What if...? (Spring 1)
English
Our topic this half-term was 'What If...?'. As a progression from last year's work on traditional tales, we read traditional tales with a twist - stories with alternative endings, for example.
We began our topic by reading and writing riddles to describe characters from fairy tales.
Our key text was Mr Wolf and the Three Bears by Jan Fearnley. We used the text to describe all the delicious-looking food that Mr Wolf makes for Baby Bear's birthday party. We used our writing to make M&S-style adverts to help Mr Wolf sell his party foods scan the QR codes below to watch some of them. We also wrote descriptions for the main characters in the story. To explore the different characters’ feelings and personalities, we wrote letters in role, and used the main plot to write our own innovated versions of the story.
To finish our unit, we will make some party food and write instructions so you can follow our recipes - We hope you will like them!
Follow the link below to Jan Fearnley’s website:
Maths
In maths, we have covered place value, measures (mass, volume and capacity), addition and subtraction, money, and multiplication and division. We looked at scales and used our place value knowledge to identify missing numbers, and learnt to round numbers to the nearest 10. Using jottings, we learnt how and when to exchange when adding or subtracting. We used coins to make values in different ways, added values together to find the total cost of items and calculated how much we would have left to spend if we had a given amount and had spent some. We explored arrays in multiplication and sharing in division.
Science
Our topic in science this half-term was Living Things and their Habitats. We will continue to study this topic in the second half of the Spring term.
We began by recapping what we remembered from Year 1, naming and classifying different animals. We then looked at the processes of living things (MRS GREN!). To compare things that are living, dead and things that have never been alive, we will took photos of the different things we found in our school. We looked at how energy is transferred between living things and described simple food chains. To investigate birds and why they have different beaks, we tested how much ‘food’ we can collect in 60 seconds using our own ‘beaks.’ This helped us begin to understand animal adaptations and how they behave in the wild.
Steven Lewis Neill, our science specialist, came to visit us this half term. He helped us to explore forest school, firstly looking for catkins hanging from the hazel trees, and spotting turkey tail and King Alfred fungus. Then, we investigated leaf litter, looking for living things hiding from predators. We found slugs, slug eggs, woodlice, snails and millipedes. We also consolidated our learning about food chains, applying the scientific vocabulary that we had learned in class. Steven brought with him some animal skulls, and we looked closely at the jaws of different animals to compare their teeth. Finally, we carried out an experiment to see which food mice prefer.
Thank you to Steven for a super morning of science learning.
Art
In art, we studied William Morris; a textile designer from London who was born in 1834. We explored his use of nature in his artwork and used view-finders to ‘zoom in’ on his designs. To support our science learning on living things, we looked closely at different leaves and created designs that we turned into stampers. We made our stampers using foam and used them to make repeating-pattern prints with paint. We explored how to make the best prints possible and experimented with different colours and shades.
Follow the link below to find out more about William Morris:
https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/william-morris-and-wallpaper-design
Geography
Our geography learning this half-term was linked to our English topic of traditional tales. We began by sorting the human and physical features we found in fairytale landscapes. We decided which features to include in our own fairy tale lands and created maps, including symbols in a key. We used our maps to show how characters could move between the features, using compass points to describe the routes.
Follow the link below to create your own worlds using AI:
Music
This half-term, we learnt a rock song called, I Wanna Play in a Band. We learnt to sing the song (with our best rock actions!), and played instruments in time with the music.
RE
The religion we learnt about in RE was Hinduism, and the practices of Hindu worship. We thought about devotion and explored what and who we are devoted to. We discussed the different ways we show our devotion and the things that are special to us. We talked about the different ways we can show gratitude and respect to the people who really matter to us.
After studying Hindu deities, we discussed why they are portrayed the way they are. We looked at the ritual of Hindu worship and learnt about the different items on the puja tray, and compared prayer at home with prayer at a mandir.
Follow the link to learn more about Hinduism:
PE
Our topics in PE this half term were Gymnastics and Health Related Exercise.
In gymnastics, we developed our knowledge of different balances and our abilities to hold them. We created routines to demonstrate our skills with control and fluency. We also investigated how we can travel in different ways and combined them with our balances to develop our routines.
In health related exercise, we developed our understanding of how the body functions and changes during exercise, and developed our abilities to exercise at different intensities. We learnt about our pulse and how to find it, and tested our heart and lungs, our muscles, our speed and our ability to catch. We recorded our results and tracked our progress over the half term.
We also had weekly visits from Lancashire Cricket, who delivered sessions to improve our batting, bowling and fielding skills.
