Class News

Ducklings

Ducklings have had another busy week exploring our inquiry into different types of journeys. Last week we travelled to China and found out about a celebration called Chinese New Year. We found out that this year is "the year of the tiger" and that it is the biggest holiday celebrated in China and it represents the beginning of Spring. We made noodles as our celebration meal and attempted to use chop sticks to eat the noodles, we listened to some traditional Chinese music. Our favourite part was moving to the music and performing a Dragon dance. We also learnt how to say a Chinese greeting " Kung hei fat choi " which means congratulations and best wishes for a prosperous New Year.

Happy Chinese New Year everyone!

It's been a busy few weeks in Sparrow class. Maths, writing, reading, phonics, art, geography and so so much more as part of our inquiry.

We are continuing to look at our central idea about how the arts help us to develop our imagination and creativity and are focusing on a new line of inquiry about how we use our imagination and creativity in our lives. We have been finding out about an artist called Kandinsky and we have found out some really interesting information. This is what some of the children would like to share about him:

'He grew up in a place called Russia' Jack.

'He was a teacher but he did not like it so he went to a school for artists. He was really good at art!' Hanahniah.

'Kandisnky used lots of colours and patterns in his painting' Mia.

'I want to be just like Kandinsky when I grow up and use my creativity and imagination' Adesewa.

'The art he did is called abstract art' Holly.

We have started to investigate what happens when we mix colours together and are looking forward to creating our own art work inspired by Kandinsky.

Our class book called Poles Apart helped us when we were writing and we really enjoyed making a story map to retell the story. We then wrote our own stories, we had to use our phonics skills to do this and lots of our tricky words too. We created a success criteria to help us when we are writing and Sparrow class knew exactly what they needed to do to make their writing the best it could possibly be. We also found out about the countries that Mr White and the penguins visited on their adventure. They went to America, England, Italy, India and Australia. What an adventure! We have looked on a map to find the different countries and also found out about what we might see if we visited one of these countries.

Blackbirds

Recently, Blackbirds have been amazing writers. They have been reading the story 'Duffy's Lucky Escape!' The story highlights the importance of what we do with our rubbish once we have finished with it. Blackbirds decided to adapt and re-tell the story using an endangered sea animal of their choice. They have include many wonderful skills in their writing including adjectives, adverbs, expanded noun phrases and many more! Click the videos below to hear some of our wonderful narratives!

I would also like to say a huge well done to the children who have brought in their amazing projects already! It clearly shows a wonderful understanding of our inquiry 'Life on Earth Depends on Harmony Between all Living Things .'

Woodpeckers

Blue Jays

It has been a busy few weeks in Blue Jays! We have been inquirers and conducted an experiment based on density. We wanted to see whether oil sits at the bottom or the top of the container. From our experiments, we found out that the oil takes the shape of the container but sits on top of the liquid, we then decided to add milk to see whether the three liquids would then separate.

Within our inquiry, 'There are many people in the world who inspire others to reflect, take action and promote change' we had conferencing discussions on how we can inspire others. From this, we decided to create manifesto plans on what we can do to inspire others around the school. As it has been bird week, we have been bird watching and identifying the different bird species in the school, for example, the wood pigeon and blackbird. We are excited to spot the Jay birds flying around the school too!

Kingfishers

Within our learning over the past couple of weeks, we have looked into a range of inspirational people who share our Learner Profile Attributes. We conducted our own research, completed writing based on our chosen person and then drew our version of that person.

During one of our Science skills lessons, we posed a few questions about chemical reactions within irreversible changes. We wanted to find out if the Coca-Cola and Mentos eruption would happen with a range of different fizzy drinks and find out if it fizzes so much due to the quantity of sugar.

Chaffinch

Forest School

During Forest school this week we have been learning how to use different tools safely and effectively. Some of the group decided to make a table and a chair for Mr Moore. They made a plan of what materials and tools they would need and got to work. They worked collaboratively and supported each other until they had finished. They presented them to Mr Moore during our last week of Forest School next week. The rest of the group had great fun digging and making muddy puddles, the goal being to see who could dig the biggest hole and get the muddiest. They had lots of fun and even enticed some of the other group to have a go.