Brentwood Prep Incipe 2019

Brentwood School Preparatory 49 Classroom Chronicles - Reception Dear Zoo Reception received a mysterious box which had holes in the top and two labels; one said, ‘From the zoo’, the other had an instruction, ‘Do not open’. The children were naturally very curious. They decided that an animal must be inside and wrote lists of various possibilities such as a leopard, rhinoceros, dancing monkey, ferocious tiger or a baby bird. After lunch they discovered that the box was open and the animal had escaped! The children were devastated! They wrote to the zoo to apologise and many children chose to make a missing poster. We also looked in the playground and forest for clues about the missing animal. What could it be? Where had it gone? The mystery remained unsolved! The Reception children had a wonderful visit to Towngate Theatre in Basildon to see Dear Zoo. For some of the children it was their first visit to a theatre and they were quite surprised to see real people! The children had a good knowledge of the story and therefore were really good at predicting which animal came next. They thought the naughty monkey was very funny and there may also have been a few nervous glances when the snake arrived! They all enjoyed joining in with the songs and the actions and were very pleased to meet the characters after the show and have their photos taken. As a finale to their topic, the children had a surprise visit from Harvey and Bella, two extremely well behaved (and cute) dogs. The children learnt about how to look after a dog and watched the dogs do clever tricks like “giving paw” and fetching a stick. There was even time to brush Harvey and the children thought he was as soft as a teddy bear. The children thought the dogs were lovely, walked them and even suggested keeping them as class pets! Chinese New Year Reception were delighted to welcome Sishan’s mother into the classroom to talk about Chinese New Year. The children listened really carefully to the story of Nian, who is the monster the Chinese people were frightened of and the reason for the start of many traditions involved with the Chinese New Year celebration. The children looked at intricate decorations and some tried on the beautiful Chinese clothes that people might wear at the celebrations. They also enjoyed making beautiful Chinese lanterns and learning about this wonderful festival.