Week Ending 4th July

This week in Squirrels we have been working on our persuasive language when writing letters. We have looked at how to try and convince someone that our opinion is right and have written Mrs. Cooke a letter to request something we would like and to try and convince her to make it happen! In Maths Year1 have been looking at tens and units using base 10 blocks. Year2 have been finishing their unit on fractions with this week’s focus being particularly on thirds and looking at fractions that are bigger or smaller than each other. In RE we have been discussing things we find in every church and how anywhere can be a church to us if we need time with God to pray. We have started to focus on the end of year Celebration Service with children learning songs and the words they are going to speak. In guided reading we have been looking at information books about trees and taking information that we need out of the text. Our "Think Outside the Box Thursday" morning activity is proving a great success and children are coming up with more and more creative answers each week! The transition day was fantastic with all children rising to their new roles in school and taking part in all activities. Everyone was made to feel welcome and had time to get to know their class for next year. 

Week Ending 27th June

This week in Super Squirrels our year one children have begun looking into place value up too 100 while year two complete their learning on fractions. Through our learning together it was fun to see that some of the year ones had really understood the year twos work and could answer some of their maths questions! Our new focus in guided reading is on The Magic and Mystery of Trees by Teresa Moorey. We talked about what the book might be about, what we would have called it if it was our book and discussed some new vocabulary we will come across in future lessons. In English we talked about being persuasive with our language when writing letters asking for help and have also continued to gain more understanding of positioning of quotation marks. In music we have used our bodies to make body procession beats to share with the class. In Computing we ended up extending the lesson as the children were enjoying using and exploring MyMaths so much. We solved maths problems about missing numbers, number patterns and even played a times table game - children have all gone home with their own logins to continue their fun and learning at home. 

Week Ending 20th June

In Squirrels this week, we have finished our book about what happened to Humpty Dumpty ‘After the Fall’ and will be starting our new book which is full of factual information. We will explore how to find information from books using the contents page and how to find the facts we need.

In our maths lessons this week we enjoyed a whole class activity being blindfolded as other children navigated their friends through an obstacle course. We have looked at position and direction in year one while the year twos were using quarter and half turns to help describe their directional instructions.

In English we have looked at soup kitchens and food banks, how they help our community and how we could help our community. We have made soup kitchen posters and discussed what information our posters need and shared our ideas with each other to help generate ideas as a group. In our PSHE lessons we continue to look at "Practice Makes Perfect" and have all talked about our individual skills and things we want to improve on and how to make that happen.

Our history lessons this week have focused on the history of the local area and what our land was used for. In RE we are discussing the first church and talked about how it was in a tent not a building. 

Week Ending 13th June

In PE Squirrels have continued with invasion games, impressing their new PE coach and coming back from their lesson with glowing feedback. In our guided reading lessons, we are coming to the end of our ‘After the Fall’ story study which we have enjoyed sharing with parents who visited for our ‘Stay and Learn’ session.

Our English lessons have focused on the book ‘Last Stop on Market Street’ in which the children have been learning all about quotation marks and verbs used to describe how a character is communicating their message. We have corrected sentences without punctuation and discussed words such as yelled, whispered and grumbled when doing some expressive reading.

In maths Year 2 continue to look at fractions with a particular focus on quarters. Year 1 have moved onto a new topic and are currently starting to look at positioning language such as left and right.

In history we continue to look at vehicles from the past and present and have created a time line of different forms of travel in our individual history book and in science children are continuing to look at plants and

In RE we have discussed our favourite places and why they are special to us, who we might like to have there with us and how that makes us feel. This is with a view to discussing special religious places in the future and how we feel when we visit these places. PSHE had the children agreeing with each other that the girl in our story needed to try and try again. They said we should never give up and agree with our topic of ‘Practice Makes Perfect’. We discussed a range of job roles and things you might need to train for if you wanted to be in that job.

Week Ending 23rd May

This week in Squirrels we have started a new book called “Last Stop on Market Street” by Matt de la Peña. The class have been discussing the different characters and working on their descriptive writing while focusing on our five senses to help the reader feel like they are in the individual child’s chosen setting. In our Guided Reading we have continued to look at the story “After the Fall” by Dan Santat and have thought up some creative ways we could have helped Humpty Dumpty stay safe on the wall. We enjoyed a lesson outside making a record of all the things our senses could pick up such as hearing chirping birds and rustling trees and touching the rough bark of a tree or smelling the freshly cut grass. Our maths work has collectively focused on fractions with specific focus on finding a half and quarter of a number of items. Within our R.E. lessons we have created our own Pentecost poem which the children not only created as a group but they have also each taken it in turns to write part of it. It is a real piece of class worship! Our new focus in History is the local area with travel and transport. This week has taken a particular focus on how transport has changed from past to present and why we might have made these changes. Whilst looking at plants in science we had a trip to Arden Lea Nursery to learn about how hanging baskets are made, where all the plants come from, what they need to thrive in transport and where they will all be sent off to. The children were captivated by the machines and couldn’t have been more enthusiastic to answer questions! In music we have started to use claves to help us keep the beat and to look for ques to play during specific parts of the songs.

Week Ending 16th May

Maths – Year 1 have been learning to find half and Year 2 have been measuring in millilitres (ml).

English- writing letters and practicing handwriting. We wrote about our hopes and dreams and we will be posting them to King Charles. 

Science- different plants and the key parts of a plant. 

Geography- how beaches in different places can be similar and also very different. 

Music-creating out own call and response beats with the theme of animals. 

Phonics- recap of split digraphs 

Guided reading - "After the fall" predictions about the end of the book and discussing why Humpty Dumpty might not want to get on the wall again. 

RE - The fruit of the Spirit.

PSHE- Understanding body language. 

Week Ending 9th May

This week in Squirrels we have started a new book called ‘Julian is a Mermaid’. We received a letter from Naima - a wise fish asking us to follow our dreams. Year 1 and 2 have been thinking about their wishes and dreams and are planning to write a letter back to Naima to tell her all about them. In maths, Year 2 have been comparing mass, capacity and volume and Year 1 have just started learning about fractions.
In geography, we are comparing similarities between our local area and Bondi Beach, in Australia.
This term in RE we have been learning about the Ascension of Jesus and this week we made ‘Ascension in a jar’ and saw Jesus floating up on the cloud. The children really enjoyed this activity and it helped bring our story to life.

Squirrels have also been able to label the different parts of a plant in science and made their own flower art.
In computing, we have been creating our own quizzes on Purple Mash and seeing if our friends can complete our quizzes.
PE this term is focused on invasion games, specifically rugby, with the coaches from Wigan Warriors.
Squirrels have created amazing pieces of art, focusing on using their primary colours. They have even learnt a song to help them remember how to make the secondary colours.

In music we have been creating our own call and responses, specifically using animal sounds.
Our PSHE this week has been about body language and how we can show our friends how we are feeling. Squirrels even did some drama to demonstrate how they would talk to a friend if they were upset.

Super squirrels have had a lovely few weeks working in the sunshine and learning about plants.  We have also been visiting our local flower nurseries and even raising money in a sponsored silence!