13th March '26
The children have been working very hard again this week. As usual we started the week with a fun packed session at Forest School. The children had to find pretend worms, there was more wood whittling, wand making and den building. The highlight this week was probably having the opportunity to explore the tree that had been cut down. There were lots of chunks of wood and sawdust. There was some very imaginative "cooking" going on! Once again, the pond which is very big at the moment provided plenty of entertainment whilst the children pretended to go fishing. What did they catch?
In Literacy we have been thinking about non-chronological reports linked with our story "The Barnabus Project". These are non-fiction texts. The children learnt about sub headings. They had to read a variety of statements about meerkats and see which sub-heading the statement fitted under. The children have then been using subordinating conjunctions (if, when, because and that) to create their own sentences about meerkats.
In Year 1 Literacy, we are sure you have heard a lot of talk about Professor Klunk, Noodle and Titch - they are simply characters who have engaged and hooked us into our learning. On a Monday morning, we hear Year 1 asking, is it Professor Klunk writing today and when we say yes, we heard lots of yyyyyeeeeesssss and see lots of fist pumps - how fantastic to see Year 1 so enthused about their writing. This week we were reading the book Chatterbox and we explored some rich and challenging vocabulary - ask your child the meanings over the weekend - I am sure they will 'blow your socks off!'
This week we wrote to Daisy (main character in the book) and we invented a robot for her to talk to - the robot had to have a secret code word, this week it was 'people' and when the robot heard the word 'people' something weird and wonderful would happen. The second part of our writing involved Daisy visiting a zoo - the secret codeword was 'looked' (the codewords are linked to our phonics learning, our Phase 5 tricky words) and when you say the word looked, something weird and wonderful happened to the zoo - you get the gist - the more weird and wonderful the more excited the children get - they have incredible imaginations. Take a look at some of the ideas they have come up with.
In maths Year 2 are continuing to think about multiplication. They have been introduced to "arrays". This is a way of representing a multiplication. The multiplication can be done in two ways. Rows multiplied by columns or columns multiplied by rows. You still get the same answer. Please continue supporting your children to learn their 2, 5 and 10 times tables. Please also support them with learning how to count in 3s.
In Math's this week, the Year 1's were seeing double! They explored double facts and they were amazing - we soon discovered that doubles were easy peasy.
However, when it came to near doubles, we found things a little more tricky - why not have a go at these at home.
Once again this week Year 1 and Year 2 have been linking their science learning with their design and technology learning. This week the children carried out an investigation to see which would be the best object for making the axle on their car. They tested pipe cleaners (metal), wooden doweling and plastic straws. The children came to the conclusion that the wooden doweling would be best as it was strong and rigid. The pipe cleaner and plastic straws were too flexible and bendy.
It was soon time to get back on the field with Coach Tom to practice our ball skills and despite some feeling unsure about our new focus being on football it was wonderful to see everyone joining in and developing key skills such as passing, shooting and defending whilst having a lot of fun, despite the rain, which unfortunately made it a slightly more wet and cold PE lesson this week!
We didn't however let it dampen our spirits!
When we weren't outside playing football on Thursday afternoon, it was time to dive right back into the history of transport! During our warm up both Year 1 and Year 2 showed fantastic recognition of the different vehicles and were able to match the description to the correct vehicle!
Today however was all about making comparisons between past and present vehicles, looking at what the vehicles were made out of, how they worked, how many people could travel on them and discussing factors such as whether any of these factors improved their speed!
Year One worked hard to sort the vehicles into past and present, talking about how they are similar, difference and what has stayed the same....
Year 2 were asked to write comparative sentences about a train from the past and from the present, using conjunctions such as 'but' and 'however' to demonstrate their differences and also recognising how they might be similar......
What a busy Thursday afternoon!!
In Maths this week Year 2 have also started to build on what they had learnt in Year 1 about money and moved onto exploring notes, working with a partner to order from £5 up to £50.
We then had a go at adding pounds (£) together!
Before we knew it, it was Friday again! We could hardly believe that another week had passed by and are all very excited when we look ahead to next week when we will be going on our trip to the STEAM museum! As we are going next Thursday we won't be having our normal MNR PE lesson so please ensure your child comes in uniform next Thursday with a filled water bottle, ensuring that packed lunches are either ordered online ahead of Thursday or that your child brings a packed lunch with them. We will be leaving promptly on Thursday so please ensure your child is in school at 8.45am so we can get everything ready for our wonderful trip!
If you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask!
