Africa and Animals

In literacy we have been focusing on Handa’s Surprise and the various fruits and animals that Handa sees on her journey. We thought about adjectives to describe the animals and the fruit, and we enjoyed writing and pretending to be Handa. We also did a hot seat activity in which we thought about which questions we’d love to ask Handa if we met her. We then moved on to Mama Panya’s Pancakes and practised writing recipes. Finally, we read the traditional tale of The Three Billy Goats Gruff and loved making our own bridges and thinking about how we would cross the bridge.

In maths we have been exploring our theme of ‘to 20 and beyond’, looking at the patterns of numbers in 10’s and 20’s. we have enjoyed thinking about the composition of numbers 10 to 20, as well as practising writing our numbers and number bonds up to 5. We experimented with adding and taking away on ten frames we made ourselves outside. We ended the term by exploring shapes and making shape pictures on our tap-a-shape boards.

We have enjoyed exploring using different medium to make things this term. We used clay to make sculptures, like Henry Moore. We all chose our favourite African animal and used the clay to make them. Like Henry Moore, we decided not to paint them, but left them looking natural.

Understanding the World

We have enjoyed thinking about our local area and making our own maps to show our journey and what is around us. We started by creating a stick journey of the outdoor area. We then went on a walk around the school and caused shapes to symbolise the different rooms within the school on our map. We ended our term by going on a walk in our local area and creating our own maps.

In Science, we’ve been learning about what plants need to grow. We have enjoyed planting cress and putting it in different places to find out what happens when the plant doesn’t have seeds, sun, soil, and water. We have also been using our planting equipment during choosing time to plant some pumpkin seeds and some flower petals. We planted some strawberry plants in the peace garden, and we were extremely excited to plant our orchard together for children to enjoy for many years to come!

Part of our Handa’s Surprise story has involved us learning about lots of new, and exotic, fruit. We spent two afternoons getting fruit ready for a fruit kebab, practising using knives safely, talking about how to prepare it, what we eat, how it makes us feel, and what it tastes like. Many of us enjoyed trying mango for the first time, including some of the adults in the classroom! 

In RE we have enjoyed taking part in the Crowning of Mary with the rest of the school and exploring more about Pentecost and what the Holy Spirit means to us. We have also really loved our reflection time circles, lighting candles and thinking about what we can say thank you to God for and what we can ask him for help with. We also learnt more about Hinduism this term, including how people celebrate Diwali and other religious festivals.

During our PE lessons, we have been focusing on ball control. Our favourite part of this scheme of work was contemplating different round robin activities, such as throwing balls into hoops, throwing and catching with partners, and throwing balls with precision.

We have been extremely lucky this term to have lots of fun and exciting experiences. We celebrated the King’s Coronation with a party, decorating some crowns and flags, eating some yummy food, and having a big dance! We also had one of our students bring a fossil in and do a show and tell for us all, which we had some great questions for. Mrs Baker brought in her turtle Tiptoe, who we were very excited to meet. And finally, Mrs B came and visited us in her beekeeping uniform, and answered all our questions about bees and how we should look after them.