KS1 – Newsletter – 5.11.21

We hope that you have all had a brilliant week off and that you are getting back into the routine.

There have been lots of exciting activities this week as we have begun our new castles topic. We have linked our history topic in with each subject. We began by creating a shield, like a coat of arms, designed with pictures that represent who they are and what they enjoy. They also made a helmet with their name on, ready to go into battle. We learnt about castles and their key features. We took this knowledge with us as we went into battle! We had great fun playing games and storming each others castles taking treasure. The teachers than sat in the Bailey of our central castle and in a ‘What time is it Mr Wolf?’ style game, had to try and sneak up to the castle, along the drawbridge and into the castle without being seen.

We continued with our learning about castles in Science. We looked at where castles were built and why they had towers. We then carried out a simple test to see which material we could build the tallest tower with. We used wooden blocks, Lego, Duplo, Mulit-link and straws. We had to keep changing the designs to ensure the towers did not fall down and then measured which were the tallest and discussed why that material was the most successful.

In Geography we have begun learning about the United Kingdom. We have been learning the names of the four countries that make up the United Kingdom and locating them on a map. We then looked at the waters that surround the United Kingdom and their names.

In Maths we have all been partitioning numbers and adding numbers. In year one, they have been adding one digit numbers and year two are beginning to add two two-digit numbers without exchanging. They have been representing these in different ways.

On PPA day this week in art, the children were focusing on Remembrance day. They each made a poppy out of modelling clay and used their hands to make a large picture of a poppy with the world as the central piece. In Music the children were learning about rhythms. They had different rhythms to play in a hoop and when another child jumped into their hoop they began to play their rhythm.

In RE, Year 1 the children began a topic on belonging. They were thinking about groups that they belong to eg their family, school, colour team, Rainbows, football clubs etc… In Year 2, they began a topic on new life. They were thinking about what a baby needs, what we do to welcome new babies and learned about what each of our names mean.

We have ended the week with a boom, as we learnt about Bonfire night and the Gunpowder plot during our English session. During our Green time, we had great fun up in the Forest schools area, eating chocolate apples, whittling, making Bonfire pictures and having a bonfire. If you are going to a bonfire this weekend, or having fireworks/ sparklers in your garden, please stay safe and remember to wear gloves.

Key Dates:

16.11.21-Parent phone consultations (Details to follow)

18.11.21-Year One -Trip to Chevin-Forest school clothes needed

25.11.21-Year Two-Trip to Chevin-Forest Schools clothes needed

8.12.21-Christmas Production- am and pm

17.12.21-Break up