Class News
Ducklings
Ducklings class have been really excited this term to learn about our new inquiry: Different forms of transport can take us on many different journeys and keep us connected to others. We started our adventure by going on a Safari and meeting a variety of jungle animals, our favourite being a snake. We then explored how we can move our bodies in different ways, we made an obstacle course to explore these different movements where we could climb, jump, go over and under things. What adventure will we take next?
Robins
We have been very lucky to have a visit from the lovely Jo, at Kent Fire and Rescue Service.
We have learned lots of very helpful information and you might like to ask your children about these things at home:
We call 999 to speak to the police, ambulance, coastguards and firefighters.
You need to check your smoke alarms at home, once a week!
If you see fire, you need to shout, "FIRE!" as loud as you can.
If your clothes catch alight, you need to, STOP, DROP and ROLL.
STOP
DROP
ROLL
Sparrows
We have been so very busy since we returned to school and are showing a real enthusiasm for learning.
Every morning when we come into our classroom we carry out our Clever Fingers activities. These help us to develop our fine motor skills, practise our spellings and tricky words, letter formation, counting, number recognition and help us to settle ready for the day ahead.
During our maths lessons we have been focusing on counting forwards and backwards, recognising numbers to 20 and finding one more and one less. We have used counters, cubes, multilink and even dinosaurs to help us! We found a way to link maths to our new inquiry. Our new central idea is: The Arts can help people develop their creativity and imagination. The first line of inquiry is looking into the uniqueness of people's creativity and imagination. We started by investigating the tricky word unique and what it means. We have discovered that something unique means 'there is only one'. We know that we are unique! We used cubes to measure our feet, hands, ears and then we compared our results with our friends to find out how we are similar and different.
Blackbirds
Blackbirds have had a wonderful start to the term. They have fully thrown themselves into their new central idea 'Life on Earth Depends on Harmony Between all Living Things'. We have been focusing on the effects of deforestation on the planet. We have researched where deforestation happens the most across the world, looked into the life of Gerald Durrell and created timelines and line graphs to represent change in deforestation over the last 70 years. We thoroughly enjoyed conducting an experiment on how deforestation affects flooding rates across the world. We have learnt how important our forest and rainforests are and have created posters to spread awareness.
Woodpeckers
Woodpecker Class have leapt back into their learning this term with a brand new inquiry: Global citizenship requires intercultural understanding. We have been reading The Boy Who Biked The World where a boy called Tom challenges himself to travel through different countries using only his bicycle. With this inquiry, we will be focusing on Europe and the different cultures and nationalities we can find there.
In Science, Woodpeckers have been continuing their investigations into light. We have discussed thunderstorms, found out how shadows are made and even found some materials which make the best shadows!
On top of all of this, Woodpeckers have loved playing on Spelling Shed! They have been amassing a huge number of spelling points and getting very high marks in their weekly spelling tests too.
Blue Jays
Blue Jays have had a great few weeks back at school. We have begun our forest school which has been a perfect opportunity to develop our Learner Profile Attribute skills further. We have had the opportunity to assemble tables and then drink hot chocolate on those chilly afternoons!
Within our inquiry, we have been looking into how there are many people in the world who inspire others to reflect, take action and promote change. We had a conferencing session on who inspires us and HOW they have promoted change in our lives. Furthermore, we have used our digital tools to create an online timeline on amazing women who have inspired the world. We researched women such as Jane Austen, Oprah Winfrey and Queen Elizabeth. Our book linked to our inquiry is called 'Dare To Be You'. We are really enjoying this book at the moment as we have been able to discuss how people maybe feeling when they are anxious, we communicated and reflected on how we need to be aware of others around us.
In Science, we are learning about living things and their habitats. We took a walk outside and chose five leaves that we could create a classification diagram with. We now know that classification means to group things, whether this be by size, colour, texture or shape.
Kingfishers
Kingfishers have had a fantastic few weeks of Term 3. Our Central Idea all about peaceful resolutions to conflict finally came to an end with a great exhibition of pupils' homework projects and then finishing with learning about the Blitz.
This week, we have begun our new Central Idea, Geography can impact on the location of human settlement. Through this Central Idea, we have been looking at migration and we have used a programme called Mentimeter to share our own opinions on the main reasons for migration. In order to look deeper into migration and how it all started, we have started to read a book called, Blood on the River, Jamestown 1607. We are thoroughly enjoying this book at the moment as it has extremely exciting vocabulary and great descriptions which we are using in our writing. The book inspired us to look into Jamestown in a bit more depth so we conducted our own research. We are currently at the beginning of designing our own Google Sites to share all of our information.
Chaffinch
Since the Christmas break, Year 6 have been working exceptionally hard and have have impressed me greatly in their application to learning. Within their central idea, Chaffinch have been researching different types of government around the world, throughout history and investigating the influence these regimes had on populations.
Through our class text - The Hunger Games - year 6 have been writing for a variety of purposes, including: letters home from Katniss to her family, character descriptions and 'How to survive the Hunger Games' guides. So far, we have loved the book and are looking forward to seeing how the plot will continue to twist in the coming chapters.
Forest School
During Forest school this week we have learnt about why fire is so important in our lives. We discussed how to respect fire and also the dangers of fire and how to be safe and responsible. We talked about how to respect our environment and how fire is only to be used for a specific purpose. This week we used the fire strikers to start a small fire in the Kelly kettle so that we could make a hot drink. The children used this knowledge to safely and successfully light the fire and enjoyed having a warm drink.
