Central Idea: Families can support the local community.

Line of inquiry two: An inquiry into what makes a family.

This week we read the story A handful of buttons and we discussed what similarities there are between all families. Through paired discussion, our class thought of the following:

"Our hearts are connected."

"We have fun together."

"Our families love us and we love them."

Throughout the week, we used our phonics knowledge to write our ideas down and share our ideas with friends. Our focus as a team has been to use finger spaces between words so we can read our own writing as well as others.

Through play, children have spoken of there rich experiences at home. We have replicated this in our home area where we have seen excellent communication, teamwork, sharing and development of mathematical skills. We truly have had a wonderful week of learning!

Central Idea: Families can support the local community.

This week we have continued with our inquiry, learning about different types of families and the traits that make them very special. Through reading 'A Handful of Buttons' and 'The Great Big Book of Families', the children have enjoyed plenty of fantastic discussion surrounding who is in their family and why they are unique. Well done everyone!

The children in RMC have also produced some amazing writing this week, telling us all about who they live with and why those people are important to them, using their phonics learning to help with spelling.

In maths we have continued to focus on counting up to 20, using various resources to help us, and we are becoming more confident each day! We have also been practising our subitising skills up to 5.

Please ensure that ALL items of uniform and PE kit are named to avoid any mix ups with uniform when changing for PE.

Central Idea: People need specific skills and qualities to do different jobs.

This week, we have continued with our inquiry, learning about different jobs and what those people do. We learned about Mae Jemison who was an astronaut. We have also been detectives. It was an exciting time in 1M when we noticed that there was a biscuit thief. We quickly used our detective skills and solved the mystery. Well done 1M!

We have sculpted some wonderful clay rockets after being inspired by the story of Mae Jemison. We cannot wait for you to see the final product.

In maths this week we have continued on with length and height. We are now able to use a ruler to measure and can even add two different lengths together.

Central Idea: Communities function more effectively when there are rules and responsibilities

This week we have continued with our inquiry, learning about rules and responsibilities. We started inquiring into who makes the rules within our country and looked at the four countries that make up Great Britain. We used our collage skills in art to create Union Jack flags.

Our writing focus this week has been looking at the rules of 'Traditional Tales' we have had great fun remembering the repeated phrases in stories such as Rapunzel.

For Y1 maths, we have continued exploring multiplication by making and adding equal groups. We enjoyed creating arrays to demonstrate this.

In Y2 maths, we have begun exploring time, focusing on o'clock, half past, quarter to and quarter past: feel free to test us at home! We also enjoyed exploring The Bible in R.E, finding out multiple facts about it including a focus on certain stories contained within.

Please see a separate letter which has already been sent about the KS1 SATs which are taking place next week. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask.

Central Idea: Communities provide services designed to meet people's needs.

This week, we have continued our inquiry process by considering how our local community can support. In doing so, we have focused on Tony Hart, an artist who was born within the Maidstone community and thrived as a result of the services on offer to him. He attended Maidstone college (a service) and this enabled him to achieve the fame and success he did as a children's television presenter. We discovered all this information through research, with us creating a biography of his life. In fact, we were so overjoyed by Hart's artistic creations in plasticine and his companion Morph, we designed and created our own clay Morph-inspired characters.

In maths, we have begun exploring time, focusing on o'clock, half past, quarter to and quarter past: feel free to test us at home! We also enjoyed exploring The Bible in R.E, finding out multiple facts about it including a focus on certain stories contained within.

Please see a separate letter which has already been sent about the KS1 SATs which are taking place next week. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask.

Central Idea: Places change as a result of human impact and organisations.

This week in inquiry we continued delving into our first line of inquiry 'Ways places change'. The children compared the influence of human change versus natural change. I was impressed by their discussion and linking to our previous inquiry on physical processes! I think this shows the children's enthusiasm and interest in our inquiry learning! We then moved onto looking at what invasion is and how this might change a place, specifically the Battle of Hastings. The children researched this invasion and looked at William, Duke of Normandy in preparation for writing a biography.

In maths we have continued looking at the different ways to represent data including pictograms and bar charts. The children enjoyed collecting data and representing it in a bar chart. Towards the end of the week we have begun looking at measurement and the children really enjoyed measuring items around the classroom. They were able to notice and discuss the difference between mm, cm and metres.

In science we have started our new topic of plants. This week we completed a comparative test based on what a plant needs to grow. The children made predictions and we planted 4 different sunflower seeds. For each seed we eliminated one factor the children felt a plant needed to grow (soil, light, water). We are going to keep checking our plants and compare which one grew the most to identify what a plant needs, ready to enter the schools sunflower growing competition across the school!

Central Idea: Economic activities rely on systems of production, exchange and consumption of goods.

This week in inquiry we have begun to look into the scale of trade looking at local, national and global trades. We have researched where our food comes from and discussed what factors determine where our food is sourced. We researched and located countries on a map and used a map scale to calculate the 'food miles' travelled by each item. We looked at tropical, temperate and polar climates, discussing how this determines which foods can be grown.

In maths we have continued to look to look at measure. We have been learning about capacity and volume, converting between litres and millilitres. We have compared measurements, added and subtracted measurements and solved a range of problems.

In reading we have been following the journey of Sona and she works on a school projects to look after planet earth. We have discussed her solutions and added some of our own examples of how she can better look after planet earth.

Central Idea: Transportation systems can be developed to meet the needs of the community.

This week in maths we have been looking at decimal numbers - writing, comparing, ordering etc. We received a really exciting delivery from Visit Kent via Reconnect which has given us the opportunity to look at 6 different places to visit and be set a marketing task. We have researched about the locations, looked at the different persuasive features of advertising and created two adverts. We will then submit these to Visit Kent in the hopes that we will be selected to win an all expenses paid trip to one of the places of interest.

In PSHE we talked about 'boundaries' and what makes for unhealthy and healthy boundaries which led on nicely from our session on 'Dares.' We practised asking about the weather in Spanish. We continued with athletics in our PE session, it is great to be able to use the field without getting muddy.

In Science we conducted an experiment to see what would happen to butter, chocolate and wax when placed in a dish floating on hot water. The children first predicted what they thought would happen before measuring the temperature of the water and observing the solids as they changed state. They were very disappointed that they couldn't eat the melted chocolate at the end but it was not very hygienic!

We are really looking forward to going on our second trip next week to get stuck into our central idea.

Central Idea: Role and responsibilities lead to successful leadership.

We have started our learning on decimal numbers this week, focusing on numbers up to 2 decimal places so far. In groups, we explored decimal numbers using part, part whole models to make and partition them. We have also been converting fractions to decimals and vice versa. It was very pleasing to see the children communicating well within their groups as to how they could make each number as well as discussing the value of each digit.

We are thoroughly enjoying reading 'Nelson Mandela - A Long Walk to Freedom,' for our reading comprehension. The children have been fantastic inquirers by exploring Nelson Mandela's life and considering what qualities he held as a leader, making strong links to our central idea of roles and responsibilities in leadership.

We have had some fascinating group discussions as a part of our inquiry learning, into the actions that have been taken by leaders during major pandemics. We have been focusing on 'The Great Plague,' and in particular the village of Eyam. The children's prior knowledge of these past events in history has been very impressive, and they have also made some great comparisons to the way in which leaders have dealt with pandemics in more recent years. The inquiry continues!

Central Idea: Role and responsibilities lead to successful leadership.

We have started our learning on decimal numbers this week, focusing on numbers up to 2 decimal places so far. In groups, we explored decimal numbers using part, part whole models to make and partition them. We have also been converting fractions to decimals and vice versa. It was very pleasing to see the children communicating well within their groups as to how they could make each number as well as discussing the value of each digit.

We are thoroughly enjoying reading 'Nelson Mandela - A Long Walk to Freedom', for our reading comprehension. The children have been fantastic inquirers by exploring Nelson Mandela's life and considering what qualities he held as a leader, making strong links to our central idea of roles and responsibilities in leadership.

We have had some fascinating group discussions as a part of our inquiry learning, into the actions that have been taken by leaders during major pandemics. We have been focusing on 'The Great Plague,' and in particular the village of Eyam. The children's prior knowledge of these past events in history has been very impressive, and they have also made some great comparisons to the way in which leaders have dealt with pandemics in more recent years. The inquiry continues!

Central Idea: Conflict shapes society

Inquiry - We have begun our first line of inquiry, which looks into the reasons behind conflict, by learning about Germany's surrender and the end of WW1. We re-enacted the Paris Peace conference and children enjoyed debating in role of David Lloyd George, Georges Clemenceau and Woodrow Wilson, the key leaders of the 'Big Three' (Britain, France and the United States) in order to establish the key criteria and interests for the Treaty of Versailles. Our writing has been inspired by film shorts and children have been editing and improving to create some really powerful descriptions using a variety of grammatical structures.

Science - Our science theme for this module is electricity, children inquired into circuits and symbols, ensuring we had a good understanding of electrical current and voltage. Children were highly engaged and full of questions as well as showing a good level of curiosity into more sustainable methods of generating electricity.

Maths - We began the week by delving into algebra (missing number problems) and BIDMAS (order of operations), progressing onto challenges involving position and properties of shape. Children have needed to show great care in their steps of problem solving in order to maintain clarity and use jottings to support their accuracy of calculations.

During our transition lesson this week, we discussed travelling to school and began to plan what our journey might look like. We also discussed issues of road safety and potential dangers. We had a look at some of these websites in order to find our secondary schools and begin to plan how we might travel to school. You may also wish to have a look at them at home together:

Google maps: https://www.google.co.uk/maps

11-19 Travel: https://11-19travel.info/#promptSchool

Road Safety: https://www.think.gov.uk/

KCC Travel Saver: https://www.kent.gov.uk/education-and-children/schools/school-transport/KCC-travel-saver