Happy New Year and Welcome Back!

We hope that you have all had a happy and restful break.

This half term our topic is 'Grand Designs', where we will be looking closely at buildings, construction and architecture around our local area and beyond.

We have started our new topic by looking at our school logo and discussing why we have a picture of the Whitefield Bridge. Over the coming weeks we will be finding out more about the Whitefield Bridge's construction and history and how we use it today to take us from home to school.   

Our core text for Spring 1 is 'The Three Billy Goats Gruff'.

In English we have worked in groups to compose and perform our own fairy tale poems. 

In Science we have introduced our new topic ‘materials’ and discussed the common materials we use every day.

We went on a materials hunt around school, identifying and describing the materials we found. We used an app called PicCollage to display our findings.

We have been looking closely at the painting Langlois Bridge at Arles by artist Vincent Van Gogh and making observations of the techniques used by Van Gogh to create his art work. 

We described what we could see in the painting using nouns and adjectives and asked a range of thoughtful questions.

We then used viewfinders to look closely at the artwork and explored the texture shown in the sky, water and bridge. We practised recreating the texture using oil pastels, chalk pastels and water colour paints by building up the colours slowly to create the texture. 

In Forest School we have enjoyed exploring snow and talking about the different changes that take place during the season of winter. 

In Music Mrs Brunton has been helping us to develop our improvisation skills. This is when you make up your own tune that has never been heard before. We used two notes on the chime bars and glockenspiels and worked with a partner to improvise our own music. 

In Science the children have taken part in a practical investigation describing the properties of materials. The children worked in pairs to describe a material for their friend to guess, used their sense of touch to identify and describe a material they held whilst blindfolded and and completed interactive games on computers and laptops.  

Next week we will be visiting the Whitefield Bridge and using our observational drawing skills to sketch it in person. In preparation for this visit we practised sketching different small parts of the Whitefield Bridge, looking closely at the lines and shapes we could see.

We enjoyed a wonderful visit to the Whitefield Bridge on Victoria Street. We have been using this local landmark to support our learning in science when discussing materials and their properties and we have also developed our historical enquiry skills by researching the history of the bridge. We sketched an observational drawing of the bridge whilst we were there, taking time to sketch each detail accurately.  

We have enjoyed another walk around our local area. This time we have been to visit the motorway bridge on Carr Road which was built almost 40 years ago when the M65 was built. We compared the motorway bridge with the Whitefield Bridge and talked about how they were built and how they are used today. 

In Science we tested different materials to find out which would be best for Cinderella's new mop. We did an experiment to find out which material was the strongest and the most absorbent. 

After visiting the Whitefield Bridge and the Carr Road Motorway Bridge, the children worked together to design and build these spectacular models of both bridges. It was wonderful to see the creativity and teamwork shown throughout. 

This week we have composed our own version of the three Billy Goats Gruff with a dragon, wolf or monster instead of a troll! We acted out and retold our new stories in front of an audience. 

The children's amazing artwork along with their learning outcomes in Science, Geography and History have come together to create this beautiful celebration of the Whitefield Bridge and what it means to us. 

Here is our wonderful learning journey for Spring 1.