Week 1

Spirituality Day

Our week started with us revisiting the 4 areas of spirituality and how they apply to our daily lives. The children focussed on the "mirror" and spent time focussing on themselves by saying nice things about themselves to remind them that they can do anything if they put their mind to it. We then focussed on the "door" and discussed different scenarios and how we might resolve them taking into account other peoples' feelings. After that we looked at the "window" and went out onto the field to appreciate our natural environment. Finally we looked at the "candle" and thought about big questions we had.  

English - Pattan's Pumpkin

This week in English we have started our new writing journal, looking at an Indian traditional tale called Pattan's Pumpkin. To get a better understanding of the force of a flood, the children explored using different musical instruments to create a sound scape of an Indian flood. The children then sequenced and retold the story by walking through the story with actions before wallowing on unfamiliar words to work out their meanings.

Maths - Addition and subtraction

This week the children have continued to develop their number knowledge by working on their fluency, problem solving and reasoning by solving calculations involving adding and subtracting two two digit numbers both including non bridging and bridging tens. The children also looked for all the possible ways of making 10 or 20 by combining 3 one digit numbers and solved missing number problems using the inverse operations.

Butterflies

Around 3 weeks ago the PTA very kindly brought us caterpillars to care for and grow. This week our wriggling cocoons continued to be stubborn and remain in their chrysalis apart from one, who emerged on Monday and whom we set free in our own butterfly garden at the end of the week.

Geography - Uganda

This week we started our final geography topic by recapping what we have learnt throughout the year and expanding on it by exploring the question "are all rural villages the same?" The children had pictures of villages from around the world, including Catherington and Uganda, and compared their similarities and differences.

Art - African printing

This term the children are exploring the artistic technique of printing. This week the children learnt about the Namibian printer John Mufangejo who created artistic prints through carving out designs in wood before painting them and then printing them on paper and fabric. The children explored how African art is inspired by nature and things around them, how they like to use warm colours and how repeating patterns are used in linear and circular designs. The children explored creating linear prints by using things around them using traditional warm colours.

PE - Dance - Words

This term the children are using what they heave learnt this year to create movement pieces linked to words and word meanings. This week the children were given words such as "freeze" and "melt" as a stimulus to create different positions and movements using their bodies.

Week 2

Caring for God's Acre

On Monday afternoon we took the Children over to All Saints church to take part in love your burial ground week. The children learnt how to measure the height of trees by looking through their legs, went on a scavenger hunt to find symbols on graves that told us information about the people buried there, created gravestone rubbings, made bird feeders and got to enjoy taking time to admire the beauty of nature around the grounds looking at plants and wildlife including finding a slow worm!! 

The Final Straw Project Beach Trip

On Tuesday we were very lucky to be invited down to Hayling Island to have a fun day on the beach with Kate and Zoe from our supported charity The Final Straw Project. The children went on a scavenger hunt to find as many different treasures the beach had to offer such as a variety of shells, stones, seaweed, cuttle fish and crabs. The children then got creative by using the treasures they had found to create artwork before having lunch on the beach followed by a spot of paddling, stone throwing and skimming.  

English - Figurative language

This week in English we have looked at our focus text in detail to explore the different figurative language  Chitra Soundar, the author, uses for effect. The children developed their understanding of expanded noun phrases to describe the storm, revisited their knowledge of spelling rules when adding the suffix -er for comparative adjectives and explored using similes.

Maths - Fractions of shape, length and quantity

This week the children developed their knowledge of fractions by finding, recognising and writing fractions for different shapes, lengths and quantities.

Geography - Where in the world is Uganda?

This week the children reviewed their knowledge and understanding of the world by identifying and naming the world's 7 continents and 5 oceans before locating Africa and then Uganda. The children used atlases to find and colour in where Uganda is located in the continent of Africa as well as finding out the name of its capital city and national flag. 

PE - Athletics - Sprinting

This week in PE the children explored the importance of  incorporating different body movements to maximise the best results when sprinting. The children practised running with their arms by their sides compared to their arms swinging, running with high knees and running with their head down compared to looking forward. 

Week 3

PSHE - You can do it!

Our week started by the children learning about how we learn. They thought about things that they can do now that they couldn't do as a baby and how they learnt to do them. They learnt about the learning line and the journey we go through to learn new skills and the importance of encouragement from others to get there. The children then put this into practise by trying to learn how to juggle.

English - Innovating a traditional tale

This week in English the children have been learning to create their own cultural traditional tales by using Pattan's Pumpkin as a stimulus. The children changed the characters, the vegetable and how the flood started and have created some exciting new tales which they will be publishing next week and making it in to a new book to go in our reading area.

Maths - Counting in fractional steps

This week in maths the children have been developing their knowledge of fractions by exploring counting in fractional steps. The children used fractional shapes, apples and number lines to show physically show the calculation of fractions. The children then were able to apply this into finding missing numbers in a fractional step sequence and solve problems.

Sports Day

On Wednesday we were lucky to have amazing weather and CM Sports to host our sports day. The children had a great time and were able to show our values through tackling different sporting challenges and cheering each other on.

Art - African circular prints

Following on from last weeks exploration of print making with things from their immediate environment, the children looked at examples of how repeated patterns were used in circular prints and had a go at creating their own.

Queen Elizabeth Country Park

As part of of geography topic on Uganda, the children spent a day a Queen Elizabeth Country Park which is twinned with Queen Elizabeth National Park in Uganda. The children spent the day looking for different tourist attractions visitors to the park could use along with the different types of animals seen living in or around the park. The children will then be researching what Queen Elizabeth National Park is like to compare similarities and differences.

Week 4

Maths - Fractions and time

This week the children continued to develop their understanding of fractional counting by playing a game of fraction bingo. The children took it in turns to choose a fraction and if it was their chosen shape they had to add it to their board in the right place to create a continual sequence showing counting in halves quarters and thirds. The children then used their understanding of fractions and applied it to help them tell the time in quarterly intervals, recognising  quarter past, half past, and quarter to. The children also used their knowledge of the 5 time tables to help them work out the time to in 5 minute increments.