Bringing Back The Joy Day One!

Those that follow my Twitter account and previous blogs will know about my recent pledge to bring back the joy to teaching as I feel that whilst children are happy and relaxed they are more receptive to learning.  It is all to easy I feel to get bogged down by scores, sats and constant talk of levelling and progress. Now don't get me wrong my main aim for all of my children is to see them make progress but I do feel they are more likely to do this is if they are relaxed and we are all having fun. So today was day one of my pledge to bring back the joy which I feel for many reasons has been lacking.

So, as a conclusion to our Down in the Woods Topic we held a Teddy Bears Picnic day in our class.  We had a great, if not exhausting day! Our day began with us watching a clip of a couple of traditional bear programmes, Winnie the Pooh and Paddington Bear. Next we measured the length of our bears and weighed them. Then we made our bears a Paddington Bear style label in case they ever get lost, followed by a birth certificate complete with a photograph of our bear. In the afternoon we made our own sandwiches for the picnic itself with a selection of bear style fillings including honey and jam. We talked through the writing of instructions for making the sandwiches which we will complete tomorrow. Next came the picnic itself and whilst we ate our sandwiches we sang along to the Anne Murray classic, Teddy Bears Picnic.
Then we played a selection of parachute games with our bears and finished off watching Michael Rosen reading and performing We're Going on a Bear Hunt.

So all in all a very successful, joyous day and one of those days that you know the children will remember for years to come. A day when we all had fun and learned lots along the way!!

Bring on day 2