Maple Tree

Welcome to Maple Tree

Our class teachers are Mr Swainland and Miss Hockley.

Friday 9th July

This week we’ve had lots of visitors of the animal kind in Maple Tree. Wednesday was the biggest day with birds, a skunk and various reptiles visiting. Ms Howell brought in her bearded dragon and snake for the day too. This really helped bring our animal topic alive.

Thank you to all our guests and their human keepers!

Monday 5th July

Maple Tree go to Sycamore Adventure!

And had an amazing time in a completely different environment and getting on with all the other children.

Wednesday 30th June 2021

Today is sports day in Hawbush and Maple Tree didn’t want to miss out on the fun. Our children took part in long jump, javelin, discus, hurdles and of course the egg and spoon race. Every child took part and they will be coming home covered in stickers to show where they came in each race. I know they will be excited to tell you how well they did.

Friday 21st June

This half term, our topic is “Living Things” and we have kicked off the first week with all things seeds. Tomorrow, however, is the Queen’s official birthday, marking 69 years on the throne so we took a break from our topic to celebrate.

Thursday 27th May 2021

Our travel topic comes to an end this week with a journey into space. We’ve built rockets, trained to be an astronaut and learnt about, Helen Sharman, the first British astronaut. The children have all loved it. I hope you enjoy the pictures of the topic and the other things we have been up to including Lego Therapy. Every day the children have a taught and structured SEMH session where they learn a specific skill and Lego Therapy is one aspect of that.

Thursday 13th May

We've been having huge amounts of fun since we came back at Easter and learning lots too! Our topic this half term is "Travel and Transport". We have looked at boats, cars and aeroplanes. We've also had a great time off in the woods and cooking which all help towards the nurturing provision where we are constantly coaching and helping the children with their SEMH skills.

Thursday 1st April

The building work is finished and we have been busy rearranging everything ready for the children's return. Once the plaster has dried, we'll get a lick of paint on the wall too. I hope the children love all the changes!

Friday 26th February

We have had a great first week back. Most children have been programming code and looking at scary stories; in the superhero classroom they have been reading the three little pigs and looking at the materials houses are built from.

The Creature Under the Bed

Here are the scary stories written by the children.

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I was in bed. I heard a loud noise. I can hear "Huru". I ran to my sister Bubble. It was a cat and a dinosaur that looks like a dog.

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I sleep like a cat and I grab the covers. I pull it on me. I can see a shadow. I can hear creaking on the stairs. The shadow of hands is getting closer and closer on top of me and I was scared. Is it a mommy? I scream for my mommy!

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I was under my bed and I was scared. I heard noise but it was only my mammy or was it? There was a shadow of a bloy cat but I know the cat was downstairs or was it?

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I grab the covers. Pull them over me. I see darkness. I can hear something bug dragging across the room. Is it a zombie? I screak out loud for my dad.

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I was down to my legs because I was terrified. Then I heard slashing and screaming. Have you felt like this? I saw Jason's shadow. It got closer and closer. Then even I can't scream!

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I was brave and calm while watching my phone and I heard a "vmmmmmm". I was sad and scared. Have you ever felt like this? It slithered across the flood. The dark shadow came from under my king sized bed. The shadow slithered quickly to my PS5 and smashed it and I screamed "Just a story".

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My monster is friendly. I hear a roar. The monster makes a shadow puppet. I laugh at the monster.

Friday 5th February

This week, we’ve been reading the Jeremy Strong book “Roman’s on the Rampage” and have built our own chariots as part of DT. The design brief stated that the chariots should have two wheels and an axle and be the right size for a guinea pig.

Mr Swainland then took them all home to see how well they fared when attached to Bill, his daughter’s guinea pig.

Tuesday 26th January

It's snowing, so we took the opportunity to go onto the field and build a snowman - several snowmen in fact. It was a great opportunity for the children to practise their social and collaborative skills.

Friday 18th December

All this week, the children have been working on their Nativity. It is amazing how far they have come since joining Maple Tree. Many of our children had been out of school for a long time and most couldn't read when they started with us. We are all so proud of our fantastic pupils.

https://youtu.be/aaECN3jXMcg

Wednesday 16th December 2020

Today was the pantomime and Christmas party with a very special trip to the grotto.

Friday 11th December 2020

This week we have been looking at traditional Christmas stories in English and the children have had a particular focus on The Little Match Girl and have written some great descriptions in English.

In the afternoon, we have been looking at the Nativity story and made these amazing models.

Friday 4th December 2020

Our next instalment of vlogs about Maple Tree is now ready. Today, Kaycee will be telling you all about the zones of regulation and the way it is used in our classroom.

Enjoy!

Vlog 2 - Zones of Regulation.

Monday 2nd December 2020

Today we made Christingles and the children listened really well to Mr Swainland talk about how they represent Jesus and the world. You can read all about them at The Children's Society.

Friday 20th November 2020

At the end of September, we made a harvest video which included singing, dancing and videos of the children having fun in the woods, picking wild blackberries and harvesting the crops we'd planted last year.

We never shared it on our blog and I didn't want you to miss out! Just click below.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UVBNtntFiOfhxfEVyNYb47amQ-CHVEE4/view?usp=sharing

Friday 13th November

As part of our Diwali art day we've been bhangra dancing, listening to stories and making mehndi patterns on hands. Which one is your favourite?

Friday 6th November

We've been learning all about Guy Fawkes and the gunpowder plot which inspired us to make some amazing fireworks art. Did you know the plotters fled to a house not far from the school?

Our first ever VLOG is now ready to watch!

Friday 23rd October 2020

Our Halloween dressing up day has been a success. We had great fun carving a pumpkin, making ghost handprints and of course doing our phonics and maths. At the end of the day, we had a dance!

Awesome dancing!

Thursday 22nd October 2020

Here is a little video I put together with short clips taken at different points throughout the day to give you a taste of what we get up to.

https://youtu.be/16UTVK6BY4Q - The video is unlisted and can only be watched by people with this link.

Wednesday 21st October

We have been inspired by the artwork of Alma Thomas to create our own paintings.

Friday 2nd October

Our current topic book is "Stig of the the Dump" and we are looking at prehistoric people as part of our history work. Look at the amazing caves and cave paintings we made.

Thursday 24th September

Everyone was really excited when we watched a loud, noisy and exciting play.

Friday 16th September

A day in the life! Take a peek at some of the work we do on a typical day at Maple Tree. You'll also see some of the amazing group writing we did as part of our work on the book "Shadow" by Michael Morpurgo.