Amber Class

What will we be learning this term?

W/c 11th July

What an exciting week Amber Class have had! They had a fantastic outing to Warleigh Lodge Farm. They looked for evidence of animals and searched for insects - including digging in the cow pats! They climbed inside a hollowed out tree, splashed in the river bed and went on a tractor ride. The children loved feeding the kids and chickens and collecting eggs. There was also lots of running and rolling down hills! They all came back to school very tired! Then, the very next day they were on a coach again to watch the Year 6 production of Oliver at Writhlington school where they were all amazing. They really enjoyed all the songs which they have been singing in class today! We finished off the week by completing our unit on China and Hong Kong. We had a Chinese experience afternoon and the children loved using chopsticks and reading their fortunes in the fortune cookies. They also did Tai Chi and tried some Chinese writing.

W/c 20th June

What a fun, busy and productive week we have had in Amber class! This week the children completed their independent writing of the story of Grandad's Island, told by the parrot in the story. They planned, wrote and edited their stories to produce wonderful examples of just how much progress they have made in writing. We have focused on Art all week to produce individual mixed media replicas of a painting by Claude Vernet. On Tuesday, the children were treated to a Art workshop run by the Scrap Store where they all made pop up puppets of a character from The Cat in the Hat. In Maths we have continued learning about time and the highlight of the lessons was using stop watches to time our partners doing different activities. In PE we practised our races for Sports Day so we will be all ready for the big day on Tuesday!

W/c 13 June

It has been a busy, hot and happy week! All the children worked very hard this week as they worked through some reading and Maths assessments which proved how much progress they have made and that they have grown in independence and confidence. We were very proud of them all. They also got an opportunity to show off their resilience and good sporting attitudes when we did some practising for Sports Day. The children really enjoyed learning about the compass points in Geography and drawing their own map showing treasure on an island. They also had fun playing the 'compass point running game' outside. The highlight of the week was a fun afternoon doing activities on our Fellas Friday when Dads and special people were invited in to school. We did some fun drawing and DT challenges which everyone enjoyed.

W/c 6 June

This week in Maths we have been learning about numbers made up of tens and ones eg 34. We have started a wonderful new story called Granpa's Island in English. It has inspired the children to write imaginative and descriptive sentences about an island. In Geography we learnt the seven continents of the world and sang a song to help us remember them. We got to move around in Science as we demonstrated different ways that animals could move and explored ways WE could move in PE. We had some fun team races! In PSHE we spoke about working towards goals and had a challenge of passing around a box of noisy objects without making a sound. It proved what we can do when we work together! We ended the week talking about Rosh Hashana and ate some apples with honey after learning about this tradition.

W/c 23 May

This week Amber class wrote their own story about a child's poster that comes alive and through which they entered a magical land. There was some lovely imaginative narrative writing. The children filled in a fact sheet about England to complete their unit on the United Kingdom. Our PSHE unit on how we are changing was completed with the children drawing a picture of themselves as a flower with each petal describing something that they have learnt to do since they were a baby. They also wrote about how mastering a new skill makes them feel happy and proud of themselves. On Thursday we spent the day doing Art as we explored sketching techniques. They produced a lovely drawing of natural objects using sketching and blending techniques.

The highlight of the week and a lovely way to end the term has been the Jubilee celebrations. It was wonderful to see lots of Amber class children at the Jubilee Disco - they all looked very smart and showed off some incredible dance moves! The children have a learnt about Queen Elizabeth and why this Jubilee celebration is so special. They have made crowns and made a collage of images related to the Queen. They loved the picnic lunch on the picnic tables and blankets "such fun" and described it "the best da ever"!

W/c 16th May

We finished this week by publishing our own version of the Pinocchio story. The children in Amber class are really building up their stamina for writing and were all proud of their finished work. In Maths we have started learning about positions and working out quarter and half and three quarter turns. Science was a rather smelly lesson this week as we got to dissect some sardines when learning about fish! The children drew close up drawings of chosen aspects of the fish such as the scales or fins. In Geography we wrote postcards from one of the capital cities in the UK - London was the most popular - and wrote about well known physical and human features. Amber children loved playing a football match against Orange class in PE and some impressive footwork was seen! The highlight of the week, however, has undoubtedly been making bunting for the Jubilee celebrations next week. Amber class can't wait for the Jubilee disco!

W/c 10 May

This week has seen Amber class doing some super work. They have all been working hard on their handwriting as they are learning to write in pre-cursive ready for Year 2. In English they are making good progress with their sentence writing. Today they wrote our last section of the Pinocchio story and next week they will be writing their own story based on the famous tale. Amber class have enjoyed learning about halves and quarters in Maths this week so there has been lots of talk about cakes and pizza! There was lots of interesting conversations in PSHE as children spoke about how they have changed since they were babies. We learnt about physical and human features in Geography and listed some of the features of Peasedown and Bath. The highlight of the week has been our Science lesson where we learnt about birds and carefully observed feathers.

W/c 3 May

We have a busy and happy week in Amber class. In Maths we have been working on making equal groups by sharing and the children have been doing this with concrete objects as well as by representing groups in drawings. We have continued our Pinocchio story and have focused a lot on adjectives - the children are really building extensive vocabularies! In Geography this week we learnt about the capital cities of the United Kingdom. We have learnt about amphibians and reptiles in Science and the children are really enjoying learning interesting facts about different animals. We have found it fascinating to compare how our bean plants have grown and suggests reasons why they have grown differently. It was a lovely end to the week to have an extended playtime while we welcomed parents to see the Opal play program in action.

W/c 25th April

It is wonderful to see all the children back after the Easter break. They all seem to have come back eager and ready to learn and we have had a happy and calm start to the term. This week we are beginning Multiplication in Maths so we have been doing lots of counting in 2s, 5s and 10s as well as doubling and grouping activities. Our new writing topic is on Pinnochio and Amber class have been most impressive with their neat handwriting and use of capital letters and full stops this week. In PE we began our football skills programme which everyone loved. We have learnt about different groups of animals in Science and the United Kingdom in Geography. Our PSHE topic is about growing and changing.

W/c 4th April

We have had a lovely last week of Term 4. Children have been exploring more plants outside and planting our very own bean plants. We have developed our resilience with writing this week, children have published their work using their best handwriting. Children were immersed in DT this week, they practiced their cutting skills during making fruit kebabs and cookies.

W/c 28th March

We have had a busy week in Amber class! This week in Maths we have been making equal groups and learning about arrays which will lead on to multiplication next week. We have been doing lots of counting in 2s, 5s and 10s. It was lovely to have mothers and other family members in class on Monday. Amber class impressed their family with their writing skills and were able to demonstrate how we do a Write Stuff English lesson. We have come to the end of our story in English so this week we started to write our own story and made wonderful story maps to plan the plot. In Science, we have continued to learn about plants and, in particular, fruit and vegetables. We enjoyed cutting up some fruit to look at the seeds and investigating vegetables to think about what part of the plant we eat.

Book Quest W/c 23rd May

The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig

The children discussed

how they knew this was a fiction book

how the story differed to the original

how we know it is a traditional fairy tale

who the 'good' characters were and how they were different in this version of the story

how the ending of the story differed to the original

how the author and illustrator changed how we feel about the characters

the language - especially the adjectives - that the author used for effect

Book Quest W/c 16 May

This week we read Barbara Throws a Wobbler by Nadia Shireen

We discussed:

Why the text is fiction

What the pictures/ diagrams are used for

What the book reminds us of

How the character felt and why

What the character reminds us of

The beginning, middle and end of the story

What the story reminds us of

Book Quest W/c 10 May

This week we have read the famous Dr Seuss book The Cat in the Hat. We discussed:

Why the text is fiction and an adventure story.

How the author has used illustrations in the book.

What the problem and the solution in the story was.

What the low point for the character was and how we knew what the characters were feeling.

What the story and characters reminded us of.

Book Quest W/c 3 May

This week in Book Quest, Amber Class read and discussed the book, The Day the Crayon Quits by Drew Daywalt

These are the topics we discussed and questions we asked in our book quest time.

Characters

A high point/ low point for the main character is ……...

I liked/ didn’t like the main character because

The character shows what they are like when ………

The character changes when …….

I know how the character felt when….. because

The character reminds me of…..

Types of text

The text is fiction because ………………..

The pictures/ diagrams are used to …

The book reminds me of …..

Plot

The beginning, middle and end can be written in 3 sentences as …..

The story reminds me of …...

There was some insightful answers and it lead to an interesting discussion.