Week 1

English - Meerkat Mail

A suitcase was found outside our classroom at the start of the week labelled from Madagascar. As a class we looked inside it and found some very random items that didn't appear to have any connections. The children inferred who the suitcase might belong to based on the different things within it. One of the items was a meerkat and the very next day the meerkat was spotted with a book called "Meerkat Mail". After reading the story the children worked out that all the item related to the story and that the meerkat was called "Sunny".

Maths - Counting in 2's, 5's, 10's and 3's

This week we continued to develop our knowledge of skip counting by exploring patterns that are made when counting in 2's, 5's, 10's and 3's. The children used concrete resources and number lines to represent the different jumps and then explained the patterns they recognised. We then used this knowledge to complete missing number sequences. 

PSHE - Helping Hand

This week the children shared times that they have helped others and how it felt talked about how it made themselves and others feel. The children then got first hand experience of helping others by taking it in turns to help their friends through an obstacle course whilst they were blindfolded. The children then shared how it felt to help and be helped.

DT - Making Pencil Pot Carriers and evaluating

This week the children used different joining techniques to complete their pencil pot carriers. The children then evaluated their models by thinking about what they liked about their model, what they found tricky and how they overcame challenges, and finally what they would do differently to make their models even better next time.

Week 2

Armistice Day

At the start of the week all of the children showed their respect in the hall by doing a 2 minute silence to remember the brave men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom.

History - In Flanders Field

Throughout this week the children have learnt about the symbolic importance of the poppy and how it inspired John Macrae to write his poem "In Flanders Field". The children compared pictures of battlefields and poppy fields and created an adjective word wall to describe how the pictures made them feel. The children learnt about John Macrae and how he came to write "In Flanders Field". The children then explored the poem in more detail by creating pictorial annotations of what different lines meant and then created their own pieces of art based around the poem.

Maths - Arrays

This week we started to look at arrays and how these are set up in rows and columns and help us to use our skip counting skills to help us count multiple objects quicker. We learnt that arrays are used in everyday items such as food packaging and for architecture. The children went on an array scavenger hunt and identified and wrote sentences to match the arrays they found. We looked at how we can use arrays to help us group and share objects and put this into practise by grouping and sharing each other. 

English - Meerkat Mail

This week the children learnt about creating comparative and superlative adjectives by adding suffixes "er" and "est" and the spelling rules that need to be followed to spell the words correctly. The children used these adjectives to write sentences about Sunny the Meerkats journey throughout the story. In the book Sunny is looking for the perfect place to live so the children were set the challenge of trying to find a new home for Sunny by thinking about good and bad points of different places.

Art - Primary Colours

This week the children started their new art topic inspired by the Great Fire of London. We will be looking at different painting and sketches from around the time and learning the different artists skills and techniques. To help prepare the children for painting they were set the challenge of creating a colour wheel by only using the 3 primary colours. The children mixed the colours to make secondary colours and also explored how the continuous addition of white can create tinting to colours. 

PE - Games - Aiming, sending and receiving

Following on from last weeks work with beanbags, the children explored the difference in sending balls and how they use their bodies to aim and send and how to position themselves to receive a ball. The children then put these skills into practise by aiming at targets and sending balls back to their partners.

Week 3

PSHE / Computing

This week we developed our knowledge and understanding of internet safety by exploring thinking about whether or not things we see on the internet are reliable and safe. We discussed how the advancement of technology has blurred the lines of reality and fiction and how we we should check with a responsible adult if we are unhappy or unsure about things we see online. The children then looked at different fake websites and sorted them into groups of whether or not they were suitable for children, okay to look at with a responsible adult, or not suitable at all.

Maths - Geometry - Properties of 2D shapes

This week we recapped recognising and describing 2D shapes by their properties. The children then explored what half of something means - one whole split into two equal parts. This led on to introducing lines of symmetry of shapes and objects. The children cut out and folded 2D shapes to work out how many lines of symmetry different shapes had.

English - Features of an informal letter

In preparation for the children to write their own informal letters, we reviewed what features we would expect to find in this type of writing. The children were able to recall the feature from last half term and then were able to identify them in an unseen letter. The children then used these features to plan their own letters as Sunny the Meerkat to his family.

PE - Dance - The Great Fire of London - people vs the fire

This week we focussed on looking at the different jobs the people during the great fire of London may have done - baker, shop keeper, etc. The children created different movements to show these different jobs and then performed them for their friends to guess. The children then got into groups and using their knowledge of high and low body parts and twisting and turning to create a movement piece showing how the people came together to try and put the fire out using buckets and water from the River Thames.