We are only halfway into our Autumn term topic-the Great Fire of London, yet we have learnt so much already. In History, we started our topic in an exciting way we built houses out of cardboard boxes to represent what they would of looked like back in the past and then tightly placed them closely together on the playground. We set fire to them to show just how quickly the fire actually spread back in the day. We have also learnt the difference between primary and secondary sources and had time to explore how paintings, diaries or newspaper articles teach us about what life was like in the past. We compared modern day London to the city built in 1666 and we are now experts in knowing what we can learn about past mistakes such as wood as a building material, no existence of fire safety tools or teams.
In English, we have been focusing on rewriting a story that we really enjoyed -Vlad. We told the story in the first person as Boxton the rat and his best flea friend Vlad! The characters desperately tried to escape from the bakery on Pudding Lane when the first ember caused the inferno to erupt. In our stories, we used lots of different contractions and fronted adverbials to make our sentence structures varied. We read the diary entry of Samuel Pepys an important eyewitness account to the Great Fire of London. We retold the event as we went along empathising with the main character incorporating lots of powerful verbs, adjectives and emotional vocabulary into our writing.
Take a look at our mixed media collages. We are so proud of all the new techniques that we incorporated such as rolling, scrunching and layering to create bright and bold backgrounds to place the houses that we sketched using our pencils. We recreated lots of different textures using cross hatching and stippling for example.
In ICT, we have been effectively collecting data through the use of tally charts and have been learning how to impact this information into a clear pictogram or bar model. We have been making conclusions by answering questions about the information shown.
In Science, we have kickstarted our animals and their habitats topic . We really enjoyed sorting animals into the six different categories and can now define each of them for example mammal or reptile . We now know the seven different life processes and can use this knowledge to identify whether something is dead, alive or has been alive. We went on an outdoor hunt in search of different micro habitats, even though these homes are very small we learnt that they provide a great home for the tiniest of creatures because they are moist, provide protection and shelter.
Linking very closely to our science topic in music, we have been exploring call and response patterns for different Safari animals. We have been changing the dynamic and rhythm of these patterns and representing them closely. In small groups, we composed our own representations thinking carefully about which instrument would represent which animals in the wild.
In Maths, some of us have been lucky enough to achieve our silver, gold and even platinum targets when learning the two and five times tables. We have focused on money this term-identifying different coins or notes, finding changing and adding together different values. Using our problem solved toolkit, we have learnt to use the inverse operation to answer a missing number problem.
Autumn 2024
In Geography we have been learning all about our local area and the what different human and physical features we found in it. We compared our local area to that of a coastal town-Bridlington. We went on a walk around the community to practise using our map reading skills. We then retraced our steps on the aerial photographs to create our own maps using basic symbols shown on a key. Lastly, we reviewed our learning to reflect on our topical big question- How can we improve our local area. Some children decided that new lights under the subway to make it safer, more bins and a new bus route would make local residents much happier.
In English this term, we have been writing to inform. We have researched, planned and written non-chronological reports to advise people all about what the area of Rise Park is like. We have tried really hard to extend our sentences using subordinate conjunctions as well as using noun phrases to add detail. We also wrote formal letters to our local MP to inform them of the changes that we would like to make in our local area inspired by the finding on our walk in Geography.
As Artist we were inspired by our guest speaker- Michelle Reader. She uses recycled materials to create 3D sculptures inspired by nature and animals. We learnt all about the impact of waste and how it can damage the environment so were thankful that she found new uses for items we would otherwise throw away. We learnt all about different ways to join the materials effectively as well as sorting materials according to how easy they were to cut. Take a peek at some of our final pieces because we are so proud of them!
In RE we have been thinking about what makes a good leader. We were inspired by some key religious leaders in different faiths- Moses of the Jewish Faith and St Paul and Jesus of the Christian Faith. We then realised that everyone has the potential to be a good leader and thought about how the people around us show great leadership qualities everyday such as being courageous, problem solvers and nurturing towards others. Lastly, we wrote some wise words and rules to promote a more peaceful and harmonious lifestyle.
In Maths, we practised learning our five times tables and many of us were awarded our bronze and silver awards- a few lucky children even reached gold! We have been learning to describe the properties of different 2d and 3d shapes as well as using vertical lines of symmetry.
As Scientist, we continue to learn all about the uses of everyday materials. We completed a research task all about the famous Charles Macintosh and his important discovery of the waterproof rain mac. We also carried out an observational experiment to see which art medium would absorb the most amount of water when creating pictures.
