YEAR 1
We have had another very interesting week in Year 1 researching more about the Hindu celebration of Diwali. This week, the children learnt how to make salt dough and then modelled the dough into beautiful Diya lamps. They went on to work creatively to decorate their lamps and placed them in our window, with tea lights in each one, to bring luck into our classroom.
The children have also worked hard creating story maps during our daily, Talk for Writing sessions and used their maps to help them to retell the Diwali story. They really were amazed at how easy this made recounting the events of the story in the correct sequence became. These stories were so entertaining that some children decided to film each other; other children chose to act out the story after dressing up and making their own costumes and scenery. Adding labels and captions to their story maps was the final task of the week and was deemed, ‘easy-peasy’ for the class as by this point they knew the story so well.
In Mathematics, the children have investigating the place value in two-digit numbers. They have looked for patterns to help them to remember the correct number sequence when ordering the numbers 11-20. Some children have begun to extend this knowledge with numbers up to 100 and others have really challenged themselves and explored three-digit numbers. Counting in multiples of ten proved easy for some children, who then taught their friends and went on to challenge themselves to count in multiples of one hundred by following the same number pattern when counting to 10. The atmosphere in the classroom has been one of great buzz and excitement; they could not be any prouder of themselves.
Finally, in Science, we explored sources of light and how to make shadows. Some children remembered how to make a shadow monster from their time in Reception and proudly showed their eager new friends how to create one. Their monsters were both terrifying and totally terrific and now hang proudly on our classroom walls in the hope of warding off the dreaded ten-headed demon, Ravana!
YEAR 2
A wonderful week was spent this week in Year Two. Ms. Holly is getting to know the children and is quickly finding what a well behaved, eager, positive class it is!
This week students became acquainted with their lines and poems they will be practicing for our December celebration this year: we will be discussing how Russia celebrates the New Year and Christmas.
In Science, students are looking closer at everyday objects and what material they are made from: what properties can be described, and can material be used in different ways…
In Literacy, we continue with our reading, as well as writing question sentences, complete with ‘wh’ question words, and checking our work for correct use of question marks.
For Math, students worked on ‘expanding’ number equations, and reviewing counting 10 more or 10 less.
The week has gone by very quickly!
Have a wonderful weekend! Looking forward to more full days next week.
