Spring 1
This half-term our Learning Journey was called ‘Fire and Ice’. We launched our topic with the beautiful text “The Snow Dragon by Vivian French.” The children found some dragon’s eggs in the hall which we have cared for. We have also investigated the historic event, The Great Fire of London.
English
We started this half term learning about warning tales and suspense. We learnt the story, ‘Kazeem and the Fire Dragon’, looking carefully at the story structure and typical plot of a warning tale. We learnt how to create suspense in our stories and practiced using these features. Children then used their knowledge of ‘Kazeem and the Fire Dragon’ to create their own warning tales with suspense. Also, in English this half term, we have written descriptive poems, imagining what it might have been like to be in ‘The Great Fire of London’. We have tried to include adjectives and alliteration to describe the fire.
You could help your child with their English skills by reading with them as often as possible and learning to read and spell the tricky words in their reading diary.
Maths
As Mathematicians, the children have continued to practise their addition and subtraction skills using bigger numbers up to 20. New terminology has been introduced this term including tens and ones, We have been using our knowledge of numbers bonds and fact families of numbers to 10 to help us with our number sentences to 20.
Creative Curriculum As Historians, we have been learning about The Great Fire of London. We had a visit from Sir William Petty who was an eye-witness to this famous historical event and he told us how it started and what happened. We did experiments to show how the fire spread and how people tried to put the fire out.
As part of our Design and Technology learning the children have had to design purposeful, functional, and appealing products based on their design criteria. Children made fire engines using a range of tools and equipment to develop their skills such as cutting, shaping, joining and finishing.
In Art we explored how to mix and blend oil pastels and used the taught skills to create a striking dragons eye.
Autumn 2
This half-term our Learning Journey was called ‘Nurturing Nurses’, based on the lives of Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole. We launched our topic with a special visitor: Florence Nightingale came to visit our class and share her life story, which we later explored through interactive workshops and role play.
English
We have learnt about the life of Florence Nightingale and focused on recounting her experiences. The children practised writing in chronological order, using time conjunctions and carefully chosen adjectives to enhance their descriptions.
We have also been writing a journey tale inspired by the story ‘The Talking Papaya’. The children worked hard to include dialogue in their writing.
Maths
As mathematicians, the children have been focusing on addition and subtraction this half term. They have been exploring different methods for adding and subtracting numbers to 10, including using a number line. We have been applying our place value and number bond knowledge to find missing numbers, one more and one less.
Creative Curriculum
In History, we have been learning about the lives of Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole, comparing their achievements and their roles in the Crimean War. We discussed the impact they had during the war and their lasting legacy today.
In Art, we explored tone and sketching skills linked to portrait work. The children learnt how to use tone effectively and applied a range of mark‑making techniques when drawing their own portrait of Florence Nightingale.
In DT, we created our own class scarecrows as part of the school Pumpkin Patch celebration, designing a scarecrow in the likeness of a famous person Paul Parker aka Spiderman. We also used our DT skills to make items to sell at the Christmas Fayre, as part of our Young Enterprise project.
We all had a visit to the pantomime this year, oh yes we did! We had a fabulous time watching Snow White.
Autumn 1
English
We have been focusing on the composition of a simple sentence including capital letters, finger spaces and full stops. We have been writing daily dictated sentences in line with our phonics programme to consolidate the graphemes and tricky words we have covered in each session. We have learnt the story, ‘The Three Little Pigs’ and focused on descriptive language to describe the character.
Also, in English this half term, we have been writing instructions. Our instructional text was, ‘How to Trap a Wolf’ and we innovated this to write our own instructions to trap another fairytale villain. Children worked hard to include the features of instructional texts in their writing.
Maths
As Mathematicians the children have been focusing on understanding the place value of numbers up to 10 including one more, one less, greater than and less than. We have looked at number bonds to 10 and part whole models.
Also in Maths, we have started to learn about addition and subtraction. We have practised adding and subtracting numbers within 10, solving number sentences and word problems.
Creative Curriculum
In Geography, we have been learning about our local area. We enjoyed a walk around Kimberworth Park. We talked about what makes it a nice place to live and what we could do to improve our community. We have learnt about the use of symbols and keys on maps and have drawn our own maps of our walk.
In Art, we have been learning about the artist, Paul Klee. We looked at his artwork and learnt about his use of shape and colour. We imitated his style to create our own artwork.
In DT, we had the fantastic ‘Great Puppet Sew’ where parents came in to support their child making their own fairytale puppet.
