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.
