Week 1

Starting the week with a swing.

We were visited by Isaac at the the of the week to promote the sport of cricket and All stars Cricket. The children had a great time practising their bowling, throwing, batting, and catching skills through a variety of activities. 

English - Pattan's Pumpkin

This week we starting our new learning journey on Pattan's Pumpkin. This is a traditional Indian flood story. To give the children an idea of what an Indian storm sounds like the children were set the challenge of creating a musical soundscape of a storm using body percussion. The children listened to the story and then drew different storm pictures that appeared in the story before creating percussion sound effects. After playing their soundscapes the children created a bank of amazing adjectives to describe the storm and how the main characters may have felt. The children also walked through the story retelling the tale to their partner and wallowed on unknown words to learn meaning.

Geography - Are all rural villages the same?

For our geography topic this term we are comparing Uganda and the UK. This week we reviewed our knowledge of what makes a village a village before comparing villages from all around the world, including Uganda and the UK and comparing similarities and differences between them. 

Music - The importance and art of African story telling

This week we explored how African music and percussion is used in story telling and how story telling plays an important part in African culture by passing down tales from the past about their ancestors. After listening and watching several stories being performed the children discussed how mood and emotion was created by the story teller through changing their facial expressions and making different sounds. The children were then given the challenge of selecting an emotion and creating a facial expression along with an appropriate sound effect.

Art - African art

This week the children were introduced to our focus artist John Muafangejo who was internationally known for his wood print art alongside other African styles of art. The children very quickly notice that repeating patterns based on animals, prints, and flowers were used a lot to create artwork. This inspired the children to have a go at using different items around the classroom to create their own repeating pattern prints. 

Science - What material is best for waterproofing?

Focusing on the property of waterproofing, the children set up and ran their own experiments to test which material would be best to use for waterproofing. The children discussed the importance of creating a fair test to find out the best material accurately. We had willing teddy bears as guinea pigs and the children tested and recorded their findings before concluding the best and worst material and explaining why.  

Week 2

PE - Dance with friends

This term in dance we are developing our knowledge of sequencing movements together to create routines incorporating different levels, tempo, leads, and starting and finishing positions. Our first routine of the term we worked on was linked to a piece of music called "friends". This piece has two distinct alternating tempos and the challenge was to work with others to create different combined movements, leading, following, and linked to create a dance piece that portrayed friendship. 

Geography - Where in the world is Uganda?

Using Google Earth, we were able to take the children on a journey starting from our school at Catherington and travelling up and away to Uganda. During this journey the children were able to share their knowledge about villages, towns and cities, the United Kingdom and the Sahara desert. The children were then set the challenge of finding Uganda using an atlas and finding out any interesting facts.

Music - body percussion

This week we joined "African Beat" to explore how African rhythm and harmonies can be created using body percussion. The children enjoyed copying the different percussion patterns before splitting into two groups to create different layers.

Art - Circle art

Following on from last weeks lesson on creating different print effects, the children used what they had learnt to create colourful circular print art inspired by patterns used by various African artists.

Science - Which materials can help me keep warm.

This week we continued our experiments, testing materials and their properties. This week we looked at "insulation" and had to hypothesise which material we felt would keep a cup of water the warmest. We had 5 cups wrapped up in different materials and then poured warm water into each of them, taking the starting temperature of each to insure accurate results. After 20 minutes we removed the lids and took each cups temperature and recorded the results to see if we were right and why.

Computing - Algorithms - same and different

The children had great fun using our Beebots this week. With these the children explored how inputting the same commands in different orders effected how the Beebot travelled and where it eventually ended on the map.

Week 3

Scooter training

This was a very busy and exciting week which started off with scooter training. Every child was shown and given the opportunity to ride a scooter safely and perform a few tricks.

English - Innovating a traditional tale

This week the children became authors by planning and writing their own innovated versions of a traditional tale base around Chitra Soundar's flood story called "Pattan's Pumpkin." The children innovated the characters, the fruit or vegetable grown, and the setting. The children will be editing and publishing next week and I can't wait to read them.

Maths - Place value and greater than / less than

In maths this week the children have been developing their knowledge and understanding of numbers and place value. First, the children looked at how 2 digits numbers can be broken down into tens and ones and then explored what other equivalent facts could be created by moving the tens over to the ones.

e.g 47 can be made by 40 + 7 it can also be made by 30 + 17 and 20 + 27. 

Science - Materials and exploring how some solids can be changed.

The children continued to investigate different materials and their properties this week. The children were asked to explore and observe how solid materials could be changed and how. The children were very good at naming a range of solid materials and loved exploring changing ice into water by adding heat. The children then went on a scavenger hunt to find a range of materials and investigated how these might be able to change. The children came up with a great range of hypothesis of how their found solids could be changed through squashing, pulling, twisting, and burning.  

The King's Coronation Day

We ended our week by learning about and celebrating the King's upcoming coronation. After a very informative assembly about how 2 bags of flour, a piece of wood, a stone, oil, and 5 meters of paper towel all link to the coronation service, the children created their own coronation crowns. We also listened to some of the coronation music that will be played in the service and how it links to King Charles III being the King of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The children also made a collage of King Charles III's head and not to forget, enjoying a special whole school picnic in the hall to celebrate.

Week 4

Maths - Addition and subtraction problems involving units

This week in maths the children have been developing their addition and subtracting skills by solving problems involving different units of measurement including length, mass and time.

English - Editing and innovating traditional flood tales

This week the children became authors again by proof reading their draft stories and editing them to improve them before publishing them. We will be making these into a book that the children can enjoy reading in our book corner.

PE - Dance - bubbles

In dance this week the children were using bubbles as a stimulus to create a cooperative movement piece that involved "floating" around, joining together using different pitch and patch parts before bursting. The children used their previous knowledge of creating pathways, change of levels, and spinning and turning to produce creative movement pieces. 

Geography - Comparing Country and National Parks

This week the children learnt about Queen Elizabeth Country Park's twinned park in Uganda - "Queen Elizabeth National Park. The children brainstormed what they thought they would expect to see if they went for a walk in the Country park and the South Downs. The children were incredibly knowledgeable and came up with a detailed list of features, plants / trees, and animals they might see. The children then went out onto our field to see if they could find evidence to match what they thought. Afterward the children came back into class and looked at what Queen Elizabeth National Park has in it in preparation for our comparison trip next week.

Week 5

English - The Hunter by Paul Geraghty

This week we started our final writing journey for this term, but instead of being shown a book the children were given a selection of words containing characters, settings and adjectives. The children then had to sort the words and then use the information in front of them to predict what the story might be about. The children were then shown the front cover of the book and changed their predictions accordingly.

Art - Printing inspired by John Muafangejo

During this term the children have been learning about how printing is used by some African artists, including our focus artist John Muafangejo, and how animal prints, flowers and repeating patterns are used a lot in their artwork. This week the children looked at John Muafangejo's artwork and shared what they liked about his pieces. They then chose one of his pieces and with a polystyrene tile and a sharp pencil created a pin prick plate to be used to create a print of the work.

Computing - Predictions

This week we continued our learning on algorithms by looking at different instructions and predicting where the Beebots would end up if they followed them. The children used a pre-set algorithm and starting position to start off with to help with their initial predictions before moving on to  choosing their own directions / instructions. The children made their predictions and then ran the program to test if they were right.  

PSHE - Looking after our environment

What does "environment" mean? That was the question the children answered first this week. This allowed us to think about environment meaning as big as the world right through to our classroom. The children then had to look at different environment areas around our school and think about what they liked and what they didn't like about them before choosing one area and thinking of a solution to make it even better.

Geography - Comparing Queen Elizabeth Country Park and Queen Elizabeth National Park.

Before we left for our field trip to Queen Elizabeth Country park, we re-explored what Queen Elizabeth National Park had to offer - from safari and boat trips through to bird watching and chimp tracking. The children recorded different animals that could be seen along with other tourist attractions that were on offer. We then got on to the coach and set off for Queen Elizabeth Country Park. The children were great at spotting and recording a variety of different attractions before having a go at some of them. On our return, we then compared the two parks and wrote about similarities and differences seen.

PE - Twisting and bunny hops

This week we were developing our twisting techniques by exploring how our body moves when we twist. The children then used this technique to the create twist jumps and a variety of floor twists with control. The children also reviewed last weeks lesson where they moved their bodies around a stationary part of their bodies.

Week 6

RE - Rakshabandhan

This week was RE  week and the children learnt about the Hindu festival of Rakshabandhan and the importance of protection and sibling love. The children thought about what the word protection means and who protects them before learning the significance of the Hindu festival and making their own Rakhi for their friends.

PSHE - Road Safety

This week  the children revisited the importance of road safety and focussed on identifying hazards and recognising the safest places to cross in different scenarios. The children got to put their theory into practise by identifying the safest place to safely cross the road outside of school and making sure that they stopped looked and listened before beginning to cross the road and continuously looking and listening whilst crossing.

Art - Printing in the style of John Muafangejo

This week the children use their polystyrene pin prick plates and paint rollers to recreate some of John Muafangejo's artwork using his printing techniques. The children used rollers and black paint to cover their plates with an even spread before carefully placing it on a blank piece of paper and firmly pushing down on it to leave a template from the plate. 

PE - Dance - Shadows

In dance this week the children were given the task of combining their learning from this term and producing a movement piece based on the stimulus "shadows". As the weather has been so good, it seemed a waste not to go outside and explore the different shapes and things they could get their shadow to do before moving into the hall to create their movement pieces to music.