WEEK 1

Welcome back to a new year. The children have settled back into a routine well and despite the sweltering heat, have worked hard and tried their best.

In English, we have started out new text for the term, Dear Earth, which links in well to our upcoming visits to Beach School. We have delved deep into the story and learned actions to help us remember it. We have written descriptive sentences to explain the important parts of the Earth.

In maths we have worked hard understanding the place value of numbers up to tens and ones and how each number is represented, both in numerals and words.

We learned about the primary colours in art and used our skills and knowledge to paint a picture of the Earth.

In RE, we found out all about the religion of Buddhism and sequenced the story of Buddha, acted it out and then enjoyed some quiet meditation time outside under a tree, just as Buddha did.

In science, we enjoyed revisiting our learning on plants and drew and explored the parts of a sunflower.

WEEK 2

The children have continued with their work on the book, Dear Earth and have been looking closely at using adjectives, verbs and conjunctions to improve their writing. 

In maths, we have looked deeper into the place value of numbers to tens and ones and had lots of practice partitioning 2 digit numbers in lots of different ways.

The children continued with their work on plants on science and explored where seeds come from and investigated lots of different seeds and went on the hunt around the school to find some seeds.

In RE, the children thought about and wrote about how we feel when we are chosen to do a job and what types of jobs we are asked to do.

On Thursday the children were very excited to take their first trip to Beach School. The children found out all about The Estuary, collected and found out about the different shells we found on the beach, did some litter picking and finally had fun playing a game of crabs and seagulls. The children are already excited to learn more next week.

WEEK 3

This week the children have worked hard in their english and started to write their own letter based on the book, 'Dear Earth'. We have written the first few paragraphs and we are looking forward to finishing our final piece next week.

In maths, we have been working on placing numbers on a number line and estimating where numbers will lie on a number line. We have also began to compare numbers, using more than and fewer than the symbol to represent these.

In science, we investigated more about seeds and went on a seed hunt and thought about why seeds are different and where they come from. We ended the lesson by making our own sycamore seeds spinner.

In art we continued to investigate what happens when we mix colours and then tried to make the colour paler and used Monet as an inspiration to paint a flower.

We had great fun at Beach School this week, where we were able to look through a huge telescope and binoculars to help us see what animals, in particular birds, were present in our estuary. We learned about the black headed gull and the comorant. We also went on a hunt to find interesting shells and pebbles on the beach and helped to look after our environment by doing some litter picking.

WEEK 4

This week in English, we have finished our draft writing based on the book Dear Earth and we are now ready to write up our final finished piece of work which we look forward to sharing with you.

In maths, we have finished our work on place value by counting in 2s, 5s, 10s and 3s. Please continue to practise counting in 2s, 5s and 10s at home with your child.

In science we loved looking and exploring different types of bulbs and then really enjoyed planting them in the school grounds. We are looking forward to watching our bulbs grow in the Springtime when the weather gets warmer.

We were extremely sad that we were unable to go to Beach School this week but we were so grateful that the Beach ladies were kind enough to bring the beach to us. We learned about what happens to different materials if they are left on the ground and how long they would take to break down. We sorted the materials as to how long they take to break down. We loved playing the bird and crab game and learning about what the birds like to eat on the estuary. Finally we helped to make the school look tidier by doing lots of litter picking around the school grounds.

We ended the week with a lovely Harvest celebration with the whole school to which the parents were invited to attend. We loved performing the Harvest Samba with instruments. We have been using our art knowledge of mixing colours and tints to draw and then paint some harvest vegetables.

WEEK 5

What an eventful week, with a science morning workshop and a really exciting day at Beach School.

The children have worked hard with the presentation of their English by completing their write up based on Dear Earth. Check out their work which will be on display on the celebration board of term one. We have now started our worked based on Black History Month.

In art, we continued the theme of Black History month by looking at an inspirational aboriginal artist and produced our very own aboriginal art pieces.

In RE, we looked at some more of God's chosen people by reading, writing and acting out the story of Moses and thinking about why God chose Moses and how he trusted in God. We finished our lesson by producing a painting of Moses in the basket.

In music, the children produced their own piece of music with the sounds of the beach and countryside after discussing the different sounds we could hear.

In maths, we have started our unit on addition and subtraction by reviewing our knowledge of number bonds to 10 and using these to produce fact families and lots of related facts.

On Wednesday the children were very excited to have an inspirational assembly from the 'Rocket man'. This linked the ideas of art and science and the children were able to watch the Year 6 children as they blasted off their rockets that they had made.

Beach School was great fun as well as teaching the children more about the estuary that they live near. We found more about the types of shells and living creatures we could find and even had the chance to hold some baby crabs, if we were brave enough! We used the binoculars and telescope to look further out to sea in order to find out which birds they could spot. Finally we had great fun making a habitat using materials we could find on the beach.

WEEK 6

This week in English we have created some beautiful poems based on the Earth and the different things we'd love to explore around the Earth. We have also continued our work on Black History Month by completing some fact files on Martin Luther King Jr.

In maths we have been learning to use our knowledge of number bonds to 10 to help us with our addition and subtraction facts. The children have done really well with this and are becoming more able in using the bonds to 10 to help them.

In RE we looked at what a Saint is. We then looked more closely at 2 Saints: Saint Edwards as today is the Feast Day of Saint Edward and Saint Benedict the Moor in conjunction with our work on Black History Month.

In geography this week, the children found out more about directions and in particular North, South, East and West and had fun outside using the compasses to find their way around.

For our penultimate Beach School this week, the children were able to put their creative skills to good use. We made necklaces and bracelets from shells we could find on the beach, we created a mural using chalks along the sea walls of the different things we could find at the estuary and also worked together as a team to create a model of a jellyfish, crab and starfish using all the interesting things we could find on the beach.

We ended the week with a wonderful African dance workshop and a celebration of world food, with the parents bringing in a variety of dishes form their country.

WEEK 7

In the final week of term, we have been finishing our work all about the Earth by planning and designing a poster on how to look after our planet. The children have loved learning about the Earth and all the ways in which we can protect and look after our planet. We also wrote a letter to the Beach School ladies that have taught us so much and telling them all the things we have enjoyed.

In maths, we have been continuing to use our knowledge of number bonds and how we can use these to help us with our subtraction calculations. 

In Science, we completed our topic on plants by looking at how the trees have changed over the term and looking at the different types of trees that are in our environment. We looked at the difference between evergreen and deciduous trees and thought about why some trees lose their leaves and others don't.

In RE we read the story of Daniel and the lions. We acted out the story and then wrote about our favourite part of the story and how Daniel put his trust in God.

On the final day of Beach School, we revisited some of our favourite things we have done over the last 5 weeks. We made some wonderful habitats for crabs and were able to hold some crabs again. We played a game using the parachute and were able to make some more beautiful jewellery from shells we could find on the beach.