This week was Otterbourne's "Be Happy Be Healthy" week- a fun filled and exciting 5 days  packed with a whole range of activities designed to help the children to understand their physical and mental fitness.

As you may have heard, an integral part of this week was the "daily mile" - every day, come rain or shine, we velcroed up our trainers and hit the playground for a quick jog/hop/skip (not quite a mile!!) around the playground.  The children loved this and their enthusiasm never wavered - they were brilliant and it proved to be a fantastic way to wake us all up and get ready for the day of learning and fun!

Even more running came with Monday's inter-house cross country event.  One muddy lap around the school field for the Penguins accompanied by their Y6 buddies.  The children ran superbly and enthusiastically.  There were quite a few slips and slides, but each child who fell, got up and carried on - most importantly with smiles on their faces!!  I was very proud of them all.

On Tuesday, continuing on with their physical activity, we were very lucky to have a session with Mrs. Alderman, a personal trainer, who showed us some brilliant exercises to keep our bodies strong and healthy.  We learned all about the importance of staying active and taking care of our bodies.  The children also shared their impressive knowledge about fruit and vegetables.

Wednesday was scooter day!! We had an absolute blast outside, the Penguins were highly proficient on their scooters, following the improvised one way system on the Meadow Playground beautifully.  The children showed great skill in negotiating roundabouts and zebra crossings and the speed police didn't have to issue any fines....(just a couple of warnings here and there!!)

On Thursday, linked with the Penguins' learning about Chinese New Year, we had a special Chinese New Year yoga session where we learned some traditional poses and stretches.  It was a another great way to recognize this festival whilst practicing mindfulness and relaxation.

Meanwhile, back in the classroom the Penguins made a Chinese dragon to celebrate Chinese New Year.  We used colourful tissue paper to bring our dragon to life and he looked brilliant until it started to rain!!!  The children showed great patience as he underwent a quick repair job!  He is now keeping a watchful eye over us all from the classroom ceiling.  We also made Chinese red lanterns which are supposed to bring fortune and good luck! (fingers crossed!!)

A highlight of the week and to continue the celebrations, the whole class enjoyed a Chinese food tasting session,  tasting noodles, seaweed, sweet and sour chicken and prawn crackers! The penguins tried it all and loved (almost) every bite.  I think there were "thirds" of noodles in some cases!!

We were also extremely lucky this week to have a visit from Mr. Lo who talked to us about the traditions and customs of the Chinese New Year.  The children were fascinated to learn how Isaac's family spend the festival and about how it is celebrated around the world.  A huge thank you to Mr. Lo for his time, Chinese sweets, prawn crackers and fortune cookies! We really appreciate it.

On Friday we enjoyed a lesson aimed at promoting great oral hygiene which culminated in all of us brushing our teeth for a whole two minutes, ensuring that we even reached right to the very back of our mouths!!!!! It was a lot of fun - apologies for the toothpaste stains down jumpers!!

In addition to keeping our smiles bright, we also received a PE session from Coach Robbie at  R and R  sports coaching to finish the week off perfectly.  The Penguins had great fun during this session - not only enhancing their motor skills but fostering great teamwork too!!

As if the week wasn't already exceptionally busy, the Penguins have also learnt three new sounds, continued their reading and their kinetic letter journeys with ever growing confidence,  and worked really hard on number sequencing and recognition activities!!!  They must be exhausted!!  I hope you all have a lovely relaxing half term and we shall see you back for more fun on the 19!! xx