Big Bang!

Our 'Big Bang' began in the morning when we read our focus text,  Funnybones, by Janet and Allan Ahlberg. We then fully immersed ourselves in the story. We made moving skeletons to sing and dance 'dem bones', created masks and puppets to act out the story, made shape pictures of the skeletons' houses, used the art straws to create skeletons in different poses and created yummy Funnybones biscuits. Then in the afternoon, we raced around the garden to find the big skeletons bones and worked as a team to put them back together again. We also drew around one another in chalk and turned our outlines into funny skeletons. However, the biggest excitement and surprise came at the end of the day. On our way back into the classroom Mrs Oram spotted something suspicious in the bushes, it was a real bone! Over the next few weeks, we studied it to see if we could work out which creature it might have come from. The most popular ideas were a sheep or a dinosaur!

English

In English we continued to on the text FunnyBones by Janet and Allan Ahlberg. The children thoroughly enjoyed the story. We sequenced and re-enacted events before reading and comparing different versions, thinking about the characters, and the setting.

We completed short bursts of writing, including creating WANTED posters and instructions to put the dog back together.

The children substituted part of the setting of the story and wrote their own versions. We are all SO proud of their first extended piece of writing this year! Well done, Duckpuddle!

Maths

In maths we have been recapping our knowledge of number and working on place value. We have consolidated our numbers to 20 (year 1) and 100 (year 2), demonstrating partitioning using manipulatives.

We practised using the comparison symbols to compare numbers, with year 2 comparing number sentences too.

To end this half term, we spent a few weeks recognising coins and notes (year 1) and counting coins and notes (year 2).

Throughout the half term, we have begun building on our problem solving and reasoning skills.

Science

In Science we have learnt a lot about Animals and Humans. We began recognising that humans go through different stages.

We looked at, and then compared life cycles, looking closely at the life cycle of a sheep, frog, duck, and butterfly.

We moved on to identify, name and label the human body. The children used secondary sources to help label body parts they were unfamiliar with. Some of us had a look at names of muscles and internal organs. In groups, we drew around each other and labelled body parts.

To finish our Science unit, we investigated our 5 senses. Through English and poetry, we identified which body part is associated with each sense. We wrote some beautiful senses poems, inspired by Moira Andrews Senses of the weather.

Geography

In Geography we have been learning about the UK, including countries, capital cities and seas.

We located the four countries within the UK on maps, and later used maps to help us find the Capital Cities. We discovered some landmarks in each capital city, and enjoyed drawing some of them.

We completed an orienteering workshop, where we used compass skills and maps to find locations around the school.