Welcome back, Robins!

This half term we will be focusing on our school value of Respect. 

To help us answer the question How can we look after and respect all living things? we will investigate a range of minibeasts and the natural world around us. We will enjoy a range of fiction and non-fiction texts to further our learning across all areas of development. We can't wait to start exploring these creatures as we know they're of keen interest to many of the children!

Keep checking back here for photos of our learning.

Week 1: Lunar New Year

It's been wonderful to welcome back the children and hear about their half term adventures. We began the term by exploring Lunar New Year, which fell during the holidays, and shared the story of 'The Great Race' which tells of how the animals of the Zodiac were chosen. The children engaged whole-heartedly with the story and loved discussing the morality of some of the animals' routes to crossing the finish line! They were able to tell Mrs CC on Wednesday the animals' placing in the race, all the way up to 12th - what great retrieval!

We're very proud of how hard the children have been working in phonics and it's great to see lots of progress being made. Children were reassessed before half term and are relishing the challenges they're being met with in their new groups.

In maths we've continued taking a deep look at the composition of numbers between 5 and 10, thinking about how six is made of 5 and 1 more, seven is made of 5 and 2 more etc. We also introduced some 2D shape work and the children really impressed us with their knowledge of circles, triangles and squares. Some could even explain to us the difference between a square and a rectangle, describe which had curved sides rather than straight, and identify the number of sides and corners ('vertices') on each. Well done Robins!

In RE we have begun learning about the Easter story in order to answer the question 'Why do Christians put a cross in an Easter garden?' This week we read the story of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem, which is celebrated on Palm Sunday. To deepen our understanding, we re-enacted the crowds' excitement at Jesus' arrival by waving imaginary palm leaves and saying 'Hallelujah!' as we heard in the story.

Way back in September, the children painted self portraits. This week we revisited self portraits with the children, using pens instead of paints this time, and it really is incredible to see the progress they've made since they started school in terms of self awareness, fine motor control, shape, space and colour. They are being displayed in the classroom along with a thumbnail of their previous portrait - do come and see these fantastic works of art at the next Book Look afternoon!

Week 4

This week we enjoyed reading Norman the Slug with the Silly Shell and creating our own stories as part of 'Drawing Club', using Norman as a starting character but adapting what he uses as a shell to become a snail! Norman has been on some incredible adventures! We're very proud of how inspired the children have been to create these imaginative narratives. 

We learnt about Matisse this week, focusing on his work 'The Snail' which he created using collage. The children have had a go at collaging their own snails and were inspired to create a sparkly snail trail for them, too!

In RE, we've shown great curiosity as we learnt more about the Easter story. We had a long discussion about the tomb in which Jesus' body was kept, and why it might have been kept there. An in depth discussion ensued once we heard the part of the story where Jesus was resurrected, and children began contemplating their own beliefs. We explored creating our own representation of Jesus' tomb, using natural materials to make an 'Easter garden.' Well done, Robins, on engaging so well with our learning.

Our maths learning has centred around doubling this week. The children understand that, in order to create a double, each part has to have an equal amount and that these two amounts can be put together to find the whole. We explored this concept using objects, our fingers, pictures and numerals. Great thinking, Robins!

As our learning about living things has developed this term, the children have become more and more aware of the creatures we share our school environment with. When thinking about how we can respect and care for them, the Robins began building 'bug hotels' during their play. We've begun sourcing appropriate materials to build a more long-term bug hotel in our learning garden and can't wait to continue with its construction next week.

Week 5 

We've had a busy final week of term! On Monday, we learnt about Eid. The children engaged beautifully with the learning, telling Mrs C-C all about it when she came in later in the week. In addition to this, the children worked very hard at the beginning of the week to make Easter nest cakes to sell at the Easter fayre. They were very popular and we're proud to have helped fundraise! We must say a huge thank you to our families for all of your donations this week.

In maths, we began exploring odd and even numbers within 10. We explored building a number using blocks, but ensuring that there were two columns of blocks. This allowed us to notice how even the even numbers had flat tops and the odd numbers had one column that was higher than the other, looking more like a step. Great thinking this week, Robins!

We ended the week with the Easter service, and were very proud of how well the children engaged with the Easter story as told by Year 4. They joined in with the hymns. singing and signing beautifully, too. Have a wonderful break and we're looking forward to seeing you next term.