Our Fortnightly Learning Blogs
Week 7 and 8
What a wonderful end to the first Autumn half term Maserati!
In our final week, we joined the rest of the school enjoyed taking part in the ‘One World’ activities. On Monday, it was wonderful to see everyone come into school dressed in clothes or uniforms from around the world which shared something of our community of family heritage we are part of. Everyone looked great and was very proud to talk about their outfit and why they were wearing it.
On Tuesday, we set off around the world visiting four different countries from different continents linked to children within our school. We visited Australia, Poland, Nepal and Saint Lucia. In the workshops, we learnt about the special features of the places we visited and then took part in an activity linked to the country. Everyone across the school was put into teams North, South, East or West with children from different classes and had their passports stamped and completed an activity linked to every country.
Alongside the One World Days we have been completing some of our companion projects. In Science the children were asked to produce a double page spread about ‘Animals and the Skeletal System’. This allowed the children to use information from the lessons, books and wider learning to plan and present two pages of facts from their learning, include drawings and labelled diagrams to showcase the half-termly topic. All of Maserati have worked extremely hard.
In the final part of our non-fiction sequence in English. We have written our own pieces of record-breaking information about our own animal. After careful research and text mapping everyone wrote a fantastic piece about their animal including interesting comparisons between animals and humans. After time to proof read and up-levelling, we then typed up the pieces and added pictures to support our learning.
It has been a busy half term and all of the children have worked very hard. Have a wonderful half-term break.
Week 5 and 6
Everyone has been working very hard in Maserati with their learning. In English in Maserati have been reading the ‘Book of Bones’ Reading books that are purpose which is all about animals with record braking bones structured in different ways for non-fiction. From the huge Blue Whale with a 6metre mandible (the size of 3 motorbikes) and 28metre long body to the tiny Etruscan Shrew with the smallest ear bones in the world. As we read and discussed these interesting facts in the book, we have looked at the pictures and diagrams of other animals from around the world. After looking at nouns and pronouns and creating an informal voice, planned using text structure frame and finally everyone has created and written a double-page spread with a Guess who has …? page as a riddle and a page of information about their favourite animal
In Math’s we have been working hard on addition and subtraction strategies using formal written methods. Year 3 pupils have used two- and three-digit numbers and been thinking about the layout needed to add and subtract with exchanges. In Year 4 they have built on their existing skills from Year 3 and revised formal written methods using four- and five digits numbers, completed problem solving questions with two and three step problems and this week used checking strategies to correct errors in questions and …… Everyone in Maserati is working very hard with their times tables and making progress with the weekly times tables challenges.
In Science we have been continuing our journey with ‘Animals and the Skeletal System’. Our focus for the last two weeks has been looking at the skeleton and learning the names of the main bones in our body. We know that the skeleton allows movement, protects vital organs and …. Did you know? we have 206 bones in our body. We have then learnt there are three types of joints and how our body moves in different ways and looked at the function of muscles. We played a game about endoskeletons and exoskeletons and have shared our learning with the rest of the school in our class assembly.
In History we have continued our journey ‘Through the Ages’ back in history to the Stone Age. The Stone Age is split into three separate periods: Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic. We have researched to find out what it was like to be a hunter gather living in small family groups who moved and following animals across the land, so that you could hunt and fish for food. There was no schools and children the same as we are would collect berries and nuts to help their family survive. We have looked homes, clothing and how they made their tools by shaping stones into flint pieces. We have also found about Stonehenge and how it was built at the end of the Stone Age and the beginning of the Bronze Age. Last week we started to learn about the Baker Folk and who that they were a group of people who are famous for bell pottery.
In Geography we been building on our skills adding to our existing knowledge about atlases. We have looked at human and physical features of places around the world. We now know how to read a four-figure grid reference to find places on a map and locate features. We have looked at some data and analysed the information with questions and answers and learnt the eight compass points and practiced them with games and to find places at the funfair.
PE has been great and we have built up our skills with the Nimble Nets unit playing tennis. Everyone has a good forehand grip and is trying hard with their backhand to return the ball over the net. Within Pilates we now know a series of poses like mountain to and giraffe to help build our core muscles.
We have finished our unit of Contrast and Complement looking at colours mixing primary colours together to create shades and tones. We have looked and learnt about famous artists and carefully mixed colours using water colours and pallets. For the last two weeks, we have been using these skills to stencil, colour wash and pain the background and add detail to the images on our final piece using water colour paints. Maserati has some wonderful artists.
Thank you, Maserati, for continuing to be ‘Magnificent’.
Week 3 and 4
Well done Maserati!
It is a pleasure to teach an amazing group of children who are always working hard!
In English we have completed our first unit and of Narrative writing. After learning about ‘The Beasties’ a group of small characters who tell stories to Daisy about interesting objects. Daisy wrote her own story about a shell. This week Maserati have planned, written, edited and published and illustrated their own Beastie style story using conjunctions and fronted adverbials to Create a class book. What wonderful work has been written and illustrated.
In Maths we have finished Place Value recapping about HTO in Year 3 and ThHTO in Year 4. We have also looked at reading number lines, estimating numbers on lines to 1000 (Year 3) and 10,000 (Year 4, ordered numbers. Year 4’s have been rounding to 10, 100 and 1000 and finding more and less than a number. All the children have completed their end of unit assessment and we are moving onto Addition and Subtraction.
In Science following our journey of nutrition and the skeletal system we have been looking at healthy balanced diets and spoken about what you need to eat every day. This raised the questions about why and some foods like crisps and chocolate are only eaten in moderation. This week we learnt how to use a Venn diagrams and compared the diet of two different animals. I then set Maserati a challenge to work together to label a skeleton ready for next week’s lesson. Have a look below.
In History we have added to our existing knowledge about the Stone Age part of ‘Through the Ages’ topic and learnt about settlements, what it was like to live during Stone Age times and how people were hunter gathers and followed the animals to survive. They live in small settlements and moved across the land, children helped farm and hunt. Living was very different thousands of years ago. We have looked at different settlement sites being archaeologists and recorded facts and information about Skare Brea and Stonehenge. To consolidate their knowledge relating to the main factors and causes of the end of the Stone Age we have looked at similarities and differences between the Palaeolithic, the Mesolithic and the Neolithic eras.
Our Geographical skills are taking shape and we have found places around the world using atlases and maps, looked at mountain ranges rives and capital Cities. This week we have discussed and recorded human and physical features. Using picture and definitions the class sorted the pictures into groups before recording them into their books to create their own library of features.
In art we have been building our skills of looking at Contrast and complement and this week looks a t a selection of work by different artist and looked at what it is like to visit and Art Gallery. We then tried to make the current paint colours by mixing primary colours together.
Week 1 and 2
What a wonderful start to the year Maserati you have all come to school and settled into class very well and are all working very hard.
In English we have looked at ‘Journey’ and travelling to new places all through pictures. This week we have started our teaching sequence ‘The Beasties’. Daisy goes to sleep in a new bed in a new house and can not sleep and the she hears a noise and tries to work out what it is and this leads to a story with some interesting Beasties. Our new Guided Reading sessions has started and we have looked at Rapid Retrieval and also Six to Succeed- this weeks focus has been on emotions.
In Math’s we have been learning about Place Value we have started the unit looking hundreds, tens and ones and band 4 have extended to ten thousands. In the steps we have partitioned numbers and wrote number sentences, placed and read number lines using lots of visual maths resources to help. We have looked at numbers and also written them in words.
In Science we are learning about Animals and the Skeletal System. We have talked about what we already know and looked at different aspects and groups.
In History we have started our journey ‘Through the Ages ‘ and headed back in history. The Children’s first activity was working through different stations looking at artwork, animals, tools and weapons and fires. Looked at creating a timeline through the ages and the different lengths of era’s. Maserati came up with some wonderful questions for us to research and find the answers about life during this time.
In Geography we have started looking at the world through atlases finding places around the world and marking them on a blank map. The first few weeks we are using skills to add to our existing knowledge and help us have a better understanding about of the world.
PE has been good and all of the children enjoyed Nimble Nets our tennis unit and we have had a taster of Pilates where we are going to build our muscles and work on our core.
Our first Art lesson was using watercolours to mix and make complementary colours and the colour wheel. We spoke about transparency and hue tones and are building our vocabulary.
Thank you Magnificent Maserati for an amazing start to the school year.