This week we have been on a bear hunt in Wrens!   The home corner was invaded by all different shapes and sizes of bears, and we also had some camping equipment so we could take them off on adventures.  Outside we made some fantastic obstacle courses inspired by Micheal Rosen's story and travelled across, over and under the apparatus demonstrating great agility and balancing skills.  We enjoyed acting out the story at Forest School and sequencing the events in our small world tuff tray.  We also looked at maps and how we can use them to find out where things are and which route we have to take to reach places.  We looked at different types of maps and compared them to aerial photographs.  We learnt that we could represent aerial photographs by drawing a map.  We then produced some great collaborative and individual maps thinking carefully about what we included on them.  Unfortunately, none of them led us to any treasure!

In maths this week, we have been continuing our topic on measurement by exploring size and the related vocabulary.  We really enjoyed reading the book "Dear Zoo" and guessing what animals the zoo had sent based on the size and shape of the boxes.  We then had a go at creating our own animals out of junk modelling.  We made a home for our animal thinking carefully about what the most suitable size and shape would be and using the correct vocabulary to describe our choices.  Next week in maths we will be exploring capacity and repeating patterns.

We are now coming to the end of our first unit of work in our phonics scheme.  Next week will be consolidation week so the children will be bringing home a revision worksheet detailing the sounds we have covered this half term.  Please try and review this  with your child.  Thank you.

What a week!

Year 1s have continued with learning their phonics and writing some sentences using the new sounds. Year 2 have been learning how to write an effective argument. They have each been trying to persuade everyone else that their favourite colour is the best. They have been creating reasons as to why and used techniques such as repetition and rhetorical questions. 

In maths, Year 1s have been identifying addition fact families and have learnt that in addition number sentences the parts can switch around but never the answer. They have also been learning and identifying number bonds within and to 10. Year 2s have been learning how to count in 3s this week. Any extra practise at home of counting in their 2s, 5s, 10s and 3s would be brilliant! They have also had a refresh of their number bonds to 10 and used Numicon to identify these. Later in the week, the Year 2s have been identifying fact families by adding and subtracting numbers within 20. 

In art this week, we carried on exploring printmaking. The children began by creating their incised printing tile of an insect. Some of the children then began to print with their tile using ink. When not printing, the children began to create their additive printing tile. At the end of the half term they will be creating an end piece using both of these tiles.

This week we have been getting to grips with addition and subtraction. We have worked hard at adding and subtracting 1s, 10s and 100s using base ten equipment. We have also spent time looking at number patterns when adding and subtracting up to three digit numbers. 

In English, we have begun our work on looking at non-chronological reports. The children have analysed several examples of these and picked out some of the key features of them. This will stand us in good stead for getting into the nitty gritty of writing our own over the next two weeks.

This week in science we have completed our work on the life processes and the children have produced some excellent fact files to represent their understanding of this topic.

In history, we looked at what life would be like for the early humans living at the end of the neolithic period. The children looked into the advent of farming in the Stone Age and how this changed life in Britain by making population centres more static and less mobile. We also looked into some of the archaeological evidence for Stone Age religion and worship.

In English this week, we have continued reading Krindelkrax. Since Ruskin learned that it was his father's fault that the Krindlekrax is living in the sewers beneath Lizard Street and the creature attacked his best friend, the school caretaker Corky, many years ago, he had been feeling extremely guilty. This meant he was pushing his friend away, even though he knew that Corky wouldn't hold him responsible for what happened. Just as Ruskin was about to go and explain everything to Corky, Corky died in his sleep, leaving Ruskin feeling devastated. We didn't see this coming in the book and so we spent some time discussing how we would feel if this happened and the children were very open about their reactions to the story. The children have continued writing their recounts about how the Krindlekrax came to live in Lizard Street, focussing on using ambitious vocabulary, fronted adverbials and using 'show don't tell' as a literary device.

In maths, we have been working on the formal method of subtraction. This needs the children to use their place value column knowledge when exchanging between columns (exchanging not borrowing, as borrowing implies you are going to give something back!). Some children used concrete place value resources to help them 'see' this exchange, helping them to understand the method more clearly. It was also important that the children realised that they should always work from top to bottom, as the temptation is to work the other way if the bottom digit is larger than the top one.

This week in Merlins class we finalised on narratives based on the poem The Highwayman. The children have produced some amazing writing which features the skills and techniques we've been learning across the last two weeks - they should feel incredibly proud of what they have produced. 

We have since looked at our next book: a picture book called Tuesday by David Wiesner. This story tells us of a mysterious event occurring in a village in an unknown location. The children have been generating questions about the story as well as questions for witnesses to the event which they have then gone on to use whilst hot seating these witnesses. We have then written these witness testimonies using accurate speech punctuation.

In maths this week, we have been finding factors of any given number as well as finding common factors of any two numbers. Later in the week the children have being finding multiples of numbers as well as common multiples of any set of given numbers.

In music, the children continued to work in groups to compose their anthems. They have now written the lyrics and composed the music for their two verses and next week will be writing the chorus to their masterpieces.

Thank you for all your Young Voices orders. The tickets should arrive just after Christmas and the t-shirts soon after. We keep the t-shirts in school and give them to the children on the day of the concert and tickets will be sent home with the children.

In history this week, we have explored the evacuation process that took place after the commencement of World War 2. This full-scale operation involved the evacuation of British children from the main cities such as London to the countryside where they were believed to be safer from the incoming German Luftwaffe.

Later in the week, we explored the movement of Jewish children from Germany to Britain who were escaping persecution from the Nazis. We were then able to draw some very interesting comparisons between the children experiencing evacuation and those part of the kinder transport scheme.

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