Spring term

Week Beginning 9th January 2023

Happy New Year!

Elm class have been settling into Birch Classroom after the unfortunate flood in the holidays!

This week Year One have had fun reading and acting out the story of The Tiger Who Came to Tea by Judith Kerr. The children wrote a retell of the story in their own words. They used adjectives to describe the tiger.

In maths we are learning place value and have been splitting two digit numbers into tens and ones.

Week Beginning 16th January 2023

This week we have started our new topic all about London. This fits in with our History and Geography Curriculum.

We have read the story Katie in London and written sentences about different London landmarks.

In maths we have continued to understand place value and tens and units. In computing we have been learning about the benefits of storing information on a computer. In science our topic is animals and ourselves. This week the focus was UK mammals.

Week Beginning 23rd January 2023

This week we have continued with our topic of London. We read the story The Queen's Hat by Steve Anthony. The children the wrote their own story, calling it, The King's Crown. The children thought of some great questions to ask King Charles. They remembered to use a question mark at the end of their sentences.

We have designed our own crowns and used some excellent adjectives to describe them.

In maths we have been comparing and ordering numbers using the language greater than, less than and equal to. We have also been adding numbers within 20.

In Science we have been looking at birds and reptiles in the UK and in RE our topic is special books of Christians, Jews and Muslims.

Week Beginning 30th January 2023

This week we have continued to enjoy reading The Queen's Hat story by Steve Anthony. We wrote our own version of the story called The King's Crown. The children wrote their stories independently using their amazing phonic skills. The children are learning about using question marks in their sentences to ask a question. They even met King Charles (aka Mr. Roffey!) and were able to ask him questions about his crown.

In maths we are practising our addition and subtraction skills and are beginning to understand and use doubles to solve simple problems. We are continuing to learn about special books in RE and birds, reptiles and amphibians in Science.

Week Beginning 6th February 2023

This week we have been marking Mental Health Week. The two Year One classes went on a Mental Health walk with the Year 6 classes who prompted them with different questions to find out about each other. The theme was 'Connected'

In English/Geography the children read the book The Hackney Martian by Paul Brown. They drew their own maps to tell the story.

In maths we have continued to solve subtractions within 20 and in science we have continued with our topic of animals looking at fish and amphibians and omnivores, herbivores and carnivores. In PSHE we discussed the importance of looking after our mental health.

We hope you have a lovely half term week. School starts back on the 20th February.

Week Beginning 20th February 2023

This week, in English we have been learning about the character Paddington Bear who lives in London. We read the book Paddington at the Palace by Michael Bond. We imagined what it might be like to visit the palace and wrote sentences about it. We used adjectives to describe Paddington. As part of our Geography we learned a bit about Peru, where Paddington is from, and we wrote a list of items that Paddington might have packed in his suitcase. We are learning that in a list the writing goes down the page rather than across.

In maths we have been solving missing number problems as well as learning the place value of numbers to 50, splitting numbers into tens and ones.

The children in Elm class have also been very busy this week making their rockets from recycled materials. We had lots of fun!

Week Beginning 27th February 2023

This week we had lots of fun celebrating Book Week and World Book Day on Thursday. The theme was bedtime stories so we wore our pjamas and onsies and read to our teddies and toys. We think they enjoyed their day in school!

In maths this week we have continued to solve problems involving place value. Making numbers using the dienes, splitting numbers into tens and ones. In English we have continued to enjoy the Paddington stories by Michael Bond. This week we read and retold the story Paddington at the Tower. We learnt how to use exclamation marks in our sentences.

Week Beginning 6th March 2023

This week in English we read the story Paddington goes for Gold by Michael Bond. We retold the story and we held our own relay phonic races, running to our teachers to sound out our words! The children also retold the story in their own words trying to remember to include capital letters and full stops as well as adjectives in their sentences. In maths we are developing our measuring skills, measuring height and length. We have been learning how to measure in Centimetres using a ruler.

This week Elm class have also built their London Landmarks using recycled materials as part of DT and Geography. We had a lot of fun!

Week Beginning 13th March 2023

This week was neurodiversity week where the children learned to celebrate each others uniqueness. We talked about our favourite things and made colourful rainbows. We discussed the fact that some children may think differently to others and we all find different things challenging.

In English we read the story Paddington and the Marmalade Maze. The children wrote sentences about the story. They took care to remember their capital letters and full stops. We also looked at words ending in 'ing' and the children learned that these are verbs or 'action' words. In maths we have continued to learn about measuring. This week we have been weighing objects around the classroom using bucket scales. We compared objects to see which were heavier or lighter and we used cubes to balance the scales.

For example, the mass of the scissors is 7 cubes.

Week Beginning 20th March 2023

This week we have continued to read and write Paddington stories. We read Paddington at the Fair by Michael Bond. We wrote about the story and decided what rides we would like to go on. The children wrote some excellent stories and remembered to use finger spaces as well as capital letters and full stops in their sentences. The children were challenged to use the conjunctions 'because' and 'and' in their writing as well as to include adjectives to add more detail. The children wrote sentences that included verbs. (Action words)

In maths we have been learning volume and capacity. The children took part in practical activities to see how many cups the water jugs could hold. We used the vocabulary of more, less, full, empty, nearly empty, nearly full, half full, half empty. The children compared capacities to see which jug could hold the most water.  

As part of our History curriculum we have been learning about Beatrix Potter, a famous Londoner from the past. The children wrote some facts about her and have been enjoying reading some of her most famous children's books. 

Elm class have also enjoyed drawing their own self portrait with pencils