What a busy April we have had! He is just a snippet of the children’s learning.

Our theme in History has focused on Maya civilisation. The children have been researching how the Mayas ruled and compared it to how the Anglo-Saxons ruled, using a variety of resources. Investigated the location of the Maya civilisation. Looking in more detail, at what modern-day countries their city-states and temples were located in, what hemisphere it’s in, the climate and what direction you’d need to travel from the UK to get there.

They children were also lucky enough to investigate a variety of Maya artefacts.

During Literacy the children have been learning about a Maya myth called The hero Twins. They have been creating setting and character descriptions, using figurative language to engage the readers, which lead to the children recreating the myth, improving the original with their own descriptive language.

During Maths the children have been learning their decimal number bonds to 1 and 10  answering questions like these 1.1 + 8.9 = 10       2.1 + 7.9 = 10 1.2 + 8.8 = 10       2.2 + 7.8 = 10 as well as missing number problems e.g. 0.2 + ⃝ = 1 or 3.6 + ⃝ = 10.

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths–games/hit–the–button

Using this game will help your child practise decimal number bonds to 1 and also 10 in a fun and engaging way. Can they beat their previous score? Can they beat your score?

Not only have the children been learning decimal numbers but also angle estimating, reading and drawing as well as measuring perimeters.

In science this month, we have been continuing our work on materials and specifically how to separate materials using varying techniques. Year 5 were set the challenge of being marooned on a desert island and in desperate need of drinking water. Each group were given a sample of sea water whereby they needed to separate all the polluted items from it and make it as clean as possible to be consumed. The children used techniques such as removing by hand, sieving, using a magnet to remove magnetic items and filtering. However, the children soon realised that the sea water was in fact a salt water solution. In order to remove the salt, the children placed their water samples on the window sill to allow the water to evaporate, thus leaving the salt crystals behind as they’re too heavy to evaporate with the water. The children did noticed that to collect the water, it would need to be condensed by coming into contact with something cool.

Wow – what a great few weeks we have had in Year 1. We are excited to share the children’s achievements with you!

Literacy

The teachers in Year 1 have been super impressed with the children’s reading skills this half term. Our target is to read all Set 3 Sounds at speed by Easter – lots of us are already there, keep practising at home using the Virtual Classroom videos that are sent out weekly. The children have also been improving their fluency skills, which in turn, has improved their understanding of texts. We love to see so many of you reading at home. The children have also been working hard at transferring these reading skills to their writing. They are getting much better at writing sentences that make sense; using with capital letters, finger spaces and full stops. The children have been learning to use connectives to add more detail to their writing.

The children thoroughly enjoyed their visit from the author Sarah Griffiths – we have used her book as a ‘Favourite Five’ text this half term.

Maths

Within Numbersense the children have continued to develop their understanding of number through ‘making and breaking numbers to 9’.

Alongside this, the children have enjoyed reading, writing and counting within numbers to 100 and looking at place value by representing amounts using dienes. The children have really impressed staff by learning how to count in groups of two and representing amounts in arrays, beginning to show a good understanding of multiplication.

Geography

The children are enjoying their on-going enquiries into the United Kingdom and the rest of the world. They are able to recall the 4 countries that make up the UK and can discuss the 7 continents of the world. More recently, the children have been exploring the seas and oceans that surround the UK and are looking forward to finding out more about the 5 oceans of the world. They have represented their findings through map work, collaborative building and drawing and writing.

Science

The children have gained new knowledge about animals, including humans within their science enquiries. During their science lessons, the children have investigated (both using the internet, non-fiction texts and exploring the outdoor areas) and found out new information about the anatomy of the human body and, in particular, the five senses. One child wondered if all human’s eat the same foods, which led us on to our current investigation into the diets of all animals, including humans. The children are now exploring the concepts herbivores, omnivores and carnivores and educators wonder if the children spot any similarities or differences between each of these groups? The children have represented their findings through scientific drawings, building, painting and through the use of Venn diagrams.

PE

In PE, the children are continuing to develop their fundamental movement skills and have enjoyed following the rules of outdoor sports games within their outdoor PE sessions

Music

In Music, the children have gained knowledge around a wider range of music genres and enjoyed listening to and appraising different songs.

It’s been another busy month in Year 5!

In literacy this month, the children have been investigating what life was like for a working Victorian child where they produced a non-chronological report, detailing the jobs they may have done. In addition, the children were introduced to our quality text ‘Street Child’ by Berlie Doherty with links to our Victorian Shropshire theme and those of working Victorian children. Year 5 have explored some of the literary techniques such as expanded noun phrases to describe characters and settings, as well as similes and personification figurative language to provide imagery and engage the reader.

In Science, the children began their new topic of Materials where they compared and grouped materials based on their properties, whilst exploring the school grounds to investigate what materials were present and why that material had been specifically chosen to carry out its job.

In maths the children have doing lots of work on decimals, specifically adding and subtracting decimal numbers using mental strategies as well as standard written methods. Towards the end of the month, the children began some fraction work by representing fractions using practical resources.

Year 6 have had a busy October!

Year 6 have spent their Personal Development sessions looking at relationships, respectful relationships and stereotypes. The children have shared their ideas about what respectful relationships look like and identified examples of respectful relationships. When learning about stereotypes, the children identified how stereotypes can be harmful and what can be done to break stereotypes.

The children started their science experiment about how mould grows. The children have predicted in which environment mould will grow the most (in a warm climate, damp climate etc). The children have recorded their results over 2 weeks and will summarise their findings in November.

In history, the children have continued to learn about the Ancient Egyptian Civilisation, including Howard Carter’s discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb. The children researched the lives of Howard Carter and Tutankhamun, linking their knowledge to the history and geography substantive concepts. This knowledge will then support their writing of Howard Carter’s diary over the next few weeks.

The children enjoyed ‘Foundation Week’ during the last week of half term, where they looked at photography in art, 3D design in computing and dilemmas in RE (with links to Buddhism). The children looked at macro photography in the style of Edward Weston and photomontage in the style of Hannah Hock before creating their own self portraits using the grid method.

It’s been another busy month and we’d love to share with you everything we have been doing in Year 5.

In science this term we have been learning about living things and their habitats. Firstly, Year 5 went on a walk around the school environment, observing and investigating the different plant and animal life in our local environment. We noticed an abundance of different plant and insect species that are found around our school. We then very carefully dissected a flower to investigate its different parts, how they work and look into greater detail how plants pollinate and reproduce.

We were very lucky this month to be visited by PC Fenn, who came to speak to us about Wildlife crime. He discussed the illegal poaching of animals and the environmental damage that humans cause, destroying their habitats.

On Friday 13th May we had a Mental Health Awareness day, looking specifically at loneliness. We looked at the different ways that people can feel or become lonely and how we can help, offering advice and ways we can make others feel included.

With the country celebrating the Queen’s Jubilee early next month, we have created portraits of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in the style of Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama. Sometimes known as the ‘princess of polka dots’, we’ve used her unique style to inspire our creations, thinking carefully about the size, medium and colour used to produce a piece of artwork that honours our long-serving monarch.