Week 6

This week, we started our capacity work by comparing the volume of water in two containers. First, the children made a prediction about which counter would hold hold the most water and explained their reasoning by looking at the shape of each container. The children then used plastic cups to find the volume of their chosen containers and compared this number with that of their second container to see which held the most water. 

In English this week, we started a new learning journey that will see the children write a poem next week all about the seaside. We started our learning journey by reading a selection of poems about having fun at the seaside, on the beach and in the sea. The children discussed what they liked about the poems and the words that they thought were effective and then we made a word bank of our favourite words and phrases. 

The children used fractional language to talk about the amount of water they had filled their cups with. The reasoned about how they knew they were correct and adjusted the water level where necessary. 

In games this week, we took our relay racing to a new level and added in hurdles! We warmed up by playing a game which I called ‘foxes and rabbits’. The children lined up facing their partner (one a rabbit and one a fix) and then, when I called rabbits or foxes that animal would runaway from their partner towards the cones and their partner would have to chase them and catch them before they got to the line. This was a lot of fun! We then warmed up our legs using the ladders and running into the gaps with high knees. Finally, we got into teams of 4/5 and participated in relays using the hurdles. The children did this really well!

Wowzers! What a lot of effort you all put into these fabulous projects. Next week, you will all get the opportunity to share you projects with your class friends and I can’t wait to have an even closer look at your amazing work. Well done to everyone who had a go!

The Turtle class are getting so confident at creating their own projects in Scratch. This week, they designed rockets and created a project where the three rockets had a race into space! They had to programme each rocket with an algorithm that would determine the position it would finish in the race. The children also learnt to use the speed keys. They worked really well in their pairs to complete this task! Well done Turtles.

In maths, the children used balancing scales to compare the weight of the kitchen items with 1 kilogram weights. They then used the language ‘heavier than 1 kilogram’ and ‘lighter than 1 kilogram’ to describe the weight of each object.

Week 5

Week 4

What a fabulous (and hot! 🥵) day we had on our school trip! The children worked hard to identify the human and physical features of the coastal town of Southsea. They found so many places from the list they were given and also added their own. The children thoroughly enjoyed seeing the hover craft come in and out, eating their ice creams and throwing stones into the sea! 

The children learnt about algorithms this week in computing. The learnt that an algorithm is a specific set of instructions used to create a programme. They used ScratchJunior to practise creating algorithms to make the Sprite move to specific places on the screen.

On Thursday, we started our new writing learning journey in English. We created a ‘story map’ of our school trip to help us remember what we did and what we saw to help us prepare to write a recount next week!

Week 3

This week in Geography, the children were sorting images of Southsea into human and physical geography. They used their prior learning to help them and did a great job.

Today we used the template of a postcard to unpick what makes a postcard a postcard - what are its features? 

Week 2

Week 1

In maths this week, the children were finding one more and one less. We did lots of counting on and back from numbers up to 100. The children showed this calculating on number lines, in number sentences and in word sentences. We then explored number bonds for the numbers 5 to 10. We found these number facts using systematic working and recorded our number sentences in a chart. The children found both addition and subtraction number facts for each number and displayed some in a cherry model, a bar model and also on a number line!

In English we started a writing unit inspired by a short film called, ‘Something Fishy’. The children love it. We watched the short film a few times and created this story map together. Then, we learnt some new vocabulary and described different parts of the story using these noun phrases in sentences. 

Today we were sprinting! We were looking at the affect moving our arms has on the speed at which we run. The children experimented with their arms straight by their sides and also moving by their sides. We also played a team sprinting game. 

The children really enjoyed setting our butterflies free in the butterfly garden this week on spirituality day. Whilst freeing our 5 butterflies, we appreciated the wonder in our outside environment. The children were excited to see snails in trees, beautiful flowers, different shaped leaves, a feather left by a bird and the towering trees above. 

We started our new Geography learning this week. We presented the children with the question, ‘What are the features of a coastal town?’ This week, we starting by looking at  Google Earth. We zoomed out from Catherington to see the rest of the world. The children then learnt about the 7 continents and they learnt a song to help them remember the names! You may have heard them singing it! It’s very catchy! The children navigated the world map in their atlases using the compass points, north, south, east and west to move between them and practise their names and positions on a map.