Spring Term 2

Spring 2 2023

Welcome back! This half term our topic is Let’s Explore! Take a look at our class newsletter to find out more about what we will be learning this half term.

RE

In RE this half term our topic is Following Jesus.

This week we have celebrated Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday. The children have learnt about the importance of both days, through listening to Bible scripture and a Children’s Liturgy on Wednesday. The children have written Lent Promises for the next 40 days and nights. As the children wrote their promises they considered the words, giving, fasting, prayer and understanding. They then made a promise linked to each.

Jesus’s Disciples

Today we listened to a Bible story (Luke 5, 1-11) about how Jesus chose his first disciples. The children first listened to the story from the Bible, listening carefully to the word of God. We then watched a video that explained the story further. The children then had time to reflect and think about why Jesus chose Simon and Peter and why those chose to go with Jesus. We talked about the faith that Simon and Peter had shown in Jesus, following his word and never questioning him. Jesus thanked them for their faith by filling their nets with fish.

The children discussed this and considered the qualities that Peter and Simon showed and the qualities that the children look for in a friend.

The Good Samaritan 

Today we listened to the parable of the Good Samaritan. The children were shocked that so many people walked on and left the man beaten on the side of the road. We talked about why this might be, reasons included fear or uncertainty. We talked about what the children would do if it happened today and they overwhelming said they would help. We talked about their own safety, making sure that they always had an adult with them. Once we had listened to the story we sequenced it in our books and wrote what we each thought the key message from the parable was.

Easter

Our learning has focused on the important events of Good Friday and Easter Sunday. We have been reflecting and thinking about how people might have felt at the time Jesus was crucified. At the end of the half term, we made Easter cards for our families and also made Easter Cards for the ‘Bunny to a Senior’ project so that seniors in Wetherby receive an Easter card from us! We used skills that we have learned in Art over the past two terms (paper collage and pastels) to create wonderful cards – don’t you agree?

English

We started our new half term with a new book, My Heart is a Compass. 

We love Reading!

We have had a fun filled week to celebrate reading! Our activities included; a visit to Wetherby Library, an author visit by Serena Patel, a Reading Eggs assembly by Jane Fisher from Reading Eggs and a fun day filled with different activities on World Book Day!

Visit to Wetherby Library

We had a fabulous trip to Wetherby Library. Angie, the librarian, inspired us with all sorts of different books that we could borrow – picture books, easy-reader chapter books, chapter books, fact books, football books – everything that you can imagine! We listened to Angie read her favourite story and then we explored the library. We looked at so many different books, found books by our favourite authors. borrowed books (we brought our library cards from home), completed a Roald Dahl quiz and made door hangers. Angie chose some children to choose 5 books to borrow on our class ticket. The children did a good job choosing a broad range of books and we have brought these back to school to enjoy. This trip and the books we have borrowed have definitely inspired us to read!

Silly Stories Workshop – Author visit

We had another great experience – a Silly Stories workshop by a famous author, Serena Patel. Serena chatted to us about why she wanted to become an author, what inspires her to write and how we can become authors too! Serena gave us the starter to a story and we had to continue it. We worked in pairs and we could draw or write to carry on the story! We had lots of fun ideas and we all loved the visit!

Reading Eggs Assembly

As part of inspiring the children to read in lots of different ways, Jane from Reading Eggs came in to talk to the children about the different features of Reading Eggs. She showed us the Reading Library and how to access it and then showed us the Phonic Readers books. She read us a story and we all had to join in with the repetitive words. Jane taught us how to write a book review and how to ‘like’ the book. She then showed us the Reading Journal and how we can personalise our own journals on Reading Eggs. Jane set us a competition to read the most books on Reading Eggs and she left us lots of prizes too!

Suffixes

We have been focusing on suffixes. The children have learnt new suffixes and what they do when added to the end of a root word. We have engaged in lots of activities where we have added each suffixes correctly onto root words and began to use the words correctly in sentences.

Maths

This half term we are focusing on the new concepts of Multiplication and Division. To do this we have recapped our learning and understanding of our 2, 5 and 10 times tables. We have then explored multiplication, using objects to combine groups together. Once we were confident with objects, we learnt about arrays and how placing objects or marks in columns and rows can help us to solve multiplication more easily. Now we are confident multiplying with arrays we are moving onto division. This week we have focused on dividing using objects, applying our understanding of halving and sharing equally. We started the week by doing this in groups, reading the division sum together and solving the problems as a team. We have then moved onto using pictorial representations.

We have moved on to division problems and have started linking it to multiplication. We have been solving division problems practically using equipment and then we moved on to pictorial representations. We have also used arrays to help us see the link. Year 1 have really impressed us with their perseverance to new and tricky challenges!

World Maths Day 2023

We had lots of practical fun on World Maths Day. We played parachute games, linking to division and multiplication. We read a book by our key author for this term called A Mathematician Like Me and we thought of jobs that use maths.

Science

This half term in Science we are learning about weather and seasons. We have started our learning by thinking about the differences between Autumn and Winter. We have also learned about a significant scientist – Charles Macintosh who invented waterproof fabric!

We have been on a Spring hunt to find signs of Spring. We observed closely and found different types of Spring flowers; snowdrops, crocuses and daffodils, blossom and new buds on trees. We then identified and classified signs of Spring and Winter, so that we could directly compare the changes that happen. We worked in groups to make big Venn diagrams and Bar charts and linking to our Maths learning, we counted the pictures in 2s and 5s.

British Science Week 2023: Connections

We have enjoyed celebrating British Science Week and have taken part in lots of learning around this theme. We had a STEM Lego workshop which was so much fun! Based on the theme of Connections, we had to think of different ways that we can connect with people and then make them out of Lego. We had Lego boats, lorries, cars, phones, tablets and planes! We also had to work together in teams and make sure we listened to each others’ ideas.

We also took on another ‘connections’ themed challenge for British Science Week. In groups, we had 10 marshmallows and unlimited amounts of spaghetti. Our challenge was to create the tallest tower! We had to think very hard and work together! It required A LOT of perseverance…lots of us created some sort of structure (not really a tower!) We used a lot of problem-solving skills. It was so much fun!

Art

This half term we are focusing on the artist Monet. The children have started the topic learning all about Monet and his famous landscapes and seascapes. The children have then evaluated his art work and commented on the elements they like and why.

Today the children have explored drawing techniques, learning how to draw thin and thick lines. The children have then used these to recreate one of Monet’s drawings, using the lines to make elements stand out and add detail.

Today the children have learnt and applied a new art skill of using tones to create an effect. The children have learnt that tones can be created by applying different pressure, light pressure for a lighter tone and firm pressure for a darker tone. Once the children practiced this skill they then had a go at using this skill to re-create one of Monet’s pieces.

This week in art the children have had the opportunity to further practice creating thin and thick lines and tones for effect. This time the children have worked on these skills using pastels rather than pencils. The children have been practicing these skills as part of planning their final Art piece, further developing their skills and planning how they are going to use them next week to recreate a piece of Monet’s work.

Computing

Today we started our computing lesson by recapping how to stay safe online, using STOP BLOCK TELL.

We then learnt about the internet, what it is and how we can use it safely.

The children then had a go at logging in themselves and we learnt about why we login, to ensure that we are staying safe online.

Keynote
This half term we are continuing to develop our understanding of Keynote and how to insert text, images and create new pages.

The children are using these skills to present information on their History topic of Let’s Explore! focusing on transport and travel over time. 

History and Geography: Travel Through Time

Today we learnt about travel through time, how and why it has changed. We then recapped timelines by visiting our school timeline and added main events in the history of transport onto our own timelines.

The children learnt that transport has changed due to advances in technology, new inventions and access to different materials.

The Wright Brothers

Today we focused on air travel and learnt about how air travel has changed through history. The children learnt that the first form of air travel was Hot Air Balloon. We then learnt about the Wright Brothers and their amazing invention of the first aeroplane, first taking flight for 12 seconds in 1903.

Following on from our learning on the Wright Brothers we started to explore key historical figures in aviation History, particularly Amelia Earhart. Before we can fully understand her achievements we needed to understand continents in the world so we can fully understand how far she travelled and why this was such a great achievement. To do this the children put together a jigsaw of a world map and identified features they already knew, using their sticky knowledge. These included the equator, north and south pole and the continents of Africa and Europe.

Music

During today’s music session, the children explored rhythms. They started by discussing what rhythm was and discovered that it is patterns of sound in a song. We then listened to music which combined different patterns of rhythm such as ‘Flight of the Bumblebee’ by Rimsky-Korsakov, discussing whether they thought the rhythm was made up of long or short notes for each song played. The children then created their own rhythm by combining slower and faster stomps. They started by stomping four times and then attempted to double this to eight stomps within the same time frame. We then heard the ‘Do the funky elephant walk song’, and the children stomped once for the word ‘stomp’, twice for the word ‘stompy’ and used their arm as an elephant trunk for ‘do the funky elephant walk’. The children then used this knowledge to create their own rhythms, they drew one foot for a stomp and two feet to represent the two stomps in ‘stompy’ on a whiteboard. The children then showed their music to the rest of the class and they attempted to make the correct sounds by tapping their  thighs or stomping their feet.

To increase our exposure to different types of music, we have been listening to a classical piece of music ‘The Four Seasons’ by Vivaldi. We played a really fun and active game to identify changes in timbre and dynamics within the piece of music. When we heard a change in timbre we had to stand up and when we heard a change in dynamics, we had to clap! It was challenging at first but we showed a good understanding by the end of the lesson.

Extending our learning, we worked in pairs, using instruments, to create short musical patterns. Our pieces of musical were inspired by weather, linking to our learning in Science and MFL! We drew on our prior learning from this half term, ensuring that we made changes in timbre and dynamics to represent different weather.

PE

PSHE

This week we have been learning about the British Value Tolerance and Respect. The children had a good understanding of Respect as it is part of our school rules so we focused on tolerance and the importance of accepting others beliefs and values when they are different to ours. We then did some role play to show how we can show tolerance and respect in our daily lives. The children acted things out like holding doors open for others, helping a friend when they fall over and smiling at others.

Race, Religion and Beliefs

Today we focused on different races, religions and beliefs. We linked this back to our learning on tolerance and respect, understanding that everyone is unique. We also linked this back to our school motto of “Everyone is the same, everyone is different”. The children then created collages, linked to our previous art learning on Monet that showed the importance of diversity and acceptance of others. They used the images below as their inspiration. 

Healthy and Unhealthy Relationships 

Today we considered healthy and unhealthy relationships. To do this we first explored the vocabulary and what are understanding of each is. The children described healthy as “healthy food is good for you” and “when you know someone” as having relationships. We then put it together and explored what a healthy relationship might look like. The children were then given different scenarios and had to decide if they were healthy or not.

MFL

We have been learning to say the days of the week in order in French. We have been singing songs to help us remember them and practising our French pronunciation! To help us embed this learning, we have also added the days of the week to our daily calendar so that we have the option to say the word in context every day.

We have been learning say some longer phrases during our French lessons. Linking to our Science learning about Seasonal Changes and weather, we started to learn how to say what the weather is like in French too! Our B2L session included finding the weather cards and practising saying the phrase that the weather card showed to a partner.

To extend and apply our French learning, we have been playing weather bingo! We had 4 different types of weather and we had to take turns and match them, saying the French phrase as we did. It was a little tricky but after some practise we did it!