AUTUMN 1
We have been incredibly busy during our first half term back at school. Our question for the half term was, ‘What can we learn from the past?’. Through this, we have explored ‘how the Roman invasion impacted Britian’, developing our historical knowledge and skills. The children have learned the key dates during this period in British history, including why Caesar’s first two attempts were not successful! The children used historical paintings and text to explore what the Celt army was like compared to the Romans. The children were thrilled to have a Roman soldier visit the school and talk about how and why the Roman army was so effective at the time. We also looked at things the Romans brought with them to Britian that have had a lasting impact – roads, a postal service, apartments, baths, toilets and more!
Please take a look below at an example of our end-point assessment – the children interviewed one another using our quiz-basket questions!
In Science, we have been learning about living things and their habitats. We have developed our scientific enquiry skills by classifying and grouping animals using closed questions, and finally creating our own classification keys. We learned about camouflage and how some animals use this to hide from prey or predators. We looked at how animals’ bodies are adapted to their habitats, such as a camel has long eyelashes to keep the sand out – wow! We also looked at food chains and food webs, including working in teams to create our own food chain display cards, showing the transfer of energy from the producer up to the apex predator in each chain. Class 3 also explored how climate change is impacting habitats around the world and what the word ‘endangered’ means. We used our core value of hope to explore ways we can reverse climate change and make positive changes in the world around us.
In other areas of the curriculum we have explored how Muslims worship in RE, when we learned about Islam. It was interesting to note a lot of similarities in the beliefs and traditions between Christianity and Islam and how these impact on how people live and worship! In Computing we deepened our coding knowledge and skills when we coded our own interactive programmes at the end of the unit.
We are very excited for the next half term and all the fun it brings as we lead up to Christmas!
Autumn 2
We have had yet another busy half term, learning new things and making lots of progress! Our question for the half term was, ‘where in the world?’. Through this, we have explored ‘Volcanoes’, developing our geographical knowledge and skills. To kick-start our unit of work and to create some surprise and excitement in the classroom, the children carried out their own volcanic eruptions, using miniature models as this half term’s WOW moment! They loved wearing the safety goggles to make their volcanoes erupt! The children have learned key knowledge about what volcanoes are, how they are formed, where you are likely to find one, how they erupt and the features of them. They were then able to explore an active volcano in Europe (Mount. Etna) and think about the risks of living there. We also explored why people choose to live there and the economy that can be built in a volcanic area. At the end of the unit, the children were able to take part in an interview with Miss Cashmore, answering lots of tricky questions about their learning – it was if we were on television! Please take a look below at an example of our end-point interviews – they all did a fantastic job.
In Science, we have been learning about rocks and soils, which linked wonderfully to our Geography unit on volcanoes. We have developed our scientific enquiry skills by classifying and grouping rocks and soils based on their properties and we also grouped rocks based on whether they are natural or man-made. We learned about the types of rocks and how rocks are formed (igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic). We looked at how important soil is and what it is made of. We had a great afternoon, investigating the properties of the soils! We then used all of this knowledge to explore the types of erosion and how rocks and soils can be worn away. We know this a natural cycle but humans can impact some types of erosion and we discussed the importance of tree roots in binding the soil together and why cutting down too many trees would be harmful. We finally looked at fossils and how they are formed. Mrs. Collier even brought in a rock full of fossils for us to look closely at.
In other areas of the curriculum we have explored the Holy Trinity in RE and made our own trinity triangles for our prayer tree. We also explored the baptism of Jesus through art, exploring how the symbols of the Trinity have been represented by the artists. In French, we have been learning basic greetings, counting, colours and how to describe our homes.
We are very excited for the next half term as we move into the Spring term!
