This week the Wrens have been making the most of the warm weather outside playing with our new construction resources. It has been lovely to observe the children collaborating together to produce some innovative creations including a car and a design for a haunted house!

In Topic this week, we reviewed the results of our plant experiment and concluded that the best conditions for growth were light, water and warmth. The children used excellent observational skills to conclude that whilst the plants in the dark had grown they did not look very healthy.  Using the knowledge they had learnt the children were then given the challenge of planting and looking after 2 sunflower seeds. We will let you know how they get on.  

In maths, we have been exploring numbers beyond 20. We practised counting up to 100 and looked at the pattern of the numbers as the number of 10s increase. We had a messy morning printing 2-digit numbers with the numicon and enjoyed practising our counting and number recognition skills by playing snakes and ladders.  Board games are a fantastic way of consolidating number knowledge so if you have the opportunity please try playing some at home with your child.

We finished our rewrite of "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" this week. The children have done a great job writing independent sentences and challenging themselves to use more ambitious vocabulary.  Next week will be assessment week in our phonics programme so there will be no new sheet in their green phonics book this week. Please use the time instead to revisit some of the learning from previous weeks.

Please can I remind parents that "Show and Tell" takes place on a Thursday. Also, please can the children bring in items such as a certificate, photograph or an item they have made or found as opposed to toys.  Favourite books are always welcome to share at story time. Thank you.

This week in English, we have been learning about diamante poems. The children began planning their poems by mind mapping nouns, adjectives and verbs linked with lions and our story. We then collaboratively wrote a class diamante poem before the children had a go independently.

In maths, we have been learning about fractions. Both year groups have been learning to recognise halves and quarters of shapes and images. They have also been identifying halves and quarters of a given quantity. Year 2 have also been to recognise thirds.

In DT this week, the children had to investigate and decide which fruits they want to add to their smoothies next week. They had a selection of fruits and juices to name, draw, smell and taste before describing them. They then selected two fruits and a juice to be their ingredients.

In geography, the children observed lots of images of different places in China. They then identified the human and physical features within these images. After, they pretended that they were travelling around China and wrote a postcard home to explain what they had been doing and what they had seen.

In English, the children have begun to create their diary entries written from the point of view of Sophie. They have built their opening paragraphs around several of the events in chapter 3.

In maths, we have been focusing on finding fractions of a set of objects. Over the next week we will be moving on to money and change.

We looked at the role of both evaporation and condensation in the water cycle as well as the importance of the different stages of the cycle.

In art, the children have begun to investigate the work Henri Matisse did with collage. We are going to be looking in more detail the technique of "painting with scissors".

In RE, we are continuing to investigate the Gospels and focused on the previous lives of the disciples prior to joining Jesus. We also looked at the role of the disciples after joining with and following Jesus. 

In geography, we have continued with our topic of 'Why are rainforests important to us?' The children used the notes they took last week to write a letter to the president of Brazil explaining the importance of the rainforest and what could be done to protect it.

In English, the children have been learning an important writing skill this week. We have been looking at how to edit our work, taking their writing and making improvements to it. This is a difficult thing to do but the children have worked very hard and produced some fantastic recounts based on our class book, 'The Wind in the Willows'.

In maths, we have continued our work on decimals and have been focussing on ordering and comparing decimals with different decimal places. Y4 children have been applying their knowledge of tenths and hundredths and using this to help them to understand pounds and pence. Y5 children have been applying their knowledge of formal addition and place value to find totals of money.

This week in Merlins class we have finalised our revision in preparation for next week's SATs assessments. I'm so proud of how dedicated the children have been throughout the last few weeks; they have had to acquire so much knowledge and have worked hard to refine their exam technique. This week we have taken part in some practise tests which have only reaffirmed just how hard they have worked and I look forward to next week where they will have the opportunity to show just how much progress they have made this year.

The children will be bringing home some very short revision materials which they will have the opportunity to look over at the weekend if there is opportunity. These materials are purely to support all the learning that has already taken place but may give them more confidence going into the tests.

In science, our topic of 'Animals including Humans' has moved on to looking at how we change when we become much older. We had a very interesting discussion about what happens to us when we get old and the children have been encouraged to speak to their grandparents/older relative about their lives. They then designed posters to warn adults about the changes they may go through when they are older and advise them on how they should approach their advancing years!

In art, the children were developing and practising their artistic skills when working with clay. After some experimentation, they used the detailed sketches they drew last week to create a clay tile which they will paint next week.

This week in geography we have explored the threats posed to the desert in our modern world. This includes environmental threats such as droughts, desertification and flash floods. We have made links between these threats and have concluded that global warming and climate change have contributed significantly to the natural threats posed to the desert. This week the children took on the challenge of advising a family who are keen to move to the Mojave Desert as to what they would face once they arrived. They were able to outline the key benefits of living in a desert as well as the challenges that newcomers may face.

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