Welcome to Zebra Class!

Week Beginning 6th July 2020

Hello everyone!

Hope you are all well. This week I would like you to listen to the story 'Oliver's Milkshake' and have a go at making your own milkshakes with your parents/carers. Think about each step and what you need to make a milkshake. You could even have a go at writing a set of instructions on how you made your milkshake. 

Have fun and enjoy!

Aimee, Louise, Amanda, Mel and Cheryl.

Week Beginning 29th June 2020

Hello Zebras! 

I hope that you are all well and keeping safe! This week we are going to concentrate on keeping fit and active. 

We are going to be doing this in school this week so I hope you can join in and participate with our 'Virtual Home Sports Day'. I will attach the pack below for you to access. The pack contains event information and some additional Olympic based challenges designed to create a fun day. 

Any photos or videos you may have please send them to   fsc.springwell@school.hartlepool.gov.uk for Dani to put them on facebook. A certificate will then be sent via facebok for participation. 

Have fun and take care,

Aimee, Louise, Amanda, Mel and Cheryl. 

Week beginning 22nd June 2020

Hi Zebras! Hope everyone is keeping well! 

This week our story is 'Oliver's Fruit salad'. Please could you listen to the story and have a go at some of the related activities about fruits. 

• What is your favourite fruit? Draw your favourite fruit and colour it in.
• Make your own fruit salad with parents/carers. 
• Put fruit in size order (smallest to biggest).
• Complete attached activities below.

Week beginning 15th June 2020

Hi Zebras! To follow on from last weeks story 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears', this week I would like you to listen to an alternative version called 'Eat Your Greens Goldilocks' and complete the attached activities. 

                                 Week Beginning 8th June 2020

Hi Zebras! Hope everyone is well and staying safe! 

This week our story is 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears.' I would like you to listen to the story and complete some of the home challenges attached below. 

Have fun with these activities and I look forward to seeing some photos of what you have been doing. 

Take care,

Aimee 

Week beginning 1st June 2020

Hello Zebras! I hope you all had a fun half term holiday and enjoyed the sunshine. This week for English I would like you to listen to the story 'Supertato' and for Maths to work on 2D shapes. 

2D shapes- Can you name all of the shapes in the video below? How many sides and corners have the shapes got? Are the sides straight or curved? Which shape has the most sides? 

Next, I would like you to go on a shape hunt around your house and in your garden and count how many different shapes you can find. Can you spot a circle, a square, a rectangle, a triangle, a diamond and an oval? 

You could even have a go at making some of the shapes from different materials e.g. lolly sticks, string etc. 

Our story this week is 'Supertato'. Firstly, listen to the story and complete some of the suggested activities attached below. 

Have fun and keep smiling!

Love Aimee, Louise, Amanda, Mel and Cheryl.

Week beginning 25th May 2020

Happy Half Term 

I hope you are all well and staying safe. This week I would just like you to have some fun with your parents and family. Don't forget to keep active and exercise when you can. 

I hope you have lots of fun and hope to see you all soon. We are all missing you very much. 

Take care Zebras!

Love Aimee and Zebra class staff.

Week Beginning 18th May 2020

Hello Zebras! I hope you have all had a lovely weekend. 

This week I would like you to listen to the story of 'Oliver's Fruit Salad' on youtube and complete the related activities. 

• Make your own fruit salad or fruit kebabs.
• Create a picture using different pieces of fruit (example below). 
• Complete the fruit salad addition sheet.
• Listen to and join in with songs about fruit. 
• Keep active and join in with Betsy the Banana yoga.

Have fun with the activities and don't forget if you would like to share any photos of your fruit salads you make or your pictures/work to email them to  admin.springwell@school.hartlepool.gov.uk 

Aimee, Louise, Amanda, Mel & Cheryl. 

                                Week beginning 11th May 2020

Hello Zebras, I hope that you are all well and enjoyed your VE Day celebrations at the weekend. 

This week the story to focus on is 'The Tiger Who Came to Tea.' (One of Tilly's favourites.) 

Watch the following clip and complete the following activities if you wish. Resources are uploaded below to help. 

• Design a teapot using lots of different colours and materials if you have any at home. 
• Design a 'Come to Tea' invitation. Remember to include who it is for, where the party will be at, the date and time of party and what food/drink they could bring to the party. 
• Make a shopping list for all of the food/drink you would like at a tea party. 
• Set  a table for a meal in your house ( with help from your parents/carers). Remember to set out a plate for everyone in your family and remember they all need a knife, fork and cup to drink from. 
• Make a tiger from a paper plate.

Stay safe Zebras! 

Love from Aimee and staff!

Week beginning 4th May 2020

We hope you are all well and staying safe at home. 

This week is a special week as we are celebrating VE day which is Victory in Europe Day. It celebrates the day the Second World War ended in 1945. This week the task is to learn about celebrations, you could even have your own garden party to celebrate VE Day on Friday 8th May 2020.

Here are some activities to help you celebrate at home.

• Find out why we celebrate VE Day and make a poster.
• Make an invitation to your picnic or tea party.
• Decorate your house/garden with Union Jack flags or bunting.
• Help to make some sandwiches and cakes/ party food. 
• Design and make a medal for a hero of yours.
• Listen to and learn a wartime song from 1945. 
• Play some party games together e.g. pass the parcel, musical bumps. 
• Sing some party action songs together e.g. Hokey Cokey, Music Man. Don't forget to try and join in with the actions! 
• You could even wear red, white and blue clothes.

Have fun Zebras! Hope to see you all soon! Love from Aimee, Louise, Amanda, Cheryl and Mel. 

Week beginning 27th April 2020

Hello Zebras, I hope you are all well and enjoying the sunshine! 

Our story this week is called 'Chicken Licken' - link below. 

Suggested activities: 

• Support your child to identify the different animals in the story. Encourage your child to make the animal noises (Chicken Licken cheeps, Turkey Lurkey gobbles and Henny Penny clucks etc). 
• Discuss how each animal moves. For example, the fox slowly prowls around, the chicken waddles and flaps its wings. Experiment with moving around your house like each of the animals in the story. 
• Chicken Licken believes the sky is falling down and tells lot of other birds. Can you see any birds outside in your garden? What kind of birds can you see? Count the birds and write down how many you can see. 
• Research some facts about different birds - what interesting things have you found out? 
• You could even have a go at making your own bird feeder to put out in the garden!  - Instructions and what you will need is set out below.
• Chicken Licken challenge -> Work together with your parents/ carers and have a go at the Chicken Licken word search below. How many of the words can you find? 

Take care and enjoy completing the activities. Look forward to seeing you all soon! Aimee, Louise, Amanda, Mel & Cheryl. 

Week beginning 20th April 2020

Hello my lovely Zebras! I hope you have all had a lovely Easter and got lots of eggs from the Easter bunny. 

To keep active this week, I would like you to join in with our 'Wake up, Shake up' dance. 
__PRESENT

Listen to the story 'The Gingerbread Man' and complete the suggested activities:

• Support your child to identify the different animals the Gingerbread Man meets in the story. Discuss how they move and what noises they make. 
• Have a go at drawing your own gingerbread man and colour/mark make in the shape. You could also try and draw the different animals he meets (cow, horse, pigs, hen and fox). 
• Follow this simple recipe and make your own gingerbread man and decorate -  https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/gingerbread-men-0 
•  

__PRESENT__PRESENT

Happy Easter Holidays!

I hope you are all keeping well. Here are some Easter related activities you can do with your child at home if you wish. 

• Find out about Easter. Why is it celebrated? Watch the story of Easter together by using the following link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wnbo2AmS3OI 
• Decorate hard boiled eggs with whatever craft materials you have at home. 
• Create an Easter card and give it to someone you care about.
• Design an Easter egg pattern - talk about shapes, colours and repeating patterns. 
• Enjoy singing some Easter songs by clicking on the songs below. 

Week beginning 30th March 2020

I hope you are all well and enjoying the break.

You may have seen the rainbow pictures in people's windows over the last few days. If possible could you create a brightly, coloured rainbow for your own window. You can use coloured pencils. felt tips, crayons, paints, glitter, tissue paper, or anything you have in your house to create your rainbow picture. Once you have finished could you please take a photo of your rainbow and send it to postcards@springwellschool.co.uk

I can't wait to see them!

Here are some more 'rainbow' themed activities for you to complete this week. 

Have fun and take care, Zebra staff! 

Your first task is to listen to and join in with the 'I can sing a rainbow' song and try to copy the Makaton signs. 

Your next task is to listen to 'The Rainbow Fish' story and draw your own rainbow fish. 

Your final task and to keep active this week is to join in with the Go Noodle 'Awesome Rainbows' dance. 

Parents/carers please join in with your child and have fun together!

Week beginning 23rd March 2020

Good morning Zebras and parents/carers.

I hope everyone has had a safe and enjoyable weekend!

Each week different activities will be posted for you to try with your child at home if you wish. 

Firstly, here are some songs that the children join in with daily at school- 7 days of the week song and our weather song!

This term we have been learning about Dinosaurs. 

It would be great if you could listen to the 'Tyrannosaurus Drip' story by Julia Donaldson (link below) and complete some of the suggested activities:

• Design your own dinosaur by drawing and colouring.  How many legs does it have? How many sharp teeth does it have? How many horns does it have? How many claws does it have? Does it have wings?  Is it spiky? Does it have feathers? Is it fast or slow? What does it eat? - plant eaters (herbivores) & meat eaters (carnivores). 
• Number activities - count the following features on the dinosaur you have created (legs, teeth, claws, horns, tail, spikes, feathers, bumps).
• Encourage your child to 'roar' like a dinosaur and experiment moving around like a dinosaur in the garden  (big stomps, small stomps, flapping arms pretending to fly). 

Take care and have fun with these activities! 

Aimee and Zebra staff

Our teachers are Aimee Doughty and Louise Hargreaves.

Our teaching assistants are Amanda, Mel and Cheryl.

Zebra class is a class of 8 children with a variety of learning difficulties.

On our class page you will find information about what we are learning in class and the many exciting events that are coming up throughout the year. We will also use this page to share photographs and videos of your child's learning and any other special activities that occur within our class.

Important Dates

Mondays - Hydrotherapy

Tuesdays - Swimming

Wednesdays - Rebound

Fridays - P.E

Break up - Friday 3rd April

Return to school - Monday 20th April

Zebra Class Assembly - DINOSAURS! 18th March 2020

We had lots of fun showing the school what we had learnt about dinosaurs today. We dressed up as different types of dinosaurs and showed the children our work and special dinosaur stomp dance. 

We had very loud voices and everyone had fun joining in with our song.

To celebrate the arrival of Spring, Zebra class have been busy planting some new flowers for our outdoor area. We filled the pots up with soil and took it in turns to place each plant in the pot. We made sure they had plenty of water and sunshine to grow!

World Book Day - 5th March 2020.

Zebra class really pulled out all of the stops for World book Day. We had a batman, Peter rabbit, a stegosaurus, Where's Wally, Newt Scamander and not one, but TWO Anna's!

We all shared our favourite book with the rest of our classmates to add to the  schools' grand total of books read! We are hoping to get to 100! 

Science - Frozen dinosaur eggs -  13/02/20

We decided to make some dinosaur eggs of our own. We filled up a balloon with water and food colouring and popped a special 'baby dinosaur' inside. We talked about how they felt 'squidgy' and 'soft.'

We put them in the freezer and left them overnight. We couldn't believe what had happened to them! When we touched them, they felt 'hard,' 'cold' and 'wet.'

We then pretended we were a Palaeontologist and all chipped away to get our dinosaurs out of the ice. We really enjoyed this and all compared the different species that we had hatched!

Tees-Saurus Park - 11/02/20

Today Zebra class went on the hunt for dinosaurs. We hunted high and low, climbed hills and jumped over puddles to find them. We saw a T-Rex, Stegosaurus, Triceratops and Diplodocus! We fed them grass, felt their big tusks and roared like a T-Rex!

Investigating fish! - 06.02.20

After reading the story of 'The Rainbow fish,' Sam from Toucan Class visited our class with different types of sea creatures.

We held cod eyes, dissected a mackerel and looked at 'Crusty' the crab. We talked about the different parts of the creatures including head, fins and scales.

The children were so brave and we even cooked and tasted swordfish. It was yummy! 

Amanda made sure Crusty went back to his friends and took him back to the seaside.

Maths - Capacity

Today Zebra class investigated capacity in the water tray. We transferred green water from one container to another and talked about them being 'full,' 'half full' and 'empty.'

We worked together to show how we can transfer liquids and how it changes the capacity of the container.

It's Hatching!!!! - 29/01/2020

Just to update you all. Our dinosaur has started to break out from it's shell!

Can you guess which species it is going to be???

A special find in the Zebra Classroom!

Today we discovered an egg in our class mini dinosaur land!

We talked about how it felt and looked and also what we thought may be inside it.

Some of us thought a Stegosaurus would be inside and some thought a Tyrannosaurus would hatch from it. 

We cant wait to see our new addition to the classroom!

Cheesy Dinosaur Volcanoes (23/01/2020)

To continue with our Dinosaur topic, we made cheesy dinosaur volcanoes.

We all took turns, measured out the ingredients and used all of the utensils to make our tasty volcanoes.

We hope you agree that they taste dino-licious! 

SEND inclusive sports event ( 17th January 2020)

Today Zebra class went to the Seaton sports domes to join other schools in the area.

We all participated in sports including hockey, football, golf, volleyball and running. We all loved playing as a team and celebrating each others victories!

Dinosaur Display ( 22nd January 2020)

As part of our Old and New topic on Dinosaurs, we decided to display our Art and Literacy work for all to see. We looked closely at dinosaurs to describe them and decorated a stegosaurus as a team, using our fine motor skills. We discovered some amazing facts too. Did you know that some Tyrannosaurus Rex may have had feathers? 

A visit from the production team of Beauty and the Beast 

Today, characters from the local panto visited us for a very special performance of Beauty and the Beast. There were lots of 'boos' and 'hisses' as well as cheers in the audience. We loved it!

Christmas Nativity 2019

We all went along to St Hilda's church to perform our annual Christmas Nativity. Some of us were proud Kings and some of us were beautiful singers in the choir. It was lovely to watch and listen to, we hope you enjoyed it too.

A fantastic Christmas performance from Zebra class!

We were very proud of our wonderful performers today. They sang beautifully and were fantastic at remembering the actions. We hope you enjoyed it too. Didn't they look fantastic!?

Christmas Jumper Day!  (13/12/19)

Today Zebra Class came into school in Christmas jumpers. Don't you think we all look fantastic?

D.T - Making Christmas Pudding crispy cakes (6.12.19)

We thoroughly enjoyed measuring out, mixing and decorating our Christmas puds today. They tasted as good as the looked!

Reindeer Rocks (5.12.19)

We used our rocks and shells that we collected from the seaside to make our fun 'rock 'n' roll' reindeer! 

It's Christmas in the Zebra Classroom!  (4/12/19)

Today, we decided to put the Christmas tree up in our classroom. We chose different coloured baubles and placed them apart to make the tree look really pretty.

A trip to Seaton Beach (3.12.19)

Today Zebra class visited Seaton Carew as part of our 'Home and Away- Seaside' topic.

We looked at the different features of the beach and compared them to when we went to the Headland. We saw some new colourful beach huts, a play area and a golf area. We enjoyed taking turns on the swings, slide and climbing equipment.

Zebra class love the outdoors, especially the Seaside!

Reading Cafe (27.11.19)

Thank you to the parents who participated in our reading cafe with their children today. We enjoyed reading the story 'Little Red Riding Hood' and taking part in themed activities. Everyone loved tasting Grannies cookies!

Children In Need 2019 (15.011.2019)

Today Zebra class really enjoyed celebrating Pudsey day. We started off the day with some Pudsey exercises and finished making our own Pudseys.

We all enjoyed dressing in spots and pyjamas and raised lots of money too.!

Cinema visit (13.11.19)

Zebra class thoroughly enjoyed watching Angry Birds 2 at the cinema today. We were all so well behaved and enjoyed laughing along with the rest of the audience!

Museum visit (12.11.19)

As part of our home and away, seaside topic, today we visited the Royal Navy Museum.

We listened to the different varieties of birds and matched them up with their sounds.

We all chose costumes to wear whilst role playing, 'at the beach now and then.'   

We discovered lots about the lighthouse and really enjoyed watching how bright the light was!

We had fun playing on the boat and listening to a story in the reading area. We recalled items that we had seen when we visited the beach and pointed them out whilst we were there.   

Tuesday 15th October 2019 - Washington Wetlands Centre.

Zebra class really enjoyed their visit to the Wetlands centre today!

We learnt all about habitats of different mammals, birds and plants.

We were very good at listening carefully, learning interesting facts about flamingos and otters. We were even able to feel different textures of their feathers, fur and skin. Some children were brave enough to feel a similar texture of skin to a crocodile!!!

We saw and heard lots of different types of birds and really enjoyed smelling the different plants, especially the lavender!

We finished off the day in the outdoor play area where we took it in turns on the slide and swings.

We had so much fun and hope you enjoy the photographs!

Tuesday 8th October - A visit to the beach.

As part of our home and away topic, today Zebra class visited the historic Headland on the hunt for some treasures on the beach.

We found lots of different shaped and coloured shells, built smooth sandcastles and felt the slimy seaweed. We really enjoyed listening to the sounds of the waves crashing and the noisy seagulls overhead. We even managed to get a bit of sunshine too!

Making Cakes!

After reading the story ‘The Three Little Pigs’ we looked carefully at a picture of a pigs face. We looked at the colour, the shape and how many eyes a pig has. We then went to the cookery room and made our own fairy cakes and decorated them like a pig. We used pink icing for the face, icing pens to draw on a mouth, edible googly eyes and marshmallows for the nose.

Don't you think they look fantastic!!

Friday 20th September - Design Technology - Making our own gingerbread houses

After enjoying our role play with the gingerbread house in the story of Hansel and Gretel, we decided to make some mini gingerbread houses of our own!

We used our motor skills to mix and roll out the dough and used our communication skills to take it in turns and help each other.

We used our senses to describe the taste, smell and textures of the ingredients we used.

When they had cooked and cooled, we all chose our favourite coloured icing and sweets to make them look as delicious and inviting as the wicked witches house in the story.

We hope you enjoyed them too!

Thursday 19th September - Literacy role play.

Today, as part of our literacy topic, we were all involved in acting out the story of Hansel and Gretel. We listened to the story and then each chose the roles of the main characters, using phrases and actions to show what we remembered. We all had so much fun and really enjoyed pretending to eat sweets from the gingerbread house! 

Wednesday 18th September - Special visitors.

Today the fire brigade visited our school and Zebra class were lucky enough to sit in the fire engine. We tried the fire hats on and even had a go at firing the water hose onto our school field.

We all loved the firefighters visiting and hearing the different noises of the sirens and the loud horn. 

Tuesday 17th September - A trip to the allotments.

Today we visited the allotments to see how vegetables are grown and harvested. We pulled leeks and onions from the ground, dug in the mud and picked some beautiful juicy tomatoes and raspberries.

We all really enjoyed describing the smells, textures and tastes of the fruit and vegetables, and even got to bring some back to school!

Tuesday 10th September - Oliver's Vegetables!

In preparation for reading 'Oliver's Vegetables,' we walked together to the supermarket with a shopping list.

By taking it in turns to find ingredients in the supermarket to add to our basket, we talked about the colours, smells and textures of the vegetables. The children were fantastic at helping each other and working as a team.

We came back to school with a very full bag and can't wait to see what we are going to do with them next!

Monday 9th September - Making Zebra footprints!

To celebrate joining Zebra class, today we all had our feet painted to make our own special zebra footprints. We stuck on googly eyes and also decided to draw around our hands to make some special brightly coloured birds. 

We think they make our classroom look great!

Friday 6th September - Sharing a story!

We really enjoy reading in our new class, especially with our new friends!

We all took it in turns to chose a book and shared our favourite parts of the story by using different communication methods. We have particularly been enjoying listening to the story of Hansel and Gretel.