YEAR 1

This week in Year 1, we have been reading another story set in Kenya called Mama Panya’s Pancakes. It is about a boy who invites lots of people to eat pancakes with him and his mother. We wrote lists of things we could buy at market and some of us even wrote a list using commas to separate items. We compared the settings of the two Kenyan stories we have read and identified what was the same and what was different. We have also learned how to use speech bubbles.

In Maths, we have been revising 3D shapes and learning how many faces, corners and edges they have. We also solved addition and subtraction word problems.

In Science we have been learning why animals have their babies in the spring. We then matched animal mothers to their babies. We have also been identifying the clothes we wear during the summer.

In Topic, we have been learning that the land on Earth is divided into seven continents. We are learning a song to help us remember the size order of the continents. We have looked closely at the first and second largest continents, Asia and Africa.

YEAR 2

Another interesting week for Year 2 and, once again, very productive!

In Topic, we continued our War & Remembrance unit, but this week we focused on trench warfare during World War One. We enjoyed looking at the first tank, which was invented by the British and nicknamed ‘Little Willie’. We also looked at the Red Baron and discussed how aerial warfare had developed less than 10 years after the Wright Brother’s first flight. Of course, we included the use of gas, zeppelins and machine guns!

In English, we read some traditional tales and scrutinised the format and structure of the texts. We also examined the messages the authors were trying to convey; in other words, the moral of the story. As usual, we tackled some comprehension activities but focused on traditional tales this week.

In Maths, we finished up our coverage of time (we may re-visit this later in the academic year) and looked at units of time. We also investigated pictograms and block graphs. The latter will serve a great purpose for when we record findings in Science.

In Science, we experimented by bending various materials and recording the results scientifically. For PSHE, we created exercise posters, espousing the benefits of exercise for our health and well-being.

A great week, Year 2. Well done!

ART

With Year 1 we were making a mixed media paper craft this week. Children created an Eiffel tower using watercolours, markers and coloured paper. First they painted a watercolour background and then drew and cut an Eiffel tower using coloured paper.

With Year 2 we talked about the symbols of War and Remembrance. The red poppy, or a field of red poppies, is symbolic of war. We made a poppy field as a way to help our children to learn about this. We used watercolours for the background and once the watercolours were dry, we cut out and stuck on the red poppies.

MUSIC

Years 1 and 2 were busy with a new song ‘Can you read a book? - said the crow to the frog’. Pupils found it very funny and easily learned the lyrics of this song. We played a new music circle game ‘Who stole my bone’. Pupils like to identify each other by singing with different voices.