Welcome back!

It has been so lovely to see all the children and families over the week.

I was very excited when I knew the children were coming back this week because it is British Science Week and as Science lead in the school I am so happy I got to teach this in class rather than remotely.

This weeks theme has been 'Innovating for the Future' and we have had so much fun exploring this topic. It is a brilliant theme to involve lots of different lessons and has allowed us to read so many books. 

In English we have been using the book 'Clean Up!'. This is a great story which talks about plastic pollution in the sea. We thought about our parks and what it would be like to be in a park and play amongst lots of rubbish. The children made their own posters to make sure people keep the parks clean. We also talked about how to use an exclamation mark in our work. We then looked at Greta Thunberg and her work in helping protect the planet. Her quote 

I have learned you are never too small to make a difference

is an inspiration to all our young children. We have also spent the week looking at different inventors and innovators from around the world using some fantastic texts from Little People, Big Dreams series, Little Leaders Series and Fantastic Women who.... series. The children have loved learning about real people who have changed the world. The children finished off the week by creating their own invention in small groups to help clean up mess left by people in parks - we had brilliant ideas and you never know this could be the beginning of one of them being made and sold. One idea even put people who litter in gardening jail so they could help look after the planet!

In Science we have had a look at lots of different inventions. 

We explored bridges and children planned and created a newspaper bridge in groups. This showed resilience, teamwork and evaluative skills as they tried to make their bridges stand up and then hold weights. 

We explored boats and conducted a fair test experiment. The children had three boats made of different materials and had to find out which one was the strongest. After lots of fun exploring (and a lot of water on tables!) we conducted the experiment together and wrote up an evaluative summary of the experiment. 

(We also made rockets.....more on this later as I'm writing this before we have started this)

In Maths we looked at numbers to 20 and applying the skills we learnt with numbers to 10. We looked at one more and one less and had a very enjoyable treasure hunt to order these numbers. 

Next Week:

In English we will be writing our own biography - including thinking about what we are good at and what we want to be when we are older.

In Maths we are introducing cuisenaire - a resource to help us solve mathematical problems and then applying them in our numbers to 20 work. 

We will also be looking at the books by Jim Field to help continue the transition back to school and using Jigsaw lessons to help support the children with any difficulties or worries they have. 

PE days are Thursdays. Library will be on Monday and books to be returned on Friday. Reading books can be changed on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. 

Have a lovely weekend

Miss Leach