A Great Round-Up of the year

Take a look at our fantastic breadth of learning this term.

Year 3

3 Maple have been enjoying trying new things and being really curious about our learning this term. We have been using a fantastic website called Nearpod in lessons too! In Science, we used Nearpod to help us learn about nutrition and the 5 basic nutrients we all need to grow and stay healthy.

Have a look at the fun activity we did on our chromebooks that lesson where we matched different food to the correct nutrient!

We have also been using Nearpod in Maths this week. As we are currently learning about multiplication, we have been practising our 2 times tables with fun activities like Climb to the Top and even Draw It to complete number tracks on our chromebooks. It was really exciting choosing our own avatars for the activities!

We’ve also worked very hard in DT and learnt all about bridges. We had to bring in a lot of different types of cardboard so that we could improve our bridges to make them strong enough to hold cars!

First, we used thin cardboard from empty cereal and porridge boxes to make a small bridge prototype. Interestingly, we realised that these were a weak material and weren’t strong enough to hold the weight of cars so we then used thicker pieces of corrugated cardboard to build stronger and better bridges. As this was group work, we ensured to collaborate well with our team by listening to each other, sharing the group work equally and making sure everyone had a job to do.

We are very proud of the bridges we made as the thick materials, in addition to the various joins we used, allowed the bridges to not only hold cars but even a small truck too!

Year 5

In Year 5 Maple, we have been engaging with an exciting unit in Science all about life cycles. Using a Science textbook, we have been looking at life cycles of animals which reproduce sexually. After researching a variety of different life cycles, we were ambitious by creating our own life cycles in our books. Do you know what the life cycle of an albatross looks like? See our amazing work below to find out!

Take a look at Akira and Safiyyah's work

Additionally, in our recent History unit, we have been learning all about the Vikings. We learned about the Battle of Edington (878 CE) and what is meant by the term ‘Danelaw’ (see our amazing work below). We acted curiously by asking important questions and tested our knowledge using an online app called Nearpod.

Raeesa's great writing

Oscar's explanation of the term Danelaw

Year 1

In Year 1 Maple, we have been enjoying our learning across all of the subjects.

We have been decorating gingerbread men to help us with our instruction writing in English. We all carefully used the icing, then added the sprinkles and finally ate our biscuits. Here we are collaborating like Colin to share the resources.

We have also been curious like Corey in science. We have learnt all about minibeasts. We took a walk around the playground and discussed where minibeasts would hide and rest over the winter. We were responsible when looking under rocks and pieces of wood making sure we put their houses back together.

Reception

We have been learning all about postal workers in reception. We used our phonics to help us write letters to family, friends and even Santa. We know that writing letters is a way to communicate with others. The children enjoyed writing letters and putting them in envelopes. They even got to go to the post box to post them.

Year 6

6 Maple reviewed their prior learning about bridges from previous years. Afterwards, they designed and built arched truss bridges that spanned a width of at least 1 metre and supported a mass of 3kg. The children collaborated very well and the results were impressive.

In Geography, we have been using retrieval practice to recognise and remember the names of the countries across Northern Europe and some of the largest countries in Southern Europe. They were very good at it! Next term, they will be learning to recognise the countries of Central Europe.

Their main unit of work has been learning about the natural resources of the world and how international trade works. They learnt about the international trade in food, oil and tourism before looking at the main imports and exports of the UK. Finally, they learnt about how international trade can be unfair and how ‘Fairtrade ‘ aims to improve this. Read Sara’s report about it here.

Year 2

2 Maple has been extremely curious about the things we can invite the Lonely Beast to come and do in our school. As part of our learning, the children have written letters to the Lonely Beast, suggesting all sorts of fun and exciting activities he might enjoy. Some children invited him to join Peter’s sports club, while others thought he might like learning about history and maths with us. We also reminded the Lonely Beast not to forget his umbrella, just in case it rains during his visit! This creative task allowed the children to practise their writing skills while thinking about the things that bring them joy and how they can share those experiences with others.

Curiosity played a big part in this activity, as the children wondered what the Lonely Beast would like to do and how he might respond. We are excited to see where our curiosity takes us next and what the Lonely Beast will think of all our wonderful ideas!

On Monday, we were delighted to have a surprise visit from Santa, who brought a special treat for everyone in our class – delicious chocolate! It was a magical moment that filled us all with joy and excitement as we celebrated the festive season together.