Article 30: Every child has the right to learn and use the language, customs, and religion of their family, whether or not these are shared by the majority of people in the country where they live.

 

In Design and Technology, we completed our festive products and carried out our evaluations. The children reflected on their successes and considered areas for future improvement. They took pride in accomplishments such as sewing two pieces together ensuring that their stitches are strong and secure, decorating and sewing on buttons, following or adapting their initial designs, meeting the design criteria of visual appeal and functionality. Additionally, they highlighted supporting one another, creating visually appealing products, enjoying the creative process, and improving their sewing speed and proficiency as key achievements.

 

In Art, the children created beautifully designed Christmas cards for their penpals in Greece. Guided by clear instructions, they produced vibrant and festive drawings, thoughtfully selecting coloUrs and details to reflect the joy of the holiday season. Each card featured a handwritten message filled with warm wishes. To make their creations even more personal, the children included a photograph of the Christmas decorations they carefully crafted during their Design and Technology lessons.

 

The children also engaged in a captivating online workshop with the National Gallery, where they explored some of Van Gogh’s famous paintings. Using pastels, they experimented with patterns and techniques inspired by the artist’s iconic style. Building on their learning, they created their own interpretations of The Yellow House.

 

We hope you love your new Christmas decorations – made with love and skill by the Maple class pupils.

 

 

 

 

 

We’re going on a shape hunt!

This week, the children in early years have really enjoyed learning about shapes. We have focused on circles and triangles and discussed their features in great detail! We learnt about edges, corners (or lack thereof!) and even how the orientation of the shape does not affect the shape’s name. We made triangles using sticks and tried to see how many triangles, big and small, we could see in some artwork by Kandinsky. We took our maths learning to the forest where the children excelled in finding circles, and even managed to make circles with curved sticks.

The circular snowmen and triangular trees made some beautiful artwork for our display, and reminded us that our Winter Wonderland Show is fast approaching! The children enjoyed using their fine motor skills and phonic knowledge to write invitations and posters to advertise the event to their grown ups.

Ash and Saplings have set up a Science experiment in the classroom. We looked at an apple cut in half and talked about how we think it might change when it is left out. The children had lots of ideas about the changes they might see, including it might change colour or it might get smaller. We’ve left the apple halves out and are looking forward to seeing how they will have changed after the weekend.

The children really have been enjoying reading and writing during lessons. So much so that we are starting to see more and more of these skills being practised during choosing time! Thank you for your continued support with reading in particular at home. The children are always so thrilled to share how they have been enjoying their reading books at home with their grown ups.

Festive Forest Fun!

LIME

Lime were really enjoying the mud today! The digging zone was just safe enough to dig in and just squishy enough to make incredible; cakes, brownies and buckets full of mud. The Eat 17 shop was back but it had now been upgraded to showcase (in their words) a ‘Christmassy vibe’ and they would also perform you a song and dance when they delivered your cookies or hot chocolate. People came and ordered and then scampered off to enjoy. The den was very wet but a pool of water collected in the tarp made for an excellent welly cleaner.

 

WILLOW

Willow enjoyed the digging zone too and had to work very hard not to slip over and risk it being closed. They’ve spent the last few weeks trying to uncover a huge slab and the rain had made conditions perfect, so they spent a long time excavating. A huge group were playing a game where they had to capture various people. Once they’d been caught they made some genius rope/pulley systems to hold them (willingly) captive. A base was also made out of sticks which was a great place to hang out and get out of the cold.

 

EYFS

Last week the littlest Hadham children enjoyed a ‘warm party’ in the forest to keep themselves dancing and warm but they were slightly disappointed at the lack of speaker (and Connor’s singing…), so this week a speaker was brought into the forest to pump out the tunes! They danced to all their favourite songs and then enjoyed some Christmas classics, while playing musical statues. The made a DJ booth using a log and covered it in leaves for decoration and some listened to the music while gently swaying in the hammock.

 

BEECH

Beech class are always extremely pumped on Christmas Bazaar day. They’ve got front row seats to all of the hustle and bustle in the hall and brought that energy into the forest! Several groups decided to make their own stalls, selling various bits of the forest, mainly using leaves as currency. The digging zone was very muddy which made for some excellent digging conditions. They quickly decided a grave was under where they were digging and looked for bones…until someone discovered a mermaid tail. They kept gleefully digging but thankfully didn’t find any remains! (part fish or otherwise)

 

MAPLE

Maple were ready for the bazaar too and treated everyone to some carol singing to get everyone in the festive mood. A group decided that the forest bazaar needed a Father Christmas but it wasn’t long before Santa turned sort of evil and (with help from ‘Shouty the Reindeer’) began giving people twigs and then running away shouting ‘no refunds’! One team got progressively more muddy as time went by and were having an excellent time making mudballs in the digging zone.

Imaginative creations

As we step into the festive season, Beech Class has been bustling with excitement and creativity! Here’s a closer look at what we’ve been up to and the wonderful progress your children have been making.

English the Year 1 children have been learning how to write letters, focusing on their very own letters to Father Christmas! They followed the writing process step-by-step:

  • Plan: First, they brainstormed ideas about what they wanted to ask for and how they would greet and thank Father Christmas.
  • Draft: Next, they wrote their letters, practicing neat handwriting and using full sentences.
  • Edit: Then, the children checked their letters, ensuring they included capital letters, punctuation, and their kindest wishes.
  • Publish: Finally, they created their final versions, beautifully written and decorated with festive cheer!

In Year 2, the focus has been on improving comprehension and spelling. The children have been reading short passages, answering questions to demonstrate their understanding, and discussing tricky vocabulary. For spelling, we’ve practiced breaking words into syllables, spotting patterns, and using them in sentences to reinforce their meaning.

Additionally, across both year groups, we’ve been working hard on tricky/common exception words—reading them fluently and writing them accurately in sentences.

In maths the year 1 children have been investigating numbers from 20 to 100. They’ve explored:

  • Recognising and ordering these numbers.
  • Using number lines and hundred squares to identify patterns.
  • Practicing counting in 2s, 5s, and 10s, laying the foundation for early multiplication skills.

Our Year 2 mathematicians have been solving word problems, focusing on how to interpret a question, identify the operation (addition, subtraction, etc.), and work through the solution step-by-step. They’ve been using drawings, number lines, and written calculations to explain their thinking.

Our Christmas crafts have been a highlight this term!

  • The children used clay to sculpt snowmen, practicing fine motor skills and expressing their creativity.
  • They also created beautiful paper decorations, bringing extra festive spirit to our classroom.

Year 1
The children explored different types of lines—straight, wavy, zigzag, and more—using pencils and crayons to experiment with texture and design.
The focus for Year 2 has been on mastering different brush strokes with watercolours. They’ve learned to use soft, flowing strokes for blending and bold strokes for emphasis, creating stunning works of art.

We were thrilled to participate in a Zoom session with the National Gallery! The children learned about mythical creatures and used parts of various animals to sketch their own imaginative creations. A huge thank you to Bethan, the artist, for her inspiring guidance.

 

Christmas Show

Our rehearsals are in full swing! The children have been practicing their lines, songs, and dance moves with great enthusiasm.

Costumes: We have costumes ready for all the children, but please check their reading diaries for specific information about the clothes they will need to wear underneath.

It has been a joy to see the children’s excitement and engagement this week. Thank you for your continued support, and we look forward to seeing you at our Christmas show!

The Beech Class Team

Top of Form

 

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…

Alongside our preparations for the festive season, we have been busy in Year 6 learning and discovering.

At the start if this week, our School Captains read the story of ‘How to be a Lion’ by Ed Vere to the whole school. The messages in this story beautifully support our work on the Rights Respecting Award. It is the story of Leonard, a lion, and his best friend Marianne, a…duck! Leonard and Marianne have a happy life together, talking, playing, writing poems and making wishes – until one day a pack of bullies questions whether it is right for a lion and a duck to be friends.The story provides us with a powerful reminder about the importance of being true to yourself and standing by your friends. Thank you to Belle and Dylan for reading the story so beautifully, and to Abigail and Max for their help in explaining Articles 2, 12, 13 and 19 from the Convention on the Rights of the Child. You can click this link to read the story of ‘How to be a Lion’. How to be a Lion

In Science, we learnt about how the eye works and what happens when light enters the eye and reaches the retina and optic nerve. We consolidated our learning by making plasticine models of the eye showing the different parts and used these models to give detailed explanations of how the eye works.

This week in Maths, we embraced the world of fractions! We tackled the quest of finding fractions of amounts and learned how to find the whole amount using fractions. To make these concepts clearer, we used bar models, transforming abstract numbers into visual aids. The models not only helped us explain our thinking but also made it easier for us to grasp the relationship between parts and wholes.

In our History lesson, we turned the pages back in time to explore the fascinating (and sometimes controversial) topics of censorship and propaganda. We debated why governments in history chose to censor certain images while promoting others through posters and photographs. We dived deep into their motives, exploring how they wished to influence public behaviour and perception. Our discussions led to thoughts about how censorship and propaganda are used today. Who knew history could provoke such thoughtful conversations?

This year, we have introduced Reading Champions, Year 6 pupils who read on a regular basis with some of our younger children. Our enthusiastic Year 6 pupils have been doing an absolutely fantastic job listening to our Year 1 children read.  Their patience and encouragement are helping to foster a love of reading in the younger years, and the smiles we see during reading time say it all. Whether it’s helping a Year 1 student sound out a tricky word or simply sharing their favourite tales, they are building connections and inspiring a new generation of readers. We couldn’t be prouder of our Year 6 Reading Champions! Well done!

Huge congratulations must go to our Year 6 team who took part in the final of the HfL Year 6 Maths Challenge. Making the final is an amazing achievement especially as there were approximately 320 Year 6 pupils involved! Our Year 6 team came an impressive third in the competition! Fabulous team work and well done Belle, Lochlan, Finlay and Max!

As the festive season approaches, we got creative by crafting beautiful decorations for our class Christmas tree using colourful Christmas book covers. This was not just about decoration; it was a celebration of literature and imagination! We poured our creativity into each decoration, making it a truly special activity. Once the decorations were hung, we shared a magical moment as we switched on the lights.

We are excited to perform our version of the Christmas classic, Driving Home for Christmas, at the Bazaar and also selling our gorgeous felt Christmas pudding tree decorations.

We hope you enjoy the Christmas Bazaar and we look forward to seeing you there.

Little Hadham Primary School Celebrates a Maths-tastic Achievement!

We are bursting with pride and excitement to announce that our amazing Year 6 team clinched third place in the HFL Education Year 6 Mathematics Challenge Finals! Out of 320 talented participants from schools across the region, our team proved their brilliance, landing a top spot for the second year in a row—what a streak!

The competition wasn’t just about crunching numbers. It was a high-energy, brain-bending event that tested their problem-solving skills, mathematical knowledge, and teamwork under the pressure of some seriously tricky questions. The journey to the finals alone was a massive accomplishment, but earning a spot on the podium? That’s pure magic!

Mrs. Afenti-Sassis, our ever-enthusiastic Maths Coordinator, shared her joy:

“Watching the team’s focus, resilience, and creativity throughout this challenge has been an inspiration. They showed what Little Hadham pupils can achieve with determination and a love for learning. We couldn’t be prouder—well done, superstars!”

A huge round of applause to our Year 6 Super Team for their extraordinary effort and for making us all beam with pride. Let’s hear it for teamwork, perseverance, and a passion for problem-solving—proof that maths really is this exciting here at Little Hadham!

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