Spring 1
This half-term our Learning Journey is 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, similes and alliteration to describe the fire. In spelling sessions, we have focused on adding the suffixes -ed and -ing to root words. We have used the rhyme, “Is there a letter we need to drop? Is there a letter to double or swap?” 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 on pages 18 and 19 of their reading diary.
Maths
As Mathematicians, the children started the half-term learning about money. They have learnt to identify different coins and have practised making different amounts. We started to apply our addition and subtraction skills to solving problems involving money e.g finding the total when buying more than one item or working out the change needed.
We have also been learning about multiplication. We began this unit thinking about equal groups and what this means, as well as how to recognise any groups that are not equal. Children were introduced to arrays as a representation of multiplication and we have looked at repeated addition sentences alongside multiplication sentences so that children understand what X means in context.
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.
Autumn 2
This half-term our Learning Journey was called ‘Marvelous Medicine’. We began our topic with a visit from Florence Nightingale.
English
In English this half term, we have been learning about recounts. We learnt, ‘The Life of Florence Nightingale’ and after researching and learning about Mary Seacole, we used the structure of our original recount to help us write ‘The story of Mary Seacole. Children worked hard to sequence life events clearly. They used conjunctions to join sentences together and add detail and description.
We have also learnt the story, ‘The Papaya that Spoke’ and focused on use of dialogue in the story. We practiced choosing different words for said and the use of adverbs to show character feelings.
Maths
As Mathematicians the children have been developing and refining their calculating skills. We have been practicing our addition and subtraction of any two 2-digit numbers on a number line.
Also in Maths, we have been learning about the properties of 2D and 3D shapes. Children have described, sorted and categorized shapes based on their number of side, vertices, edges and faces.
Creative Curriculum
In History, we have been learning about the two famous nurses Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole. We learnt about their lives, their important work and how they helped to bring about change in people’s thinking and the healthcare system.
In Art, we have been learning about portraits, focusing specifically on developing our sketching skills. We have learnt how to use different tones in our work by changing the pressure on our pencil – we have practiced showing light and dark areas in our artwork.
In Computing, we have been developing out typing skills. We have learnt how to open and save a word document. We have practiced typing, using the shift key to make a capital letter, using the space bar to leave a finger space and changing the font, size and colour of our text.
Autumn 1
This half-term our Learning Journey was called ‘Happily Ever After’ and it has been based around the beautiful book, ‘The Jolly Postman’ and Fairytale Land. We launched our topic with a delivery of lost parcels. The children opened the parcels and had to think about and discuss who they should have been sent too. E.g 1 glass slipper.
English
We have learnt the story, ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ and focused on describing the settings in the story. We practiced choosing adjectives carefully, using similes and including the time of day and weather to really set the scene in our stories.
Also, in English this half term, we have been writing instructions. Our instructional text was, ‘How to Trap a Giant’ 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 2-digit numbers. (How many tens and ones are in a given number) We have practised making, drawing, comparing and ordering numbers to 100.
Also in Maths, we have started to learn about addition and subtraction. We have practised adding and subtracting a multiple of 10, a 1-digit number and have applied our number bond to 10 knowledge to add to the next multiple of 10.
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. We enjoyed a visit from BDR Waste who taught about the importance of the 3Rs. (recycle, reuse, reduce)
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 out own artwork.
In DT, we had the fantastic ‘Great Puppet Sew’ where parents came in to support their child making their own fairytale puppet.
