Week 2

English - Features of instructional writing

After reading The Clockwork Dragon last week, the children were told that the Mayor of Cranktown was worried about the threat of other dragons attacking the town and therefore needed other ideas on how to capture / get rid of dragons. Luckily Seahorse class had loads of amazing and creative ideas and so we looked at how we could turn these ideas into useful instructions. At the start of the week the children learnt about the writing features used in creating instructions - time connectives, imperative verbs, titles, introductions and lists. The children then spent the week planning and editing their own instructions to help the Mayor. 

Maths - Adding and subtracting two two digit numbers

This week in maths we used our partitioning knowledge to help us work out answers to addition and subtraction calculations using two two digit numbers. We focussed on adding or taking away the tens first and then moved on to the ones to get our answers.

Computing  - ScratchJr recap

This week we started our final computing topic by reviewing what we can remember about the programme ScratchJr. We were able to remember how to change our sprites and select different backgrounds, we also remembered how to build an algorithm to make our sprite move, grow, and speak.

PE - Athletics - jogging and running

This week in PE we compared how our bodies moves differently from when we are jogging to when we are sprinting. The children discovered that when they jog, their backs are straight and upright and that they swing their arms lightly. They then discovered that when they sprint - they lean forward and bring their legs up to drive themselves forward and using their arms more vigorously to propel themselves. We then explored how carrying a ball affects our running as it impacts how we can use our arms.

Science - Plants - Where does our food come from?

This was the question the children thought about and discussed as a hook to our plant topic. We managed to make a connection back to our animals and humans topic - that some of the food we eat is actually part of the way plants and trees help reproduce more of themselves. We then discussed if all seeds looked the same and thought about why some fruit contain more seeds than others. We then explored some different fruit and compared their seeds.

Art / Romsey Abbey Project

The theme of this years Romsey abbey project is called "Triwonder". When shown this word, the children came up with a lot of different ideas as to what it meant but finally agreed that "tri" meant three and "wonder" meant the wonder of the world. We we have decided to create a three piece collage depicting the land, sea and sky and show the different wonders each contain linking them to our school values. The children will be working on this over the next couple of weeks and we are looking forward to sharing it at the Abbey.

Week 1

English - The Clockwork dragon

At the start of the week we received a letter from the mayor of Cranktown asking for our helping by gathering the views of the town folk about how they felt about the their town being besieged by a fearsome dragon called Flamethrottle. The children took on different roles and debated the problem and who they thought was to blame. We then spent the rest of the week focussing on vocabulary, looking at comparative and superlative adjectives and recognising and using imperative verbs. 

Maths - Number and place value - partitioning

This week in maths we reviewed partition by exploring the number of different ways numbers can be partitioned into their ten and one components. We also revisited comparing and ordering numbers using the greater than and less than symbols and working out numbers sat on blank number lines using known mathematical facts.

Computing - Programming and debugging algorithms 

To finish our algorithms project the children were given the challenge of creating their own maps and then programming their Beebots to follow a route to not one, but two destinations avoiding different obstacles. The children tested their algorithms, spotted "bugs" / "mistakes" in their programming and reprogrammed their Beebots to reach their goals. 

PSHE - First Aid

This week the children explored what first aid was and thought about different different injuries or illnesses before thinking about different ways of treating chosen injuries and illnesses. The children also learnt what to do if someone was having an asthma attack, had cut themselves, had concussion, burnt themselves, or choking. 

PE - Games - Passing

This week in PE we focussed on sending and receiving a ball accurately and quickly using a chest pass to either send the ball directly to your partner or to send it via a bounce pass or air pass. The children competed against each other to see how many successful rally passes they could complete within a minute. The class were then split in half to compete against each other to see how many successful passes they could complete before the other half of the class had all run round the circle.

Science - How force can change a material

To finish our topic on forces, the children had to hypothesise what they thought would happen to elastic bands when we added more bands together to help Red Ted bungee jump. Most children predicted that the bands would snap because by adding more it would weaken the bands. However after observing the experiment, the children concluded that when Red Ted bungeed, his weight plus gravity caused the elastic bands to stretch. They also concluded that the more elastic bands that get added the further Red Ted fell as the elastics stretched even further.  

PE - Athletics - Sprinting

This half term we are focusing on how we can apply previous learnt skills in actual events. This week we focussed on sprinting. We recapped the importance of having the right starting position, rocking between balls and heel of feet ready to push off. We also revisited the need to plant your foot and be able to twist with the the whole body to suddenly change direction and be in a good position to start sprinting again. The children completed relay races to practise these skills.