It all started in summer 2024. We had 10 stick insect eggs. Stick insects take 2-3 months to hatch. Of those 2 survived to adults which is 6 months old. Once they get to 6 months old they start laying eggs. We found out the they can lay up to 100 eggs! Fast forward to summer 2025 and we had 80 baby stick insects. We have learnt a lot along the way and we have had to get a bigger tank for them to live in. They are now thriving and we've lost count of how many we have. See how many you can spot in the pictures. Make sure you have a look next time you are in school. 

This week in Little Foresters we have been focusing on retelling stories and adding actions. Our focus story at the moment is Rapunzel. The children put on their magic storytelling cloaks that gave them magic story voices. The children then thought of actions to match certain words in the story. They all did a fantastic job and were great storytellers. 

Year 2 and 3 Weekly Learning Round-Up!

What a fantastic week it's been in Years 2 and 3! The children have been full of enthusiasm and curiosity as they've explored a wide range of topics across the curriculum. Here's a look at what we've been up to:

English

We've started our brand-new unit on non-chronological reports. The children have enjoyed retelling information, finding key features of reports, and exploring how to make their writing more interesting using coordinating and subordinating conjunctions (for example, and, but, because, when). It's been wonderful to see them becoming more confident and creative writers!

 Maths

In maths, we've been building on our understanding of addition and subtraction. Using base 10 equipment, the children have been adding and subtracting ones, helping them to see how numbers are made up and how we can manipulate them. Lots of hands-on practice and problem-solving this week!

 History

Our journey through Ancient Egypt has taken an exciting turn as we discovered the fascinating process of mummification. The children were captivated by learning why and how the Ancient Egyptians mummified people - a perfect blend of curiosity and a few giggles!

 PE

In PE, we've been developing our netball skills, focusing on shooting techniques and key game skills like passing, spacing, and teamwork. The children are becoming much more confident on the court!

 RE

Our focus in Religious Education has been how Jewish people belong to their faith. We've discussed traditions, celebrations, and what belonging means in different communities - thoughtful and respectful conversations all around.

 French

Bonjour! We've been learning all about France and the French language. The children have been exploring greetings, simple words and phrases, and learning a little about French culture. They're already saying bonjour and au revoir with confidence!

 Science

We've been assessing our knowledge in our 'Animals Including Humans' topic. The children have shown a fantastic understanding of body parts, life cycles, and how humans and animals grow and change.

Special Event: Skipping Workshop!

Friday brought a burst of energy with an exciting skipping workshop! The children had great fun learning new skipping tricks and working together to keep those ropes moving - a brilliant way to combine fitness and fun.

 Reading

Throughout the week, we've been focusing on reading fluency - helping children to read more smoothly, accurately, and quickly. They've been working hard on understanding and answering questions about the texts they read, showing real progress in comprehension.

It's been a busy and rewarding week full of learning, laughter, and new discoveries. We're so proud of how hard the children are working and can't wait to see what next week brings!

Duckpool authors...

and mathematicians...

The children have made an excellent start to Year 2.
They have been really enjoying our big question - 'What happened in the Great Fire of London?'.
We have been learning all about he events that took place and thinking about why things happened as they did.
We have sequenced events and compared fire fighting methods, houses and London itself.

In Literacy we have been continuing with our 'Curious Quests' which has involved writing diaries, writing instructions and stories.
Maths has been mainly about place value, ensuring that we are confident with what the different digits represent, ordering and comparing numbers and many other key skills.

In Art, we have been creating collages with flames and Tudor houses. We also created some fabulous boat paintings for the Honey Fair.
In Music we have been singing chants, rhymes and songs and we also learned to sing in a round.

Science has been all about materials. We've had great fun making bridges and testing their strength, also testing the elasticity of different materials and finding out which material is the most waterproof.

Storytellers enjoyed listening to the traditional tale The Little Red Hen. The children talked about why the hen's friends wouldn't help her and whether it was kind for them to expect to eat her bread after doing none of the hard work! This sparked some lovely discussions about kindness, teamwork, and helping others.

 After the story, the children had the chance to become little bakers themselves! They helped weigh the ingredients and took turns kneading the dough, noticing how its texture changed as they worked. The room soon filled with the wonderful smell of baking, and the best part of all was tasting their very own freshly baked loaf - warm, golden, and absolutely delicious!

 We were also very grateful to get all our ingredients from our fantastic Village Shop, helping the children understand where food comes from and how our local community supports us.

 This activity was not only great fun but also a wonderful learning experience. Listening to and discussing the story supported the children's understanding of morals and empathy, while baking helped them develop early maths and science skills through weighing, measuring, and observing changes. Working together encouraged sharing and cooperation, and the sensory experience of kneading dough built fine motor skills - all while giving them a real sense of pride and achievement in what they'd made. 

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Blisland Primary Harvest Celebration

Last week, Blisland Primary came together to celebrate one of the most special times of the year - Harvest. It was a wonderful opportunity for our pupils to reflect on where our food comes from, the importance of farming in Cornwall, and the value of sharing what we have with others.

Our Harvest Assembly was held in the beautiful Blisland Church, and it was a truly heartwarming occasion. The children sang a collection of traditional and modern harvest songs with great enthusiasm, filling the church with joyful voices. They also shared poetry they had written themselves, celebrating the changing seasons, the hard work of farmers, and the beauty of the Cornish countryside. 

Parents, carers, and members of the community joined us for the event, creating a warm and supportive atmosphere that captured the spirit of the season perfectly. A highlight of the celebration was our harvest auction. The children helped to present beautifully arranged vegetable boxes filled with locally grown produce. These were auctioned off at the end of the assembly, raising over £80 for the Wadebridge Food Bank. We are so proud of our pupils for their enthusiasm and for understanding the importance of helping those in need. We were completely overwhelmed by the generosity of the local community. The donations for the food bank were incredible - from tins and pasta to fresh vegetables and toiletries. It was inspiring to see how everyone came together to make a difference. We want to extend our sincere thanks to all who donated, supported, or attended our Harvest event.

Throughout the week, pupils also learned about harvest traditions in Cornwall and explored how farming continues to play a vital role in our local economy and way of life. From understanding how crops are grown to learning about sustainable farming, the children developed a deeper appreciation for the people and processes that keep our communities fed. Our Harvest celebrations truly showed the strength of the Blisland community - full of kindness, gratitude, and togetherness. Thank you to everyone who helped make it such a memorable week.

We have been continuing with our enquiry question "How do I know it is autumn?".
The children have been very busy this week making orange bird feeders to take home and hang in gardens and have enjoyed collecting leaves to make an autumn bookmark.
The children have been learning about hibernation and so we made clay hedgehogs and put them in their little house to have a sleep before they went home.

Today (Friday) we have enjoyed going onto the field and into the school garden where as part of phonics we read the story of "Goldilocks and the Three Bears". The children were encouraged to copy and make movements from the story and to move in different ways. We enjoyed a snack of porridge just like Goldilocks and the children answered questions from the story.
Also in phonics this week we have been exploring different words that rhyme when mixing them in a bowl in a game of "Lumpy, Bumpy Porridge", exploring sounds that we can make using our voices and have played a game of "Goldilocks, please be quiet" where the children had to listen and recognise familiar sounds they heard.

In maths we have been ordering numbers and identifying numbers that we see in our environment both indoors and out.

Just a reminder that it is INSET next Friday (24th) and then half term week.

Have a great weekend

Julie and Sarah

Harvest is one of our favourite times of the year in school.  It celebrates all of our values in so many ways.  We have been collecting food to donate to the Liskeard Food Bank which also serves Looe and we have worked hard to understand all of the reasons why we do this, From history, to music, to thinking about others, to showing kindness to those who may need help more than we do and learning to share with others when we have enough.

To celebrate this year, we invited parents to two assemblies, Key Stage 1 in the morning and Key stage 2 in the afternoon.  Each class had prepared songs, poems, prayers and art to share with their parents.  We were so pleased that so many parents were able to join us.
We were also thrilled with the donations of food that we received.  The photo is of the volunteers from the Liskeard Food Bank who came to take the food back to their storage facility.  As you can see, their van is rather full of produce!

Harvest is colourful, vibrant , thoughtful, kind and helpful with so many other wonderful qualities to share the positive things in life when we all work together and to give thanks for the food that we eat and the people who grow and make it for us.  Thank you to all those families who donated so generously.

Summer Reading Challenge
Today we were joined by Christine from Callington Library, who presented certificates to all those children who completed the summer reading challenge. Well done to all the participants.

Cross Country
At our weekly celebration assembly last Friday, I challenged the cross county runners, who were gearing up for their first race, to see if we could secure a top ten finish. Abi Flashman reported that all those who competed in the Great Trethew race did incredibly well but gave a special mention to Jacob Bloye who finished 4th. Next time, I shall challenge someone to win a race and see if this works again! Well done to all the runners and thank you to the parent carers for taking their children.

Morning Maths
Thank you to all those who attended our morning maths sessions this week. We hope this gave you a little insight into the work we do across the school at the start of the day. I'm sure your children enjoyed showing you what they do. I have had a lot of positive feedback so we will look for further opportunities for you to experience your children's learning in the future.

Art Exhibition
Just a reminder to join us for an exhibition of your children's art work on Wednesday 22nd October at 3.20pm in classes. If you have children in multiple classes, please visit each room.

Training Day and Half Term
Just a reminder that Friday 24th October is a staff training day so the school is closed to pupils. This will mean an early start to the half term holidays for the children!

Charity Haircut
Sophia Vinson is currently growing her hair to have it cut in aid of the Little Princess Trust. For further information and to find out how you can support Sophia, please see her poster below:

us.

Wow! What a busy start we have had to the first part of our Autumn term. 

Settling:
The children have all settled in so well and have been adapting/learning our routines. It has been lovely for us to see the children starting to form relationships with their peers.

Reading:
The key texts we will be reading this half term are Owl babies
The Worry Monster
The Nutty Nut Chase
The Squirrels who squabbled
The Lion inside
Little Acorn
The Koala that could
It would be lovely too see photos of the children reading/sharing a book with you at home too.

Maths:
Our maths focus points are:
Touch counting 1-5
Finger counting
Number names 0-5
Number rhymes
It has been great to see the children using their fingers to represent numbers and count with.

Art Focus
This half term our art focus is to join different materials and explore different textures - ripping and sticking. Using glue sticks. Inspirational Artist: Ted Harrison. So far the children have enjoyed decorating their own autumnal shapes by ripping tissue paper nd sticking with glue.

Music:
We have loved our Friday music sessions with Mrs Butlin! We have been busy learning the songs ready for harvest festival at the church next week. 

Gross/fine motor skills - phsyical activity:
The children have been developing these skills in many different ways. On Mondays they have been having fun during kixx sessions with Coach James! On Wednesdays we have been balancing, throwing, catching and turn taking during our PE sessions in the hall. We have also been devloping our hand muscles by painting, making clay hedehogs, digging in the sand and building with the magnetic shapes.

Thank you for your continued support and check back soon to find out what else we have been up to!...

This week in pre-school we were all about Harvest time!

The children enjoyed our Harvest themed role play table, with lots of enthusiastic farmers collecting crops and vegetables from the fields.

We watched some clips of live action combine harvesters working in the fields, and what different foods we harvest.  We also saw a family visit a working mill and how they turned their farms wheat into flour. We have talked about why we go to church to celebrate the Harvest festival, and why we are thankful at this time of year to all our hardworking farmers. 

The children did so well on Wednesday joining the whole school for Reverand Richards Harvest Service in the church.  They had practiced 'Big Red Combine Harvester' and the actions to perform alongside Lantic class. A big well done.

We enjoyed some seasonal baking in pre-school this week, with Mrs Carr bringing in some apples we decided to bake some delicious apple and cinnamon cakes.  The children have helped to weigh, stir and scoop the mixture - not forgetting practicing their chopping skills preparing the apple pieces.  Pre-school smelt very autumnal as they baked in the oven and the children said they were very yummy.

For art this week the children have been helping us to paint lots of different fruits and vegetables for our big healthy eating display.  This has been a good way of talking about all the names of the fruits and vegetables that we know, and the children learning some names of ones they do not know.

With the weather being dry we have enjoyed having our outside autumn discovery table with all our autumn treasures, and a new addition is our mud kitchen role play area.  The children have been making acorn cakes and stick stew with all the natural resources.  It has allowed us to observe some great language skills and imaginative play.

We will be finishing off our 'Who am I?' enquiry question next week, and then our final week before half term we will look at the celebrations of Diwali and Halloween.

A reminder that Friday 24^th October is an Inset Day.

The Pre-School Team.