Welcome to Anaconda Class

Anaconda Class is a Key Stage 2 Autism Specific Class made up of 8 wonderful children.

Our teacher is Caroline and our teaching assistants are Claire, Helen and Nicola. 

Key days of the week to note: 

• Swimming  - Tuesday
• PE - Friday

Week Beginning 04/07/22 - Larry's Lanes

We had a lovely day out to visit Larry's Lanes at Seaton. We enjoyed a game of 10 pin bowling and lunch. We went on this day out to celebrate our 3 Year 6 children who will be leaving us in 2 weeks time, we will miss them greatly and wish them the best of luck in the future. 

A massive thank you to one of our class parents who very kindly gave us money to buy the children an ice-cream to round off what was truly a great day out! 

Week beginning 13/622 -24/6/22 - Maths

This time in Maths we have looked at positional language. The children can now understand basic positional language, they can can describe relative position such as 'behind' or 'next too' and they can follow instructions incorporating positional language. Take a look at the wonderful work your children has produced over this time. Great job Anacondas!

Week Beginning 6th June 2022 - Science

This term we have been exploring water. We looked at different sources of water; the children could identify sources such as waterfalls, lakes, rivers and the sea. The children had a great time having first hand experience of water at the local leisure centre and by playing in the paddling pool, with water guns and the hose pipe on the school yard. they went on a hunt around school to see if they could find any other sources of water - look at the results below. 

Week beginning 23/05/2022 - The Queen's Jubilee

It has been all things Jubilee in Anaconda class this week. We kicked off the celebrations with our class assembly. The children did a wonderful job acting out parts from the book, 'The Queen's Hat' and they read aloud some interesting facts about our Queen.

As you know Springwell took part in an amazing parade with Throston school. The children in Anacondas dressed as the Queen's beloved Corgi dogs and wore the masks they they made. We all had such a marvellous time enjoying all of the Jubilee activities.

We had an exciting lunch too! We all sat together outside eating a picnic and listening to the party music. It has been such a spectacular week!

5/5/2022 - 12/5/2022- English

Our new story in Anaconda class is 'Oi Frog', it is a very funny story about a cat and a frog. It has lots of rhyming words and has fast become one of our favourite stories we have read so far, and the work the children have produced demonstrates that.

Week beginning 25th April 2022-R.E

This week in Anaconda class have looked at Shabbat in R.E. The children listened to the Jewish creation story using lots of props and puppets, they really enjoyed joining in and acting it out. 

To appreciate the Shabbat celebrations the children made their own candlesticks and we baked our own version of Challah bread. We set the table and ate together to represent the family meal which is shared together during Shabbat.

It was a great way for the Anacondas to experience, identify and understand the elements of a Shabbat meal.

Week Beginning 4th April 2022 - History

This week we have concentrated on our History topic of household objects of the past. We looked at objects within class and talked about how they differ and then we completed an activity of sorting the objects between past and present. We then visited Preston Park Museum to experience an environment filled with objects of the past - we even found time to have a play on the park. 

Week Beginning 28/03/2022 - PHSE

This year in PHSE Anaconda class have covered a vast number of topics including;

• Know and understand simple rules
• Understanding that they belong to various groups and communities such as family and school
• Begin to know how to make simple choices that improve their health and well being
• Taking turns
• Consider the consequence of words and actions for themselves and others

The children have worked really hard and have produced some wonderful pieces of work, please enjoy some of it in the slideshow below.

Week Beginning 28th March 2022 - English

We have started reading a new story  - How to Catch a Star by Oliver Jeffers. The story is about a little boy who would like a star for a friend. We have begun exploring the story by decorating our own textured stars, identifying and writing key words from the book using our phonetic knowledge, role-playing the key parts and identifying images from the book .  

Week Beginning 14th March 2022 - Music

We are lucky to have Mike and Becky from Tees Valley Music Service teaching us music every week this half term. We enjoy singing together, keeping and copying rhythm and keeping a beat with the musical instruments. 

A Visit to Catcote

We visited Catcote School today, we explored the forest school area and enjoyed a drink and biscuit in the cafe. 

Week beginning 7th March 2022- Science

Anaconda class have had a very busy week looking at Science, particularly materials and their properties. We have looked closely at their similarities, differences, patterns and change. The children have looked at a selection of images of different types of houses and discussed whether or not any of the images look like their houses.

As a class we explored the exterior of school looking at the brick work, plaster work, windows and woodwork, together we took rubbings of the different textures.

Anacondas have also painted pictures of their houses, including features such as doors and windows. To end our week we went out on our school bus to look at some of the children's homes and took a picture outside. Did you spot us? 

Great Science work Anacondas! 

Week beginning 28th February 2022-World Book Day

We have had such a wonderful time celebrating World Book Day in Anaconda Class. We were given the book; Guess How Much I Love You to read, it is such a lovely story. The children have written and decorated hearts with the names of the people that they love inside. We have also baked heart shaped biscuits! Happy World Book Day everyone.

Week beginning 14th February 2022 - Geography

This week we have been looking at how useful telephones can be. We discussed how they can relay information and messages quickly and allow us to contact people easily. We made our own phones and role-played making a call, we went on a hunt around school to find the phones in school and we went for a little trip on the bus to see if we could still find any phone boxes in the community. There were more than you would imagine. 

Week Beginning 7th February 2022 - PE 

For the last couple of weeks we have been taking part in athletics activities within our PE lessons. We have looked at different ways of throwing and different ways of moving: jumping, hopping, walking, jogging and running. Over the next couple of weeks we will be looking at different ways of jumping. 

Week beginning 31st January 2022-Art

This week in Art we have looked at the sculpture work of the artist Marc Quinn- he makes sculptures from unusual materials. He once made a sculpture of a hand from bread. We made a sculpture of our hands from bread. Our Anacondas loved this and with a little bit of support from an adult they moulded the dough to look like a hand and used tools to add some extra details. Aren't they just fabulous?

Week beginning 24th January 2022- Computing

This week our Anacondas have worked hard during our Computing lessons. First we looked at some representations of emotions, the children looked at their faces in a mirror and made specific emotion faces.

In our second lesson the children were given an I-pad and were asked to select the camera app, using the camera independently they took photographs of each other showing different emotions. 

Lastly our very clever Anacondas, independently and with support, uploaded their pictures to a presentation and typed their names.

Week beginning 17th January 2022-Maths

In maths this week we have looked at doubling. The Anacondas have completed lots of different games and tasks to help them remember how to double. They can now recall double facts and double sets of objects practically. Way to go Anacondas!

Week beginning 4th January 2022-English

We have started a new story for Literacy in Anaconda class this week called, 'Whatever Next'. It's all about a baby bear that enjoys an imaginary trip to the moon in a rocket that he finds in his house. Our work this week is linked to our story, we have created a textured picture of a bear and his rocket and followed instructions to build our own paper rocket. Some of our Anacondas have written some of the key words that have appeared in the story, they did this independently by saying them before spelling them. Also, they have ordered images as they appeared in the story, they have created their own image from the story and ordered the sentences.  It has been a very busy week, our Anacondas have worked their little socks off to produce some beautiful work!

Happy New Year!

We hope you all have had a lovely time over the Christmas holidays. We are back and ready to work!

This half term in RE we are learning about what weddings look like across a variety of religions. This week we looked at Christian weddings. The children designed their own wedding invitation and made their own wedding ring. After watching various videos about weddings we decided to role-play a Christian wedding. Our Anacondas all had a specific role to play in the wedding and got dressed up accordingly. It was so much fun! At the end they all signed the wedding certificate and threw rice over the happy couple as they walked up the aisle.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Anacondas have had a very busy run up to Christmas this year. We have created beautiful cards, lovely calendars and a great Christmas wreath!

We have been very lucky to have a pantomime come into school to perform Little Red Riding Hood for us. It was so much fun, Anacondas had such a great time laughing, singing and dancing along to the show.

Our Christmas performance this year was, 'Bethlehem's Got Talent'. Anacondas delivered an outstanding performance to the song, 'I want a hippopotamus for Christmas', we had so much fun taking part.

Springwell's Nativity performance was held in school this year and some of our Anacondas had important roles in the story. They all did an outstanding job as did all the other children.

Lastly was our Christmas disco and what a disco it was! Dancing, games, delicious goodies to eat and finished off with the conga. We had a blast!

Thank you all so much for your continued support. Have an amazing Christmas and we will see you all in the new year!

Caroline, Claire, Helen & Nicola

Week beginning 8th December 2021- R.E

This week in R.E our Anaconda's have looked at Diwali-the festival of light. We have read the story of Rama and Sita which teaches the concept of good triumphing over evil. We have listened to and enjoyed the music which is traditionally played during Diwali. Rangoli pictures are created during Diwali, they are often made using brightly coloured sand or spices. In class we coloured our Rangoli using felt pens. They look wonderful!

Bonfire Night

This week in History Anaconda's have  learnt all about Guy Fawkes and his failed mission to blow up the Houses of Parliament with King James I inside. We talked about the tradition of watching a bonfire and a firework display whilst eating delicious hotdogs, we decided that it was just too good not to do ourselves so we had our own 'bonfire' and 'fireworks' event in class. The hotdogs were a scrumptious treat too! Our lovely Anaconda's are also wonderful artists! They produced some great pictures of fireworks and a bonfire.

Halloween 2021

Anaconda class had so much fun celebrating Halloween this year.  We enjoyed visiting all the classes in school trick or treating getting lots of delicious goodies!

Week beginning 11/10/21

In Science Anaconda's have been looking at light and colour. We investigated and looked at various laminated pieces of coloured cellophane to see how our environment changed with each colour. Next, our children made their own glasses, each choosing their favourite colour cellophane to use for the lenses. 

Also in Science this week we have experimented with changing shades of coloured paint by adding either black or white paint to them.

Week Beginning 04/10/21 

Cookery 

This week in Cookery we made Pink Pancakes. We made the pancakes pink in colour by blitzing strawberries and adding them to the batter mix. It was a mixed response to the pancakes - some children were keen and others really didn't like them, stating "bad food"! 

PAT Dog

We were visited by Maisie this week, we all enjoyed brushing her fur and stroking her. 

Week Beginning: 27/09/21

PE

This week in PE we explored different sizes and shapes of balls. We passed them to each other, threw them to each other and bounced them on the floor. 

Week beginning 20/9/2021

Geography

This week in Geography Anaconda Class have been looking at the features in our local environment. We were lucky enough to visit our local park, and using the photographs which were taken previously, the children mapped the positions of everything in the playground.

This weeks Anaconda star of the week is...

Luke Jordan

Week beginning 13/09/2021  

Design & Technology

This week in Design and Technology, Anaconda class have been learning how to manipulate materials to achieve different effects. We used lots of different coloured tissue paper and card templates to create our beautiful weather silhouettes. 

This weeks Anaconda star of the week is...

Kofi Kilvington

Week beginning 7th September 2021

What a first week in Anaconda Class we've had! We've settled in nicely and we've even celebrated Denim's birthday - Happy birthday Denim. We even found time to do a little work - great number work from everyone. Excellent numeral recognition and accurate counting.

This weeks Anaconda star of the week is...

Blossom Collinson