What we have been learning about this week
Spring Term
Week 1:
Welcome back! It has been so lovely to see all of Kingfishers back this week, refreshed and ready to learn!
English- we have been studyring the Roman myth of Romulus and Remus- the children's homework is a cartoon strip to ensure the story is now embedded as we will be continuing work on this next week.
Maths- what a fantastic week of AREA! The children have grasped the concept and can work out the area of rectangles and some rectilinear shapes.
PSHE- we have been thinking about our environment and the impact of recycling and reusing. The children have through about what they reuse around the house to help the environment.
PE- we have begun gymnastics. As it was our first session together getting out all the equipment, including the wall bars and ropes, we spent a lot of time learning how to do it safely and expectations of behaviour. We then had time to have a go on all the different stations we had set up.
Have a lovely weekend!
Week 5
English:
This week we have continued our work on non-chronological reports. The children have planned what they want their reports specifically to be about and they have then researched those areas. They have now begun to write them in first draft, beginning by working on their introductions, trying to include the 5ws (who, what, where, when and why) and being challenged to use a rhetorical question.
Maths:
This week has been all about times tables! We have covered 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8 and 9 looking forward repeating patterns and relationships across different times tables e.g. the 8s is double the 4s which is double the 2s!
French:
This week we revised our learning of shapes and colours and also worked on how to ask what colour something was and be able to answer in a full sentence. The children then had to colour a tangram according to a set of instructions written in French before cutting out and enjoying the fun of trying to put it back together again!
We had a session with Windmill Theatre group and the children did some dancing and acting based on The Nativity. We had a fantastic session and the children all got involved with great enthusiasm!
Christmas:
We have been working hard on learning our songs, with lots of actions and sign language! Some of the children have now been given a couple of lines to learn, if they wanted to, and a few of the children have even volunteered to play the guitar along with one of the songs. Their guitar teacher has begun working with them on this!
Week 4:
English- this week we have begun a new unit on non-chronological reports. The children have been looking at the different features and layouts of the reports before starting to write their own next week.
Maths- we have moved on to multiplication and division. We have recapped what arrays are and looked at the difference between sharing and grouping in division.
PE- we have been continuing our Stone Age inspired dance routines. We started with a new group this week to share and build on ideas. The children were working on their synchronisation with each other.
Science- we have been looking at rocks and what characteristics help us to compare rocks, such as: layers, rough, smooth, crystals.
Week 3:
English- in English this week the children wrote their stories involving a Stone Age character. They did really well to follow their plans but adapt and improve them where they felt was appropriate. The children edited and improved their writing as they went along, through both self assessment, peer assessment and responding to the teacher marking. Well done Kingfishers!
Maths- this week has been our final week on addition and subtraction before we move on so we have done a little bit of revision of our written methods to check we are secure and then have thought about the most efficient methods of addition and subtraction to use in different situations.
RE- this week we have researched Sikhism and what it means to be Sikh. We have found out their god, their holy book, where they worship and some of their main beliefs.
PSHE- in PSHE we have been continuing to think about how to stay healthy and this week we focussed on having a healthy mind. We did some meditation and yoga to teach us breathing techniques to help this.
Week 2:
English:
This week the children built on the character they created in their drama work last week and planned a story where they would meet a Stone age character and take them on a journey involving a problem and resolution. The children then have begun their stories, writing the build up and met their Stone age character using dialogue.
Maths:
In maths we have been making connections between our knowledge of number bonds to ten, to finding number bonds to 100 and 1000. We have also used the inverse to check operations- understanding that if both calculations are correct, they will share all three numbers.
Science:
We have been studying how fossils are formed and the process of fossilisation. The children were able to order the events and then draw sketches to explain each stage.
PE:
This week the children used some of the shapes they learnt last week to begin creating short choreography of their own based on Stone age life.
Week 1
This week we have begun our new unit of The Stone Age. This will be reflected in a lot of our learning this half term but especially so in our writing and reading.
Guided Reading:
This term we are going to be reading Stig of the Dump during Guided Reading and answering a range of questions based on retrieval, inference, vocabulary, explanation and prediction. We will look at a different chapter each week.
English:
We have done some drama this week to introduce us to the idea of meeting a character from the Stone Age when on holiday somewhere in the UK. We thought about the setting of where we might meet them and how we might communicate together.
Maths:
We have been continuing our work on our written methods for addition and subtraction. We've mainly been focussing on subtraction this week, having to exchange in multiple columns.
PSHE:
Our unit this half term is thinking about having a healthy lifestyle. We started the unit thinking about the different food groups and how much of each we should be eating. Our homework this week is a reflection of this in a healthy food diary.
PE:
We are doing Stone Age inspired dancing this half term. We began our unit with a carousel style lesson where the children were expected to attempt some different movements inspired by the Stone age. This got our hearts pumping and our imaginations going!
Week 5:
English: we have begun writing instructions. We started by finding important features of instructions, like: imperative verbs, sequencing words, adverbs and numbered points. We then had a go at following instructions and made some slime- we loved this! We have ten continued the week by planning a set of instructions to brew a potion of our choosing, for examples a laughter potion. Next week, we shall begin writing these.
Maths: this week we have been learning to add one, ten and a hundred over a barrier. We have found this quite trick so have spent a while counting forward and backwards in tens over a hundreds barrier and have played games and completed different activities to try and amply this. The children have come home with homework to practise this further.
Science: we underwent an investigation to find out whether an ice cube would melt quicker in warm water or cold water. The children were very aware of making sure their investigations were done fairly and they did more than one attempt so they could back up their evidence. They worked beautifully and created some brilliant tables of results.
PE: the children created their own games to practise the skills we have learnt this term: dribbling, passing, tackling. The children loved teaching their games to other children and have requested we do this again next week.
RE: we finished our unit on Christianity this week by creating a poster on all the things we have learnt on what it means to be Christian and what their belief is based on.
Week 4:
English: this week we have written newspaper reports. We began the week by studying what features must be used when writing a newspaper: past tense, chronological order, headline, byline, introduction, photos and captions and then studied Harry Potter's first quidditch match. We then wrote our own newspaper reports. reporting to the wizarding world what happened in the match. They are now published and on display ready for your to see on Parents Evening!
Maths: we have rounded up to four digit numbers to the nearest 10, 100 and 1,000. We learnt the rhyme, '1-4 sit on the floor, 5-9 climb the vine' to help us remember whether to round up or down.
Science: we have planned an experiment this week. The children have made predictions for what they think will happen and they have thought about the variables which they must keep the same and which they will change to keep the investigation a fair test. They thought about what they were going to measure and how and the equipment they were going to need. Next week the children will find out, whether ice cubes melt quicker in cold or warm water.
Music- the children began studying a new piece of music this week and are beginning to get more and more familiar with where the different keys on the glockenspiels are. Their ability to follow a rhythm on mass is also improving!
Art and D.T- in art, the children deigned their own wands with the knowledge that in a few weeks they will get to make them!
Week 3:
English: this week Kingfishers have been learning to use speech punctuation to help move a story on. We have, obviously, been using this in re-telling part of Harry Potter. The children have retold the scene where the troll enters the girls' bathroom. We have found using inverted commas around spoken words straight forward but remembering to use a piece of punctuation before closing the inverted commas challenging.
Maths: this week we have been placing numbers on an empty number line. This has involved finding the difference between the start and end number and then sharing that amount equally between the number of intervals on the number line.
Science: we looked at the changes between state: freezing, melting, evaporation and condensation and used this in statements with our previous learnt vocabulary. The children's knowledge on this unit has been great so far!
Art: this week we have designed our Christmas cards ready to come home soon for orders to go in for cards, paper, mugs... We have been inspired by the artist Rob Biddulph!
Have a lovely weekend!
Week 2:
English:
This week in English we have been writing informal letters. We have used Harry Potter as our inspiration and imagined that we were also joining Hogwarts and writing home to a loved one to tell them about what we'd done since our arrival. We wrote about the journey on the Hogwarts Express, the sorting hat and our first flying lesson! The children used their knowledge of layout and language to write a letter fulfilling their brief.
Maths:
We have been continuing our unit on place value this week and have been partitioning numbers up to 10,000! We have done this both practically and using written methods. Hopefully the children's homework will reflect what they have learnt.
PE:
This week we began our unit on hockey. The children learnt how to hold a hockey stick safely and we then began learning how to pass a ball accurately to a partner using the 'push pass' The children we so well behaved an engaged throughout the whole lesson- I loved it and I really hope they did too!
Science:
Last week we looked at solids, liquids and gases. This week we looked at items which 'push the boundaries' and sometimes make it a little difficult to place them into just one category! See if your child can remember what any of these were!
Have a lovely weekend!
Week 1:
What a fantastic first week back we have had! The children have all settled beautifully into Kingfishers class and have all worked really hard- what a great first impression!
In English this week we have begun our unit on Harry Potter, writing descriptions of some of the main characters and settings. The children have used: adjectives, adverbs, alliteration and similes.
In maths we have been looking at the place value of numbers up to 1000.
In science we have begun thinking about properties such as solid, liquid and gas. We used water balloons to get a hands on approach to each of these.
In Art this afternoon we created our own mythical creatures which we are going to perfect and send off to a competition with the hope of winning a visit to the Harry Potter Studios!
Have a wonderful weekend!