Cranborne CEFirst School and Nursery

A very wet afternoon outside, but Crane class were cozy indoors, building on their sketchbooks, exploring the work of Vanessa Gardiner, a wonderful landscape artist. We took visual notes, exploring the colours she likes to use, and the shapes she abstracts by. Wonderful work!

A few snaps from worship earlier this week. We're continuing to reflect on the Christian value of Truthfulness, this week about being fully honest and not hiding the truth.

I want to extend a big thank you to all the children who took part in the colouring competition last week. Your creativity and enthusiasm were such a joy to see! Congratulations to our lucky winners! They will now have the wonderful opportunity to see the pantomime - Beauty & the Beast at the Edmondsham Village Hut during the Half Term. We're so excited for them to enjoy this fabulous show! Once again, thank you to everyone who participated.

At the start of a new art unit, it was lovely for the children to get out their sketchbooks to review their progress and success in our last unit. Here are some of their gorgeous still life drawings of bottles and cans, noticing tone and shade with observational drawing in pen, ink and pencil. We will be looking at landscapes and city scape artists this term.

I wanted to share some wonderful learning that took place in Robin Class recently. The children had a great time exploring the differences between evergreen and deciduous trees. They were particularly excited to describe how evergreen leaves remain green throughout the year, while deciduous trees shed their leaves in autumn. It's fascinating to see how much they are learning about nature and the changing seasons! We're so proud of their curiosity and engagement with the topic!

Thank you Mrs Faithfull for a lovely worship this morning, on our Christian value for this term on Truthfulness! We shared the story of 'The boy who cried wolf.' Some lovely ideas from the children in response.... 'The boy told 2 lies, when he told the truth he wasn't believed any more.', 'Trust is like a bowl of water, the more you take (by lying) the less there is,' and 'Their trust was broken.'

A quick snap in our maths lesson this morning. One of the most exciting things we see is that moment when children suddenly spot a pattern and everything clicks. This week, our learners have been exploring multiplication in a deeper way: noticing how numbers repeat, how groups build, and how those same patterns help them understand division. When children realise that multiplication and division are connected, they're not just memorising facts they're building real number sense. They're learning to think flexibly, solve problems with confidence, and make links that will support them all the way through school. Well done Crane Class!

This week in science we collected our plant (cress seedlings) experiments that had been dotted around the school to collate our results. we observed the leaves and measured the growth. The children recorded their results using bar charts and photographs. Excellent work Cranes!

We are thrilled to extend our heartfelt congratulations to all the wonderful children who received their Reading Award in Worship this morning! We hope you enjoy diving into your new books at home. Remember, the more you read, the more stickers you will collect, and that means you will be on your way to receiving a lovely new book! Happy reading, and keep up the incredible work!

On Wednesday, our little explorers took a delightful walk around the village, focusing on all the wonderful local landmarks. One highlight was catching a glimpse of the Fire Engine peeking through the windows of the Fire Stationwhat a thrill for the children! It's so important for our youngsters to learn about their community, and seeing these landmarks in person makes their understanding come to life.

One whole year of Roo Bear We are thrilled to share that this week marks a very special milestone at our schoolRufus, our beloved therapy dog, has been with us for a whole year! Throughout the year, all the children have been absolutely AMAZING with Rufus. He has brought so much comfort, unconditional love, and support to everyone, along with plenty of cuddles! It's heartwarming to see the positive impact he has had on our school community.

Home Reading Awards We are excited to announce that tomorrow in Worship, we will be presenting our very first Home Reading Awards! At the beginning of Half Term each child received a Reading Bookmark where they can collect stickers for reading at home a minimum of three times a week. Once they collect a set number of stickers, they will be able to choose a beautiful new book to take home and keep!

Yesterday, our class enjoyed their 2nd D&T lesson all about kites and the excitement in the room was wonderful to see. We explored the different parts of a kite structure and even discovered that some of the terminology is shared with boating - the children loved to spot links between vocabulary like sail, keel, spars and spine. A huge thank you to Mrs Read for bringing in a beautiful kite from home for the children to look at. Having a real example made the learning come alive and the children were so eager to apply what they had learned. The children then moved onto sketching their first design ideas, and I was genuinely impressed by their creativity and focus. I'm really proud of this afternoons work.Mrs Lawford

On Friday, young engineers in Crane class took on a hands-on challenge as part of their preparations for upcoming kite structures unit. Working in teams – and armed with nothing more than is spaghetti, masking tape, string, paperclips, and a handful of counters, children had just 40 minutes to design and build a frame in any shape they chose. The goal? To create a structure that was light, strong and able to hold a book or books across a bridge of desks without collapsing. It was wonderful to watch their creativity, teamwork, problem-solving, and perseverance shine. Every group approach to a challenge with enthusiasm and thoughtful design, the best part was seeing their excitement as we gently tested each frame with books, lots of proud, smiles, a few dramatic wobbles, and plenty of cheering each other on. I was so proud of their curiosity and courage to try adapt and try again, it was a fun afternoon.What a fantastic start to our structures learning journey! Mrs Lawford

A little peek into our classroom this morning! At Cranborne First we are passionate about helping children move into year 5 and beyond as secure, confident, mathematicians. Today, we've been strengthening our number sense, practising times tables, chanting, key facts, and building fluency together.