Key Stage 1

English

We have read the story of the Odd Egg. We started by how the duck in the story was feeling at the beginning. The children came up with great emotions: nervous, disappointed, confused and worried. We wrote a diary pretending to be Duck and we included feelings, adjectives and a question to end our diaries. This week everyone in year 1 has created their own bird and written sentences using interesting adjectives and written a fun fact about their bird. Each class will then put these amazing fact files together to make our own ‘Bird Spotter’s Guide’!

Science

We have just finished learning about different materials. We grouped different objects into what materials they are made from and spoke about the properties.

“Plastic is hard and it can be lots of different colours” - Inaya

“Glass is fragile because it can break easily” - Ted

The children loved using magnets in the experiment finding out which materials are magnetic. We also learnt new scientific vocabulary: translucent, transparent and opaque. We used actions to help us remember what those new words mean!

Art

The children loved our recent topic called ‘Paper Play'. The children started by experimenting ways of folding strips of paper to make 3D models. Then we created larger sculptures showing the different folding techniques we had learnt.

“I liked folding the paper lots of times to make a zig-zig and swirling the paper around a pencil” - Brooklyn

Finally, we created pictures of trees using paper and tissue paper.

On Tuesday 20^th February, the year 2 children had an exciting trip to RHS Wisley Gardens.  This trip has been organised to develop our knowledge linked to our science topic on 'Plants'.  When we arrived at the gardens we were escorted by the Learning Team at Wisley to the education centre.  After a brief introduction, we started our workshop titled 'How do plants grow?'  First, we were shown a variety of seeds and plants from across the globe.  Some of the seed pods were enormous and had come all the way from both Africa and South America.  We were then taken to explore parts of the gardens, where our guide explained to us about some of the tallest trees that grow at Wisley and how large their trunks will be when fully grown.  It was fasinating, and we were even able to apply some of our maths knowledge, thinking about if we were to measure the trees length would we do this in meters or centimeters. 

After a good explore around the stunning gardens we went back to the education center and planted some seeds that we were able to take home with us.  By that point we were all ravenous, so we had a break for lunch before a fun packed afternoon exploring the famous glass house which homes exotic plants that you'd usually only see in deserts or rainforests.  At this point, we channeled our inner 'Henri Rousseau' the artist we have been learning about and sketched some plants like he used to in the Botanical Gardens in Paris.  To end the day, we spent a little bit of time in the natural play area.  Finally, after a long and exhausting day we were returned to school full of beans about what we had seen.   The children were incredibly well behaved and a credit to our fantastic school!   

Spotlight Year 2

English

Over the past week, we have been looking at fairy tales in English. The children have had the opportunity to listen to a traditional fairy tale (Jack and the Beanstalk) and look at an alternative fairy tale (Jim and the Beanstalk). The children have had lots of fun acting out parts of the story, retelling the story and thinking of alternative endings or adaptations. One of the pieces of work that we were extremely proud of was this recount from David (2A).

Please scan the QR code to hear their fantastic recount of Jack and the Beanstalk. What a treat!

Mathematics

We have been enhancing our understanding of measuring. Our big focus this week has been looking at mass. The children have had a lot of enjoyment from estimating which objects from around the room have the same mass. Children have also been using words such as lighter and heavier to explain their understanding. Reading scales is also an important skill that we have been focusing on. Please see the photos below of the children in 2A accurately measuring items from around the classroom and comparing the mass of each item to a 500g weight.

Art:

Despite the freezing weather, the children went on a nature hunt this week to look for objects that they could use to create different textures. To paint with, the children found sticks and leaves to create different textures and we also provided them with items such as cotton buds and bubble wrap. The children loved this activity as it allowed them to experiment with different materials and try to make different textures. The children will be using the skills they have acquired to make a collage over the next few weeks. Watch out Banksy (whoever you are) because we have some impressive artists in our year group. Please look at the experimental work from 2R.