Hedgehog Class

Spring Term 2025

Useful Information

Week Beginning 31st March 2025

We've had a lovely last week of term with lots of creative and engaging activities. The girls enjoyed the football event at Witchford Village College, whilst the boys had a great time at Forest School. In addition to that, we have been busy making chocolate Easter nests, spotting signs of spring around the village and using a printing technique to create beautiful flower pictures, ready to put up on display in our cloakroom.

Have a super Easter break!

Week Beginning 24th March 2025

In the last two Forest School sessions for Froglets and Butterflies we made popcorn. We learnt that not only did we need to be careful and safe around the fire but also patient to make the best popcorn! We added our own toppings and then enjoyed a lovely snack by the fire. We were also able to observe the frogs in the pond and see the frogspawn. Of course we had lots of fun in the mud kitchen, our dens and swinging and climbing too!

Week Beginning 17th March 2025

It's been all about animals this week! At the start of the week we were given the problem of housing some animals so we designed our own animal park. We had to think carefully about where all the different animals would live and where they would get treated if they were poorly, not forgetting the facilities for all the visitors. It was a great team effort! After designing our park, we wrote some guides to let people know what they could see and do if they came for a visit.

We also thoroughly enjoyed a visit from some real life animals (some reptiles, a mammal and an insect) - a massive thank you to Kayleigh from The Animal Experience. We have been learning about the different animal groups and their features in Science, so it was fantastic to get the opportunity to be hands on with some more unusual creatures.

Week Beginning 10th March 2025

We have had a very exciting Performing Arts Week at Stretham! It started with the children dressing up as rock/pop stars - thank you to all those who put so much effort into creating the costumes for the children. The reason for dressing up was a visit from Rock Kidz UK; they came in and created a concert in the school hall. The children got to dance and sing along to songs they knew, as well as learn a new song. The new song they learnt was all about positive self-esteem and celebrating being unique and individual - YASBA; You’re Awesome So Be Awesome.

On Tuesday, we were visited by Rock Steady, who introduced the children to all the different instruments in a rock band. Again, the children got to sing along to some songs and some children were able to try out playing opportunities. Across the two days the children demonstrated exemplary behaviour, being respectful of our visitors but also seemingly enjoying themselves. This was confirmed to us with compliments from both companies about our school and the children.

At the end of the week the children had dance workshops with Jack Stinton. After a good warm-up, Jack taught the children a set dance routine to music with segments to allow the children to be creative and come up with their own dance moves.

In Hedgehog Class, the children also enjoyed some performance poetry and working as a class to produce a rainforest soundscape using voices, body percussion, instruments and even some everyday objects. The final recording was actually pretty impressive - click on the link below to have a listen. All in all, a fantastic week!

Hedgehog Class Rainforest Soundscape.mp3

Week Beginning 3rd March 2025

We've had a super few days celebrating this year's World Book Day; designing our own book covers, completing a book scavenger hunt, joining authors and illustrators online (including a draw-a-long session), listening to stories, making story-character puppets and enjoying books in the 'Comfy Reading Zone'.

Week Beginning 24th February 2025

This week we used the story 'There's a Rang-Tan in My Bedroom', by James Sellick and Fran Preston-Gannon, to inspire our writing. We enjoyed talking about all the things an orangutan might get up to if they were in our bedrooms, before writing some of our ideas down. We worked ever so hard on our sentences reading them aloud to check they made sense.

Week Beginning 10th February 2025

What a way to end the week and the half term - Feel Good Friday!

We hope you all enjoy the half term break.

Week Beginning 3rd February 2025

We ended this week with the NSPCC Number Day and enjoyed a variety of maths activities, stories and games. We worked together to solve problems, we measured the length of our carrots, we used our number knowledge to play games, we used shapes to create patterns and pictures and we explored numbers used in everyday life.

Week Beginning 20th January 2025

A busy week in Hedgehog Class. We enjoyed another walk around Stretham, this time using maps and looking for specific locations. We started a new book, The Snow Lambs by Debi Gliori, about a sheepdog that goes missing on a stormy night to inspire our writing this week. We also continued our work on numbers 0-20 in Maths, comparing numbers and using number lines, as well as develop our problem solving skills. In Science, we learnt what a variety of different animals do during the winter months - some hibernate, some migrate, some grow extra fur and some change their behaviour to adapt to the colder temperatures. We also worked very carefully to finish our birch tree winter pictures, by adding the detail to the trees; some of us added shadows too. We are very proud of our finished pieces!

Week Beginning 13th January 2025

A few highlights from our week in Hedgehog Class include:

~ rolling and manipulating paper to create 3D sculptures in Art

~ working in groups to represent numbers 1-20 using our bodies in Maths

~ combining forwards and backwards commands to programme the Beebots in Computing

~ enjoying a welly-walk to spot signs of winter as part of our Science and Geography (we also wrote excellent recounts of our walk in an English lesson).

A busy week with lots of hard work and determination!

Week Beginning 6th January 2025

Welcome back and a very happy new year to you all!

A productive first week back for Hedgehog Class with lots of super learning. In Maths, we have been securing numbers up to 20 and thinking about all the different ways the numbers can be represented.

We started our new topic about animals this week in Science. We had good fun sharing our prior knowledge and then we thought about similarities between different animals. It was a real surprise to some of us that humans are animals too!

Autumn Term 2024

Week Beginning 9th December 2024

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Week Beginning 2nd December 2024

Rehearsals for this year's KS1 Nativity have been in full swing this week. We've also managed to squeeze in some learning - exploring 2D shapes in Maths, reading, phonics, spelling and handwriting practice, revisiting what a simple sentence needs and learning all about the Great Fire of London in History.

Week Beginning 25th November 2024

In Maths this week, we have been exploring 3D shapes. In Science, we carried out an investigation to decide which material would make the best towel for bear. We had to think carefully about what properties are needed to make a good towel. It was also time to begin some festivities this week with the very enjoyable Christmas Craft afternoon and decorating our own Hedgehog Class Christmas tree!

Friday 22nd November 2024

It was finally here - Superhero Day! Hedgehog Class have had a brilliant day enjoying all sorts of activities - designing and making superhero accessories, small world play, games, dance and role play. Who doesn't love being a superhero for the day!?

Week Beginning 11th November 2024

It's certainly been a busy week in Hedgehog Class! A few highlights include:

~ visiting both war memorials and the beautiful display in Jubilee Gardens to mark Armistice Day.

~ the Butterflies group cooking potatoes and making slides at Forest School.

~ enjoying a variety of stories and activities to celebrate Kindness Week, including listening to the story 'The Lonely Beast', by Chris Judge; we wrote about what we would do to be kind to the beast.

~ carrying out an investigation in Science to answer the question 'Does it float or sink?' for various classroom objects.

~ marking the occasion Children in Need 2024.

Week Beginning 4th November 2024

We started this week by learning about Diwali, the 5-day Festival of Lights. After listening to the story of Rama and Sita, we made Diya lamps from clay. At Forest School, the Froglets group enjoyed preparing and cooking potatoes with grated cheese. Delicious!

Week Beginning 21st October 2024

A huge well done to Hedgehog Class for a super first half term! The children really have risen to the challenges of Year 1 with effort and enthusiasm - so many successes, big and small, for everyone. This week has been no exception with lots of fantastic learning. We went on a 'welly walk' to spot signs of Autumn, used our observation skills to draw pumpkins and add colour using pastels, explored pulse and rhythm with percussion instruments and created some very sweet animal leaf pictures, to name but just a few of the activities we enjoyed. Happy half term everyone!

Week Beginning 14th October 2024

In Science, we have been learning about everyday materials. This week we were thinking about different objects and what materials were used to make them and then we started to consider the properties of different materials.

In Maths, we have been continuing with addition and identifying all the number bonds to 10. Now we need to learn them, so we know them off by heart, because they are so useful!

Week Beginning 7th October 2024

It was a very exciting start to the week with our sponsored event and visiting athlete, Sean Rose. Well done everyone for taking part with such enthusiasm! We also enjoyed designing outfits for Traction Man this week and taking him on some adventures around the classroom. In Maths, we were building and writing addition number sentences.

Week Beginning 30th September 2024

Lots of fantastic learning this week in Hedgehog Class - so much to be proud of. A few highlights include:

~ writing some narrative sentences about the terrible things Evil Pea has been doing to the veggies (don't worry Supertato was always ready to come to the rescue!)

~ using number lines to compare and order numbers

~ identifying, naming and exploring various everyday materials in Science.

Week Beginning 23rd September 2024.

Lots more exciting learning this week in Hedgehog Class. Both Groups 1 and 2 have now enjoyed their first Forest School sessions. Group 1 are newly renamed 'Froglets' as there were quite a few hopping around the fire circle and Group 2 are now named 'Butterflies' as we saw lots of these flying around the trees. Both groups have had the chance to play some nature inspired games, create hedgehogs from natural materials and snack on seasonal treats (such as apples and blackberries) as well as enjoy all the usual favourites such as digging, building dens, hunting for minibeasts, and making 'tasty' treats in the mud kitchen. This week, Froglets hunted for conkers and had the opportunity to prepare them ready for a game of conkers in our newly renamed 'Conkarena'. We ended both our sessions with a lovely sing song, with Mr Froment on guitar!

Week Beginning 16th September 2024

It's been a week packed full of Superhero activities!

In History, we have been learning about Florence Nightingale - a famous nurse and real-life hero. We learnt that she was known as 'The Lady with the Lamp' because she checked on her patients late at night carrying an oil lamp. We used our cutting and sticking skills to make our own lamps.

In English lessons this week, we really enjoyed the book 'Super Daisy and the Peril of Planet Pea' by Kes Gray and Nick Sharrat. This inspired us to write about Daisy's amazing superpowers. We also enjoyed lots of other activities related to the story, including making peas out of playdough! Take a look at the photos and see for yourself!

Week Beginning 9th September 2024

Welcome to the Hedgehog Class webpage!

We've had a brilliant week exploring and learning in our new classroom. A few highlights include:

~ counting and sorting objects in Maths.

~ practising our number formation outside with chalk.

~ reading 'Here We Are: Notes for Living on Planet Earth' by Oliver Jeffers and writing about ourselves and the things we can do and see on our planet.

~ talking about all the different emotions we have and how we can represent them with colours.

It's been a busy week and we are definitely ready for a rest. Happy weekend!