Central Idea: Shelters, for humans and animals, is a basic need.

This week, we have have started our first line of inquiry: an inquiry into different types of shelters. We have looked closely at different shelters for both animals and humans. The children have applied their phonic knowledge to label images and share their new learning with friends.

After introducing our new text 'The Three Little Pigs', Team RM were extremely motivated to create a shelter of their own. We collected natural materials from our school environment to build and create a house. Windows were made using acetate while string and (lots of) tape was used to join blocks and sticks together. It has been collaborative learning at its best!

Next week we have asked Trevor, our site manager, to help us to create a larger shelter in our outdoor learning environment. Watch this space...

Please check the recent Home Learning letter that was sent to all parents / carers regarding Home Learning expectations. We are looking forward to seeing you all at the Early Years and KS1 Coffee Afternoon on Monday 28th February

View our previous inquiry reflection here.

Central Idea: Shelter, for humans and animals, is a basic need.

RMC hit the ground running with our first line of inquiry: an inquiry into what a shelter is. RMC were incredibly excited by our new book, 'The Three Little Pigs.' The children were eager to build shelters and, after an amazing class discussion about which little pig had the best house idea, the children set about building their own. Working in several small teams they used ALL of the building blocks on the classroom to build their houses. They even asked for the book to look at the pictures to see if their house was going to be strong enough.

The teams in RMC worked well together and shared ideas between each other. Darcy said, 'We need to put tape along the joins to make our house even stronger!'

As well as our inquiry, the children were thrilled to see that some flowers had grown in the Early Years garden. Some of the children set about to make signs to tell people not to touch the flowers and helped to put them up in the garden. Well done for showing a great love of nature and developing agency to help people make better choices!

Please check the recent Home Learning letter that was sent to all parents / carers regarding Home Learning expectations. We are looking forward to seeing you all at the Early Years and KS1 Coffee Afternoon on Monday 28th February.

View our previous inquiry reflection here.

Central Idea: Learning about the past helps us to understand the present.

In 1M we started off our first line of inquiry by discussing what we think history is. We had some amazing communicators in 1M this week and we have learned so much about what history is.

In maths we have started learning about subtraction. We have shown how knowledgeable we can be by using our previously learned skills to help us with this new concept! We have been using ten frames and part whole models to help us in our subtraction equations.

Please check the recent Home Learning letter that was sent to all parents / carers regarding Home Learning expectations. We are looking forward to seeing you all at the Early Years and KS1 Coffee Afternoon on Monday 28th February.

View our previous inquiry reflection here.

Central Idea: Learning about the past helps us to understand our place in time.

Monday 28th February will be our first outdoor learning of module 4. Please remember to bring suitable clothes and boots.

We have had a flying start to our inquiry this week. We are learning about the past and therefore our learning will have a history focus for our Unit of Inquiry. We are beginning to understand what chronology means by creating our very own timeline. We started our timelines on the day we were born - we had great fun discussing our first birthday and re-telling the tales of our first birthday cake or our first birthday party. We then thought about a memory when we were a little older and ended our timelines with our lives right now. This chronological knowledge is our first step in understanding the past and we will be applying this skill when conduct and inquiry into to the History of Maidstone, which is our first line of inquiry. We will be using Stone Girl, Bone Girl - The story of Mary Anning, for our reading comprehension focus over the next couple of weeks.

Our science learning this term will focus on the topic of 'Uses of Everyday Materials'. The children are currently discussing ways we can investigate our big question ' What is the best surface for running?'

Please check the recent Home Learning letter that was sent to all parents / carers regarding Home Learning expectations. We are looking forward to seeing you all at the Early Years and KS1 Coffee Afternoon on Monday 28th February.

View our previous inquiry reflection here.

Central Idea: Our lives and histories are journeys.

This week we have begun exploring our new central idea which has a strong historical focus. As part of our multistructural first inquiry, we have been exploring our place in time and considering how this compares to other eras. To support us with this, we created historical timelines of some key historical eras, and saw how vast history is. We have also understood the idea of chronology (time order) and how this will support us sequencing events.

We applied this chronological knowledge by writing about our own personal history, sequencing events we have experienced within our seven years of life, all the way from our birth up to the present day. Meanwhile, in maths this week, we have been recognising and finding a half which we were pleased to see linked to previous learning of dividing by 2.

Please check the recent Home Learning letter that was sent to all parents / carers regarding Home Learning expectations. We are looking forward to seeing you all at the Early Years and KS1 Coffee Afternoon on Monday 28th February.

View our previous inquiry reflection here.

Central Idea: Evidence of past civilizations can be used to make connections to present day societies.

This week we have thoroughly pulled apart our new unit of inquiry. We began by completing a knowledge harvest looking at everything we know about Ancient Civilizations and Modern societies. This allowed us to focus on what these words mean, what we are interested in and what we would like to learn more about. Our class discussion was full of ideas and suggestions and the children are very excited to dive into this unit, despite me not giving too much away!

In maths we have been focusing on multiplication, specifically multiplying 2 digits by 1 digit and used many resources and methods to help.

The children have been extremely enthusiastic during their SPaG lessons. They have continued to use EdShed to help them practise their spellings and are really enjoying using the suite. We have focused on the suffixes -ness and -full and looked at using commas, specifically to list items. The children were fantastic communicators working together to spot the punctuation errors and adding commas where necessary.

Please look at the home learning letter that has been sent our regarding weekly homework. The children have all been given an envelope containing their usernames and passwords for everything they are need to access at home. I look forward to receiving your home learning each week.

What an amazing first week back!

View our previous inquiry reflection here.

Central Idea: Exploration can lead to discoveries, opportunities and new understandings.

This week we have begun exploring our first line of inquiry which focuses on the ancient civilisation of China. We have explored the historic timeline of the Shang Dynasty and looked at what else was happening around this historic period of time. Meanwhile, in maths this week, we have been learning about fractions. Exploring and finding equivalent fractions.

Our garden project is back in full flow. The children have been busy weeding and preparing the soil for planting. Our science focus this term in on plants, the children have researched and shared a range of interesting facts. These have been used to form a display on the gardening board.

Homework is assigned on 3/4D Home Learning Google Classroom. In addition to this all children should be reading regularly and completing activities on TTRS and LanguageNut.

View our previous inquiry reflection here.

Central Idea: The legacies of Ancient Civilisations may influence modern Britain.

This week we have reflected on last term's Central Idea, thinking about everything we learned and how we used our skills and developed our learner profile attributes.

We have pulled apart our new Central Idea and shared what we think we already know about Ancient Civilisations and what we would like to find out. In maths we have been learning about: equivalent fractions, fractions bigger than one and counting in fractions.

We have also started our new reading comprehension text called 'Who Let the Gods Out' by Maz Evans which we are really enjoying so far.

We have shared our Home Learning with each other and were really impressed with the effort that people had put into it.

We are doing cricket this term in PE.

Our new Home Learning has been scheduled today on Google Classroom under Module 4. We will now be setting weekly homework tasks on a Friday which will be due in the following Thursday. These tasks are in addition to your regular reading (we have a new reading target so keep up with your bookmarks!) and continue to use TTRockstars - remember to challenge yourself by setting the ones that you are not so familiar with.

View our previous inquiry reflection here.

Central Idea: Migrants both influence and are influenced by the world around us.

This week, we have been exploring our new central idea for inquiry and we have identified the key words surrounding this, along with what we think each word means. For maths, we have been looking at fractions, identifying equivalent fractions and why fractions can be equivalent. We have also started our new guided reading book 'Viking Boy'. Although having only started the book this week, the answers from children have been insightful.

View our previous inquiry reflection here.

Central Idea: Migrants both influence and are influenced by the world around us.

This week, we have continued to learn about fractions. We have delved into looking at fractions that are greater than one and converting them into mixed numbers. For our guided reading we have started to look at a new book, 'Viking Boy'. Having only just started, the predictions regarding what the story will be about has been remarkable. Each child was able to come up with their own responses, solely based on the front cover. Our inquiry has taken us into the route of migration and this week we have looked at what migration is, the advantages and disadvantages of migration as well as the pull and push factors. From this, we have started to create a non-chronological report to outline our findings from our research.

View our previous inquiry reflection here.

Central Idea: Exploration leads to discoveries, opportunities and new understandings.

This week, we have started our new central idea which has led us to find out about the reasons for exploration. We started by thinking what opportunities, discoveries and new understandings we gain when we explore our environment or new ideas. We then learnt about the seven reasons for exploration and have represented these in the form of art pieces for display so that we can continue to refer to them throughout our unit.

In maths, we have been using our knowledge of converting units of measure for weight, length and capacity to solve multi-step word problems. We started at the beginning of the week to set measures in context by comparing them to the older imperial measures. It will therefore, be really helpful at home if you can have conversations about the equivalence and use of different measures - what unit of measure do you use when you weigh yourself? If you fill the lawnmower with petrol, is it the same unit of measure as when we fill the car? How many millilitres are there in a pint of liquid?

We have also started to read the novel 'Around the World in Eighty Days' by Jules Verne. It is a classic adventure story which children may be interested to explore the various TV and film adaptations which have been made.

Homework has been placed on the home learning Google Classroom. This must be completed by Thursday next week. Children have been given a maths and a grammar task to complete.

View our previous inquiry reflection here.