Weekly Snapshot
Lesson: Curriculum
Class: Wrekin Year: 2021 - 2022
W/B 4th July
We really enjoyed testing out how our new classroom will feel in September, during move up day on Monday. We used a design program to plan the layout of the room, including tables and chairs, craft stations and some of us even added swimming pools! We also painted self-portraits of ourselves to decorate our class door. We had a discussion about what the name of our class might be in September.
In Science this week we continued our study on the weather. We talked about the Beaufort scale and started to make windmills to test the force of the wind over the next week. We then thought about storms and what it would feel like to be in a storm, by watching news reports and short videos clips.
Our History this week led us to think about how historians research significant people through time. We discussed how this could be through photographs, diaries, painting and drawings, stories passed down through generations, news reports and more recently personal websites. Why not ask us about the three significant explorers we have been studying this half term?
And an extra treat awaited us on Thursday morning as two Alpacas, Carlos and Teddy came to visit. We spent some time finding out about how to care for them, what they eat and the different colours they can be. Then we all got the chance to stroke them, we couldn't believe how soft they felt! Miss Jones and Mrs Burns even took them for a walk around the pond! Thankyou to Meadow's daddy for arranging this special treat for us.
W/B 27th June
This week we have been focusing on rainy weather and carried out an investigation to make a rain cloud in our classroom. We learnt the names of the three main cloud types and know that not all clouds produce rain. We know that dark, grey clouds add the word 'nimbus' to them because they carry rain. Class 2 are now really good at identifying these clouds whenever we go outside, and there sure has been plenty of clouds this week!
Everyone tried really hard in our school sports day this week and it was lovely to see new friendships being made, as we headed to Woore for our Cluster Sports morning.
In Maths we are revisiting adding and subtracting using efficient methods. We will need to know our number bonds to 10 and be able to count on and back in 10's from any given number. Perhaps you could help us by practicing this at home, or even on the journey to school!
W/B 20th June
Another busy week in Class 2!
Our current Science topic is The Weather. Last week we played the role of weather reporters, writing a weather update and then presenting to the class. This week we focused on sunny weather and had great fun making a solar oven. In it we cooked chocolate filled bananas, we used tin foil to reflect the sun and placed our bananas on black paper to absorb the sunlight and convert it into heat. What a tasty, sticky treat we had at the end of the day! While we waited for our bananas to cook we studied daylight hours throughout the year and converted information from tables into bar charts.
In D&T we have been thinking about what our boats will need to make them move through the water and started to draw up some initial designs. We had to think about size, shape, material and how they would be powered. We had a special treat, as Nicholas sent in some drawings of catamarans, also known as the Polynesian double canoe. Nicholas’s Grandad was friends with James Wharram, the designer, and helped to launch one of the boats in the 1990’s.
W/B 6th June
What a busy week! In Science this term we will be learning about the weather and different weather patterns in the UK. We have made various weather station equipment this week, including rain gauges and windsocks. We will take recordings every week and populate these on a graph to look for patterns and trends. We will also be visiting the Millenium pond to carry out some more work from our Habitats unit, find out how we got on in next week's newsletter.
In English we are writing poems, based on the fruit poem Plum! By Tony Mitton. We have been working in pairs to explore a wide range of fruit, using our five senses. As we begin to construct our poems, we have looked closely at rhyming words.
Our D&T challenge this term is to design and make a boat to carry our explorer across the sea. This week we researched different styles of boat, what materials they are made of and the shape and size. We also looked at how they are powered to move through the water.
Year 1 completed their Phonics Screening assessments this week. They approached the assessment with confidence and are all very proud of their efforts.
W/B 23rd May
This term we have been looking at art by Vincent Van Gough and have attempted to recreate one of his famous pieces 'Starry Night'. We looked carefully at the style he painted in, particularly the way he used dashes in his brush strokes. After several weeks on developing our technique, we selected our preferred medium and were proud of our results.
We have had so much fun in our science topic this term and this week saw us hunting for flowers. We discussed the difference between wild and cultivated flowers and then we took photos, made sketches and noted down our observations.
Our Literacy topic has ended with several lessons on instruction writing. We now know that instructions should begin with time conjunctions and include 'bossy' verbs. OfCourse, how could we possibly write instructions for making chocolate nests without making some first? I don't think many nests made it home before being gobbled up!
W/B 16th May
Our sunflowers are growing so well now that we decided to replant them outside this week. We hope they will keep growing well and brighten up the front of the school. We also checked on our bulb experiment this week and were surprised to see that even the bulbs in the dark had grown, making observations on the similarities and differences between the growth of each bulb. In the forest we have all adopted a tree and are busy creating fact files for them and collecting samples such as leaves and bark rubbings.
We had an interesting Show and Tell this week when John brought in communications equipment used by RAF pilots during the war.
Class 1 and 2 enjoyed a visit from a Dental Nurse this week. A fun 20minute PowerPoint presentation with questioning for understanding at the end was followed by a demonstration on tooth brushing exercises with a dental mouth puppet. Pupils took home a change4life Toothbrushing chart for completion at home as a little reminder to encourage those healthy teeth brushing habits.
W/B 9th May
We put on our scientist hats this week and continued to observe our sunflower growth. Most of our sunflowers have grown really tall, some measuring at 14cm. We will be planting them outside next week. We have also started created fact files on the different trees in our school grounds, this week we collected leaves, bark rubbings and photographs and next week we will be adding information about our trees.
Our Art focus this term is on Vincent Van Gough's Starry Night. We have been looking at how he creates a picture with texture and different shades. After exploring a range of techniques we will now be producing our own version of this piece of art, thinking carefully about the skills we have learnt and Van Gough's style.
W/B 2nd May
Another busy week in our classroom as we continue to watch our sunflowers and cress grow. We are keeping a weekly diary to study the changes of our sunflower seeds over time. Our bulb experiment continues, where we have placed some bulbs in the light and some are hidden away in a dark cupboard. We have made predictions about what we think plants need to grow and what will happen to each of our bulbs.
In Maths we are moving onto time, we will explore before, after and during as well as telling the time to the five-minute. We will also be able to work out the duration of activities by looking at the start and finish times on an analogue clock. Check out this term's maths homework, for ideas on how you can help at home.
In English we started to read our new focus book Toys in Space. We have taken part in role play and thought about how it might feel to be left outside alone in the dark, like the toys in our story. We have been focussing on developing our use of punctuation this week, specifically question marks, exclamation marks, full stops and possesive apostrophes.
W/B 25th April
What a busy and creative start to the Summer term we have had!
In Literacy we started with our Poetry. We have built up skills through the week and then planned and wrote our very own list poems, thinking about the night sky, what we might see and what those things might look like and what they might do. We thought carefully about how we could include adjectives, verbs and adverbs, as well as using 'and' to join words and clauses.
In PE we are learning all about Orienteering, developing our skills in map reading and understanding various vocabulary such as 'key' and 'symbol'. This week we had to use the equipment provided and the map key to create Funny Faces, using the information on the map.
In Maths we have been focusing on Position and Direction, most of our lessons have been outdoors this week as we have been guiding ourselves around a route, using vocabulary left, right, clockwise and anti-clockwise as well as thinking about turns, quarter, half, three-quarter and full. We also had great fun guiding our Bee Bots to their destinations.
Our Science topic this term is Plants. This week we have set up three investigations; growing sunflowers and observing weekly changes, a cress seed time lapse experiment and exploring what a bulb needs to be able to grow.
W/B 28th March
We will be responsible for leading the Easter service this year, and so this week we have been busy preparing how to share the Easter story with you. We are busy making props and learning our lines. It would be great if you could help us learn our lines at home too.
In Art this week we have been studying line drawings, similar to those created by Piet Mondrian. First, we took photos of us in different action poses, and then carefully studied the lines we had made, before creating our own line drawings, over the wash backgrounds we painted in last week's lesson.
We have also enjoyed a zoom call with author Sarah Roberts, this week. We listened to her reading her new book 'Somebody Crunched Colin' and had an opportunity to ask lots of questions. The experience inspired some of us to write our own 'litter' themed stories.
W/B 21st March
Last Friday we had a great time taking part in the Daily Disco Mile, to raise money for Comic Relief. We danced and bopped our way around the track and have suggested this takes the place of our usual Daily Mile sessions!
We learnt lots of invaluable skills during our mini first aid sessions this week. We applied bandages and plasters and discussed what the role of the plaster is. We learnt a basic recovery position and how to apply a cool pack to a bruised area. We also discussed how to make an emergency call and that they need to check phones at home, so we know how to make an emergency call, even if the phone is locked.
Teddy the naughty baby mammoth is on the loose and Class 2 had the job of creating Missing posters to spread the word. They had to use adjectives to describe Teddy's appearance and personality and also instructions to anyone who may spot him. Keep your eye's peeled, he causes mischief wherever he goes!
Well done to Lottie for completing Stage 3 in swimming this week. Miss Jones is really enjoying all these wonderful achievements being shared during Show and Tell.
W/B 14th March
We enjoyed our art workshop this week, creating paintings to represent the month of March for the calendar. We used a range of skills including different brush strokes and using different size brushes for detail. There were lots of blossom trees, Easter baskets and flowers! We can't wait to see the chosen pieces in next year's calendar.
As it was Science week this week we have enjoyed taking part in various investigations and experiments. Our favourite was answering the question 'Which biscuit is best for dunking?'. We predicted, planned and then tested five different biscuits and can conclude that the Chocolate Hobnob is the best for dunking. Of course, when the investigation was over, we all enjoyed munching on the remaining biscuits.
In English we explored what was happening so far in the museum. To help us form clear sentences using words with -ed endings, we posed for still frame images, showing off different sections of the story. It was very hard not to move while the rest of the class tried to guess which part we were modelling.
W/B 7th March
Dinosaurs!
Excitement filled our classroom this week at the discovery of some rather large bones in our forest! After a closer inspection we decided they must have belonged to a dinosaur! We were all very excited and were able to use lots of descriptive language to tell others what we had found. Among the leaves we also found pieces of a puzzle, after working as a team we pieced it together to find a picture of a wooly mammoth. Perhaps this is who the bones belong to?
We have continued to spend lots of time outside exploring micro-habitats this week. We have made observations by taking photographs and notes. We were amazed at how much wildlife we found just in our little space and are looking forward to exploring other habitats over the rest of the term.
W/B 28th February
A busy start to a new half term. We enjoyed a visit to the village hall where the PTFA had been busy cooking up 100 pancakes for us to enjoy. We got to choose from a range of toppings. On Thursday we celebrated World Book Day. Some of us came to school dressed as our favourite book characters, but we all came in clothes for reading, which of course is anything we like! We enjoyed some short stories from different authors, took part in a book quiz and turned into authors, making our own short stories.
In Science we are going to be looking at habitats. This week we explored Forest School and began to understand the meaning of micro-habitat, by searching for animals in our forest. We searched under logs and stones, in the tree bark and even in piles of leaves. We found lots of animals that love cold, damp places. We also found out that some animals will spend their entire life in their micro-habitat and never leave!
W/B 14th February
We ended last week with a visit from Ray, the Road Safety Officer. After a dance along to The Beatles to warm us up we learnt lots of important information to help keep us safe on the roads. We met his mascot Whispa the meerkat, who helps us remember to be alert and look in all directions. Lots of us remembered the important message of taking the shortest route to cross a road, and not crossing diagonally. We also know we have to be aware of quieter vehicles such as bikes and electric cars.
In D & T we completed our free-standing structures, the cages for the grumpy lion. We have been able to use lots of skills learnt this half term to create a structure that was strong, sturdy and stable. Some of us had to demonstrate lots of resilience as we made changes to our original designs when ideas weren't working.
In Science we planned and carried out our own tests to find out the best material to make a waterproof coat for Teddy. We got quite wet with this experiment, but were able to record results into a table and discuss which material would be best and why.
Some of us represented the school in a Gymnastics competition this week too. We performed a Vault and Floor routine; it was hard work but we tried our best.
W/B 7th February
Last week was our turn to work with Mrs Nicolson on the whole school collaborative art project. We had a great afternoon putting our art skills to the test and can't wait to see the project come together to brighten up our entrance hall.
This week in Science we explored materials that are elastic and those that are rigid. We had great fun playing with slime and dough. We found that dough can be stretched, twisted, squeezed and squashed! We then made salt dough decorations and are watching them slowly change from elastic to rigid as they air dry.
As part of Mental Health Week we really enjoyed baking bread and preparing a delicious vegetable soup. We all helped to chop the vegetables and mix the dough. I wonder if anyone was lucky to get a taste of our bread at home or if it all got nibbled while the children were at school!
W/B 31st January
In Maths we have been working on dividing by 5 and 10. We have enjoyed using our equipment to solve a range of problems, before moving onto pictorial and abstract questioning. Being able to count in multiples has really helped us to find the most efficient way to answer questions. We have also been able to solve problems with multiple steps.
Our Science investigations led us to test for opacity this week, and we made our very own 'Opacity Testers'! We tested a variety of materials and had to agree in our groups whether they were Opaque, Translucent or Transparent. Once we had sorted them we then had to decide if one material was more or less translucent than another. We can't wait to take our testers home and test more materials.
On Thursday we had a lovely treat when Jake the Storyteller came to visit. He delighted us with several fantastic stories and taught us how we can change our own stories depending on who our audience is. There was laughter and giggles throughout the session and we really didn't want him to leave. Come back soon Jake!
W/B 24th January
We have such a wonderful week full of adventure.
In Science this week we thought carefully about the properties of materials and which ones would be good for covering a teddy. We created books in groups, based around the story 'Dear Zoo', but we had a shopkeeper send us different materials and we had to decide why each one was no good, until we got sent one that was perfect!
Next week we will be designing our cages, so this week we had a go at making free standing structures in D&T, using spaghetti and marshmallows! It was hard not to nibble any while we worked. We learnt that triangles are a very strong shape and may use this in our cage designs.
On Friday we boarded the coach, along with Class 1, and headed to Chester Zoo. We had made a list of all the animals we wanted to see and created a route on a map. Our challenge for the trip linked with our Literacy and Geography; we had to discover which animals live in hot climates and in particular, any that live in the Savannah. We were so lucky to have our lunch right next to the giraffes, and they all popped out to say hello to us.
W/B 17th January
This week we have carried on our investigations on materials and decided to test the strength of different types of paper. We measured this by hanging a pot of marbles from each sheet of paper, and seeing how many it took before the paper ripped. We quite literally 'lost our marbles' when the papers ripped and the pots fell, sending marbles scattering everywhere! What fun! We found that our toilet roll paper only held 6 marbles, but the wallpaper held a whopping 71!
In Maths this week we have been developing our skills in division, using equipment to help us understand what is happening. We can recognise the division symbol and are able to solve problems that involve sharing and finding out the number of groups after dividing a set of objects by a given number.
In Geography this week we used atlases and maps to find out which countries the equator passes through. We are getting really good at naming and locating the continents now. We also discussed the Northern and Southern Hemishpere, as well as locating the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. Did you know the latin word 'cancer' means 'crab'?
W/B 10th January
Did you guess the word we were learning in poetry? It was onomatopoeia! We have enjoyed innovating the poem this week and then rehearsing and performing them infront of the class. We even recorded them, to share with the rest of the school.
In Science we carried out an investigation called 'The Stretch Test'. We found different materials and measures how far they would stretch; recording the results in a table. We then worked in groups to create bar graphs, to show which materials were the stretchiest.
In D&T we continued looking at free-standing structures and how they can be made stronger and more stable. We used building blocks to make two different types of wall for Humpty Dumpty and tested them for strength. We all agree that the over-lapping bricks made a stronger wall. This might come in useful when we start to design our cages.
W/B 3rd January
Happy New Year!
Class 2 have been ever so busy as we enter a new year! In Science we have been exploring materials; thinking about how we group materials, what their properties are and looking at what materials are used for different objects. This will come in handy as we start to design and build a cage for the grumpy lion in D&T.
In English we have been studying the poem 'If I Had Beak' and we learnt a new word to describe words that are sounds, it begins with 'O'; perhaps you could test us and see if we remember it?! Answer in next week's update!
W/B 13th December
We had a really busy and exciting final week before we broke up for the Christmas break. In English we used what we had learnt about creating diary recounts, to write our own recount of our trip to the pantomime. In Maths we looked at repeated addition and in D&T we completed our masks, just in time for the Christmas party!
We all had a great time performing in this year's Christmas Concert for our families. We were so pleased it could go ahead this year, as for most of us, it was our first experience infront of a live audience.
W/B 6th December
Our local library is saved! They received our letters in time and have been able to stop Nibbles from eating any of their books. They sent us a thankyou letter and have displayed our letters to help deter Nibbles.
This week we also had an exciting Zoom lesson with Author and Illustrator Nick Sharratt! We were able to find out lots about him and the books he has written and illustrated. We joined in with some art tutorials; drawing various characters from his stories. The Zoom ended with Nick reading from one of latest books, Shark in the Snow! We really enjoyed this book.
On Wednesday we enjoyed Christmas dinner with the whole school. We had crackers and Christmas music and the teachers served us.
W/B 29th November
This week we have been busy developing our oracy skills and recounting Nibbles' adventures in the first person. We have been peer assessing and doing this by giving two stars and a wish. In preparation for writing our diary recounts, we have been doing lots of shared writing too, and spotting our mastery keys; such as use of commas in a list, using co-ordination and punctuation.
In RE we explored the meaning of Advent and then in groups created different items to represent it. Group 1 had great fun making a nativity scene, while Group 2 were very busy making a nativity advent calendar, with a different part of the Christmas story behind each door! Group 3 made wreaths for our classroom door, using a variety of materials and Group 4 made decorations for the amazing trees provided by our PTFA. They coloured the characters from the Christmas story and then wrote what role they played on the back. Doesn't it all look great!
W/B 22nd November
We became very concerned that Nibbles, the character from our current fiction text, has escaped and was planning to visit the local library. We knew this could only mean one thing, disaster! What would happen if he managed to nibble all of our wonderful books? We decided we must spring into action, and wrote letters to the library, warning them that Nibbles was on the loose and may turn up at any time!
Let's hope the letters arrived in time!
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