Class assembly reminder – 2:40pm Wednesday 10 October
This Wednesday is our Year 2 class assembly, starting at 2:40pm.
We look forward to sharing our learning with you and hope to see lots of you there!
What is one?
The children have been learning all about the number one by investigating and using one in a variety of situations:
- as the answer to ‘how many?’
- one is an amount
- one is a quantity
- first means position one
- once means one time
We have been encouraging the children to use a sentence stem to talk about a single unit, e.g. “I can see one apple.”
Talk Time Homework
Our Talk Time homework got us discussing who we would take with us if we went back in time. We talk in partners first, sharing who we would take.
Then, we all listened as a table.
Finally, we shared some with the class that we thought were particularly interesting:
Pia would take David Attenborough and she would visit the person who invented plastic. Together, they would explain to the inventor what problems their invention would cause. We thought this was a brilliant, thoughtful idea.
Ishaan would take Thomas because he has such a good historical knowledge.
Ripley would take Gottlieb Daimler to see what cars used to look like. He would also visit the year 0 to see whether Jesus actually was born then.
Lewis would take Lewis Hamilton and together they would go back in time to meet Ayrton Senna.
Ethan would need a minibus for his trip! He said he’d take Thomas, a translator, friends and Owen from Jurassic World.
Designing Roman Chariots
Part of the Year 4 expectations for Design and Technology is that children are able to research design criteria to inform the design of functional, appealing products.
Also, children need to be able to generate, develop and communicate their ideas through discussion and annotated sketches.
With all this in mind, Year 4 set about designing Roman chariots. Continuing on with our travels through history, exploring transportation, the next stop – the Romans.
As a class, we discussed the difference in transport for pleasure and transport for industrial purposes. In the Roman Empire, chariots were not used for warfare or work purposes, but for chariot racing, especially in circuses, or for triumphal processions, when they could be drawn by as many as ten horses or even by dogs, tigers, or ostriches!
- Following lots of research, work began on our very own chariots. The children worked hard to annotate their sketches while thinking about a design criteria.
- can move
- can hold a person (Lego)
- pulled by horsepower (toy)
- move over rocky terrain
There are some superb designs below.
More cave paintings
Below are some more of our recent cave paintings. The children worked very hard to create pattern, detail and texture.
Year 3 reviews the History of Britain performance
After the Hobgoblin performance, Year 3 were asked to reflect on, and review the performance.
Their first challenge was to review the performance with one sentence. See what they came up with, below.
- I liked the end part because it shows you should pay attention!
- I liked the cooking show when the man smacked his hand on the table.
- We liked it when the man waved at Miss Rushbrooke!
- I liked it when the parrots kissed.
The class was then challenged to describe the play, in just 5 words. See how they rose to the challenge below.
- The man was very funny.
- I really liked Robin Hood.
- I loved all of it!
- There was so much chaos!
Well done Year 3 – excellent reviews!
The History of Britain workshop
Following the performance, Years 3 and 4 took part in a History of Britain workshop on Thursday afternoon.
The workshop started with everybody warming up their bodies, faces and voices.
Then the children went on to create statues out of each other. The challenge was to theme their statues on historical figures that they learnt about from the play. This included Winston Churchill, Thomas Farriner, Cavemen, Romans and Vikings. Which historical characters can you spot in the pictures below?
The statues then formed a museum, with the artists stepping away. We discussed rules for our museums:
- One child said: ‘Statues have to stay still!’
- Another added: ‘No talking if you’re a statue!’
- To everyone’s amusement, one statue asked: ‘Is it OK to breathe?’
The pupils were then put into groups of six and were challenged to make a freeze frame of a given time in history that they witnessed during the morning’s performance.
Harman explained: ‘A freeze-frame is like creating a portrait with ourselves.’
The first freeze-frame was to recreate Queen Boudica warring with the Romans.
The next freeze-frame was to show scenes from the Victorian times. Children were specifically fascinated with the forced jobs children had to do at this time.
When asked, Sam said: ‘I wouldn’t have liked to be alive during the Victorian times as I wouldn’t like to work in a dangerous factory. I might lose a limb!’
Brilliant acting, Year 3 & 4! Well done!
The History of Britain performance
On Thursday, Key Stage 2 were treated to a performance from Hobgoblin Theatre Company: The History of Britain.
The journey started 800,000 years ago where we were introduced to ‘super hairy man’. We learnt that these men hunted with flint.
Then came the Ice Age, 120,000 years ago. This was when the land we now call ‘Britain’, separated from Europe to become an island. We found out that this was when the English Channel was created. We learnt people continued to hunt with flint tools and this was when the boat was invented.
The journey continued to 4000 BC, the Stone Age. This was when Stonehenge was created. Farming and clay pottery both became an organised trade in Britain.
We zoomed forward to 800 BC, where people built hill forts, began to trade with Europe and make jewellery.
60 AD saw the Romans control of Britannia for 70 years. Queen Boudica revolted against the Romans.
Did you know Colchester was the capital of Britain at this time?
Then, it was 878. We met King Alfred and the Vikings…
We learnt that there was a lack of a British army and ships to fight the Vikings invading Britain at this time. Did you know King Alfred’s decedents went on to unite all the British tribes under one King?
Fun facts:
1. Vikings didn’t actually have horns on helmets!
2. Many Viking words influence our language. Wednesday, Thursday, market and street are all Viking words!
We flashed forward to 1066: the Battle of Hastings. William the Conqueror brought Britain out of the dark ages. Children learnt that William came from Normandy of France to beat King Harold in battle.
We sped forward to 1348 and saw an interview with an early victim of the plague. The victim said he was infected as he was preparing for the feast. A flea from a rat, stowed away on the ship, had carried the disease to Britain.
We learnt that the symptoms of The Black Death included a high temperature and vomiting. Victims died within a couple of days. Soon, half of the population of Britain died.
The play then went to 1215, when the Magna Carta was introduced. Children learnt that this was when an official parliament was formed and people in charge of the country had to listen to he opinion of the people.
We then traveled to 1558 and met Queen Elizabeth I.
The children learnt that the Great Fire of London took place in 1666, in the form of a well-known cookery show! Children saw how the fire started in a baker’s oven and spread, engulfing a large portion of London.
Can your child remember where tea, initially shipped to the UK, was from? How did it travel to the UK?
Can they remember the vocal warm up tongue twister?
During the Victoria times what major form of transport was invented?
The play ended with an appearance from Winston Churchill. We learnt that Churchill was voted as the most important British historical figure as he was the Prime Minister during the Second World War.
Well done, Key Stage 2! Fantastic audience participation.
Show and tell
In Year 3, pupils earn Dojo points as a reward. Pupils can earn Dojo points for being on task, good teamwork, pushing themselves out of their comfort zones, participation and making good choices. Once pupils get to 50 Dojo points, this is celebrated by getting a prize and bringing in a show and tell.
We’ve had some brilliant show and tells so far this year with pupils sharing things they treasure from home. This has included: Yu-gi-oh cards, artwork, certificates, stick insects and a giant marrow. One child in our class recently won a certificate for writing an epic story from the Broughton Hall Children’s Literary Festival. Well done! Check out the pictures below!
Unrelated to Dojo rewards, if there is a big event within your family, like a new sibling or winning a prize/certificate out of school, we would like to celebrate this in class too. Please encourage your child to share these events during show and tell.
Writing
This week, we have been looking at instructions. We have specifically investigated recipes.
One of the features throughout recipes is adverbs. Initially, the children found adverbs tricky to grasp. We talked about how adverbs add information to (or describe) a verb. However, I can officially announce that Year 3 are now adverb experts…
To start with, we spent time picking out adverbs from recipes. We talked about why we need them.
Saahir: ‘We need them so we know what order to do the method in, like ‘first’ and ‘last’.’
Billy added: ‘We need them because it makes the writing more interesting.’
We talked as a class about low value adverbs – ones that we hear all the time. We then agreed a list of high value adverbs that would be really interesting and a little bit challenging to use.
See the pictures below!
Can your child remember the difference between: finely and finally?