Linton Challenge Updates

Week Six - Gold

In our final week of the Lent Challenge, our thoughts turned to the first Easter and in collective worship on Monday children heard and reflected on the story of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection.

A variety of Easter cards were produced in classrooms throughout the week.  Some flamboyant and bejewelled, others adorned with paper blossom and year 1 made their own paper to create small, coloured eggs to decorate the front of their cards.

Children enjoyed making Easter gardens and are hoping to discover the stones have been rolled away from the entrance of the tombs when they return after the Easter holidays.

The week finished with an Easter service in church. The congregation were entertained by the school choir and the whole school had learned a special Easter song to sing. After church, the children took part in an Easter Egg Hunt with a difference. The challenge was to collect sections of the Easter story hidden along the route back to school. All children had to do was to collect their 6 pieces and put the story back together to earn their chocolate egg.

A very special end to the term and an exciting finale to a successful Lent Challenge!

Week Five - Gold

It was ‘Speed Week’ this week at Linton Infants but we managed to find the time to remember the world, while zipping about on scooters, racing around a Scalextric track, or jogging around the village green...

Sponsorship money was collected in this week from World Maths day activities, amounting to over £200 for UNICEF's School-In-A-Box program. Money raised will be used to purchase a School-In-A-Box, a learning kit which gives around 80 children the opportunity to start school. This has an immediate, tangible impact in poor communities, and can be replenished year after year.

On Thursday each class was transported to a different country as part of Grand Prix Day. Children learned about their given country, its history, culture and climate before completing a lap of a Scalextric track as fast as they could. At the end of the afternoon the winning team in each class were awarded special winners t-shirts and medals, kindly donated by The FIA Foundation for Automobile and Society, as part of their decade of action campaign for global road safety. For more information on see

http://www.makeroadssafe.org/Pages/home.aspx

On Friday, we joined in the National Sport relief event. It was great to see a whole variety of sports represented through our dress up day. Children brought £1 to school to further this very worthy cause supporting the disadvantaged near and far. A fantastic end to speed week, and a great way to raise money for those less fortunate than ourselves, around the world. At present the total stands at an amazing £201.50.

Week Four

We have had a very busy week at Linton Infants, with lots of secret stitching, sticking and baking in order make those very important surprise gifts for mothers and carers. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday parents of Foundation Stage children joined them for lunch and enjoyed playing in the playground afterwards.

As well as cards and presents, each year group has been finding out about special mother figures from the past. Foundation Stage learned all about Jesus’ mother, Mary, and heard the story of Jesus getting lost in the temple. Year 1 went on a fact finding mission about Mother Theresa and Mary Seacole and Year 2 found out about Gladys Aylward, who rescued and cared for Chinese war orphans and Queen Victoria.

On Friday morning, the Church was crammed with mums and carers. Children from each class read out the facts they had discovered about each mother figure and the children sang ‘The Lions Roar’, a song all about telling someone special that you love them which they learned especially for the Mothers’ Day Service. Foundation Stage children told us some of the reasons they love their mums and carers: ‘You give me cuddles’, ‘You buy me ice cream’ and ‘You give me treats’ were amongst the many reasons mums are loved. At the end of the service, all the children lined the path outside church and as the congregation walked along they were  presented with their special gifts.

Week Three - Gold

At Linton Infants we have been ‘remembering our school neighbours’ this week.

Children have been getting ready for World Maths Day and on Wednesday, children in year 1 and 2 logged on to complete a speed challenge, answering as many addition and subtraction problems as possible in a given time, against children from across the world.

On Wednesday afternoon, we played host to other schools in our cluster group as our annual Music Festival. The children have been busy learning songs and enjoyed singing and performing together for the afternoon. They even learned a brand new song, especially for the Lent Challenge entitled ‘Plant a Little Seed’, and were encouraged to reflect on Lent being a time of waiting and preparation for the great day to come!

In year 2, the children ventured out to buy chocolate at the local Co-op, using their maths skills to work out how much they could buy and how much change they should expect. They will be making maps of our local area and comparing them to maps of Bournville in Birmingham, surely the capital of chocolate in our country!

Earlier this week, Foundation Stage children wrote invitations to our School Governors, inviting them to join us for our church service on Friday and we were delighted to see so many of them  there. We heard the story of the woman anointing Jesus’ feet with perfume and we thought about all the smells we like and good things they remind us of.

Week Two - Gold

At Linton infants, we have been thinking about the natural environment this week and attempting to cut down on the amount of waste we produce, as well as working to make our outdoor area more appealing.

At the beginning of the week, we encouraged parents to try and reduce the amount of packaging in their children’s lunch boxes. We suggested ways this could be achieved, for example, by using washable tubs to decant crisps or yoghurt into, rather than buying individually wrapped packets and bringing a drink in a reusable bottle.

Mrs Brooker has been very busy with the lunchtime gardening club, replanting tyres in the playground with Forget-Me-Nots. We are looking forward to watching them flower and grow, now that the warmer weather is here.

In Church this week Father Steve told us the story of The Widow in the Temple and talked to us about God not caring if we are rich are or poor, he loves us all the same.

Children and staff were delighted to have a visit from Mrs Thomson who told Foundation Stage children the story of Palm Sunday through a Godly Play session. Mrs Thomson helped children in years 1 & 2 reflect on the meaning of Lent through the story of Jesus’ 40 days in the Wilderness.

Week One Gold

Here at Linton Infants we started our Lent Challenge with a church service about Jesus going into the wilderness.  Father Steve talked about trying hard to make ourselves the best we can be in the God’s ways. We talked about resisting temptation and praying to God for support when things get difficult.  Back in school we have set up a Lent Prayer wall, children are invited to write their own prayers onto fish which are displayed within a net on the worship wall for anyone to read or use.  120 children took part in the Shrove Tuesday lunch and Foundation Stage spent the afternoon thinking about pancakes and reflecting upon the start of Lent.