Wrekin Weekly Snapshot
Class: Wrekin Year: 2022 - 2023
W/B 11th September
We have had a brilliant first week back, getting to know our new classroom and the expectations of being in Year 1 and 2.
In English we have been writing poems and riddles. We had to guess who our riddle was about. We have also written some autumn riddles to perform at our Harvest Service.In Maths we are exploring face value, recognises the 10’s and 1’s and different ways to represent this with different equipment.
We finished the week with an exciting trip to Adderley Forest, we had lots of fun making new friends. There was a rickety bridge, crossing a crocodile infested lava swamp and the worlds largest worms! We can’t wait to go back next week.
W/B 5th June
On Monday we headed outside to look for living and non-livings things as part of our new Science unit. We explored different natural resources and discussed that some things that are non-living used to be living and some have never lived.
In Art we are exploring colour and mixed media. This week we recapped what a primary and secondary colour is. We used water to help run colours together to make new ones.
We have created some fantastic hedgehog poems this week, which will lead on to writing our own wildlife poems.
Well done to all of Wrekin who represented our school impeccably during the inspection earlier this week.
W/B 22nd May
We have been studying plants this term and this week we looked at how some plants are affected by the seasons. We listened to a story about a sunflower and drew how it changed through the year.
We finished our mechanisms project in DT this week and have made some fantastic, working fairground wheels, complete with seats! We have developed an understanding of how axels work and have also developed lots of skills in teamwork as we made our wheels in groups.
We also concluded our English unit this term by writing letters about environmental issues that are important to us. We have sent these letters to people such as our local MP Helen Morgan and the Environment Minister Therese Coffey.
W/B 15th May
As part of our English unit this term, Wrekin have been thinking about ways they can help the environment, locally and in the wider world. They have started on plans to create a wildlife garden on a disused space of our playground and have also adopted a family of Ethiopian wolves, whose numbers are declining due to disease and loss of habitat from over-farming.
In D&T we are making fairground wheels. This week groups made their bases and axel stands and then set to work creating the wheel and attaching it all to the axel. Next week they will be creating the seating and making any adjustments to ensure their wheel rotates on a strong and sturdy base.
In History we have been learning about castles and how they have changed over time. They can identify many different types of castles now and even had a go at building their own castles and labelling the different features.
It was also competition week this week in Superstars. As we were the first school to take part in the competition we will have to wait to find out how well we have done.
W/B 8th May
Exciting news! One of the blue tits we have been closely observing for several months now has successfully hatched 4 chicks! There is still one egg to go and we also have three other nests we are watching. Don't forget, you can follow their journey at home too by following this link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6j1as2cM5C0
In English this week we had a dilemma on our hands when we had to convince the wild animals from our story not to eat Little Red. We split into two teams and created an alley where we gave persuasive arguments for or against. In the end, the animals were convinced 'not' to eat Little Red. Phew!
W/B 1st May
Our Science this term is focusing on 'Plants' and what they need to grow and survive. This week we explored a variety of seeds and bulbs, thinking of ways to categorise them. We voted on and then discovered the classification of a coconut too. Do you think a coconut is a seed? We also placed bulbs in different locations to watch how they grow and have placed beans in glass jars so that we can explore how the roots and shoot change over time.
In PSHE we have been discussing how we can keep ourselves safe online and in particular the information we should and shouldn't share when using the internet. This week we thought about the consequences of sharing images of our friends without their permission.
W/B 24th April
This week we have enjoyed starting our new English unit where we will be looking at environmental issues and the part we can play in making a difference to our world. Our lessons have led us to spend the afternoon in the woods at Adderley today where we had a wonderful time exploring the vegetation growing and trying to identify the plants and trees.
In Science we will be looking at what plants need to grow and thrive. We will carry out a range of experiments and will be growing our own beans, watching how the roots and the shoot emerge.
Our Maths this week has focussed on 'Measure' and we had great fun getting a little wet while we explored measuring in litres and mililitres. Test us on the difference between Capacity and Volume!
W/B 17th April
On Monday we headed straight outside to explore our wooded area, creating a Woodland Poem as a class, complete with noisy refrain! We also studied two woodland poems and the class produced some fantastic pieces of work comparing and discussing the two. We will be spending lots of time outdoors this term so please make sure you bring a coat to school every day.
In D&T we will be making a fairground wheel and so this week we investigated what makes a wheel work by looking at various wheeled objects in our classroom.
In Maths this week we have been using standard units of measure to find out the mass of different items and then using this knowledge to answer word problems. We have been weighing in g and kg. We also discussed different uses for weighing, cooking was a popular one. Why not try some baking at home using weighing scales for some real life learning experiences?
We really enjoyed our first Super Stars session this week, learning lots of skills. We can't wait to put what we have learnt to the test at the end of term.
W/B 27th March
What a busy week we have had before breaking up for half term! Our caterpillars have entered the chrysalis phase of their cycle. Miss Jones will be taking them home to continue observing and release when they are beautiful butterflies. Have you checked out our bird cams this week? We are sure there will be eggs very soon as one of our blue tits is filling their nest with all sorts of soft material now.
We had a great time learning how to perform stunts on the scooters this week. We were crouching like tigers, balancing like flamingos and hopping like bunnies.
We also loved our orienteering Easter egg hunt, organised by the PTA.
Our 3D house tiles were completed in art this week. We learnt lots of skills of how to join clay and how to imprint with different patterns and textures, Don't they look great?
This week it was our turn to lead the church service for Easter. We took on varying roles and shared the important message of Easter to our friends and families. It was standing room only in the church!
W/B 20th March
What a busy week!
Alongside our assessments, which the whole class worked incredibly hard on, our classroom has been a hive of activity. Our caterpillars have more than doubled in size and are hopefully getting ready for their transformation. We have also noticed at least three of the bird boxes being filled with moss, ready for eggs.
In Science this week we thought about food and the ways we can group them. We looked at the Eatwell plate to help us think about how much of each food group we should try and eat. We even got to taste food, including raw sprouts!
In English we have looked at instruction writing and how we can include imperative verbs, time conjunctions and subordination 'so that'. Once we had found these types of words we set about following the instructions, to make our toy soldiers. Aren't they cute!
We said a sad farewell to Miss James this week as she heads off to her final placement in Shrewsbury. It has been a pleasure welcoming her to our school and we know she will take many fond memories away with her.
W/B 13th March
This week we continued to study the growth of our creepy, crawly caterpillars. They are getting very fat and have grown 7mm in length in one week! We have also been watching our Blue Tit nest boxes very carefully and some exciting changes are happening in several of the boxes! Perhaps we will have eggs very soon.
On Monday we received a visit from Elizabeth Perkins. She helped us to understand the meaning of Easter and what Christians do to prepare for holy week. We learnt that the alter has a purple cloth and there are no flowers in church at this time, just like during advent.
In English we have been looking at how we write in the past tense and how to include subordination 'when' in our sentences. We are building up our writing to end the unit with a diary recount from the point of view of Major Glad. This week we put ourselves in the place of the peg dolls by going 'under the floorboards', and using our senses to describe what it was like.
We really enjoyed ending the week with a visit from the PTA to help us make a little surprise and then our afternoon was filled with fundraising activities to raise money for Red Nose Day!
W/B 6th March
Even with the shortened week due to the snow, that doesn't mean Wrekin class weren't incredibly busy this week with all sorts of different learning opportunities.
The word of the week filling Wrekin class is 'positivity'! I have been blown away by the fantastic attitude all members of our class have shown towards their work this week, particularly with multiplication and division. Hearing pupils announce how much they love Maths is wonderful!
Our classroom has had some new members this week, 10 tiny caterpillars! We are excited to observe them as they grow and hopefully make that transformation into beautiful butterflies. We also continue to observe our Blue Tit nest boxes, where it looks like three birds are starting to build nests. If you want to follow their journey with us you can watch on this link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXZ0qavzE70
In Art we started exploring clay and how to change its shape. We made pinch pots this week and are looking forward to building up to a bigger, more skilled project at the end of the term.
We enjoyed playing with a range of old toys as the Wow lesson to introduce our next English unit. We thought about how old these toys were and who they might have belonged to. We used exciting language to describe our favourite toy; ensuring we included adjectives, verbs and adverbs. We have also been developing sentences to include subordination, such as 'because'.
W/B 27th February
This is the term where our classroom really comes to life! Our science unit is 'Animals and their needs' and this week we followed a live webcam feed of 8 blue tit nesting boxes. We were very excited to spot several blue tits coming and going, and we can see the emergence of nests being built in two of the boxes. We have the live feed running through the day so that we can follow their progress over the coming weeks. Perhaps we could set up a webcam in our own bird boxes in the future! We are also excitedly awaiting delivery of our caterpillars so that we can watch the transformation to butterflies. We will work closely with eco-council to plant seeds of flowers the butterflies will love, and also some mature plants ready for their release.
W/B 13th February
In Science we have been exploring materials. This week looked at how we plan an investigation, and how to make it a fair test. We have designed an investigation for finding the best paper bag to hold a sausage roll. We decided it needs to be water and greaseproof. We are looking forward to testing this after half term.
In English we finished writing our adventure stories and have proudly written them out in our neatest handwriting, ready to share with the rest of the school. We used exciting language and thought really carefully about the beginning, middle and end of our stories.
Our D&T project this term has been to make a moving monster machine. We looked at levers and pivots and then designed our monster's heads. We had great fun testing them out!
W/B 6th February
This week we explored the story of David and Goliath and discussed how all Bible stories have a moral or a lesson. We worked in groups to discuss the moral of this story and all agreed that it asks us to 'trust in God', 'God will protect you', 'Size doesn't matter', 'Stand up for yourself and others', 'love and faith will always win'. We then thought about a 'Goliath' in our lives and who we may have reached out to for support.
In Science this week we found out about John Boyd Dunlop, inventor of the pneumatic tyre. We were amazed at how a small idea had grown into such a big, world-wide company. Some of us realised that our own cars had Dunlop tyres. We discussed how materials, and the way we use them, are often developed because somebody comes across a problem. Perhaps we have future inventors at our school!
As part of Mental Health Week, we have been thinking about what it means to be kind to ourselves. We spent some time out of formal learning yesterday to do something kind for ourselves, that included quiet reading, painting, playing games with friends, time on the laptops or writing a small note to ourselves.
W/B 30th January
This week's Science lesson saw us testing the strength of paper and finding ways to make it stronger by studying how rope and string is made. We set up a fair test and each member of the group had a role. We added marbles to a bag hung from our paper rope and observed which was strongest.
In RE this week we have continued to find out about Judaism. In class we explored artefacts and symbols of the religion and found out their importance to Jewish people. In Woodland School we built a Sukkah and learnt about the story of Sukkot; where the Jews built temporary shelters during their time in the desert. We thought about how it might feel to live in these types of shelters for long periods of time.
We really enjoyed taking part in the NSPCC Number Day event today and took our learning outside with a range of tasks and activities to complete. It was amazing to discover how Maths appears so often in the natural world!
W/B 23rd January
We welcomed Miss James to our class this week. She is an AT, studying to be a teacher and will be with us until Easter. We are very excited to get to know her better and show her what a great class we are.
We have been making the most of our woodland school this year and some of us are really enjoying building dens. We are lacking in building materials though and would like to ask if anyone is able to source some big branches like the ones in the photo that are perfect for den building, it would be very much appreciated.
We also joined eco-council this week to take part in the Big Schools Bird watch. We scattered bird food and then waited patiently. We saw a lot of blackbirds and pigeons and even a few tiny sparrows.
W/B 16th January
This week in English we have been writing for various audiences and in different forms. We have written letters, e-mails and diary entries and made instructions leaflets. We have also been focusing on contractions and checking and editing our own work.
In D&T we practiced the skill of making pivots and levers, ready to make our own moving monsters in a few weeks time. We measured out our card, carefully added holes in the correct places and used split pins for the pivots.
In History we are finding out about how schools have changed within living memory and this week we imagined we had travelled back to a school in 1920. We came up with lots of investigative questions for children that might have been in that school. Perhaps families could share their memories of school when they were younger, to help us find out more.
W/B 9th January
Dragon in the school! This week we discovered a nest with a large, pink, spotty egg inside. We found footprints that we think may belong to a dragon and the egg was definitely too large to be a chickens. Everyone is on high alert and we have decided to create some dragon traps in Woodland school and write wanted posters in English.
We finished our poetry unit by writing a class poem, following the style of What Can Eye Spy? and using the idea of alliteration and rhyming couplets from the poem by Robert Louis Stevenson 'From a Railway Carriage'. (uploading of class poem coming soon)
We have had some great sessions in our woodland this week. We made leaf dragons, rather than snow angels! Some of us hunted for dragons and built dragon traps, testing out various ideas. We made some great dragon art using natural materials found on the forest floor. We were also excited to spot some of the bulbs we planted last year have started to shoot and peep out between the decaying leaves, spring is on its way!
Happy New Year!
We are really excited to be back, ready for a new and exciting term. Our overarching theme this term is 'Dragons' and our focus English book 'Dragin Machine' by Helen Ward. We will use this book to support us in writing our own adventure stories. In Maths we are moving on from recognising shapes and their properties, to identifying vertices and sides, as well as counting edges and faces on 3D shapes. We will be discovering the uses of levers and linkages to make our very own moving dragons and in History we are looking at the changes in schools through living memory. Materials will be our focus unit in Science, and will build upon what we learnt in Year 1. In RE we are exploring Judaism and our PSHE focus will see us discussing how practice makes perfect if we want to improve and achieve our goals.
W/B 28th November
On Monday we walked to St Margarets church to find out how Christians prepare for Christmas. Mrs. Elizabeth Perkins kindly helped us explore what an advent wreath is, and the meanings of the different coloured candles. She pulled out a gigantic pumpkin from her bag which she had used to make a big Christingle and we explored the different parts and what they represented. We also found out about a Chrismon tree; a tree decorated with symbols of Christ and Christianity.
On Wednesday we had some more messy fun making our bird fat balls. We mixed our chosen ingredients and shaped the fat balls into our designs. Over the next week we will be watching to see if we receive any visits from hungry birds and will evaluate the success of our creations, based on how well it held together and how much the birds have eaten. We all agree the mealworms were rather pongy!
W/B 14th November
We had such an exciting week this week. We have been exploring a range of problem-solving tasks and investigations in Maths, as part of Math's Week. We have taken part in a variety of active lessons where we developed our skills in addition, subtraction and place value; this all concluded with explorations around the Houses of Parliament. Tying in nicely with our current History topic and Parliament week.
On Wednesday we were visited by Shropshire Falconry, who bought with them 5 owls from around the world. We all had the opportunity to handle the owls while finding out all about their anatomy, their habitats and diets. We learnt that only some owls are nocturnal, others are diurnal or even crepuscular; meaning they hunt at dusk and dawn. Solo, the Great Horned Owl has four toes and one of these is a zygodactyl toe; it can move into different positions depending on its perch!
Miss Jones brought in her pocket swing for us to use in Woodland School this week, we had great fun swinging in the trees and even had a go at making some other playground equipment from natural materials, such as see-saws and balance beams. Some of us also brought our learning to life by reenacting the Gunpowder Plot, taking on the different roles and following the sequence of events.
W/B 7th November
In computing this week, we have been using spreadsheets to create a magic numbers game. We have been learning how to cut, copy and paste and use totaling icons to find the answer of a row or column of numbers.
On Wednesday we had a visit from Suzanne and her team to help us create some fantastic November themed artwork, which will be judged, and a winner chosen for Artfest calendar competition. We had great fun painting various images, including fireworks, toadstools and fantastic sunsets! We explored the use of different size brushes to add finer detail to our pictures.
In D&T this week we experimented with a range of binding agents, to see which would be the best to use when making our bird fat balls. We used goose fat, beef suet, gelatin and butter. After making a range of fat balls and leaving them to set, we concluded that beef suet and gelatin will be the best options. We then headed outside to share our experiments with the birds, they were very grateful!
W/B 31st October
This week we have been learning and reciting the rhyme 'The Owl and the Pussy-Cat'. We are innovating the rhyme by changing the characters and the adventures they go on. We have been exploring silly and nonsense words and adding them into our rhymes.
In D&T this term we will be designing and making our own fat balls to feed birds native to our gardens. This week we had great fun exploring products already on the market, breaking them apart to discover what they were made of, and then heading out to scatter what was left for the hungry and grateful birds.
In History we are exploring the reasons behind the Gunpowder Plot and have spent this first week in role play, trying to persuade King James to change his ways. We will discover what happened and discuss why. We will write our own recounts of the story and explore how these actions have affected our lives today. It has already led to discussions about our current government and how we live in a democratic society.
We all really enjoyed the Folk Concert put on for us by Shropshire Music Service!
W/B 10th October
Our amazing PTA came in on Monday to host a Crafts afternoon for the whole school. It was so exciting! We enjoyed mixing with the rest of the school in our house groups and created so many wonderful Autumn crafts; including leaf wreaths and firework paintings.
In Art this week we added colour to our wonderful and surreal troll sculptures. We used a restricted paint palette of red, yellow, blue, green, white and black, just like Miro. Next week we are creating a mini art gallery, just in time for parents' evening; please do come and take a look while you are here!
As we move onto addition and subtraction in Maths, Miss Jones would like us to practice our number bonds for 10 and 20. This will help us become more efficient mathematicians and see patterns and make connections as we begin to work with numbers to 100.
Our English unit this term has certainly inspired the creative writers among us, as many have taken to writing stories at home and even producing digital stories on Purple Mash. We make sure to find time in our busy day to share these great stories with the rest of the class, and on occasions, the rest of the school.
W/B 3rd October
What a busy week!
In Science this week we studied woodlice using choice chambers to find out what conditions they like to live in. We carefully collected them from our woodland area and then ensured to return them after our test. We made predictions, provided 4 different conditions for our woodlice to explore, recorded results of how many woodlice in each area every minute for 5 minutes and then concluded that they just love damp and dark places.
On Wednesday we all brought in our toothbrushes and practiced brushing our teeth, ensuring all areas were reached and that we brushed for two whole minutes. We have been finding out about the importance of good toothbrushing habits and will be developing strategies for helping us remember to brush every day.
Continuing on from our visit to the museum to study artist Joan Miro, this week we looked more closely at his sculptures. We spent some time designing our own surreal troll sculptures and then moulded them from clay. Mrs Jones taught us how to use a slip, which helps join pieces of clay together. When they are dry we will use a restricted pallette of colours to paint them.
We had great fun representing our school at the Grove High School for this year's cross-country competition. Everyone who took part tried their best and still had smiles on their faces, even after running all that way!
W/B 26th September
We had a fantastic trip to Shrewsbury Museum on Tuesday with Chesnut Class from Adderley. The art gallery tailored a special workshop just for us, based around the work of Joan Miro. We were very fortunate to have one of his paintings in the workshop with us while we worked and we met the owner, who told us more about it. We created a giant collaborative piece of art, before working on our very own Miro style portraits. This workshop has provided us with lots of inspiration to design and make our own surrealism troll sculptures.
In Geography we are comparing a small village in Zambia with our town, Market Drayton and this week we looked at the food they grow and eat. We made Nshima, a maize flour mixture, which is usually eaten with chicken, fish or a tomato sauce. We enjoyed ours with some jam and sugar. There were certainly mixed opinions during the taste test!
In Woodland School last week we made our own natural paintbrushes with items we found on the forest floor, they enabled us to create interesting textured paintings. This week we made our own Tree Trolls, creating a thick and sticky mud mixture and using sculpting tools and natural resources on the forest floor to enhance our trolls features.
W/B 19th September
On Monday we headed outside to investigate the vegetation living on our school grounds. We used identification sheets to help us name the various plants and trees. We collected samples, made simple sketches and took photos to record our findings.
In preparation for our exciting trip next week, we looked at Miro's use of printing, to make our own surreal images of animals. Miss Jones had great fun guessing what animals we had created. We are going to create a class book to display in school for all to enjoy.
Our English lessons have seen us exploring the characteristics of trolls and comparing them to the troll in our story. This week we had to write instructions of the top 10 things you need, to be a good troll and today we wrote letters from the perspective of Tabitha Lumpit's parents. We are focussing on expanded noun phrases and the use of subordination 'because' to justify our points.
W/B 12th September
What a busy, first full week back in school! Wrekin class have been busy learning to tie their laces this week, using videos and step by step guides. We have also discussed the importance of tying our laces correctly.
In Maths we are exploring place value, and everyone is now able to partition numbers into tens and ones; recognising the value of the digit representing the tens and the digit representing the ones. We have been matching numerals to written words too, and recognising numbers represented in pictures. This understanding will help support us as we move onto addition and subtraction.
For Science this week we headed outdoors and explored a variety of micro-habitats. We grouped the things we found into living, non-living and never lived and discussed the meaning of these words. It was interesting watching the class discuss their ideas on which category various items should go into, and explaining their reasoning, based on previous knowledge. Next week we are off an a plant hunt, using identification cards to help us name the different varieties we find on the school grounds.
W/B Monday 5th September
It has been wonderful to see all of the children return this week full of enthusiasm and an eagerness to get started on the term. Our first day back saw us finding out lots about The Wrekin, our newly named class. We produced some wonderful art work to compliment what we had found out.
We have also been thinking carefully about how we can Be Ready, Be Respectful and Be Safe, and the class have done a great job at demonstrating these things already.
This term we are using the book Troll Swap by Leigh Hodgkinson as our primary focus. The pupils will be exploring the work of artist Joan Miro and making their own clay trolls, inspired by the sculptures of Miro. In PSHE we will be developing vital skills in shoe-lace tying and teeth brushing. Look out for a letter about what you will need to send in when we practice brushing our own teeth.