The Explorers

Our Explorer area is home to Nursery, Reception, Year 1 and 2.

We have a lovely big classroom, with areas for creative & messy play, art, craft, dressing up, small world, construction, structured work and lots more.

We are very proud of our classroom environment including our wonderful EYFS outside learning area, where we have our climbing frame, bikes, scooters, wheelie bugs and trikes - we love keeping active.

This year we are excited to have our new mud kitchen, where we have fun making and serving our muddy creations to our friends. We like to use our imagination in play.

We also have a sensory pod and tent with fibre optic lighting. We use these areas for quiet reading and relaxation.

We can be flexible with Nursery hours and can work the hours your child attends around your working day. Some children attend 5 mornings, others 5 afternoons, whilst some families choose 2 and 1/2 days.

For information about applying for 30 hours free entitlement, please enquire via the school office for details.

Have a look at what The Explorers Class have been up to this year, so far…

In our science lessons we have been learning all about the different body parts.

The children worked together to label one of their friends outline.

Great job Explorers.

What a colourful firework picture!

above: We love it when the older children come through and help us in class. On Friday, after listening to PCSO Sarah Blacow all about staying safe on Bonfire night, we made our own sparklers and firework pictures…

There is nothing better than a toasted marshmallow on a chilly Autumnal day in the forest…

below: The children loved chopping, pressing and squeezing their apples. Of course they also enjoyed drinking the delicious apple juice too…

above: celebrating St Cuthbert:

We love learning all about our school saint, as a class we made a giant ‘Cuthbert cross’ out of our own individual crosses.

Above: fun in the water

Our topic this half term is ‘Childhood’.

Our lovely new teacher brought her baby into school to see us. The children all wrote a question for Mrs Meyerhoff about babies and Ivy. It was very interesting.

above: We made our own paints, using natural ingredients…

below: The creation story

in the archives:

Seaside fun

Our topic for the summer term was all about seasides. As our end of term trip, we had planned to visit Sandscale Haws, however the torrential rain forecast caused us to relocate to the Footprint…

We still had a great day, full of fun and advnetures.

We enjoyed; competing in the tallest sandcastle competition, ‘going fishing’, & playing crab pincer games.

We also made full use of the rain and made some rain gauges, we re enacted the water cycle and loved splashing around in the giant puddles…

We also enjoyed some delicious cake around the fire.

In science, we have been learning all about shadows…

Our May Procession…

Donald the snake

This week, we invited JJ into school to tell us about his pet Carolina Corn Snake called Donald. We learnt about how to look after a snake, what they like to eat and how they shed their skin!

Bean update

Last Term we were busy learning about what plants need to grow. We have been carefully watering our beans and making sure they get lots of sunlight. This week we planted them outside in our school garden. We can’t wait to see how tall our beanstalks grow!

Alex the vet

As part of our topic “Amazing Animals” we were pleased to welcome our local vet Alex to the Explorers Class. We learnt about the role of a vet, the equipment that they use and how we can help to look after our pets.

EArth day 2023

Celebrating Earth Day, we read the book “10 things I can do to help my world” by Melanie Walsh. The Explorers thought of fantastic ideas to help our planet.

summer term

Art and design

This week we began to learn how to use the technique of weaving to create a product. We chose our colours and decorations carefully to create a placemat with an under the sea theme.

This week our story was Jack and the Beanstalk. During Science we have been learning about growing things in our garden. We have explored the plants and flowers growing at school, planted beans, cress and potatoes. We have studied the parts of the plant and what they need to make them grow.

Forest School

During our Forest School session we had lots of fun being active and exploring our natural environment.

We made pigs from clay and built houses from sticks for them to live in. We used natural materials to make leaf prints for a giant beanstalk, we made porridge on the fire for Goldilocks, and finally we went on a trail through the woods to find a gingerbread house, full of biscuits!

Once upon a time…

Our topic for the second half term is Once upon a time … we will be reading and exploring many themes based around traditional tales.

windermere Fire Station

This week as part of our People Who Help Us topic, we visited Windermere Fire Station. The firefighters told us all about their job and how they help to keep people safe. We learnt to call 999 in an emergency and how important it is to check our smoke alarms in our homes. We looked at all the tools and equipment on the fire engine, listened to the siren and even had a go squirting water from the hoses! What a great morning!

Jenkins Farm

We enjoyed reading the story Farmer Duck by Martin Waddell in class. This week we were invited to visit Jenkins Farm in Kendal and learnt about life working on a dairy farm. We saw how the farmers milk the cows and even got to meet some newborn calves.

SPring Term 2023

Our topic this half term is People Who Help Us.

We have learnt about how to stay safe at home, in school, in the town and what to do in an emergency.

We have listened to our visitors, who told us about their jobs and how they help us and our community every day!

Festive Fun for the Explorers!

We had lots of fun activities during Advent as we prepared to celebrate Christmas. Our Christmas Nativity was a huge success and we even got to perform some of our songs for MP Tim Farron.

Key stage two Buddies

We enjoy it when our KS2 buddies come to help us learn new skills. This term they have helped us to improve our reading and learn how to use the Ipads to find places in our local area, as part of our Geography topic.

Toffee and Badger

Look who has come to live in the Explorers classroom for the winter months …our school guinea pigs, Toffee and Badger! We are learning to look after them by making sure they have fresh water to drink, their enclosure is clean and they have lots of fresh hay, food and of course, lots of cuddles.

Forest School Autumn Term

Our topic this half term has been Living Things and Habitats. It was wonderful to begin our Forest School sessions at St Catherine’s Wood again and explore the natural environment around us. We found out about the different types of trees, created woodland sculptures and even made our own charcoal to draw pictures of living creatures with.

We are already looking forward to our next visit.

Our favourite book this term is “Bog Baby” by Jeanne Willis

When two small sisters go fishing to the magic pond, they find something much better than a frog or a newt. They find a Bog Baby. Small and blue with wings like a dragon.

The Explorers used their imagination to create their own Bog Babies from play dough and craft materials. We wrote instructions to tell others how to make a Bog Baby of their own.

Art and Design

We have studied the artwork of Wassily Kandinsky, learning about the use of colour and shapes to create abstract paintings. Look at our fantastic designs.

Signs of Autumn

The Explorers went outside looking for signs of autumn. We saw how the leaves had changed colour to red, yellow, orange and brown. We made observational drawings, finger paintings, wrote poems and sang our favourite autumn songs.

Microhabitats

In Science we have been learning about a variety of habitats and the plants and animals that live there. We used our magnifying glasses to investigate conditions in microhabitats around our school environment.

Learning through Play

Nursery and Reception love to learn through play. Our outdoor area enables us to be creative, explore and sometimes get messy! We have lots of fun!

P.E.

We have been working on our skills using bats and balls in P.E. this term. We are learning to aim at a target, have control of the equipment and move safely in our area.

MEET OUR CLASS STICK INSECTS!

This year we are proud to have stick insects as our class pets. As they all look very similar, we decided to call them all Groot!

Every day we care for them by watering their tank and making sure they have fresh leaves to eat.

They are very friendly and love crawling up our arms!

OUR OUTDOOR MUD KITCHEN

Our new outdoor mud kitchen is a great place to play and be imaginative. We put our coats and boots on and get busy making our muddy creations. We have all sorts of pans and utensils to use and even have a seating area where you can enjoy a wonderful mud pie. Delicious!

Bikes, Trikes and Scooters!

We have lots of different styles and sizes of bikes, trikes and scooters that we play on. In the afternoons, we play on the top playground where we have lots of room to make routes and be active.