Our Learning Journey (Autumn Term)

Our new topic is called Location, Location, Location.  It will have a geography focus and will allow us to get out and about into our local community. 

Over the last few weeks, the children have been studying the picture book called, 'The Flood.' They practiced creating sentences that used: personification, similes, repetition and a few other key skills.  Below are a number of extracts written during their independent write. They combined the taught skills to write their own flood story. 

The children from Mulberry and Hazelnut classes loved meeting the 'older' members of the community this morning.  They chatted about school life as well as solving riddles and sharing the odd bad Christmas joke.  A great time was had by all. 

Over the last few weeks we have explored different balances, plus how to move in and out of them.  We then looked at transferring this onto the apparatus.  We also looked at how to move from the ground to the apparatus in a graceful way.  

The children tested six materials to see which one reflected light the best.  The materials were: card, yellow card, hessian, foil, baking paper and plastic.  We drew a scientific diagram to show our method, as well as make predictions.  We discussed how we could keep it a fair test too. 

One of our main topics for the autumn term is the Stone Age. This will have a history focus and will involve us primarily looking at the people and their lifestyle and how they survived. Click on the link to the Knowledge Organisers to find out more details. 

The children learned what soil was and the different types.  They then used their observations (senses) to work out if there were different types of soil on the school grounds.  

Over the past few weeks the children have been exploring different art skills: shading, pattern and shape.  The children used these skills to create their own cave paintings.  They took inspiration from a number of different pictures. 

We have used the story Stone Age Boy as a stimulus to write our own narratives called, Down, Down, Down. Over the last few weeks we have practiced using: noun phrases, commas in lists, repetition and time adverbials.  We also started looking at the conventions of speech marks.  Click on the extracts below to read a variety of the work that has been taking place. 

Over the next few weeks the children will be learning about the three types of rocks.  The first activity was to create their own sedimentary rock by putting in objects of similar sizes and mixing them with water.  Hopefully we will soon see the layers in the jar.  

We begin the year with a short topic all about ambition.  Ambition is one of our new character traits (6 in total) which the children will explore over the next few weeks. Below are the front covers of the books we will be using.

The children have enjoyed looking at the three books.  Having thought about what job they would like to do when they are older, we then discussed what their hopes and ambitions were for their families and the wider world.  After the discussion, the children recorded their thoughts. 

The children created their own Magical Yets.  They thought about the advice they could give to help someone when they were stuck or feeling down.  There were plenty of ideas that included, 'You'll get there' and 'Try a new way'.  It was also a chance to take  photos of the children to introduce them on the class page.  Apologies to those who were away.