Week 1

English

In English, the children have been looking at the text 'Until I Met Dudley' by Roger McGough, looking at how everyday things really work. After reading the story, the children looked at how the characters interacted, spoke to each other and what they would have discussed. The children were then asked to hold telephone conversations in pairs to find out about how different machines work. They even used classroom equipment to pretend that they had hold of telephones to make the conversations appear more realistic. 

PE

In Dance this week, we looked at the theme machines and how different parts of a machine works. During the warm up, the children completed actions that were to the count of eight to help them understand that, in dance, counting in eight helps us stay in time with the music and each other. We read the poem 'The Machine' to help understand the different parts a machine could have and how they might move. The children were then given some time to think about how each part of the machine moves and how they could create a movement using their own bodies so that they could create a dance to perform to the rest of the class at the end of the lesson. 

RE

After reading the story from Genesis 1:1.5, the children were shown six words: beginning, God, light, life, Spirit of Earth and darkness. We talked about how these words are really important within the Bible because they come up in lots of the stories in the Bible. The children began to look at the different Gospel stories found in the New Testament in the Bible. They noticed that in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke the birth of Jesus had been mentioned at the beginning, however, in the Gospel of John there was no mention of Jesus being born. The children eventually understood that John did actually talk about the birth of Jesus but sees him more as God the son from the Trinity. 

Week 2

French - retrieval of numbers

The children recapped their understanding of numbers by chanting, dancing and recognising numbers. They were able to re-write them in a variety of ways in the lead up to learning about birthdays. Tres bien!

Guided Reading - Big Cats

What a fantastic start to the exploring the non-fiction text! It was brilliant to see the level of engagement and factual information learnt. They have all been able to comment on the layout and how this engages and provides a reader with alternative ways of finding out information.

History - the successes for the Roman empire expansion

Using a narrative and a large shield, the children listened to and discussed the reasons for the success of the Roman empire. They learnt that the army had a key role. They understood that it was the way they recreated and set up everything in the same way. This made communication easier and establishing civilisation successful. It was brilliant to hear discussion about the building of roads and theatres, establishing of schools and entertainment.

PSHE

The children developed their understanding of the vocabulary ‘challenge’ and ‘self-worth’. We discussed the meanings and the children were able to give some examples of what a challenge might be. Also, the children discussed what the word ‘challenge’ means to them. The children explained that a challenge is something that may be difficult or not easy going – we all face these in life. A challenge makes us think carefully about our next steps and actions to tackle them. They are a test of our character. We discussed the meaning of the word ‘self-worth and believe that it means the value you give to your life and achievements. Then, the children were given scenarios in groups and they identified what challenges may arise from them. Finally, on reflection, we discussed times when we feel personally challenged which leads to us feeling upset, sad or lonely.

French - months 

Today, the children explored new French vocabulary: the months of the year. Our French friends Celine and Michel visited and the children practised pronouncing the months of the year in French after chanting along to a song. Then, the children applied their skills by playing hangman in groups. The children used hangman to challenge each other to guess the birthdays of the famous characters by identifying the French names. Great work!

PE - Dance

The children continued with their machine theme today in PE. Developing their knowledge further, they explored push and spin actions which represent the movement of a machine. Next, the children were challenged to work in pairs and make sure they were in contact with each other during their movements. After practising, the children were then able to put this to music by moving in time by using counts of eight. Excellent progress!

History

The children looked deeper at the Roman army today. They explored the various formations they used in order to be successful. Children learnt that the soldiers had a rigorous training programme, access to modern weapons, walk miles, know and understand the various formations so they could change for any attack made against them. Once they had taken the land, they would have taken slaves and then created versions of how Rome how they started. (roads, education, communication, ways of governing, bridges – slaves liked this so didn’t rebel against it.). We then attempted to recreate some of the formations ourselves including the tortoise, wedge and Repel the Calvary.

D.T. - Exploring Joins 

The children retrieved their knowledge of joining and stitching by referring back to their Y2 learning. They were able to identify and explain how they used the running stitch in Y2. We recapped what the running stitch looked like and how to do it successfully before watching videos of how to do a backstitch, cross-stich and a chain stitch. Although challenging a first, the children observed the video examples and were then able to have a go and recreate the joins and stitches themselves in preparation for our apron project.