Summer 1 2023
Welcome back! We hope you enjoyed a happy and holy Easter break. This half term our topic is “Finding My Way Around the UK.” As the name suggests we will be focusing on Wetherby, the UK and exploring our place in the world. If you have any photographs of your child visiting different places in the UK please send them in to share with the class.
RE
Our topic this half term is Resurrection. We have started the topic by ensuring that we understand what Resurrection is and why we celebrate Jesus’s Resurrection. We started this by thinking about how we celebrate Easter, why we celebrate it and the events that lead up to Easter Sunday when Jesus rose again. We have been reflecting on the signs and symbols of Easter and how they represent new life.
We have then moved on to learning about how Jesus appeared to his disciples and we listened to John 20: 19-21. We learned that Jesus appeared to his friends and said ‘Peace be with you.’ We learned that Jesus then showed his disciples his sides and his hands. We acted out the story and then discussed in groups what we wonder about the appearance of Jesus. We thought about and discussed times when we have felt joy and surprise.
These were our “I wonder…” thoughts. The children were so reflective and thoughtful during this session.
I wonder how Jesus rose from the dead.
I wonder how Jesus got off the cross.
I wonder why Jesus’ hands weren’t bleeding when he appeared to the disciples.
I wonder how Jesus was still alive when he died on the cross for us.
I wonder why Jesus’ clothes are white (The children reflected that this was the colour of clouds and heaven and this was why!)
Learning about Christianity.
As part of the Letting Culture Loose week, we have been learning about the different denominations of Christianity. We learned the names of some of the other denominations of Christianity. We aimed to learn some of the key differences between Catholicism and Church of England. By making a Venn diagram, we could clearly see that the main beliefs about Jesus and his teachings are the same but the ways that we live our faith differs slightly.
English
This half term our focus book is “The Jolly Postman” the postman left the book for us over the Easter break but had dropped the letters that it contained somewhere on his route! The children took it upon themselves to search the school grounds and find the letters, causing great excitement. The children finally found the letters and worked together to read them, finding out who had written them, who they were for and what message each one contained.
This week we have been focusing on understanding the story, its characters and settings. The children have written character and setting descriptions and asked the Jolly Postman questions about his job.
Following on from last weeks learning on the Jolly Postman the children have been introduced to recounts. We started by exploring what a recount is and its key features, including an introduction and time vocabulary such as first, then, next, finally. The children have then planned their own recount of the Jolly Postman story and began to write it, applying their understanding of conjunctions to extend sentences from last half term.
Phonics
The children have all been working super hard on this phonics. This half term we are continuing with our daily phonics lessons along with some additional phonics games and activities to help embed their understanding and continue to support their reading and writing skills.
Grammar
We have been learning to use new grammatical terminology such as prefix, suffix and root word. We learned how the root word can change, when we add the prefix un- or the suffixes -er and -est. We have had some fun Burn 2 Learn sessions to embed this learning!
Maths
We have started our Summer 1 learning journey with a focus on time. We started our learning by focusing on our concept of time, how long things take and what time of the day we usually do certain activities. Here were are completing a fun Burn2Learn.
To develop the children’s understanding of time they split into groups and each completed an activity and timed how long it took them. They worked out that they took minutes and seconds long. We then explored how long different activities take and the children had to sort activities in taking a second, a minute and an hour.
We have then moved on to telling the time to the hour and half hour. The children have worked hard to show the times given on their own clocks as well as reading an analogue clock and recording the time it shows. As an extra challenge the children have started to solve problems with time, including reading the time and saying what an hour before or after would be.
Our learning journey has moved on to Money and we have had a Burn2Learn to find, recognise and sort different coins and notes. We used the coins to make ‘Money People’ in groups, making sure we listened to each other’s ideas and thoughts. We named the coins that we had used and began to discuss the value of coins.
Science
Our focus this half term is ‘Plants‘
We began our Science learning journey about plants by having a fun and active Burn to Learn session. We searched for parts of a plant and had to match them up to build a full plant and then labelled it. There were trees and plants. We discussed what each part of the plant is used for and began learning a fun song to help us remember! We have been exploring the different parts of a plant and naming them.
Trip to Harlow Carr Gardens: Discovering Plants Workshop
We had a great time on our trip to Harlow Carr Gardens. We took part in a ‘Discovering Plants’ workshop, in which we did some acting out of how a plant grows, learned about seeds, took a walk through the gardens and spotted lots of different plants, learned about different types of trees, measured the stems of plants, explored how the tree trunks can be different widths and we also became Botanists and named plants! We had lots of wonderful names such as ‘Little Dude’ ‘Haribo’ ‘Fairy Wings’ ‘Fire Power Cauliflower’ to name a few! We then went in the greenhouse and we all planted a Candyman Calendula Seed to take home!
Terrific Trees!
Our learning journey has moved on to focus on trees. The children are very knowledgeable about trees and how important they are for God’s World. We were impressed with them thinking about the the Live Simply in relation to their Science learning. We have also learned that there are two types of trees and practised saying the new vocabulary – evergreen and deciduous. We learned that usually evergreen tree leaves are small and needle-like and often darker green and that deciduous tree leaves are broad and flat and fall off the tree in Winter! We went on a tree hunt to identify trees in our outdoor space. We then applied the learning of our new vocabulary to classify types of trees, linking to our DT skills of cutting accurately.
Wild and Garden Plants
We have been on a plant hunt around the school grounds and woods. We were specifically looking to identify wild plants. We found nettles, brambles, clovers, ivy, bluebells, grass, daisies, buttercups and dandelions! We all found this plant hunt very exciting! We then returned to class and looked at photographs that our parents have kindly sent in from home of plants in our gardens. We are continuing to learn the names of common wild plants and garden plants!
Art
This half term we are focusing on a local sculptor, Andy Goldsworthy. Goldsworthy grew up in Leeds and specialises in making sculptures out of natural materials. The children have enjoyed exploring some of his work, identifying the materials and techniques that he has used to create them.
Today the children have considered sculptures and how Goldsworthy doesn’t use any materials to join together. Instead he focuses on how they are placed and connected. To understand this concept fully the children used items from around the classroom to try and create their own sculptures in this way.
Today the children designed their own sculptures and used natural materials to make them.
Design and Technology
This week we have moved onto our DT topic where we are focusing on Textiles. Today the children explored what textiles are and their purposes. Do do this we looked at two examples of textiles in school. The first our Covid 19 lockdown Tapestry and the second our School Mission Statement. The children evaluated each one and we considered how they were made and the skills needed to make them.
Today we learnt the skills of cutting and joining material together in order to make our own UK themed Tapestry. The children first practiced their cutting skills with paper before learning how to cut thicker material and join them together.
Computing
This half term we are learning all about databases. Today we started by learning watch data and a database is. The children then explored paper databases and used one to collect data on the most and least popular fruit in class.
Today the children added data to their own databases on iPads. The children worked carefully through each step, using the pictogram to add data in correctly.
Geography
This half term we are focusing on the UK. Today we learnt about the four countries that make up the UK, England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. We learnt what they look like on a map, that they each have a flag and we made a link to our science topic on plants and learnt that each country has their own national flower.
The children then engaged with a B2L game where as a team they had to collect all three items linked to their given country. This helped the children to digest the new information which they then applied in their books.
Today we focused on identifying on a map where each country is and identifying the seas and oceans that surround the UK.
Today we recapped our learning from last week before focusing on identifying the main characteristics of the different countries in the UK.
Geography Fieldwork on our Harlow Carr Trip.
We have been working towards answering our Big Question this half term, which is ‘Why are maps useful?’ As part of our Harlow Carr Trip, we did some Geography fieldwork and drew maps of where we had been. We discussed why maps are useful and what to include on a map – human and physical features. We talked about how the parts of a map help you see where you are, or where to go!
PE
Today we started the half term with a carousel of activities to help assess the skills we have learnt so far. The carousel consisted of five stations in which the children had to apply their throwing, catching, rolling and dribbling skills.
Based on the carousel of activities we spent this week developing our footwork skills.
Today we practiced and further developed the children’s agility skills through coming movements together. First the children practiced jumping in and out of a hoop with their feet together and then developed onto hopping. The children then had to do this whilst throwing or catching a small ball, combining the two skills together.
PSHE
This week we have focused on staying safe around medicines.
Today we learnt about what we do when we are unwell and how medicines can help us. We focused on staying safe around medicines and never taking them without adult permission. To help us understand this we looked at different scenarios and discussed what we should do to keep ourselves safe.
Music
We have been practising following instructions on when to sing or play. We have also been learning the names of different instruments and how to play the different instruments. We have been learning how to use our voice in different ways.
We have been looking a musical notes and playing different combinations of rhythms based on these. We split into pairs to play these in duets and also practised clapping them as an ensemble.
MFL
We have started learning some basic family member names in French and working hard on our pronunciation of these words. To keep our learning fun and active, we played bingo to practise saying the French words.
To continue to apply our learning and carry on using spoken phrases, we drew pictures of our own family and labelled them with the French words mere, pere, frere and soeur! We made sure we practised saying the words over and over to try and remember them!
