This term our English and history focus has continued to be ‘movers and shakers’, exploring significant individuals and their impact. We have compared Christopher Columbus’s exploration of the Americas with Neil Armstrong’s space exploration, and we are currently designing a poster in support of Emmeline Pankhurst’s suffragette movement. In class we enjoyed reading Shirley Hughes’s The Lion and the Unicorn during Remembrance week, and we are currently sharing Jacqueline Wilson’s Sleepovers, which has tied in nicely with anti-bullying week. We will shortly move on to one of my favourite books, Michael Morpurgo’s Mimi and the Mountain Dragon. These class books are in addition to our reading practice sessions on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons, where the children read their phonics books in small groups with guidance and support from a teacher. We hope you have enjoyed listening to your child reading their phonics books to you, and that you have valued the opportunity to share their weekly ‘book for pleasure’ at home. Thank you for remembering to return both books each Monday so they can be used by other children.
In maths we have deepened our understanding of addition and subtraction, focusing on how we can exchange tens for ones (and vice-versa) to help with number problems involving two-digit numbers. We will shortly progress to geometry, focusing on the properties of 2D and 3D shapes. Log-on details for Numbots were sent out earlier in the term (and will be re-sent shortly following a number of requests), and I would recommend that the children spend a few minutes every day practising their foundational maths skills via the Numbots website.
Habitats have been our focus in science this term, including identifying the features of different habitats from around the world. In geography we are reinforcing our knowledge of world geography by learning to identify polar, equatorial and temperate regions, and by comparing the geographical features of Somalia and the UK.
We will largely be exploring RE, music and dance through our nativity preparations this term, whilst in art we have learnt about the genre of still life, including using paint mixing and colour matching to create our own still lives. In computing we are exploring digital photography, including how to edit images we have taken.
We look forward to seeing many of you at our WOW learning walk and nativity at the end of term; thank you for your ongoing support for your child’s learning.