What We Are Learning

Once Upon A Time

Our theme this half term is based around all of our favourite traditional tales. We will be looking carefully at the story of Dick Whittington and linking to the real life character of Richard Whittington, who lived locally. Beatrix Potter stories will be explored during our English sessions. 

We will be looking at Gloucester as a significant local place and finding out about its amazing history, following on with a trip to Gloucester later in the summer term. This will compliment our learning about different explorers from history. We will use some of the information we learn, in our creation of sprites, to use in our programming on the iPads. 

What Can Your Garden Grow?

We have combined our learning in science, DT and PSHE to explore the role of healthy food in our diets, where they come from and how they grow. We will be growing different plants from seeds and investigating the conditions needed for germination and seed dispersal. 

We are looking forward to the Easter service and will be exploring imagery from the Easter story and how it is still used today. We will be writing poetry linked to the Easter story to perform at our Easter service. 

PE has changed to a Wednesday and Thursday and will be led by Gloucestershire Cricket and Petolo Rugby. 

Fantastic Beasts 

And

Where To Find Them

This Spring term we are following some of the interests of the class and learning about dinosaurs and imaginary monsters. We will be exploring classic stories, such as Where The Wild Things Are, as well as a selection of modern stories and non-fiction texts. The children will be taking part in activities to developing writing in different sentence styles and text styles, creating story maps and speech bubbles, building on the skills they have developed over Autumn term.

Our art and computing lessons are strongly linked as we contrast digital media with painting, sketching and pastels. We will explore the work of a range of modern artists from including Kandinsky and Mondrian. Our geography takes us from around the world to thinking about where we live and the features around us. 

 Journeying On 

In Class 2, for the second half of the Autumn term, we will be learning about different journeys, those in our own lives and the lives of other people. We will be exploring some STEM activities as part of our enhanced provision, finding out about boat, car, train and rocket designs. We are starting by exploring the tradition of Bonfire night and why it started. In Science we will explore different materials and how they are used for different purposes due to their properties.

Of course the term will culminate in Christmas celebrations and we will be planning and practising our nativity performance. Details of our chosen play and the children's roles will be sent home in the next couple of weeks. 

  Oh I do Like To Be Beside The Seaside    

Our theme for the first half of the Autumn term is based on our experiences of the seaside and how these have changed over time. We will be exploring exploring animals in our local area and their habitats around our school. We will be naming and creating the geographical features found around a beach. Our art area will be focussed on constructing stable structures and culminating in the creation of the children's own lighthouses. In history we will touch on Grace Darling and her heroic actions. 

  Our Place In The World  

(The Tallest Tales From The Smallest Starts)

In Class Two we have a very busy half term planned that builds on our learning from last half term. In English we will be studying two texts; Greta and the Giants and Dinosaurs and All That Rubbish. We will use these to help us develop character and setting descriptions, as well as creating leaflets, reports and letters. 

Our focus in science is on plants. we will be exploring plants and learning the names of their parts as well as planting a variety of seeds to grow our own plants. We will explore the plants around the school environment and find out if they are deciduous or evergreens. Our work in the local environment will continue with developing our knowledge of sculpture using natural materials we find and collect and creating our own 'land art' style sculptures. 

We will build our knowledge of countries around the world through our work in Geography on weather. We will learn about the daners of weather and how they affect different countries and places.  

Near and Far In The Wild World

After discussion with the children about what they would like to learn about we will be focussing on animal habitats around the world, with particular interest in Rainforest and Polar habitats. We will be looking at the problems that different habitats have and how living things are suited to different habitats. Investigating rainforest environments will include learning about the location of rainforests around the world, the animals and plants that live there, the composition of rainforest layers and comparing to a local forest.

Our art lessons will explore line and colour for us to produce our own pastel pictures of rainforest animals. In D.T. we will be tasting a range of dips, designing our own healthy dips and trying dippers to suit them to enable us to make healthy choices about what we should eat. 

We will be learning about the Jewish religion and how Jewish people show they are Jewish through their celebrations and rituals. We will be learning how stories from the Torah link strongly to the Christian Bible.

What's In The Toy Box?

To start our Spring term off we will be focussing on toys. The children have already enjoyed sharing what presents they had for Christmas and will be using their knowledge of their own gifts in our science lessons, looking at materials and their properties. 

We will be investigating how and why toys have changed and hope to interview members of our families to help us understand this. 

In PE we will be developing our kicking and control skills with Jack and his team and improving our football skills as well as dance, looking at how toys move and working with partners.

We will be exploring the parable of the Lost Son and making links to how parents love and forgive us, just as God loves and forgives us. 

Every Life Matters

In the run up to Christmas we will be learning about humans and their basic needs. We are looking forward to welcoming a nurse into class and learning how to stay healthy and look after ourselves when we are poorly. We will investigate the role of nurses through history and explore the impact they had. This will complement our activities in RE, learning about belonging and PSHE when we will be exploring similarities and differences between each other and celebrating these. 

In DT we will be exploring joining techniques with a focus on sewing and creating our own fabric animal. We will also practise simple weaving techniques. 

We are excited to be learn our parts for the Class One and Two nativity, this year's is Called Born In A Barn. We hope you will come and see us perform.

Helpers and Heroes

(kind hands and kind hearts)

This half term we will be learning about 'real life superheroes'. In history we will be studying the Great Fire of London and how this was an important historical event. We will be designing our own superheroes and reading stories about different types of superhero. There are many real-life superheroes, and the children will be thinking about the role of these people in their lives and the wider world. 

We also will be spending time investigating the human body; drawing and creating self-portraits using a range of different media and investigating through simple experiments how our bodies and senses work. 

Minibeast Mayhem

This year has whizzed past and I can't believe we have reached our final half term. To finish our year off we will be learning all about insects and habitats. We will be building our own habitats and thinking about how different habitats suits different animals because they meet the animals needs. 

This will be reflected in our art work, learning about environmental artists, such as Andy Goldsworthy and creating our onw two and three dimensional representations of natural things. We will explore our natural surroundings during our Forest School sessions making sketch maps of the local area and then using atlases to find locations in the UK and around the world.