Week 1 - The Titanic Trip and World Book Day

We have started spring 2 with a bang with a fantastic first week back. Not only did we start our new writing journey - Samson's Titanic Journey; look at how number sentences have "relative" and "equivalent" facts to help us solve and work out a variety of other number sentences, and explore friendship by looking at what good friends DO and DON'T do . We also did....

History - The SeaCity Museum - The Titanic Story

On Tuesday we were very lucky to be able to go on our first school trip to the SeaCity Museum in Southampton. This was a fantastic start to our Titanic topic and the children got to explore and find out so much about the Titanic. After an exciting trip on the coach we were taking into a classroom to get a general understanding of what the Titanic was. We were then set 4 different activities:

1) To look at actual historic artefacts from the Titanic and work out what they did and how they were used.

2) To match pictures of onboard the Titanic with what they showed and then using the sense of smell match the smell to work out what the crew and passengers may have smelt if they were on that part of the ship.

3) Andy led a scientific experimental activity investigating how many compartments of a boat needed to fill up before the "boat" sank. One group actually managed to fill up all 12 compartments carefully without making the "boat" sink.

4) Possibly the trickiest activity as there was no correct answer. The children were presented with a replica lifeboat that could only hold 10 people. The children had the challenge of deciding which people - crew, passengers (1st - 3rd class), men, women, and children should be allowed into the lifeboat based on the information on them.

After this we were taken around the Titanic story museum where we found out more information about what it was actually like on board the Titanic and how it was a different experience for 1st class, 2nd class, 3rd class and crew. Children got to see real pictures and hear 1st hand accounts about the boat and what happened on the 14th April 1912.

We were then given time to look around the museum ourselves and the children got the opportunity to become "firemen" and see just how tough it was to keep the 3 massive boilers onboard the Titanic fuelled with coal and kept at the right pressure. Some children also got the opportunity to explore sending Morse Code messages just the way they did in the Marconi room onboard the Titanic.

World Book Day

On Thursday we joined over 100 other countries in celebrating the love of reading and books with World Book Day. We started the day off with a scavenger hunt where children had to search through books to find different things. We then joined Puffin Publishers and enjoyed working with authors Greg James and Chris Smith who taught us how to become story makers and create funny stories by using different sets of cards with characters, settings, and situation on them. We then worked with one of our classes favourite authors Nathan Bryon and illustrator Dapo Adeola who created "Clean Up!" and "Look Up!". They spoke to us about their special world book day book "Rocket Rules" which uses the main character Rocket and her 10 rules that she follows to make a difference. This got us all thinking about the small things we could do that could make a big difference. The day was finished off perfectly when we were able to invite our grown up's into our classroom to share our favourite stories and books with.

Week 2 - The Titanic - history, maths and English

This week we have carried on the Titanic theme in our history, maths, and English. In history we explored the sequence of events that led to the Titanic sinking and had a go at correctly sequencing the events in the correct chronological order.  maths we have use Titanic word problems to solve missing numbers and to work out what operation we need to use to solve the problem. In English we explored different facts and discussed our friends our own opinion of whether or not the Titanic was "a ship of dreams" or "a ship of nightmares". We used our story of Samson's Titanic journey to focus on the use of suffixes to either write correctly in the past tense (ed) or to change an adjective into an adverb (ly).

Music - Willow the Wisp

In music this week we learnt a new song called "Granny came to tea" and explored playing tuned instruments to accompany the songs chorus when it moves up the scale from low to high pitch playing the correct notes.

PE - Gymnastics

This week in gymnastics we continued to develop our balancing, moving, and jumping skills. We explored how we could use what we had already learnt about pitch and patch points of contact to create different shapes as well as learning how to do a half twist jump to add to our tuck and pencil jump. We also explored how we can moved along the apparatus using different parts of our bodies. 

Week 3

Maths - Statistics

This week the children developed their data knowledge by focussing on tally charts and block diagrams. The children not only collected their own data from others but also drew their own tally charts and interpreted others by answering questions. 

History - On board the Titanic

This week the children used their imagination and boarded RMS Titanic. They were greeted by one of the ship's crew (Mr D) and issued their tickets - 1st class - 3rd Class. The children then explored and researched what life on board the Titanic was like for the different class passengers. They really got into their characters and produced some incredible postcards, writing to family members about what is was like on board.

English - Features of a diary

The children have been working really hard this week using expanded noun phrases, adverbial phrases, time connectives, personal opinions, conjunctions and commas. At the end of the week, we explored features that are usually found in diary entries and noticed that they matched what we had been learning about! The children were then set the challenge of identifying these features in other diary entries before they create their own diary entries as Samson.

Science - materials for clothing properties

This week we started our new science topic of materials for clothing. The children learnt about Charles Macintosh, the Scottish scientist who invented waterproof fabric, and investigated traditional clothing from around the world and thought about why the materials were chosen for their clothing in relation to where they were in the world.

Week 4 - 

English - Samson's postcards

This week the children used everything they have learnt over this writing journey to write their own postcard as Samson the mouse recounting his journey and experience onboard RMS Titanic. The children chose to write on either first class, second class, or third class paper and used their neatest handwriting to produce some wonderful pieces of writing. Well done Seahorses!

Maths - Money

This week the children have been helping Mr Dickenson and Mrs Woodings with their money problems by adding and taking away different values and working out how much change we should be correctly getting.

History - Titanic - Who was to blame for the sinking of RMS Titanic?

This week the children went back in time and took on the role of a judge to decide who they thought was to blame for the sinking of RMS Titanic. The children listened to and discussed the evidence they heard about Captain Smith, the ship builders, Bruce Ismay, Thomas Andrews, and Captain Lord. They then made their own minds up as to who or whom was to blame.

Music - Pitch - Higher or Lower?

This week the children were developing their knowledge of playing tuned percussion instruments along with their understanding of pitch. We played a game called "Higher or Lower?" where children took it in turns to compose their own percussion pattern using the learnt notes and then the other children had to work out whether or not the tune was going from high to low or low to high.

Week 5 - English - Once in a Lifetime

This week we started our final writing journey for this term by watching the short film "Once in a Lifetime" by John Gulledge. The children are using this silent film as a stimulus to create their own descriptive narrative tale. The children focussed on generating powerful nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs to create engaging and rich sentences. The children used stills from the film to label key vocabulary to help them generate their own word banks.

Maths - Measurement - capacity

This week in maths we have been reviewing our measurement knowledge and learning about measuring temperature and capacity. The children got to use different containers and explored filling them up and then measuring in ml and l and comparing them. The children then ordered the containers by their capacity and using the greater than, less than, and equal to symbols <, >, =.

History - Why did the Titanic sink and so many people lose their lives?

In history this week, we reviewed all that we have learnt so far and then as a class created a diamond 9 to show what we thought were the main causes of the tragedy and who was most to blame for the high number of people lost at sea.

Art - Milliners

This half term we have been learning about famous milliners and using their art techniques to design and create our own hats with the Titanic as our inspiration. Children used photos of hats designed by modern day milliners alongside hats worn onboard the Titanic to design their own taking into account of colours, patterns, and textures.