Week 9 and Week 10
Ferrari Class have fully adapted to the summer hours. Everyone has fully embraced the ‘story breaktime’ where everyone settles down to listen to sea themed stories and have a snack. It is a beautifully calm time which we all really enjoy.
Here are some of the highlights from the last two weeks.
Ferrari have been thinking and acting like historians over the last few weeks. They are learning about a variety of explorers from the past including Marco Polo, Christopher Columbus, Sir Francis Drake, Sir Walter Raleigh, Henry Hudson, Captain Cook and modern-day sea explorers, such as Ellen MacArthur. We have discussed why people explore and where they explored. Using picture cards which included the dates of the explorations, the children had to chronologically sequence the significant explorers from the earliest to the most modern explorations. They enjoyed working collaboratively in pairs to complete the timeline.
Week 10 has seen the completion of our English unit based on the book ‘Hidden Worlds: Oceans’. In this unit the children learnt to write factual information about some of the amazing sea animals that are in our oceans. Using National Geographic kids, the children have really enjoyed learning about a variety of sea animal, particularly the humourous way this information was presented. We examined the way the book presented the information using flaps and beautiful illustrations. Everyone was able to think and act like non – fiction authors; writing in accurately punctuated sentences, adding flaps and illustrations. Some children were able to use extended sentences and write complete paragraphs about the animals using adjectives to enhance the descriptions. You can see from the photograph – we really do have writing we are proud of!
In art, we are studying a unit called ‘Rain and Sunrays’. This project teaches children about collagraph printing, including how to develop a motif to make single and repeated prints. This week we have been exploring collagraphy. The children have used a variety of different textured materials to create designs which can be abstract or pictorial, depending on their preference. Next week they will print these designs using printing inks.
‘Changing me’ is our current PSHE topic. In week one, the children have learnt about life cycles of animals and humans. We have discussed that changes happen as we grow and that this is okay. This led into our learning in week 2 where we enjoyed talking about changes that happened to us since we were babies. There were lots of funny anecdotes that the children wanted to share with each other. They made little booklets to take home to discuss with their grown-ups about these changes.
Finally, ‘Who said grammar can’t be fun?’ Ferrari Class have been learning about possessive apostrophes. Once the learning was complete, the children got in pairs to complete a series of challenge activities to reinforce these skills. There were three different challenges to complete and every group managed to complete these activities successfully! Well done Ferrari – great teamwork!
Week 7 and Week 8
The week leading up to half term was celebrated by having a whole School Wellness Week. Wellbeing Week is a week to provide young people with knowledge, skills and tools to manage their own mental health and wellbeing. This week gave the children the opportunity to take time to reflect on how they are looking after themselves, which areas they are already doing well in caring for themselves and what more they can do to further look after their wellbeing. Each day we welcomed members in our community who visited us to promote wellbeing. We had Melissa, who took us for a Zumba session out on Villa V field. It was great fun starting the day with the whole school dancing and exercising to music. We had Mrs Crowe who took us on an under the sea adventure through yoga. Ferrari loved the link with our topic ’Land Ahoy!’ We had the opportunity to meet James Cooke, a World Champion pentathlete. It was fascinating to find out how he had been a military child and had found his passion to swim when posted to Cyprus. He talked to the children about the qualities needed to become world champion. The children also got to talk to Chris Hughes, who is the officer in charge of the field gun and the parkrun. Lincoln’s mum also came to school to talk to us about being an RAF champion athlete. She explained that if they kept practicing each day they would improve their speed/skill. We were very excited to hold the medals and to see the size of the hurdles she had to jump!! Our final guest was Gary Smith, a Paralympic World Champion Guide in alpine skiing. Mr and Mrs Botterill were able show the equipment that you needed to be a downhill champion. We learnt that you needed to have great communication skills to be a champion skiing guide. All these guests were so inspirational for our children to meet.
Leading up to Olympic Sports Day, the children learnt about the continent that they were going to represent on Sports Day. They were split up into four continent teams and met they fellow team mates from across the school where they learnt about their continent and made a banner and flags for the Sports Day Parade. Everyone enjoyed Sports Day on Wednesday. They dressed up in their team colours, took part in the parade, won points in the Olympic events followed by the sprints and relays. To end the week, the children met again in their teams to take part in an Olympics Quiz. Over this term the children had been learning in assembly time about the Olympics. All the teachers were so impressed with the fantastic knowledge the children had gained. What a great week!
Over the week, the children had continued their learning about Grace Darling. So, to end the week they enjoyed designing and making their own lighthouses.
The week following half term, saw the children arriving back after a wonderful break. They really enjoyed sharing their adventures with each other. The Year 2 children completed their White Rose Maths unit on Time and have now started their Statistics unit focusing on tally charts and pictograms. The Year 1 children have now started learning about Time. They have learnt the days of the week, the months of the year and how to use an analogue clock to tell O’clock and half past the hour. In English, we have started a new non-fiction book, ‘Hidden World’s: Oceans’ by Libby Walden.
Children can lift the large flaps to learn more about the many different kinds of creatures and plants that live beneath the waves. Readers come face-to-face with dolphins, whales, sea turtles, and other creatures that live just below the surface. A trip to the ocean floor allows for an up-close look at anemones, the coral reef, lobsters, anglerfish, and other deep-sea dwellers.
The children have enjoyed watching National Geographic clips about the fascinating Giant Pacific Octopus and the Leafy Sea Dragon. They have used the information they have learnt to write descriptions of these amazing sea creatures. The children have focused on accurate sentence construction with some children using technical vocabulary and a variety of descriptive language.
We have started our art topic ‘Rain and Sunrays’ with the children creating collages of weather symbols using a variety of materials. Can you guess what weather they represent?