We hope you had a lovely half term with your families and friends. This is a very exciting term with the lead up to Christmas, the children have so many nice art activities planned which we are sure they will love to show you at Christmas time. Along with this we shall be looking at the following texts: Gingerbread Man, Handa's Surprise and How the Grinch stole Christmas. In Maths we shall be continuing to work on our addition and subtraction skills.

What an amazing first week back we have all had. It was lovely to see the children again and to listen to all of their stories of what they have been doing in the half term with their families and friends.

In English this week we have begun to read the story of The Gingerbread Man and the children had lots of fun retelling the story using role play masks to help them get into the role. In Maths we have been looking at adding three 1-digit numbers together, looking closely to see if there are any numbers that number bonds to 10.  Finally we have started to learn yoga and gymnastics in our weekly PE sessions. 

The children were really excited to act out the story The Gingerbread Man using role play masks to help them become the characters.

The children were using dienes to begin adding a 1-digit number to 2-digit number crossing over 10, 38+7=45. They used their knowledge of number bonds to 10 to help them.

In Design Technology this term, the children will be looking at different soups and what ingredients are needed, so that by the end of the term they can make a soup of their own. This week we were investigating different fruits and vegetables that are used in soups and what parts of the plant we use, either leaves, roots, flowers or bulbs.

_{Week 2}

Gratitude class have had a very busy week in English retelling the story Gingerbread Man and on Friday they carefully published their work. Ms Richardson is looking forward to reading all of your stories during the weekend.

During this week in Maths the children have been learning to subtract numbers using their knowledge of number bonds, as well as exchanging 1 ten for ten ones to enable them to subtract larger numbers, 23 - 8 =. We started off by using dienes to help us visually see exchanging 1 ten for 10 ones, then moved on to drawing the exchanges.

In Science this week we explored seeds and what is inside of them. After allowing some seeds to soak in water, we were able to pick off the seed coat (that helps to protect the seed), split the seed into two and look carefully at the baby plant and food store within using a magnifying glasses.

We then planted three different types of seeds (pumpkin, peas and runner beans) and over the next few weeks are hoping to see the seeds begin to germinate. Exciting!

On Friday, the children held a two minutes silence to mark their respects as part of Remembrance Day. Earlier in the week the children made poppies and these were then put together to create a wreath.

Week 3

We have had a very busy week in Gratitude Class this week looking at Anti-Bullying Week - 'Reach Out', Road Safety Week - 'Safe Roads for All' and Children in Need, as well as lots of exciting learning in our lessons.

Maths

In Maths this week we have been looking at 10-more and 10-less of a given number before moving on to adding 2 2-digit numbers together. We worked practically first using dienes so that we could see how things changed before looking at how we can draw the dienes to help us when we are working out calculations in our Maths books.

English

During English this week we have been reading the book Handa's Surprise. On Wednesday the children were very excited about taste testing the different fruits that Handa placed into her basket and used their senses to describe the fruits.

Design Technology

In DT this week, we taste tested three existing soups and using our senses described what we liked and didn't like about them, to help us to make decisions about what seasonal fruits and vegetables we would like to included in a soup that we will be making later in the term.

We then moved on to learning how to safely use peelers, graters and knifes to prepare fruits and vegetables that we might be using in our soup, as well as hygiene practices.

Geography

In Geography this week we have been retrieving our learning about human and physical features, as well as rural and urban areas, in preparation for our first trip to a urban area, Boston town centre.

We recalled that a physical feature is something that was already there (made by God) and a human feature is something that humans have constructed, built and made. 

Boston is a rural area as it has lots of human features.

Week 4

Monday morning saw the children go on a field trip to Boston town centre, as part of our geography learning, to help them to understand what an urban area looks like and identify what human and physical features they could see. 

Tuesday morning the children were lucky to be visited by Helen from Willoughby Foods, to talk to them about healthy eating and make them a smoothie to try. With the support of Helen, the children created five healthy lunches, being careful to ensure that it was well balanced and fruit and vegetables were included in every meal.

In Maths this week the children have been working on adding two 2-digit numbers crossing ten (for example 26 + 17 =). The children have practiced using dienes to help them visually see that they needed to exchange 10 ones for 1 ten and then moved on to drawing dienes.

During Music this term the children have been appraising different pieces of music from At Last by Etta James to Circle of Life from the Lion King and Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy and being able to say how this music makes them feel. During this weeks lesson, the children learnt about the different instruments that can be found in the string and percussion families and then listened to some of the pieces of music again trying to identify some of the instruments being played.

In RE we have been learning about Moses from when he was a baby, the burning bush and this week the Exodus story with the ten commandments. The children carefully listened to the story and were then able to sequence the story in groups.

During Science this week we have continued to look closely at how plants grown and how plants are able to grow in different conditions, like the cactus in hot, dry conditions and the banana tree in warm, wet conditions.

We also took a look at the seeds we planted two weeks ago and were excited to see that a lot of the seeds had germinated, especially the runner beans.

Week 5

This week saw our classroom and school becoming very festive on Thursday 1st December and the children being really excited to see their classroom decorated and the Christmas Hoop, that they have all created, being hung in the school's hall ready for our Lighting Up collective worship. Gratitude's Christmas Hoop was created with the children making string baubles with balloons and wool covered in PVA glue and glitter. "It was very messy and sticky but I had fun making one." Macie 

English

This week in English saw the children write and publish their own Handa's Surprise stories and then on Friday they received a visit from the Grinch who stole our class Christmas tree. The children came up with some outstanding adjectives to describe the Grinch and then went on to produce some fabulous Wanted Posters to help us find the Grinch and get our Christmas Tree back.

Maths

During Maths this week the children have been learning how to subtract with 2-digit numbers (56-32=) and on Friday we started to subtract 2-digit numbers with exchanging (43-28=). We need to remember to always start subtracting the ones before we subtract the tens.

PSHE

In PSHE this week saw the children learning about how to work and play cooperatively. During our lesson we looked closely at how people and animals work in teams to support one another, then we worked in small groups to work on a tangram challenge to create pictures using a selection of shapes. It was lovely to see the children cooperating with each other and discussing how they could solve the problem together.

Guided Reading

In Guided Reading this week, we continued with the story What the Ladybird Heard. The children were excited this week to discover what the plan was that the ladybird had whispered to the other animals to stop the two thieves, Hefty Hugh and Lanky Len, from stealing the farmer's fine prize cow.

Animals UK visit

On Wednesday the children were introduced to some different animals that had been brought in by Animalsukltd.co.uk. These included a Burmese python, tarantula, dessert fox and a little owl. Some of the children were a little nervous about meeting the animals, however we had lots of brave children who decided to hold or touch the animals anyway, including Ms Richardson who held a tarantula for the first time.

It was such a great experience for the children and they came away more knowledgeable about these animals and very excited.