TOPIC - Planet Earth

We have had a brilliant start to the half term and the children have been enjoying our new topic: Planet Earth. In English, we have been reading Lila and the Secret of Rain, a wonderful story set in a Kenyan village. The children have been practising retelling the story verbally before writing diary entries as Lila;  imagining how she might think and feel at different points of the story. We have been very impressed by their fantastic writing. 

In Maths we have been looking at odd and even numbers and finding doubles and halves. We have been incorporating lots more problem solving and reasoning opportunities, now that the children are becoming more secure in their understanding of number. 

In Geography, we have been learning about aerial views and looking at different parts of our world from a bird's eye view. The children had a lot of fun looking at aerial photographs of Ashtead: locating our school as well as other geographical features and we all agreed that from this perspective all the trees looked like broccoli!

In Science we have been learning about different types of animals and how they can be sorted into different groups. We have been learning about the features of reptiles, amphibians, mammals, birds and fish. We have also been learning about how animals can be either carnivores, herbivores or omnivores. 

In PSHE we are learning about how to keep healthy and what we can do to ensure we keep fit. In DT we are going to be making free standing structures this half term, and have started by looking at natural and man-made structures and the differences between them. 

The children enjoyed World Book Day yesterday -  it was wonderful to see them all dressed up! We had a great time orienteering in the afternoon - finding the different book characters located around the school. We have also enjoyed several online book sessions this week - hearing different authors share about the books they have written. We particularly enjoyed listening to, 'The Leaf Thief' story and being shown how to draw the main character, a squirrel who thinks his leaves are being stolen. 

We are looking forward to Science week next week and our visit to Hobbledown Farm.