Year R   

 What a wonderful first full week back, and a full week it has been. Our new topic for this half term is ‘Long ago’ and we have got off to a flying start! In phonics, we have started learning the set 2 sounds, these are quite tricky now so this week we have learnt ‘ay’ - may I play and ‘ee’ - what can you see. In English we have been creating and learning a story map for ‘The Three Little Pigs’ and we have already started to innovate it. During our writing time we have been writing descriptions of the characters and lists of items we would need to build our own houses.  

In maths we have continued to subitize and count and make 5 in different ways.  

We have been colour mixing in art and taking a line for a walk and filling in the gaps with primary, secondary and even tertiary colours. In history we have looked at the monarchy and have started to learn about the Magna Carta. In science, we have been learning about forces and how pushes and pulls are all forces. We have also tried to make the forces balanced in PE.  

Year 1  

We have had a super week in Year 1, filled with lots of wonderful learning. 

In Maths this week we have been learning about tens and ones. We have been finding how many tens and ones are in 2-digit numbers and have been representing numbers with dienes, using tens and ones. In English we have been looking at a poem about the 4 seasons… well 3 of them, as we are going to write a verse about Winter next week! We have looked at repeating patterns, descriptions and adding -ing to the end of a verb to show that it is happening now. 

Our new Geography topic is The United Kingdom and this week we learned that this is a union made up of 4 countries; England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Our new Science topic is Seasons and the Weather, we have looked at different signs of each season and on Wednesday we used tools such as thermometers and rain gauges to measure the weather. 

In RSE we learned the scientific names for private parts. We also re-watched the NSPCC Pantosaurus song to remind us that our private parts are private to us. 

 

Year 2

We’ve had a an exceptional first full week back in Walliams Class, and a full week it has been! Our Astrology for this half term has continued and we’ve explored ‘How the sun travel around the earth’ and ‘The phases of the moon’. In English we have begun to look at diary writing beginning to recognise the features. We have read The Man on the Moon and received a video message from the book character Bob, who asked us to help him to create of essentials he needs for his trip to the moon. Next week, we will begin to innovate the story, writing our own diary entries. Mrs Fisher also did some drama with us which was a lot of fun too! 

In maths we have continued to reinforce our understanding of the 2, 5, 10 and 3 times tables while playing a dice game to generate our calculations, then recording the commutative and drawing out arrays to represent the multiplication. Although tricky to begin with, we are getting really confident at this! 

In spellings, we have reviewed all of the common exception words for Year 1 and Year 2. I will upload home learning tasks today which will include spellings and maths. Well done to those that have been completing the extra activities uploaded to our story, I was exceptionally impressed with the independent learning that was submitted. Please remember to read regularly at home to move up our Reading at Home Mountain and also for our class to move along Mrs Fisher’s NEW whole school Reading Race!! 

Have a SUPER weekend everyone! 

 

Year 3 

Our first full week back after the Christmas break has been very busy and the children came back ready to learn and settled very quickly. The change in staff hasn’t phased them as the children know me (Mrs Dewdney) well and so the children have got straight back to their learning.  

In Maths, we have been focusing on multiplying and dividing using the multiplication facts we already know. This means we have been able to multiply 2-digit numbers and have used a variety of models to reinforce the steps needed so the children understand the steps they need to take to calculate successfully. 

In English our focus has been the features of non-fiction text and we have learnt how the contents and index pages help us to locate information. We have also been learning the difference between a dictionary and a thesaurus and how to use them.  

Our ‘Ancient Greece’ topic in History has led us to learn that democracy was invented by the ancient Greeks in 507BC, but only the rich men could vote for a new leader – the class found this very unfair! 

Our Geography topic has taken us to Asia where we have looked at both the physical and human landscape of India. We learnt that India has a variety of climates and landscapes varying from hot arid deserts, cold mountains of the Himalayas and lush tropical jungles in the south. The children were shocked to hear India has a population of 1.3 billion people! 

In Science, we have begun our ‘Human Body’ topic by learning about the Skeleton and how it protects our organs. The children were surprised to learn that when they were babies they had 300 bones compared to adults who have 206.  

We have looked at the features within a church in RE and have begun to learn a new song in Music. The children are also really enjoying their dance sessions in PE, thank you Mrs Bull for organising. Well done everyone for all your efforts and have a great weekend! 

 

Year 4 

We have had a very busy week learning lots of new things. In English we have been reading odes about food. An ode is a poem that praises something but goes over the top. One poem we read said that olives were more precious than any gem and another one said spaghetti was the most wonderful stuff. We have started to plan our own odes and will be writing them next week. This week in maths we have been using the column method to multiply numbers. It is complicated because there is a lot to remember – like getting the numbers in the correct column and knowing the times table. We can all know make a light bulb light up by constructing an electrical circuit. Next week we will be learning how switches work. We really enjoyed our PE lesson and the dance is looking fantastic. Some of us went to dance club too.  

One thing we are really thinking about this term is how we can be kind to each other and ourselves. We have a Kindness Wall in the class to record when someone has been kind to us. We are also writing a Kindness Charter to help us remember what we can do to be kind. 

 

Year 5 

It has been a busy first full week back! In English, we have continued our work on The Highwayman. We completed a number of drama activities including freeze frames and performing the poem, thinking about how we use our voice. In maths, we have been learning how to add fractions, including mixed numbers. It has certainly been tough but we have shown excellent Raj Resilience throughout! In geography, we have been learning about East Anglia and the Fens. We also discussed reasons for East Anglia being a good location for growing crops! In History, we have looked into the Seven Years War and specific battles such as the Battle of Quebec where the British were victorious against the French. We have started a piece of extended writing on what led the British to build an empire. In science, we have been learning about life cycles and how certain animals and plants can be dependent on one another.  

Homework expectations reminder:  

• Reading (minimum of 3 times)  

• Spelling practice (evidence uploaded to dojo) 

• Reading comprehension and maths workbook (pages indicated with a sticker)  

• Sumdog task  

  

Homework club form for next week: 

https://forms.office.com/e/dbfrs9QqAa   

Have a lovely weekend! 

The Year 5 Team 

 

Year 6 

Our first full week back has been a really busy one. I have been really impressed with the children’s effort and their attitude to their learning. We have been reading, analysing and discussing different performance poems. Then we had a go at writing our own based on the poems that we have read. We have also completed a whole class reading booster session based on a poem called My Shadow. In maths we have been calculating angles in triangles, quadrilateral and other polygons. We have also been plotting and reading coordinates in all four quadrants. In whole class maths booster sessions we have been working on fractions. We have worked on the sh spelling to practise the children’s weekly spellings. We have been looking at why resilience is important in PSHE. We have been working through this half term’s science unit on classification. We started by looking at the classification system, beginning with the five kingdoms. We have also looked at the differences between the different groups of vertebrates. We have not yet started our new class reader, but we have been reading further examples of performance poetry which we have really enjoyed, particularly the funny or silly ones!