We are Geographers
This half term our topic is Geography. We are learning all about the 7 continents and the 5 oceans. The children have been learning these songs to help them remember and they love them.
Continents song click here. Oceans song click here.
We will be going on to learn about hot and cold areas in the world and then focussing on Kenya. We will compare the physical and human geography ofNairobi and Kenya to Leeds and the UK. We will use all our knowledge and everything we have learnt to write a report at the end of the term.
Here is the vocabulary we will be learning.
Help at home by listening to the songs and talking through the vocabulary so your child knows what we will be learning. You can also talk about countries you may have visited and find them on a map.
Class novel – The Worst Witch
In Year 2, over the next few weeks, we will be reading The Worst Witch, by Jill Murphy. We will link reading and writing learning with it too, as well as enjoying immersing ourselves in the story. We already love Mildred and her cat!
Help at home by talking about what has happened so far.
Science: biology
This half term, we are starting our science learning as biologists. We return to learning about plants (including bulbs and seeds) and what they need to survive.
Here is the vocabulary we are learning.
First of all, we investigated different seeds and bulbs. We used hand lenses to observe them closely. We thought about how the seeds and bulbs were the same and different and used this to group them.
Help at home: have a look at foods at home. Are they grown from a seed or a bulb?
We are chemists!
This week, we have started our next unit in science: reversible and irreversible changes. For this topic we are going to be chemists. Chemistry is the study of the properties of substances and the changes they go through.
In today’s lesson, we tested which substances could be dissolved in water. If our substance did dissolve this meant that it was soluble and created a solution. If it did not dissolve, then the substance was insoluble.
Our scientific enquiry type was ‘comparative and fair testing’.
Help at home: Discuss our new science vocabulary.
PE: Basketball
This half term our new PE unit is basketball. We had our first lesson and we practised our throwing and catching skills whilst in a game setting. Next lesson we will be perfecting our passes and thinking about tactics.
Help at home: Can you name all of the different types of passes?
Maths – fractions and times tables!
Hello! I hope you all had a lovely break and are ready and raring for the Summer term.
Year 3 are getting stuck into their fractions this half term.
What is a fraction?
Fractions are parts of whole things.
e.g. a part of a whole object
a part of a whole shape
a part of a whole amount or number
We started with elephants!
“The tusks are a part of the whole elephant.”
Then shapes…
“There are 4 parts and one is shaded.”
Then numbers!
Times tables
Year 3 made amazing progress in their times table checks before the holidays. To keep this ball rolling, your child should be practising their times table for 5 minutes every day or 10 minutes every other day!
This practice can be on Times Table Rock Stars, handwritten on a piece of paper or I can provide you with a times table pack for at home.
Please let me know if this would benefit you and your child!
Thank you, Miss Birch
Living and Learning: Health and Prevention
Today’s Living and Learning lesson was all about germs! (More specifically, preventing the spread of them!)
Have a go at the quiz we did in class.
What’s the science behind sneezing?
How can we stop germs from spreading?
We carried out an experiment where just four people in the class had green paint on their hand. They high fived other people and those people did the same. It didn’t take long at all before we were all covered in ‘germs’.
It really, really highlighted the need for handwashing. Seeing the green spreading from such a small starting point was shocking!
Help at home by discussing when it’s needed to wash hands and how long for! How else can we prevent germs from spreading?
Spring 2: Week 6
I can’t believe we’re at the end of our second term in Reception! The children have made tremendous progress in all areas of the Early Years curriculum.
Summer 1
Next half-term, we will be learning about bugs and going on lots of bug hunts for bugs. We will learning about the life cycle of a butterfly and hopefully set some butterflies free! We will use hand drills to build a bug hotel for our outdoor area.
Linked to Geography, we will find out where our favourite animals come from. We will locate countries on a map, look at different environments, and compare them to the UK.
As artists, we will mix colours to create camouflage patterns. We will also create landscapes for various animals using our small world resources in the classroom, and create scenarios and storylines for our play.
Poetry picnic
This week’s poem was called The Tiny Seed. Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve been talking about what plants need to grow. Can your child remember what plants need?
Reminders and upcoming dates
- Don’t forget to keep reading your Collins eBooks over the holidays.
- Monday 06 May – Bank holiday
- Monday 24 May – Training day: school closed
As always, I hope you all have a happy and healthy half-term break. Don’t forget to email me any pictures of what you get up to in the holidays. moortowneyfs@spherefederation.org
I look forward to seeing you all again on Monday 15 April.
Living and Learning: Solving problems
This term in Living and Learning we have been focussed on mental wellbeing. We have discussed different emotions and how they make us feel and act. We have also talked about friends and family as well as being positive with ourselves and others.
One lesson we particularly enjoyed was all about solving problems. First we watched a video where some animals were not showing good teamwork whilst crossing a bridge. Then, we came up with our own ideas for what you have to do to work well in a team.
After that, we put our learning into practice. We created our own narrow bridge outside and two teams had to cross it at the same time. The children were very inventive with their ideas and learnt that they had to listen and talk in order to solve the problem. Well done Year 1!
Help at home by talking to your child about how they can work as a team to solve problems.
We are authors!
Year 1 have been working really hard on writing a story inspired by the book ‘We’re going to find a monster!’ by Malorie Blackman. They came up with their own places to visits and decided what creatures they would find when they got there. Everyone in Year 1 has been really impressed with the language, effort and concentration the children have shown!
Today we got the chance to publish our work in our very own book! We wrote a title and a blurb as well as drew the pictures. Everybody was really focussed and produced some brilliant work.
Help at home by getting your child to share their book with you! Maybe they could even write a sequel!
