Friday

I seem to be doing at lot of apologising at the moment.  This time it is for lack of a blog entry yesterday.  There is a reasonably good reason though.  Lack of time/energy/brain power.

Firstly, to answer the question I know you're all asking (yeah, sure), sports day did happen.  We were all on tenterhooks (whatever they are) after some early rain but out came the sun and dried it all up again.  I don't know about incey wincey spider, but we certainly made the most of a very sunny, pleasantly warm afternoon to get our sports over and done with.  In honour of the Olympics, the whole school was divided into sixteen countries and was dispatched to different parts of the school grounds for track, speed, throwing and jumping activities that finally tired out even the most energetic of older juniors.  The infants, especially the younger ones, found it somewhat bewildering, but they joined in cheerfully and the older juniors were very good at looking after them.  And now, right at this moment, it is raining hard, the weather forecast is lousy and everything is dripping wet.  So if yesterday hadn't happened, today (the fall back day) certainly wouldn't have and as the timetable is somewhat heavily blocked with 'things' for the rest of the term, that would have been that.  And that would have been a shame after such a lot of hard work from key staff to get it all organised and ready. 

And I caught the sun!

In the early evening I went out.  Most unusual for me to be going out on a school day but this was an early out, a girly get-together with two dear and old friends (no, not that kind of old, although I think I am the oldest.  Not by much though).  We went back to the Hare which, apart from anything else, is wheelchair accessible and does those lovely 'small plate' meals I mentioned about three weeks ago.  So I had mini-pie (pork, apple and cider and very nice too) with peas and chips (an indulgence) followed by two scoops of absolutely delicious ice cream, which filled me up good and proper.  None of us had alcohol as two were driving and the other can't have much anyway.  They had a fish dish - a whole something (can't remember which fish it was) and I was rather disconcerted to discover that whole really meant whole - head and all.  Being somewhat squeamish, I'm glad I didn't order that!!!  I gather the flavour was absolutely wonderful though.  My pie was very nice but something of a cheat as the filling and the pastry had quite obviously not been introduced until they met for the first time in the little pie dish.  I didn't mind though - it tasted good and that's the most important thing.  And we had such a lovely time, we've set a date for the next one, yay!!!

So when I got home, it was almost straight to bed.  I'd intended to blog in the evening but my brain wasn't working well enough to get my thoughts together! 

Eleven days to go!

Wednesday

Ooops, just realised I didn't post a blog this morning.  Apologies to my regulars who came in expecting a rambly read and didn't get one.  As the term closes I am getting more and more forgetful!

It was wet and miserable this morning and the children arrived in macs and wellies with brollies in some cases.  This afternoon it was gloriously sunny and it's quite humid now.  It feels almost thundery and, in a way, a good storm would clear the air, as long as it doesn't soak the field too much.  School Sports is still on tomorrow, fingers crossed and weather permitting.

We did have fun today.  I introduced them to Beebot, a cute little programmable robot bumblebee who goes forward and backward, turns left and right and beeps merrily as he does so.  We learned how to tell left from right:  hold your hands up in front of you, nails showing.  If you can see an 'L' it is left and if you can see a tick, it's right (a tick means you got it right - geddit?).  Well, it seemed to work pretty well and we were all doing turns left and right for all we were worth.  Then on to writing instructions for programming Beebot and a lot more fun.  And finally this afternoon they worked in twos, learning though experimentation as they 'played' with Beebot.  It was lovely.  And the others had structured activities and kept finding ways to make things that turned.  Super, and how it should often be in year 1 - a comfortable mixture of the formal and the investigative.

And here he is - Beebot.  Isn't he cute?



And, looking for the above picture, I've just found a lovely idea for making a Beebot jacket that will convert him into something else - a police car, Elmer, a ladybird, etc.  I've printed off the outline and will keep it for a nice, not too difficult, end of year activity during the last week.  Excellent!

Teaching is rarely boring!  It's a great job.