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.