Week 1

Computing - Word processing

This week the children started their new computing task of using ICT and the word processor program to create and save a fact file sheet about themselves. The children reviewed and recapped what they could remember about using computers and the word program from year 1 before exploring the font toolbox and experimenting what effects they could create for their names.

Music - Duration and rhythm

This term our music links to our main topic on the Titanic by focussing on duration, structure, and texture through the song "The big ship sails on the Alley Alley oh". This week the children used their knowledge of rhythm to copying steady rhythmic beats and learnt how these rhythms can change in pieces of music through duration. The children enjoyed taking turns to create their own 4 beat rhythmic patterns using different parts of their bodies which their friends copied.

English - Samson's Titanic Journey - Expanded noun phrases

This week we started our next writing journey story - Samson's Titanic Journey. The children have explored writing questions and making predictions by looking at different sections of the front cover through a slow reveal. The children then analysed the text and identified all of the adjectives used to describe in great detail the different things Samson finds during his journey and then experimented applying these in their own writing.

PE - Gymnastics - Continuous movement - Rolling

This week the children built on what they have learnt throughout this year by combining their knowledge of balance and different levels alongside exploring different rolling techniques such as log rolls and curled rolls to create a continuous movement from one starting position to a different finishing position. 

Art - Milliners

To start this terms art project the children learnt about what a milliner does and looked at some designs created by famous milliners. The children shared their likes and dislikes about the different hat styles and materials used. Miss Adams brought in a selection of hats from home which the children looked at whilst thinking about colour, texture, size and mixture of materials used.

Day trip to Southampton Sea City Museum - The Titanic Experience.

On Friday we had a great time travelling to Southampton and immersing ourselves in learning about the Titanic. When we arrived we were taken into our own room where the children were given the opportunity to have hands on experience learning about different parts of the Titanic story. The children got the opportunity to discuss who they think should be save out of all the passengers and crew, to get the last 20 seats on a lifeboat. Through experimenting with an ice cube tray the children learnt about how the water compartments filled up and how many needed to fill up before the Titanic was doomed to sink. Using their sense of sight and smell the children had to match pictures and smells to different rooms on board the Titanic. Children also got to hold replica items / objects that were on board the Titanic and work out what they were and what they were used for. We were then taken around the Titanic experience where we learnt more about the ill fated voyage and heard stories about different passengers and crew onboard . 

Week 2

PSHE - Let's all be happy

This week in PSHE we developed our understanding of emotions by exploring how our faces and body change when we have these different emotions. The children looked at different photos and thought of different adjectives to describe the emotion shown before playing emotion charades and guessing different emotions.

History - Sequencing the events of RMS Titanic

This week in history the children examined the timeline of key events that led to the sinking of RMS Titanic. The children were then set the challenge of sorting through and ordering the events in the correct chronological order.

English - Was RMS Titanic and ship of dreams or a ship of nightmares and writing in the past tense using the suffix -ed

In English this week we have developed our understanding of facts and opinions by reading and sorting different facts and then making up our own opinion about whether or not RMS Titanic was the ship of dreams or the ship of nightmares. To help the children make up their minds the children walked through a conscience alley and listened to differing facts. We also explored how we use the suffix -ed to change most verbs into past tense and those verbs that break the rules.

Maths - Number facts and problem solving

This week in maths the children got to show off their mathematical knowledge of addition and subtraction by showing other mathematical facts they knew that linked from one question. The children were able to show equivalent facts, relevant facts and nearby facts. As well as this we continued to develop our understanding of problem solving using the Polya method. The children were able to show how they understood the problem, plan a way they were going to solve the problem, actually solve the problem and then finally checking to make sure they were right. The children were able to confidently use different resources from their maths toolkits to help them solve the different problems. 

ICT - Importing pictures

This week the children continued to work on their fact files on themselves. The children were able to show what they have learnt from last terms photography topic by taking pictures of themselves before loading up their saved file and uploading their pictures and modify its size and place on the screen.  

Science - Longitudinal study - Changes to the environment

This week we looked back at when we made observations of our field in early Autumn looking for signs of life and how the field supported life in different ways. We then hypothesised what we thought we would see now in late winter and reasons for changes. We then ventured out into the glorious British weather to observe the changes and see if our hypotheses were correct.

PE - Games - Chest pass and bounce pass

This week the children continued to develop their sending and receiving skills by practising sending a ball to their partner by either a chest pass or a bounce pass. The children then explored tactics and strategies when using these pass techniques in a 3 way "piggy in the middle" game.

Week 3

English - Features of a diary

This week in English we explored the features used in writing a diary in preparation for writing our own diary entries as Samson the mouse. The children were able to understand the purpose of a diary and the importance of emotional language to describe feelings and give opinions. The children then used this to plan and write their own diary entries.

Maths - inverse and problem solving

In maths this week we have been using our knowledge of number relationships to find missing numbers and check their answers to a problem by using the inverse calculation to check their answers. The children also continued to develop their knowledge of using the polya method to problem solve.

World Book Day

On Friday we had a great time as a school celebrating the love of reading. The children were really excited and all looked amazing. It was lovely being able to invite grown ups in to share a story or two so thank you to those who were able to come in.

PE - Gymnastics - Linking movements

This week we focussed on linking everything we have learnt over this year and combining movements and poses of different levels together as one fluid motion. The children created different poses before rolling using different techniques into a different pose.

PE - Games - Ball control with racquets

This week the children incorporated their learnt ball skills - controlled bounce passing and sending and receiving - by creating new games with rules and creating a scoring system. 

Week 4

Maths - Statistics

This week we revisited statistics by recalling our knowledge of tally charts and pictograms before learning about how data can also be represented as block diagrams. The children created their own tally charts on favourite colours and then transferred them into block diagrams. The children also had the opportunity to look at other block diagrams and answer questions about the information shown.

Music - Structure

This week we continued to use the song "The big ship sails on the Alley Alley oh" to help us develop our understanding of structure. The children focussed on two words of the song - "ALLEY" (2 beats) and "OH" (1 beat). The children explored creating their own musical compositions by creating different structure patterns using either a 2 beat or a single beat in a bar. Working with a partner the children rehearsed their different compositions before performing their favourite musical structure pieces. 

Simon Phillip Visit

Following on from World Book Day last week, we were lucky to have our book of the month author Simon Phillip come to visit us to share how he became an author, tell us how he writes his stories, read us some of his stories and work with us to create "what animal am I?" fact cards based on his book "Wanna see a penguin." All the children had a great morning with Simon.

Science - Food chains

As part of our longitudinal study, the children looked at the different producers, consumers and predators who might live or use our school field. The children learnt about how food chains are created and how the energy is transferred. The children were then given a selection of producers, consumers and producers pictures to see how many different food chains they could create.

English - Powerful verbs

This week we started our new writing journey base on the short film "Once in a lifetime." The children will be using this wordless film to create a descriptive narrative and therefore the choice and use of words is very important. Developing their learning on synonyms, the children sorted different verbs by placing them under the right noun headings before then sorting similar words in order of most powerful to least powerful. 

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

This was the question the children thought about this week. The children listened to different historical evidence about key people and their involvement with RMS Titanic. The children moved around the room to where pictures were depending on who they thought was the most to blame. Was it Captain Smith? Was it the ship builders? Was it Bruce Ismay? Was it Thomas Andrews? Or was it Captain Lord? Once the children had made up their own minds they wrote a couple of sentences explaining their reasons why. 

Art - Becoming milliners - making hats

After being inspired by well known milliners and sketching their own designs, this week the children began to make their own Titanic themed hats. The children cut out and joined card together to create their skeleton frame for their hats in preparation for finishing their designs and decorating next week.

Good luck Miss Adams and thank you

On Friday we were very sad to say goodbye to Miss Adams who successfully completed her final year teaching placement with us with flying colours. We will all really miss her but know that she is going to be an amazing teacher in another school. We couldn't let her go without a card signed by all, a little party and a slice of delicious cake kindly made by one of our parents. Thank you so much for all your hard work, passion and enthusiasm over the last 10 weeks Miss Adam. Good luck.

Week 5

Maths - Money

This week in maths the children developed their money knowledge by combining different coins to make the same amount, adding, subtracting and multiplying different value to solve problems. The children were able to recognise and identify all of the coins know their different values.

English - Nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs

This week the children looked in detail at the effect of adjectives, verbs and adverbs have in sentences. Using the film, "once in a lifetime" as a stimulus the children looked at photos from the film and explored creating expanded noun phrases and adverbial phrases to excite their reader.

History - RMS Titanic

This week in history we looked at the aftermath of the sinking of RMS Titanic to try and understand why lots of people believe the tragedy was actually a triumph due to the changes to cruise ship laws that followed. The children learnt about these changes and debated whether or not it was a triumph or still a tragedy. On Thursday, we were pleased to invite the rest of school into our classroom to share our amazing RMS Titanic homework models. Thank you for all the hard work and support that went into making these models.

Art - Becoming Milliners

After designing and constructing the framework for their hats, this week the children began to use their designs and available materials to construct their Titanic themed hats. The children had to think about shape and texture and consider the appropriate joining techniques they were going to use to make their hats desirable and fashionable.

PE - Gymnastics - High and low poses with fluid transitions

This week in gymnastics the children developed their floor skills and transferred them onto different apparatus. The children incorporated their knowledge and skills or rolling and high and low levels to move around, over, under and through different apparatus before striking and holding different levelled poses and then continuing their movement.

Computing - Wordart

To finish off their fact files, the children this week learnt how to insert Wordart. They then explored the different effects that can be applied and tried to find the most eye catching style to use for their titles.

Week 6

Science Day

On Monday we were lucky to be visited by Georgia from Mini professors who taught us lots of interesting facts about air. The children learnt about where air is found, and how it is manipulated to make things move. The children learnt about gravity and air resistance through making paper helicopters. The children also got to experience how forceful air can be by making things move including themselves.

Maths - Fractions

This week in maths we revisited fractions and recapped what 1/2, 1/4, 1/3 and 2/4's of different shapes looked like before moving on to exploring fractions of amounts and making the connection between fractions and division as sharing equal amounts. We also used bar models to help us work out the whole amount when starting with just a one part of a fraction.

English - Descriptive narratives

This week the children became authors again by turning their plans they had made based on John Gurridge's film "Once in a life time" into a descriptive narrative. The children used expanded noun phrases and adverbial phrases to create a narrative either from the viewpoint of the man or pilot or in third person. These were then edited and published at the end of the week and will be turned into a book for our library.

Religious Education - The Easter story

This week we have explored the Easter story to consider the importance of love and forgiveness. At the start of the week we acted out some scenarios with either a forgiving or a non forgiving outcome and discussed the differences. We then contemplated how love was shown in the Easter story and recreated what we thought were the most important parts of the story that showed love. We then explored how Jesus's love can still be seen today through different charities which help people in need.

Wishing you all a very happy Easter.