Science news from ms onyeanusi

Some fantastic work has been happening across the school in Science this week.  Our year one classes have been building on their knowledge of classifying animals by their characteristics, identifying their own human characteristics.  This will ensure that they are ready to link the different body parts to the correct senses when they cover this soon.

The year 3 have really enjoyed their Science unit learning about rocks. They have had a wonderful time investigating the hardness of different rocks and comparing rocks in several comparative tests. They have also been fascinated to learn how rocks can change over time and looking into how fossils are formed. This then resulted in a terrific opportunity to go to the Natural History Museum and observe a range of rocks and fossils.

Finally the year 5 children have looking at different forces and asking scientific questions around air and water resistance. This meant collaborating in small groups to devise enquiries on how to answer their questions. They were able to draw conclusions as to how the shape of an object can affect the amount of air and water resistance working on an object.

Year 1 News from miss bowater

This week our Year 1 children have all embarked on exciting trips to the River Thames in the heart of London, a firsthand encounter with some of the human and physical features that we have been learning about in our Geography lessons.  The children set out to observe and identify the iconic human and physical features along the Thames such as Tower Bridge and the London Eye.  They walked from Westminster, passing many famous landmarks, before boarding the Uber Boat by the London Eye to see whether we could recognise further features from the river!

This hands-on experience has undoubtedly enhanced their understanding of geography, fostering a sense of connection to their surroundings.  We look forward to building upon this Geographical knowledge of London next term in our History unit, where we will be learning about the Great Fire of London! Once again, we would like to say a huge thank you to the parent volunteers who accompanied us and made this memorable experience possible.

This term in our mathematics lessons, our Year 1 children have delved into the fascinating concept of time.  We have been learning to read the time with a focus on hour and half hour increments, sequencing events and learning the order of months of the year. Now we have finished this topic, there are a few simple and fun ways you can reinforce their learning at home.

1. Daily routines - Include discussions about time during daily routines, mentioning specific times for meals, bedtime and other activities to reinforce the concept of time passing.

2. Calendar Activities - Involve your child in updating the family calendar, marking special events, counting down to exciting days and understanding the concept of days and months.

3. Make a clock! Use everyday items like paper plates to create makeshift clocks to practise making and telling the time.

Reception news from miss dickinson

We have had a fantastic term so far in Reception. The children have really enjoyed reading our key text "Clean Up" where we have been exploring water pollution, the importance of recycling and learning about the country Jamaica.  The children enjoyed comparing similarities and differences between Jamaica and where we live in the UK.  We were super creative and designed our own beach scenes using water paints and pastels and collage materials. We even got to taste some tropical and exotic fruit! It was delicious. 

Reception were also lucky enough to have a recycling workshop from Hackney Council where the children learned about the three types of pollution and the importance of recycling.  We had some brilliant role-play and talk in our very own recycling centre in our playground.  The children have been so engaged sorting the recycling and looking for rubbish around our classrooms.  We also practised clearing the pollution from our small world beach and creating our own junk modelling sea creatures out of recycling! We then explored how water pollution affects animals and spoke about what we can do to help. In our writing lesson, we made posters to put around the school to tell everyone to stop polluting the oceans and to keep our playgrounds clean.  We are so proud of the children's reading and writing progress. The children have since showed great passion and enthusiasm caring for our environment and have become fantastic tidiers! Thank you to all parents who joined us for our Come Learn With Me session and Family Fridays. We love having you in our classrooms.

The children have now begun their new topic "Homes", where we will be exploring homes through history and different kinds of homes.  We have our first trip to the Museum of Home next week where we will be comparing homes from the past and how they have changed. We can't wait!