Our first week in Poppy Class

🌸 What an amazing first week in Poppy Class! 🌸
We are so proud of how well the children have settled into their new class. They have been busy making friends, exploring the classroom, and participating in a variety of fun activities. It has been wonderful to see their confidence grow already, and we are excited about all the learning and adventures ahead!

Our Topic this term is Me and My Community - 

In "Me and My Community," your child will learn about the school community and how to build friendships. They will explore the school grounds and learn about all the people in the school who are there to help them. They will explore how they are special and unique and how everyone’s family is different. They will take part in practical activities to help them build new friendships and explore what makes a good friend. They will also learn about the community members who support us, including doctors, nurses, and emergency services personnel.

What we have been up to this term so far!

WB 1st September 2025

🌿 Autumn Wreath Making 🍂
This week, the children have been busy creating their own autumn wreaths!
We used paper plates as a base and decorated them with a variety of autumn-coloured items such as leaves, tissue paper and pictures of some autumn animals. The children enjoyed exploring the colours and textures of autumn while practising their cutting, sticking, and scrunching skills.

It was a wonderful opportunity to discuss the changes we observe in nature at this time of year and to get creative with seasonal materials. The wreaths look beautiful and will be displayed in our classroom before the children bring them home to share with you. 🍁

If you go on an autumn walk this weekend, we would love to hear about it. Feel free to bring anything in to show us or email in some photos. 

poppy@balliolschool.co.uk

Please remember to bring wellies and spare clothes. These should be labelled with your child's name so we can make sure they are returned to the correct child. 

WB 8th September 2025

The children explored a collection of loose parts, including buttons, shells, stones, fabric pieces, and wooden discs. They carefully chose and arranged these materials to create faces on cardboard circles and mats.

They experimented with placing items in different positions to represent eyes, noses, mouths, and hair. Some children created happy and surprised faces, while others designed imaginative characters with big eyes or spiky hair.

Many children looked in mirrors to study their own features and tried to make self-portraits. Others worked together, sharing ideas and combining materials to make group creations. As they worked, the children discussed the expressions they were making, describing feelings such as “happy,” “sad,” and “angry.”

Through this activity, they showed creativity, problem-solving skills, and growing awareness of emotions and identity.

               

WB 15th September 2025

This week, we explored creative printing techniques by experimenting with shaving foam and paint to create marbled leaf prints. Through this activity, we developed an understanding of colour mixing, texture, and pattern-making, while enhancing our fine motor skills, creativity, and appreciation for nature-inspired art.

 

WB 22nd September 2025

This week, the children enjoyed listening to the story Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers. The story follows a little boy who discovers a penguin at his door and sets off on an adventure to help him.

After sharing the story, we discussed the importance of friendship, kindness, and the feeling of helping others. The children then created their very own penguin crafts, using different materials to bring the characters to life.

WB 29th September 2025

This week, we have been busy making acorn-shaped sun catchers, a simple and fun seasonal craft that allows children to explore colour and creativity while celebrating autumn. Using tissue paper in warm autumn shades—orange, yellow, red, and brown—children layer the colours inside the acorn shape, creating a stained-glass effect. When placed in a sunny window, the light shines through, making the sun catcher glow with the rich tones of autumn leaves. This activity encourages fine motor skills, colour recognition, and creativity, while resulting in a beautiful decoration that families can proudly display at home.

WB 6th October 2025

This week, we read a book called Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert. It was about a man made out of leaves who goes wherever the wind blows. After we finished the story, we went outside to collect our own leaves. We found leaves that were red, yellow, brown, and even a few green ones! Then we used the leaves to make our own leaf man.  We used conkers and acorns, googly eyes and sticks to make the features of his face. It was a lot of fun creating art with items from nature.

WB 13th October 2025

This week, we practised our fine motor skills, and the children explored threading using leaf-shaped cutouts from coloured card. Each leaf has small holes punched around the edges, and children use a length of autumn coloured wool to thread in and out of the holes.

This hands-on task supports the development of fine motor control, hand–eye coordination, and concentration, all of which are essential foundations for early writing skills. As children carefully guide the wool through the holes, they strengthen the small muscles in their hands and fingers.

WB 20th October 2025

🎆✨ Diwali & Halloween Celebration Week 🎃👻

What an incredible week it’s been! We came together to celebrate two vibrant festivals — Diwali, the Festival of Lights, and Halloween, the Festival of Fun and Frights!

🪔 Diya-Making Activity

One of the highlights of our Diwali celebrations was the clay diya-making activity! Everyone got creative, modelling and decorating their own diyas using sequins and glitter. The room was filled with excitement as each person crafted a unique lamp to symbolise light, hope, and positivity. It was a fun, hands-on way to learn about Diwali traditions while expressing creativity! We also tried some tasty new foods!

✨ Happy Diwali to All Our Families ✨

Wishing you and your loved ones a Diwali filled with light, laughter, and endless joy!
May the glow of diyas brighten your homes, the sweetness of treats bring happiness,
and the spirit of togetherness make this festive season truly special.

May the year ahead be full of prosperity, good health, and beautiful moments with your family.

Happy Diwali! 🪔🌟

🖐️🧙‍♀️ Handprint Witches Craft

Our Halloween celebrations got extra spooky and creative with the handprint witches craft! Everyone used their handprints to create funny, scary, and colourful witch faces — complete with hats, brooms, and googly eyes. The classroom walls came alive with these magical masterpieces, showing off everyone’s imagination and Halloween spirit!

We have had an amazing term learning, playing, exploring, and most of all having fun!

Have a great half-term! We look forward to seeing you on Monday, 3rd November. 

Team Poppy 🌺

 

 

🌟 Welcome Back, Everyone! 🌟

We hope you all had a wonderful half-term break and enjoyed some rest, fun, and time with family and friends. We’re so excited to have you back in class and can’t wait to hear all about what you’ve been up to!

This half-term, we have lots of exciting learning ahead — from new topics in our lessons to fun activities and celebrations as we get closer to the end of term. Remember to bring your curiosity, kindness, and best smiles each day!

WB 3rd November 2025

🍫✨ Chocolate Sparklers Fun! ✨🍫

What a fantastic and delicious time we had making our very own chocolate sparklers this week! The children loved dipping breadsticks into melted chocolate and adding a sprinkle of colourful decorations to make them sparkle — just like real fireworks!

We talked about how to stay safe around real fireworks and enjoyed celebrating the season with this fun, hands-on activity. Everyone worked carefully and creatively — and the best part was, of course, getting to taste their amazing creations at the end! 🎇😋

Well done, everyone — they really did look sparkling!

🚀 Toilet-Tube Rockets

We had a blast this week making toilet-tube rockets in class! The children designed and decorated their own rockets using empty cardboard tubes, colourful paper for nose cones, coloured tissue paper and plenty of imagination. Everyone worked carefully with scissors and glue, showing brilliant creativity. It was a joyful activity, and the rockets looked fantastic, lined up ready for “launch”! 🌟

WB 10th November 2025

Anti-Bullying week!

🌼 Poppy Class – Anti-Bullying Week Message 🌼
This week in Poppy Class, we have been celebrating Anti-Bullying Week by learning how to be kind, respectful, and supportive friends. We talked about how everyone deserves to feel safe and happy at school, and how even small acts of kindness can make a big difference.

We practised using kind words, including others in our play, and speaking up if we ever saw someone being treated unfairly. Poppy Class have shown wonderful teamwork, empathy, and care for one another.

Together, we are making our class a place where everyone belongs and everyone matters. 💛

 

🐷 The Three Little Pigs

We also read The Three Little Pigs and talked about how each pig built their house. The children then designed and created their own houses using milk cartons, using lots of imagination and problem-solving as they worked.

We had a wonderful week exploring stories, food, building, and creativity together. Well done, Poppy Class! 🌟

WB 17th November 2025

Maths week! 

This week in Poppy Class, we have been celebrating Maths Week with lots of fun, hands-on activities. The children explored numbers, shapes, patterns, and problem-solving through play, games, and real-life experiences.

We counted, sorted, measured, built, and used our maths talk to explain our thinking. The children showed great curiosity and confidence, working together and having fun as they learnt.

Maths is all around us, and Poppy Class have been amazing little mathematicians! We are so proud of their enthusiasm and brilliant ideas. 🌟

🐻 Poppy Class Bear Toast Fun! 🐻

In Poppy Class, we had a lovely time making bear toast! The children carefully spread their toast and used banana slices and chocolate buttons to create their own adorable bear faces.

They practised their fine motor skills, followed instructions, and were so proud of their tasty creations. Well done, Poppy Class! 🌼✨

WB 24th November 2025

This week we continued to learn about Goldilocks and the Three Bears! 🐻🐻🐻✨

The children helped Goldilocks write a letter to say sorry for her “oops!” choices—like trying someone else’s porridge and testing out all those chairs! They thought carefully about how she could make things right.

Then something magical happened…
We received a letter back from the Three Bears! 🍯📬
The children were thrilled and couldn’t believe the bears had taken the time to write to us. We had great fun reading their message and talking about feelings, kindness, and making good choices.

It’s been a wonderfully imaginative week, and the children’s attitude to learning was just right! 🌟

WB 1st December 2025

This week so far we have had a wonderful time learning all about The Gingerbread Man! The children listened to the classic story and talked about the characters, the repeating phrases, and the lesson the Gingerbread Man learnt along the way.

After our story discussion, the class got creative and decorated their very own gingerbread people. They explored different materials—like icing, buttons and sprinkles – to make each biscuit unique. This activity helped build fine motor skills, encouraged imagination, and brought lots of smiles!

Feel free to ask your child to tell you about their gingerbread character and the choices they made while decorating. We had such a joyful time together!

Where has the Gingerbread man gone?

We wanted to let you know that something very unexpected happened in our classroom this week…  Someone had left the door open, and our Gingerbread Man had run right out the door!

The children are excited that he’s off on a big adventure around the school. We’ll be following his trail and searching for where he might go next. The students are very excited and thoroughly enjoying the mystery!

We’ll keep you updated as our Gingerbread Man adventure continues. Thank you for sharing in the fun with us!

Update on the Gingerbread Mystery!!

We received this email from Mrs King in the office. 

Dear Poppy Class,

I have something very exciting to tell you!  Today, while I was working in my office, guess who came to visit me?  The Gingerbread Man!

He peeked in, gave me a big smile, and then jumped onto my desk—before I could even say hello—he ran away as fast as he could!  I tried to catch him, but he was too quick.  I wonder where he’s off to now…

Keep your eyes open and let me know if you see him!

Run, run, as fast as you can… You know the rest!

Keep your eyes and ears open and help us catch the Gingerbread man ;)

 

WB 8th December 2025

 

Wow what a week!

The children in Poppy class performed the 'Snuggle up stable' Nativity on Tuesday to KS1,  then again on Wednesday to KS2. And then finally two performances for the parents, carers and loved ones on Thursday. 

Poppy Class Nativity Performance ✨🎄
What a magical performance by Poppy Class! The children did an amazing job retelling the Christmas story through songs, actions, and big smiles. They sang confidently, spoke clearly, and showed such kindness and teamwork on stage. We are so proud of how brave they were and how hard they practised. A truly special performance that brought the nativity story to life and filled everyone with festive cheer. 💛

Gingerbread House Fun 🍬🏠
Poppy Class had a wonderful time making gingerbread houses using malted milk biscuits, icing, and jelly sweets. The children carefully spread the icing, chose their favourite sweets, and worked hard to decorate their houses. There was lots of creativity, concentration, and excitement as each house became unique. A fun and tasty activity that everyone really enjoyed! 😊

Gentle reminder :) 

Please can we have all the library books back this week WB 15.12.25, so we can get them all set up ready for the new year. 

Thank you for your continued support :)

Team Poppy

WB 15th December 2025

Gingerbread man update!

 

He is back!

After two weeks of him venturing off on his adventures. He is back in Poppy Class safe and sound. We will make sure we keep the door closed at all times ;)

We have enjoyed listening to the stories he has sent us in letters and looking at the pictures. 

 

As we come to the end of term, we enjoyed some festive fun with a Christmas party in class 🎄
The children had a lovely time sharing snacks, playing Pass the Parcel, and getting into the Christmas spirit.

We were also very excited to have a special visit from Santa, who kindly brought some wonderful new gifts for our class, including a new football goal and a doll’s highchair. These will be enjoyed by the children in the weeks ahead.

Thank you for your continued support throughout the term, and we wish everyone a happy and restful Christmas break!

 

Team Poppy 

 

 

 

🎉 Happy New Year to all of our children and families!

We’re excited about a new year full of learning through play, smiles, and special moments together.

We can not wait to see you all on Tuesday, 6th January 202

 

WB Monday 5th January 2026

 

Welcome back after the Christmas break!

It has been wonderful to welcome the children back into Poppy Class this week. They have returned with great enthusiasm and have quickly resumed their classroom routines. Throughout the week, we have enjoyed exploring, taking part in creative activities, and engaging in group learning indoors and outdoors.

We look forward to an exciting term ahead.

This week, we have been reading "Whatever Next!" by Jill Murphy. The children followed Baby Bear as he used his imagination to fly to the moon in a cardboard box rocket. We discussed pretend play, space, rockets, and how to creatively use everyday objects.

The story inspired a lot of role-play and sparked discussions about planets, picnics, and adventures.

WB Monday 12th January 2026

This week, we enjoyed listening to "Peace at Last" by Jill Murphy. In the story, Mr Bear tries to find a quiet place to sleep, but everywhere he goes, different noisy sounds keep him awake! The story helped us explore nighttime routines, various sounds, and how people feel when they are tired. 

We also joined in with sounds like “TICK-TOCK” and “SWISH-SWASH,” which made it a lot of fun!

WB Monday 19th January 2026

We made our own owl babies using paint and tissue paper. Each one turned out uniquely adorable 🦉

The children enjoyed joining in with the smallest baby owl, Bill, "I want my Mummy!"

WB Monday 26th January 2026

🦉 Guess the Animal – Inspired by The Gruffalo’s Child

This week, we enjoyed a fun listening and guessing game based on the story The Gruffalo’s Child.

The children listened to clues about different animals from the story and tried to guess which animal it was. This helped to build:

• 👂 Listening skills

• 🗣️ Speaking and confidence

• 🧠 Thinking and memory

• 📚 Understanding of the story

The children were fantastic at taking turns, sharing their ideas, and spotting clues from the story. Lots of smiles and great guesses all round!