Today, Bluebirds learnt about Passover which is an important Jewish festival. This takes place in Spring, lasting 7-8 days and celebrates when Jewish people were freed from slavery in Egypt over 3000 years ago. They eat unleavened bread to remember when the Jewish people escaped from Egypt, not having time to make normal bread that rises in the oven. The Seder Meal with family and friends, has a special plate that has sections for symbolic food. Here are our plates which explain what food there is and what it represents.

Bluebirds discussed whether we actually needed photos to remember special people, places and events. We also talked about how much more we can remember about a person or a place than what we can see in a photograph. Mrs Parry shared photos with the class of important people in her life and also a photo of a special occasion. She recalled memories from the photos.

Dylan – I remember seeing my baby brother and had a photo taken, holding him for the first time.
Ava – I remember a trip to Thomas Land with my brother and sister.
Ibrahim – I have a photo from when we visited The London Eye.
Amaya – When I visit my family in New Zealand, we always have a big group photo together, at the end of the holiday.
Havana – I have a nice photo of my Mum holding me, whilst going down a slide, when I was little.
Paige – I have a photo album with memories of my holiday to Disneyland.

The children each drew or wrote about an important person, place or event in their lives.

Last week, Bluebirds discussed God/Allah being “all knowing” and knowing things people have done without them even admitting it. We talked about when we have been tempted not to tell the whole truth when we have been in trouble. There were lots of examples which we shared together. Here are some of the anonymous contributions, including the adults…!

►I let my sibling get the blame when it was me for a broken iPad.
►I broke a plant but eventually admitted it.
►I cut some clothing and the dog was blamed
►I took extra slices of cake.
►I pulled a curtain down and didn’t own up.
►I drew on the wall.
►I took some money once.
►I hid a butterfly in my doll’s house to keep as a pet. My Mum guessed.
►I drank a small amount of fizzy drink from each bottle and then topped them up with water.

Bluebirds heard the story of The Black Stone today, to understand that Muslims believe in being fair and just. Afterwards, Mrs Parry asked the class to think how to share 4 cakes between six people. Leah quickly solved the mystery that each person would get 2/3 of cake each!

Today, Bluebirds heard the Bible story of Esau and Jacob to understand more about fairness and found out that God’s view of fairness and justness is greater and longer lasting than our view as humans. Throughout the story, children identified aspects that did not seem fair.

Millie – It’s not fair that only Jacob got the blessing.
Havana – It was unfair that Esau paid for his food.
Jessica – It was not fair that each parent favoured one of their children over the other.
Pippa – It was not fair that the eldest child was in charge over everything.
Dylan – It wasn’t fair to trick the Dad because he was blind. Also I don’t think it was fair one had to be born hairy!

Mrs Parry explained that Esau had disappointed God by choosing food over his birthright and did not see the importance of his special gift he would get later on. She asked the children to think about the brothers making bad choices that they couldn’t change. They should have been careful with their choices as they didn’t realise how it would change their lives later on.

This week, Bluebirds watched a video telling the story of the Nativity. Afterwards, Bluebirds enjoyed making cartoon strips to retell the story.

Kenzie – There was no room at the inn.
Pippa – The baby was born in a manger.
Ava – Angel Gabriel told Mary she would have a baby and should call it Jesus.

Bluebirds have been learning about the Christian values of Harvest. Mrs Parry asked them what words could be made using the letters of HARVEST. There were quite a few!

Interestingly, some were very apt to the subject of harvest such as have, share and starve. The class talked about our Harvest assembly and where the donated food went to. The children then created acrostic poems using the word.

Bluebirds have been learning about sharing in RE and this week, they found out that Muslims have Zakah. They give away 2.5% of their savings. We worked this out using a 100 square and linked it to our knowledge of money as we haven’t learnt about percentages yet in Year 3!

Bluebirds heard the story of The Rainbow Fish today. There were lots of messages within the story which everyone discussed:

Millie: We decided that friendship is more important than owning lots of possessions like toys. You could be lonely and have no one to share your toys with.

Charlie: You can be happy without having lots of things/money.

Jessica: Sharing makes us all get along together better.

Paige: If you both share something it is fair and equal.

Blessed: I think the Rainbow Fish was very rude ignoring the other fish because he looked different and thought he was better than the others.

Bluebirds thought about what they had a lot of and whether they would be able to share it.

There was allsorts of collections including 1ps, lids, chocolate, teddies, dolls, shoes, toys, clothes and sweets!

Bluebirds have been talking about their favourite presents ever!

Mrs Parry asked the class if they liked giving presents. The children agreed it gave them a nice feeling inside to make someone else happy and see them smile. Jacinta had picked some daisies for Mrs Parry at lunchtime! The children came up with a fantastic list of gifts they could give someone which do not cost anything. We made a group list of ideas and then drew an example in our books.

In school, we decided to give someone else over the year a free gift such as respect, listening when someone is talking, cheering up someone up who is down, forgiving someone who has upset you, or a smile.