Boats and Beaches

Summer 2

Let's Grow!

Summer 1

Some of our "Pansy Portfolios"

Evil Pea has been causing trouble for a few of the poor vegetables from our kitchen!

We enjoyed spotting and naming plants in our environment.

Today we had a mystery to solve.  Someone had come into our classroom and left giant footprints, a golden egg and some gold coins!

Turrets and Tiaras

As part of our Turrets and Tiaras topic, Diamond class visited Portchester Castle to find out about the people who lived there and what life would've been like.

Home Learning w/c 29thNovember

We are really missing those of you who are unable to join at school!  For those of you who are not in school and are well enough to join us in our learning, here is another week of work for you to do at home.  As with last week, there are not quite so many sessions as usual as we will be practising our school play songs.  I hope to see you back in class as soon as you are able 

Home Learning w/c 22nd November

For those of you who are not in school and are well enough to join us in our learning, I have added some work for you to do at home.  There are not quite so many sessions as usual as we will be practising our school play songs in a few sessions this week.

I hope to see you back in class as soon as you are able 

Homework: 16th July 2021

Please look at the interactive Powerpoint about Sun, Sea and Beach Safety - there are lots of things to click on and discuss.  There is also a link to a Barnaby Bear video about lifeguards and lifeboats to watch.

Our School Trip to Dell Quay: 8th July 2021

Diamonds Class have had a wonderful day today visiting Dell Quay, which is part of Chichester Harbour.  We started the day by becoming oystercatchers and worked together to make "scrapes" (oystercatcher nests) and were very pleased to receive some visitors!

The tide was high for our visit to Dell Quay today, so we could not go down to the shore to search for creatures in this shingly, muddy estuary habitat. Instead we closely examined and identified some creatures in the classroom. We found crabs, cockles, periwinkles, sandhoppers, hydrobia,  anemones, sea lettuce, bladderwrack, and gut weed.  We also learnt about a Dell Quay food chain: seaweed—periwinkle—crab—black-headed gull—peregrine falcon.  After that we made "sticky pictures", using things we had found on the beach, as mementoes of our day.

Next we were lucky enough to be able to go crabbing off the pontoon - what fun!  We took it in turns to lower the bacon bait on our crabbing line, and to gently use the net to transfer our crab friends to a bucket, so we could look at them closely.  Of course we carefully released them back to the sea afterwards.

After lunch we walked to another area of Dell Quay to explore some habitats on land.  We compared our saltwater creatures with some freshwater creatures by pond dipping, and also examined minibeasts found in the meadow habitat.

Finally we walked back to Dell Quay along the foreshore:  what a wonderful and interesting day we had!

Hello wonderful Diamonds!

Welcome back to Week 2 of our Spring Term 2 home learning! 

Hello to our fantastic Diamonds, and welcome back to what is hopefully our LAST WEEK of online school - Miss Moore and I CAN'T WAIT to get back to school so we can all be together again, and see our friends, and learn together again.  It's so exciting - we've still got some more learning to do this week, so I hope you're ready to have some fun!

Isn't the weather lovely?? I wonder if you will be taking your learning outside into the sunshine - I've been working hard in my garden this weekend getting ready for Spring, and watching the birds on my new bird feeder, which is making me smile.  Have you been helping your family to smile this week?  I wonder what you've been doing to make you feel proud of yourself?  Miss Moore and I are missing you all very much and we're looking forward to see you all on Zoom this week!  Enjoy this special time with your families, and stay safe, well and happy!  And WHOOP WHOOP for going back to SCHOOOOOOOOOL!!

Lots of love from Miss Burrough and Miss Moore

Grown-ups please remember these activities are guidelines.  Video resources for the home learning can be found on the Home Learning Video page.  Please also remember to click on the Bug icons at the beginning and end of BugClub books, so we know that they are finished, and are then able to allocate new reading books.  (When they're marked as finished, they move out of 'My Stuff' into 'My Library' - your child also earns 'rewards' for completing books). Please also remember to ask your child to re-read sentences or pages to make sure they can read them fluently and understand what they have read before moving on to a new book - thank you! 

Hello lovely Diamonds!

Welcome back to Week 1 of our Spring Term 2 home learning! 

Hello to our wonderful Diamonds, and welcome back to online school - let's hope it's not for too much longer, but in the meantime, let's have FUN!  Our new topic this half term is CASTLES, KNIGHTS and PRINCESSES, so we will be looking at how castles changed, how they were defended, what they were like inside, who lived in them, and also learning about knights and tournaments.  In literacy we will be focussing on traditional tales and fairy tales, starting off with the Three Little Pigs. 

I hope you've had a lovely rest this week, despite the weather?  I've been clearing my front garden and cutting hedges, so I'm feeling very happy, and today I heard my garden robin singing his Spring song for the first time this year - have you spotted any signs of Spring yet?  Look out for primroses, or catkins, or the spikes of bluebells in the woods; perhaps you have seen the first daffodil in your garden?  Hooray for Spring!

Have you been helping your family to smile this week?  I wonder what you've been doing to make you feel proud? Miss Moore and I can't wait to see you all on Zoom this week - we're missing you all very much!  Enjoy this special time with your families, and stay safe, well and happy!

Lots of love from Miss Burrough and Miss Moore

Grown-ups please remember these activities are guidelines.  Video resources for the home learning can be found on the Home Learning Video page.  Please also remember to click on the Bug icons at the beginning and end of BugClub books, so we know that they are finished, and are then able to allocate new reading books.  (When they're marked as finished, they move out of 'My Stuff' into 'My Library' - your child also earns 'rewards' for completing books). Please also remember to ask your child to re-read sentences or pages to make sure they can read them fluently and understand what they have read before moving on to a new book - thank you! 

Hello lovely Diamonds!

Welcome back to Week 6 of our Spring Term home learning! 

I hope you've had a fabulous weekend and you're looking forward to some more fun learning this week.  I wonder if we will get any snow?  Just one more week until we have a little holiday!   Miss Moore and I are both very pleased with how hard you are all trying with your work, and the progress you are all making - WELL DONE!!  We look forward to seeing all of you on our zoom meetings this week:  your challenge this week is to see who can read the most books - remember to re-read sentences or pages to make sure you can read them fluently.  

Have you been helping your family to smile this weekend?  I wonder how you will make each person in your family happy this week, to help your heart feel proud.  Enjoy this special time with your families.  

Stay safe, well and happy!

Lots of love from Miss Burrough and Miss Moore

Grown-ups please remember these activities are guidelines.  Video resources for the home learning can be found on the Home Learning Video page.  Please also remember to click on the Bug icons at the beginning and end of BugClub books, so we know that they are finished, and are then able to allocate new reading books.  (When they're marked as finished, they move out of 'My Stuff' into 'My Library' - your child also earns 'rewards' for completing books).

Hello to our wonderful Diamonds Class!

Welcome back to Week 5 of our Spring Term home learning! 

Have you all had a lovely weekend?  I hope so... perhaps you've been out on your scooters or bikes, or trampolining, or walking to the Pond or the Lake?  I wonder how many of you saw any interesting birds in our Big Birdwatch?   Miss Moore and I are looking forward to seeing you on the zoom meetings - it's such fun to see all the brilliant activities you've been doing.  We are both extremely proud of how well you are all concentrating on your work and how hard you are all trying to always do your very best work.   

I wonder what you have done to make your family smile this weekend?  I'm going to especially look out for children who are kind this week: even tiny little things like helping with the washing, tidying up your toys and thinking about how to make someone happy will make your heart feel proud.  Enjoy this special time with your families.  

Stay safe, well and happy!

Lots of love from Miss Burrough and Miss Moore

Grown-ups please remember these activities are guidelines.  Video resources for the home learning can be found on the Home Learning Video page.  Please also remember to click on the Bug icons at the beginning and end of BugClub books, so we know that they are finished, and are then able to allocate new reading books.  (When they're marked as finished, they move out of 'My Stuff' into 'My Library' - your child also earns 'rewards' for completing books).

Hello to our lovely Diamonds!

Welcome back to Week 4 of our Spring Term home learning! 

How are you all?  I wonder what you've all been doing this weekend?  We can see from the Blog and the Zoom meetings that you've all been working very hard - although there seemed to be a lot of very naughty teddies getting up to mischief this week!  I hope they're all behaving again now?  Or perhaps they've had some more adventures? You all looked very happy and smiley on our Zoom meetings last week, and Miss Moore and I are always SO glad to see you, because we're missing you A LOT!  Mrs Thompson-Smith, Mrs Tapster and Mrs Harper are send a very big HELLO! to you all too, and asked me to send you all lots of huge smiles.  I wonder who will do the BEST WRITING this week, or read the most books on Epic or Bug Club?  

I hope you're all not just working hard, but also enjoying yourselves, and taking care of your family - I expect you're helping your grown-ups a lot with your helping hands -- maybe you tidied your bedroom this week???  I hope we see each other soon, but in the meantime, enjoy this special time with your families.  Grown-ups please remember these activities are guidelines.  Video resources for the home learning can be found on the Home Learning Video page.

Stay safe, well and happy!

Lots of love from Miss Burrough and Miss Moore

Grown-ups please remember these activities are guidelines.  Video resources for the home learning can be found on the Home Learning Video page.  Please also remember to click on the Bug icons at the beginning and end of BugClub books, so we know that they are finished, and are then able to allocate new reading books.  (When they're marked as finished, they move out of 'My Stuff' into 'My Library' - your child also earns 'rewards' for completing books).

***Breaking News****

It's the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch this weekend, which is a national effort across the country to chart the population our lovely garden birds, and we thought you might like to join in!  The website link is below, if you would like some more information, and all the information you will need, including a bird-watching chart, and details of how to tell the RSPB about how many birds you spotted.  I'll certainly be joining in, as I saw a pair of Goldcrests in my garden yesterday - the smallest of all British garden birds - they only weigh as much as a 20p piece!!  I wonder which amazing birds you will see?  Have fun!

Hello Diamonds Class!

Welcome back to Week 3 of our Spring Term home learning! 

We are missing you very much, but we hope you've been enjoying your learning and managing to get outside in the sunshine.  Miss Moore and I have REALLY enjoyed looking at all your pictures on the blog page - it is lovely to see your hard work and your smiley faces!  Did you like getting messages from the teachers and the other children?    

Are you excited about our Zoom meetings this week?  I know Miss Moore and I are! 

We are missing you all very much, but I hope you're all staying safe and smiley, and having lots of fun with your family, and taking care of them - I wonder what kind thing you will do for someone in your family this week -- perhaps you will even do something special for every single one of them!  I hope we see each other soon, but in the meantime, work hard and enjoy this special time with your families. 

Stay safe, well and happy!

Lots of love from Miss Burrough and Miss Moore

Parents please remember these activities are guidelines and that you are free to adapt them to suit your own family.  Video resources for the home learning can be found on the Home Learning Video page.  Please also remember to login to Bug Club and join Epic via the email sent out to all families, as these provide a huge variety of online reading books for the children to access. Class Zoom meetings are every morning at 8:30 am and every afternoon at 2:30 to talk about the work for the day, and to discuss how the learning went: please check your emails for the invitation.  You are also very welcome to email us with questions or concerns at j.burrough@buriton.hants.sch.uk or r.moore@buriton.hants.sch.uk.  

Hello Diamonds Class!!!!

Welcome to Week Two of our online home learning journey.

We are missing you very much, but we hope you've been enjoying your learning and having fun in the frosty weather.  I am so impressed by all the fantastic learning that you all did last week, and I have loved talking to you all on the Zoom meetings and seeing your work on the Blog.  I know Miss Moore can't wait to see you all on Monday!  

I hope you're all staying safe, and laughing lots, and looking after your grown-ups - maybe you could surprise them this week by thinking of a special treat for them?  I hope we see each other soon, but in the meantime, work hard and enjoy this special time with your families. 

Stay safe, well and happy!

Lots of love from Miss Burrough and Miss Moore

Parents please remember these activities are guidelines and that you are free to adapt them to suit your own family - I loved Ted's timer activity, and Angus's garden science experiments on the Blog!  Video resources for the home learning can be found on the Home Learning Video page.  Class Zoom meetings are every morning at 8:30 am and every afternoon at 2:30 to talk about the work for the day, and to discuss how the learning went: please check your emails for the invitation.  You are also very welcome to email us with questions or concerns at j.burrough@buriton.hants.sch.uk or r.moore@buriton.hants.sch.uk.  

I know there were some problems with the weblinks last week, so we have embedded any weblinks into the planning PDFs - please click on the links there.  Please also remember to login to Bug Club and join Epic via the email sent out to all families, as these provide a huge variety of online reading books for the children to access.

I really hope you will enjoy these activities together, and hope we all stay safe, and that we will all be together again very soon.

Hello Diamonds Class!!!!

Welcome to Week One of our online home learning journey (again!).

For those of you who have not experienced 'lockdown school' yet, a few explanations, and details that have changed for those who have already been through all this... The planning and resources for the week will be posted on this webpage (and sometimes on the Home Learning Video page) each Sunday, ready for the week, and every morning at 8:30 am and every afternoon at 2:30 there will be a class Zoom meeting - to talk about the work for the day, and to discuss how the learning went.  The invitations come to parents via email, so please make sure that we have your preferred family email address.  Miss Moore will being running the zoom meetings on Monday and Tuesdays and Miss Burrough Wednesday through to Friday. We strongly encourage you to post photos of work that your child is proud of onto the school blog so that we can give them feedback and maintain their engagement and positivity.  Each week we will give you an area of Maths, Literacy and Topic to focus on and some suggested follow up activities. There are three this week for Maths and Literacy, so if you'd like to follow our normal school daily morning routine of Literacy (including Phonics session), playtime, Spellings, Maths, then there are activities for each school day.  Our afternoons usually focus on a mixture of reading, PE (Tues and Fri), and Topic time (Wed-Fri).  Please continue to practice Tortoise words every day, and instead of sending out spelling words for Year 1s, we would like your children to learn to spell the Tortoise words, starting with Tortoise 1.  In due course we will post sets of Tortoise words on the web page.  We also advise continuing with phonics flashcards and will also soon provide links for phonics games and reading books linked to the phonics scheme.  We are also exploring whether we can access the Epic! website again.  Please read with your child every day, if possible.  Please also practice ordering 1-20 and then above, and to practice one more, one less etc.  Please also use the Numbots resources, and number formation practice is also important, so that we have no more backwards numbers!!! You are very welcome to email us with questions or concerns at j.burrough@buriton.hants.sch.uk or r.moore@buriton.hants.sch.uk.  

Every day, as part of their well-being and to build on literacy skills, we would like all children to keep a Happy Diary scrapbook.  Please encourage your child to draw a picture and write about something wonderful that they see, hear or do, or something that has made them especially happy that day.  Perhaps they beat their hopping record, or heard a bird sing, or grew some seeds or helped a grown up!  This writing should be independent although children should be reminded to use finger spaces, capital letters and full stops.  I hope it will be a lasting reminder of a very unusual, but special time.

Please bear with us as we get used to all this again.  Please also remember that these online lessons are not meant to overwhelm you as parents, and that measuring the ingredients for baking a cake is also Maths and DT; digging in the garden, finding minibeasts and planting seeds is "Understanding the World", and jumping on the trampoline is also PE, so everything you do with your children is helping to broaden their breadth of experience and helping to educate them.  I really hope you will enjoy these activities together, and hope we all stay safe, and that we will all be together again very soon.

AUTUMN TERM 2020

Welcome back to our Year 1s, and a very big welcome to our new Year Rs, who have all settled in extremely quickly to become happy members of Diamonds Class.  For those of you new to our webpage, this is where you can have a look to see some of the activities we've been enjoying, so do please check in regularly!

AUTUMN 1 WEEK 3

This week we have been thinking about the rain - we are enjoying learning 'Singing in the Rain' and had great fun making a "Dry Under My Umbrella" work of art, using toothbrushes to splatter the raindrops - pictures to follow when they are dry!  We also listened to a variety of classical music inspired by the weather, including sun, wind, fog, snow and ice - our favourite was Vanessa Mae's version of Vivaldi's 'Storm', which the children wanted to listen to three times - the last time, they wanted to dance!!!  We decided it was loud, fast, and "exciting" (as you can see!).

We learnt about 'Why it rains?' and conducted two experiments - the first, where shaving foam represented the clouds, and water, the air, resulted in food colouring 'rain', which only fell when it became heavy enough to fall; in the second, we filled cotton-wool-filled cups with pin-prick holes in the bottom with water - the rain only fell once the cotton-wool clouds became saturated, and again, there were enough water droplets to fall as rain.

AUTUMN 1 WEEK 2

The Year 1s learnt about Human and Physical Geography and we went for a walk around the village to categorise whether the geographical features we saw were man-made or natural.

We studied artistic impressions of the wind and the wind sculptures of Anthony Howe, and made our own swirling wind art using crayons, which we cut in a spiral to make our own whirling wind sculptures -- we will watch these to see how fast the wind is blowing.  We also learnt about the Beaufort Scale and made wind socks to find the direction of the wind.    We then conducted an experiment to predict and test which items the wind would blow, and tested our predictions with    Mrs Brown's fan!

AUTUMN 1 WEEK 1

Here are a few pictures of some of our Year Rs settling into their new school with their new Diamonds Class friends - photos taken by Talia, one of our Year 1s! 

The Year 1s became cartographers to map the human and physical geographical features of our Meadow.

SUMMER 2 WEEK 7

For those of you who are staying at home we have added some resources that we will be using in school this week.  We have provided lots of resources and suggested sites over the last few months so don't forget about those too! 

As an overview:

Literacy:   

This week Year 1 will writing about seahorses and other ocean creatures.

Year R need to continue to focus on practising phase 2 and 3 phonics and Tortoise Words, sounding out words, writing simple sentences and spelling some high frequency words correctly. We'll be reading and discussing The Snail and the Whale by Julia Donaldson and Big Blue Whale by Nicola Davies, and looking at some non-fiction books about whales.

Maths:

Year 1  will be continuing to learn about money and will be making the same amount with different combinations of coins.  We will also be revisiting counting to 100 and beyond and revisiting other maths skills we will need to use to solve the "Maths Mats".

Year R will continue to do lots of practice recognising, counting, ordering and writing numbers 1-10 or 1-20. We will also be practising doubling and halving.

Topic: 

Our topic this half term is Under the Sea.  Year 1 will be learning about the Coral Reef and making coral pictures.

Year R will be learning about whales this week, in particular toothed whales such as orcas, sperm whales, belugas and dolphins, and baleen whales such as the blue whale, humpback whale and right whale. We'll be looking at some clips from Blue Planet and BP II, but I've added some links for you below - there are lots of others on YouTube too.

SUMMER 2 WEEK 6

For those of you who are staying at home we have added some resources that we will be using in school this week.  We have provided lots of resources and suggested sites over the last few months so don't forget about those too! 

As an overview:

Literacy:   

This week Year 1 will continue to look at underwater poetry and writing an acrostic poems using different ocean related words such as SHARK or FISH.  We will also continue to learn and apply phase 5 phonics.

Year R need to continue to focus on practising phase 2 and 3 phonics and Tortoise Words, sounding out words, writing simple sentences and spelling some high frequency words correctly. We'll be reading some online Sea Otters books, and writing Otter facts, and about worries that we've overcome.

Maths:

Year 1  will be learning to recognise and know the value of different coins and notes and will be solving money problems.

Year R will continue to do lots of practice recognising, counting, ordering and writing numbers 1-10 or 1-20. We will also be practising "1 more and 1 less" on numbers to ten, and those children who are more confident will be practising subtraction by counting how many are left, and by counting back using fingers and a numberline.

Topic: 

Our topic this half term is Under the Sea.  We will be learning some sea creature facts and making our own fact file.  We will also be finishing our port holes. 

Year R will be learning about some of the creatures who live in the Kelp Forests and finding out who eats who and why Sea Otters are so important.  We'll be looking at some clips from Blue Planet and BP II, but I've added some links for you below - there are lots of others on YouTube too.

Breaking News!

Epic Update... as of today, our Diamonds class have read a whopping

439 books!!!

I'm so proud of all of you who have been reading so much - it's really very impressive.  The Epic website is continuing to allow free access from 1 July onwards via "EpicFree" - you don't have to do anything different, though I think it allows you 2 hours free reading per week, with the timer reset every Monday, and with a reduced number of books - still a very worthwhile resource whilst we can't yet send reading books home. 

These are the instructions from the website:

If your students are already using Remote Student Access, there will be no change to how they log in today. Parents should visit getepic.com/sign-in and enter the same parent email and password that was used to set up their Parent accounts. It is important to recognize that they will have access to their complete reading history, but a smaller library of books than they did with Remote Student Access.

SUMMER 2 WEEK 5

For those of you who are staying at home we have added some resources that we will be using in school this week.  We have provided lots of resources and suggested sites over the last few months so don't forget about those too! 

As an overview:

Literacy:   

This week Year 1 will be looking at underwater poetry and writing an acrostic poem using the word OCEAN.  We will also continue to learn and apply phase 5 phonics.

YR need to continue to focus on practising phase 2 and 3 phonics, sounding out words, writing simple sentences and spelling some high frequency words correctly.  We'll be reading and discussing the books 'The Coral Kingdom' by Laura Knowles, 'Mister Seahorse' by Eric Carle and 'Seahorse: the shyest fish in the Sea', as well as excerpts from 'The Sea Book', using pictures that fire our imaginations as writing prompts to construct simple sentences.  We will also continue to add to our bank of adjectives and verbs.

Maths:

Year 1  will be investigating, learning and using number bonds to 20 to solve missing number problems

Year R will continue to do lots of practice recognising, counting, ordering and writing numbers 1-10 or 1-20, and practising 1-less or 2-less subtraction skills.  Those who are more confident will be practising using number bonds to help us with subtraction from ten.

Topic: 

Our topic this half term is Under the Sea.  We will be learning the names and locations of the 5 oceans and finding them on a globe and on a map.  Year 1 will be investigating which materials float and which sink and will be making submarine porthole art.  Year R will be learning about the Coral Reef - we will be watching some clips from Blue Planet I and II and a YouTube video called "Exploring the Coral Reef".  We will create a picture of the coral reef in oil pastels by first drawing the coral and then adding in creatures we learn about.  We'll also make some seahorse art inspired by Mister Seahorse.

SUMMER 2 WEEK 4

For those of you who are staying at home we have added some resources that we will be using in school this week.  We have provided lots of resources and suggested sites over the last few months so don't forget about those too! 

As an overview:

Literacy:   

This week Year 1 will be focusing on revisiting and applying phase 5 phonics sounds, and Year R will be focusing on phase 2 and 3.  We will continue to look at prepositions and how we can apply these at the beginning of our sentences to make our writing more interesting.

YR need to continue to focus on sounding out words, writing simple sentences and spelling some high frequency words correctly.  We'll be reading the books 'Swimmy' and 'Shark in the Dark'.

Please find lots of resources linked with these phonic phases on:

https://www.twinkl.co.uk/ 

Maths:

Year 1  will be learning to subtract two numbers using a number line, solve subtraction word problems and to solve missing number problems.

Year R will continue to do lots of practice recognising, counting, ordering and writing numbers 1-10 or 1-20, and be learning number bonds to ten, working with objects, numicon, fingers and 10 pegs on a coat-hanger.

Topic: 

Our topic this half term is Under the Sea.  We will be learning the names and locations of the 5 oceans and finding them on a globe and on a map.  Year R will be learning about the Open Ocean and its predators - we will be potato printing a shoal of fish and painting a predator to eat them up! (sailfish, yellow-fin tuna, swordfish etc).

SUMMER 2 WEEK 3

For those of you who are staying at home we have added some resources that we will be using in school this week.  We have provided lots of resources and suggested sites over the last few months so don't forget about those too! 

As an overview:

Literacy:   

This week our focus is on the book "The Rainbow Fish" and Year 1 are looking at using the comparative and superlative, the prefix "un" and prepositions.

YR need to focus on sounding out words, writing simple sentences and spelling some high frequency words correctly.

Maths:

Year 1  will be learning to add two numbers using a number line and solve addition word problems.

Year R will be learning to share different amounts and about number bonds to 5, 6, 7 and 8.

Topic: 

Our topic this half term is Under the Sea.  We will be looking at the Open Ocean habitat and classifying some of the creatures who live there.  Year R will be looking at the layers of the ocean and making "portholes".

Breaking News -- Epic Update!

Hello Everyone!  Just wanted to say a HUGE well done to all those of you who have been reading on Epic this week -- since you've signed up, you've managed to read a MASSIVE 123 books between you and have read for 12.4 hours!  My Year R superstars are Elsie-Rose who has read 11 books, and Harlow-Rae who has read 21; and our Year 1 reading heroes are Wilhelmina with 9, Tom with 10, Joseph with 13, Louis with 18 and Sophia with a whopping 34!!  Well done to you all!   Our class has received its Reading Badges for 25, 50 and now 100 books read.  Yay to Diamonds Class -- I wonder who will be our star readers next week?

I have added a new collection for you on the Epic website -- a whole library of Under the Ocean books with lots of different levels to suit everyone.

Grown-ups, if you haven't signed up yet, it is free at any time until the end of June, and from July 1st, they've also extended the scheme to give free home-reading access for 2 hours a week.  I have sent an email and an automated 'invitation email' to everyone in the class: for some people, the invite went to their "promotions folder", so do have a look in your other email folders if you're not sure where the invitation is.  If you have had any problems logging in, please email me (j.burrough@buriton.hants.sch.uk) and I will reset your link and send a new invitation.

SUMMER 2 WEEK 2

Now our learning is moving from online back into the classroom and we are very excited about seeing you all again!  There will be some changes but we will talk you all through these when you join us at school.

For those of you who are staying at home we have added some resources that we will be using in school this week.  We have provided lots of resources and suggested sites over the last few months so don't forget about those too! 

As an overview:

Literacy:   

This week our focus is on the book "The Rainbow Fish" and Year 1 are looking at using adjectives and exciting verbs.

YR need to focus on sounding out words, writing simple sentences and spelling some high frequency words correctly.

Maths:

Year 1  will be learning to describe position, directions and movements, including half, quarter and three quarter turns.

Year R will be learning to use everyday language to talk about position.

Topic: 

Our topic this half term is Under the Sea.  We will start by exploring what creatures live in the different layers of the ocean and will also learn about World Oceans Day.  We will be painting and making different sea creatures.

There are additional learning resources for both year groups on https://www.thenational.academy/online-classroom/subjects/#subjects

All of these resources are valuable even though they won't necessarily follow the same order/topics of teaching that we will use in class.  We suggest you look through the different "lessons" and choose an area that appeals to your child.

Don't forget about https://www.twinkl.co.uk either as this website has a lot of useful resources too.

Hello lovely Diamonds Class!

Welcome back to Week 1 of the second half of our Summer Term home learning! 

How are you all?  I wonder what you've all been doing?  I expect you've been enjoying the sunshine during Half Term - perhaps you've even been to the beach now we're allowed to go out a little bit more.  We're all missing you A LOT, but we're very excite to hopefully be seeing you at school again very soon, even though things at school will seem very different from what we're used to and we'll have to learn a lot of new rules.  We've decided that we are going to save our new topic launch for next week when we're back at school, so this week's literacy is about getting ready to come back to school, and topic is still linked to our Metamorphosis topic.  If you would like any extra topic activities, please return to the previous weeks' topic work and fill in gaps for activities you haven't completed yet.

 I hope we see each other soon, but in the meantime, enjoy this special time with your families.  Grown-ups please remember these activities are guidelines.  Video resources for the home learning can be found on the Home Learning Video page.

Stay safe, well and happy!

Hello to our lovely Diamonds!

Welcome back to Week 5 of our Summer Term home learning! 

How are you all?  I wonder what you've all been doing?  We can see from the Blog and the Zoom meetings that you've all been working very hard - although there seem to be a lot of lost caterpillars this week!  I hope they've all been found again now?  Or perhaps they've metamorphosed? You all looked very happy and smiley on our Zoom meetings last week, and all of us teachers were SO glad to see you, because we're all missing you A LOT!  We'll have another whole class meeting on Tuesday at 11 am, so we can all see each other to say hello and send each other hugs, and you can show each other what you've been doing.  You can choose your favourite piece of work you've done last week to show us, or read a page from your Happy Diary.  I wonder who will have done the BEST WRITING this week?. See you on Tuesday!  

I hope you're all working hard, and enjoying yourselves, and taking care of your family - I expect you're helping your grown-ups a lot -- maybe you've helped in the garden this week???  I hope we see each other soon, but in the meantime, enjoy this special time with your families.  Grown-ups please remember these activities are guidelines.  Video resources for the home learning can be found on the Home Learning Video page.

Stay safe, well and happy!

Lots of love from Miss Burrough and Miss Moore

Grown-ups, please see letter from Mrs Brown on how to access Blog via the Home Learning page on the

Children's tab; any problems, feel free to email me.

Anyone who wants to join in the Zoom meeting and hasn't yet emailed me, please see the letter from Mrs Brown 

with Zoom meeting protocols and our contact details

Hello lovely Diamonds Class!

Welcome back to Week 4 of our Summer Term home learning! 

We are missing you very much, but we hope you've been enjoying your learning and having fun with your families.  Did you have a nice time celebrating VE Day?  We loved seeing all your happy smiling faces on our Zoom meetings last week -- this week we're going to try a whole class meeting, so you can all see each other, and show each other what you've been doing.  You can choose your favourite piece of work you've done last week to show us, or read a page from your Happy Diary.  The meeting for everyone will be on Tuesday at 11am.  See you then!  

I hope you're all working hard, and enjoying yourselves, and taking care of your family - I expect you're helping your grown-ups a lot -- maybe you've tidied your bedroom ALL BY YOURSELF?????!  I hope we see each other soon, but in the meantime, enjoy this special time with your families.  Grown-ups please remember these activities are guidelines.  Video resources for the home learning can be found on the Home Learning Video page.

Stay safe, well and happy!

Lots of love from Miss Burrough and Miss Moore

Grown-ups, please see letter from Mrs Brown on how to access Blog via the Home Learning page on the

Children's tab; any problems, feel free to email me.

Anyone who wants to join in the Zoom meeting and hasn't yet emailed me, please see the letter from Mrs Brown 

with Zoom meeting protocols and our contact details.

Hello Diamonds Class!

Welcome back to Week 3 of our Summer Term home learning! 

We are missing you very much, but we hope you've been enjoying your learning even though it's not been quite as sunshiney.  I've had a very busy week last week, since it was my Mum's Birthday, and I've been doing some shopping for an elderly friend, and also finding out all about VE Day and putting up some bunting at our lovely School.  I've also REALLY enjoyed looking at our new blog page, looking at the work that the children of all the different classes in our school have been doing.  A very special "Well Done" to Izzy, Felix, Wilhelmina, Louis and Joseph who are the only children from our class so far!  It was lovely to see your hard work and your smiley faces!  Did you like getting messages from the teachers and the other children?  I am very much looking forward to seeing some work from other children in our class too - it will be really lovely to share what you've been doing with your friends and  I'm sure it will make us all smile. . 

Are you excited about our Zoom meeting this week?  I know Miss Moore and I are!  You can choose your favourite piece of work you've done last week to show us, or read a page from your Happy Diary.

Year R will be on Tuesday at 11am and Year 1 at 12am.  See you then!  

I hope you're all staying safe and smiley, and having lots of fun with your family, and taking care of them - I wonder what kind thing you will do for someone in your family this week -- perhaps you will even do something special for every single one of them!  I hope we see each other soon, but in the meantime, work hard and enjoy this special time with your families.  Grown-ups please remember these activities are guidelines.  Video resources for the home learning can be found on the Home Learning Video page.

Stay safe, well and happy!

Lots of love from Miss Burrough and Miss Moore

Grown-ups, please see letter last week from Mrs Brown on how to access Blog via the Home Learning page on the

Children's tab; any problems, feel free to email me.

Anyone who wants to join in the Zoom meeting and hasn't yet emailed me, please see the letter from Mrs Brown last week

with Zoom meeting protocols and our contact details.

As part of our whole school celebration of VE Day I have made a set of suggested ideas and activities (PDF file below) to help you celebrate with your families.  We are asking all the children of Buriton School to make poppies to show our gratitude to the heroes who fell keeping us safe, and we would especially like the children who live in Buriton, or who pass through the village on your daily exercise to please tie your poppy or poppies to the railings of our school, and to take a photograph to show the rest of our school community, as a way of keeping us altogether in spirit.  Thank you, and Happy Celebrations!

(Grown-ups, the videos are all on the Video resources page - please note that some are suitable only for older children - these are marked KS2)

Hello Diamonds Class!

Welcome back to Week 2 of our Summer Term home learning! 

We are missing you very much, but we hope you've been enjoying your learning and having fun in the sunshine.  I had a birthday this week, which I enjoyed very much - thank you to Joseph for my special Birthday song!  I've also enjoyed looking at some of your learning, and I hope to see even more once you've learnt how to use our new Blog page on the Home Learning page - it will be really lovely to share what you've been doing with your friends.  I'm sure it will make us all smile.  I hope you're all staying safe, and laughing lots, and looking after your grown-ups - maybe you could surprise them this week by thinking of a special treat for them?  I hope we see each other soon, but in the meantime, work hard and enjoy this special time with your families.  Parents please remember these activities are guidelines.  Video resources for the home learning can be found on the Home Learning Video page.

Stay safe, well and happy!

Lots of love from Miss Burrough and Miss Moore

Hello Diamonds Class!

Welcome back to our new Summer Term, and a new week of online learning!

We hope you had a very enjoyable Easter holiday, and are all staying safe and smiley.  Miss Moore and I are missing you all very much, and are sending you lots of smiles.  Have you been writing in your 'Happy Diaries'?  We are very much looking forward to reading them when we are all able to be together again at school.  I hope you are looking after your grown-ups too, and helping them and keeping them happy.  I've saved your learning activities for this week as PDF files below, but I have also put some videos on our new Video Resources page -- go to 'Children', then 'Home Learning page', them scroll down to the bottom and click on 'Videos' it will open in a new page -- look on the Diamonds class playlist for learning videos for this week. We hope you enjoy your learning this week - parents please remember that these are just guidelines and ideas!

Stay safe and happy!

Love from Miss Burrough and Miss Moore

Breaking news ...

The BBC have today started a new series of TV lessons for children, which you can watch on Red Button, or on BBCiPlayer, or on the 'Bitesize' website.  The programmes are called "Bitesize Daily" and a weekly timetable is available to look at too.  To access the lessons, follow the link below...

Or send a birthday card to Captain Tom

Children all over the country are making 100th Birthday cards for the amazing Captain Tom Moore, who has inspired so many people with his determination and general loveliness.  Perhaps you'd like to join in? His birthday is on 30th April, so be quick!

You can either post a card to 

Captain Tom Moore

C/O Post Office Limited 

67 Bedford Road

Marston Moretaine

MK43 0LA

Bedfordshire, England

or you can make and send a virtual card - this idea came from an eight year old girl called Reegan Davies, from Port Talbot, South Wales, who set a target of 1,500 virtual cards after posting a video online to thank him for his fundraising efforts.

She says in the video posted on Twitter: “You’ve got to make a birthday card for Tom, any social media you post it, and tag #makeacardfortom”.

Reegan says there are three simple steps children can do to send a virtual card to Tom.

1. Make a birthday card at home for Tom with pen and paper

2. Share on your choice of social media – Facebook, Twitter or Instagram

3. Use the hashtag #makeacardfortom so all the birthday cards can be collated together. 

You can find pictures of your friends doing some home learning in the 'Gallery'.

Hello Diamonds Class!!!!

Welcome to Week Two of our online home learning journey.

We hope that you enjoyed the activities suggested for last week and we have loved seeing how some of you are getting on.  We do miss you all and we’re sending you all a very, very big smile!  Our main hope is that you all – both parents and children alike—are staying well and happy and enjoying spending time together.  Please remember that these online lessons are not meant to overwhelm you as parents, but rather are to give you some options of how to continue your child’s learning through this strange time.  Some of the activities will suit your child more than others and it is absolutely fine if they want to do things slightly differently.  We are providing a guideline for the skills that it would be helpful if they could continue to practise or begin to grasp and some of those new skills can be acquired in many different ways!  Remember, too, that measuring the ingredients for baking a cake is also Maths and DT; digging in the garden, finding minibeasts and planting seeds is "Understanding the World", and jumping on the trampoline is also PE, so everything you do with your children is helping to broaden their breadth of experience and helping to educate them.  We really hope you will enjoy these activities together, and hope we all stay safe, and that we will all be together again very soon.

This week, to save space on the website, I'm saving the Maths, Literacy and Topic activities as PDF files which can be accessed via the links below:

28.3.20

Hello Diamonds!

I hope you are all well and are enjoying your home learning.  I have just added the book that we will be looking at next week.  Enjoy!

Miss Moore and Miss Burrough

Hello Everyone!

25. 3. 20  I'd like to share this with you all -- something that has made me feel very happy, and made my heart smile.  This is what my Mum and Dad found on their front window this morning, put there by the Mum of some children that live next-door-but-one.  Perhaps there is a Grandma or a Grandad who lives near you who you could do the same for, to make them smile too., or perhaps you could email a picture to your own Grandma or Grandad, or Great Grandma!

And for the Grown ups:  I've been trying to find some phonics-based reading books online, and I've found a link to some free Oxford Reading Tree resources.  If you go to this page: 

https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/for-home/find-a-book/library-page

there's a link to 'register'

(you should be able to register as a parent)

You should then be able to access the Free e-book library via the 'Books' link on the menu at the top of the page (https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/books/free-ebooks/), and also lots of kids activities  ( https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/kids-activities/  ), some of which are phonics-based too.  Have fun exploring the online books!

Hello everyone!

24.3.20  Just a quick update, and to say Hello to all the children.  My goodness, I'm missing you all! I hope you're having fun with all your home learning, and you're looking after your grown-ups.  Have you written in your Happy Diary yet? Did you manage to make a rainbow?  I hope you're all still smiling to make other people's hearts smile!

I thought I'd share a story-time link with you, where real live Astronauts on the International Space Station are reading books for children!  Most of them are Space stories, and there is even one read by our very own famous English astronaut, Tim Peake.  I've also found some phonics games for you.  Have a look at "Terrific Topic" too, if you would like to listen to the sounds made by the different planets in our Solar System (music lesson added).

Have a lovely day today!!!!

Love from Miss Burrough and Mrs Moore xxx

Links for grown-ups:

Stories from Space: https://storytimefromspace.com/

Free online Phonics games:  https://new.phonicsplay.co.uk/?fbclid=IwAR2trS3VBPVNm-v2WgZhssciEViB271CLu-BWtoLL_nSBwwShmJ8y9mYw6Q

Homemade playdoh recipes:

https://emmaowl.com/the-best-play-dough-ever/

https://theimaginationtree.com/best-ever-no-cook-play-dough-recipe/

And if you don't have all the ingredients, don't forget Salt-dough:

one part salt, two parts flour and one part water -- but this is DEFINITELY not for eating.

Hello Diamonds Class!!!!

Welcome to Week One of our online home learning journey.

Each week we will give you an area of Maths, Literacy and Topic to focus on and some suggested follow up activities. There are five for Maths and Literacy, so if you'd like to follow our normal school daily morning routine of literacy (including Phonics session), playtime, Spellings, Maths, then there are activities for each school day.  Our afternoons usually focus on a mixture of reading, PE, and Topic time.  We've sent out a whole pack of Tortoise words on Friday, so your child can continue to learn to read them, and   instead of sending out spelling words for Year 1s, we would like your children to learn to spell the Tortoise words, starting with Tortoise 1. We also advise continuing with phonics flashcards and will also provide links for phonics games.  Please read with your child every day, if possible.  Unfortunately we are unable to provide school reading books scheme books but please see below for reading ideas.  We have also sent out number cards for some children, to practice ordering 1-20, and to practice one more, one less etc.  The number formation cards are for tracing, so that we have no more backwards numbers!!!

Everyday, as part of their well-being and to build on literacy skills, we would like all children to complete a Happy Diary (also sent home on Friday).  Please encourage your child to draw a picture and write about something wonderful that they see, hear or do, or something that has made them especially happy that day.  Perhaps they beat their hopping record, or heard a bird sing, or grew some seeds or helped a grown up!  This writing should be independent although children should be reminded to use finger spaces, capital letters and full stops.  I hope it will be a lasting reminder of a very unusual, but special time.

Please bear with us as we get used to all this - we will hopefully be adding links to online phonics-based reading books and other useful resources, as and when they become available to us.  Please also remember that these online lessons are not meant to overwhelm you as parents, and that measuring the ingredients for baking a cake is also Maths and DT; digging in the garden, finding minibeasts and planting seeds is "Understanding the World", and jumping on the trampoline is also PE, so everything you do with your children is helping to broaden their breadth of experience and helping to educate them.  I really hope you will enjoy these activities together, and hope we all stay safe, and that we will all be together again very soon.

Marvellous Maths

Year R:

This week we would like you to focus on recognising, ordering and counting to 20.

1. Count with your child to 20 and back.  You might want to do this by rote or using objects to count as you go.  Or use the link below but don’t forget to count backwards! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VLxWIHRD4E .Then using the number cards given out on Friday (or using your own made ones) give one number to your child and ask them to find that many objects, or do that many actions e.g. jump.  Depending on your child, you might want to start with 1-5, 1-10 or 1-20.

2. Looking at the number cards, and shuffle 1-5, 1-10 or 1-20.  Can your child put the number cards in order?  When complete, ask them to shut their eyes while their favourite toy hides one of the numbers.  Which number is missing?  Can they find it and put it back in place?

3. Can your child do a stock-take of your kitchen and count plates, knives, forks, teaspoons etc and select the correct number? or the same in their bedroom with pencils, toys, socks etc. 

4. Can you play hopscotch up to 20 and back again? or hide the numbers in your garden for your child to find and then order on the washing line?

5. Here's a link to a counting backwards song on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srPktd4k_O8 , and also Count Back Cat https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6a2W8UQP5w  

Lovely Literacy

Both year groups

This week we would like you to focus on the book Aliens Love Underpants.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWbSrmuyptw

1.  We would like you to focus on adjectives.  Talk to your child about how adjectives are describing words.  Work with your child to pick out the adjectives used to describe the pants in the story.  Discuss which is their favourite.  Can they think of any more?  Ask your child to draw/make their own pair of exciting pants!

2.  Choose your favourite alien in the book.  What words could you use to describe him/her?  Make a list.  Ask your child to draw their own alien and then write some sentences to describe him/her.  Focus on using capital letters, full stops, finger spaces, “and” to join two sentences together and make sure your child uses adjectives (use the list to help) in this piece of writing.  For reception children focus on helping your child to sound out individual words to form simple sentences (the number of sentences will depend on how confident your child is with writing).

3.  Can you invent an imaginary planet that the aliens might come from? What does it look like? I'm sure it's very different from Planet Earth!  Can you draw it?  What do the trees/houses/cars/pets etc look like?

4.  Yr 1s: Can you write sentences to describe yesterday's planet using adjectives - your challenge is to not just use colour words! (eg The fluffy orange pingelbell trees grow along the swirling whirling riverbank; the bouncy round houses sit on top of rocky mountains). Remember your picture has to match your words, and vice versa!   Remember capital letters, full stops, finger spaces.

5. The aliens have Upside-Down-Pant Races.  Could you plan another sporting competition for them and draw a picture and write about it?

Terrific Topic

Perhaps as a starter for your Topic time you'd like to have a go at some alien crafts? Here are some ideas, such as play-dough Aliens, alien space-ships, or alien masks.

Magical Music

Amazingly, although there is no sound that human ears can hear in Space, because there is no air in Space [sound waves can't travel in a vacuum], the Voyager probe (above) recorded the special electric signals emitted by the different planets in our Solar System, and scientists turned them into sounds we can hear.  Listen to the strange and spooky sounds of the planets here:

Sounds of Space NASA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQL53eQ0cNA

Mars 2:09; Jupiter 2:39; Saturn 3:11; Neptune 4:07; dwarf planet Pluto 4:41

How did hearing the real sounds of the planets make you feel???  Year 1s - did you like the music of 'your' planet - the planet you worked on with your partner? Why, or why not?

Grown-ups: 

Explain that the Solar System is so fascinating and exciting to people that they have been composing music about the moon and the planets for hundreds of years, even before they knew much about Space.  Explain that you are going to play them some music and they can listen carefully, without looking at the computer screen (cover the picture of the planet with paper!).  Show the children the photos ABOVE of the planets and the Moon  - check they can identify them.  One at a time, play short clips for Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, Moon (links below), stopping after each one -- How does it make them feel?  Why? Which planet do they think it might be?  Why?  Is the music is slow/fast, loud/gentle, angry, sad etc.

[You don't have to listen to all of these - these are the ones we would have listened to in class]

Holst The Planets https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Isic2Z2e2xs

Mars, Bringer of War: 0:00-1:20; [Venus, Bringer of Peace: 7:25–8:35];  [Mercury, the winged Messenger: 14:50 – 16:10];  Jupiter, bringer of Jollity (starts 18:40) 19:37– 21:00; [Saturn, Bringer of Old Age: (starts 26:25) 28:15-29:30]; Uranus the Magician: (starts 35:25) 37:00–38:00; Neptune, the Mystic:  41:15 – 43:22

Debussy Clair de Lune: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvFH_6DNRCY

0:00 – 2:10

Beethoven Moonlight Sonata: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Tr0otuiQuU

0:00 – 1:54

Children: Now you have to get inventive - can you compose music for your favourite planet?  You may have an instrument at home, or you might like to invent one (such as a rainmaker, with rice in a sealed toilet roll or a box with rubber bands), or use your body as a musical instrument to make sounds -- clapping, stamping, rubbing your hands together, tapping, humming, 'ahhh-ing', la-la-la ing, clicking your tongue, singing and making up a tune,  or using your voice  or body in other way.  Perhaps your grown-up can join in too? You could decide together whether your music will be fast or slow, loud or soft etc to reflect the ‘character’ of your planet.

Good luck! and I hope you enjoy this magical music session.

And finally... Rainbows

My Dad told me that children all over the country are making rainbows, to show the other children and Grandmas and Grandads who are having to stay at home too, that we are all thinking about each other, and sending hugs and hope to each other (see the link below).  My Dad said it made him smile, so I thought perhaps you would like to make a rainbow for your window too. 

Have fun together this week! Love from Miss Burrough xxx

SPRING TERM 1 - 2020

This half term our topic is DINOSAURS.

Our topic this half term is Dinosaurs.  In History we will be learning about the life and work of the famous fossil hunter Mary Anning and question why she was so undervalued in her own lifetime.  Our Science work will focus on learning to identify some of the more common dinosaurs and name the parts of their bodies, including a detailed study of the Stegosaurus skeleton: we will become palaeontologists and make salt-dough Stegosaurus bones to excavate and attempt to reconstruct its skeleton.  We will categorise dinosaurs according to their features, and learn about carnivores and herbivores.  We will also learn about fossils and make our own trace fossils.  In DT we will work in teams to make a large 3D dinosaur, designing it together and selecting suitable materials, then learning how to attach features and strengthen them.  In Art we will practice colour-mixing in our geological rock-formation art and make collage dinosaurs; we will also discover how to place dinosaurs within a habitat or landscape in our art.  In ICT we will be focussing on learning basic programming through controlling dinosaur Bee-bots.  Our work in PSHE will continue to focus on good and not so good feelings and how to deal with them, on friendship issues and also on safety. 

In RE our theme this half term will be “Special Places”.

Week 4

What wonderful homework!  The Year 1s thought hard about the world and the habitats the dinosaurs inhabited and the vegetation that was around.  They made a "Dino-world" for their homework - you can see how hard they have worked!

Week 3

This week we have been busier than ever!  Our main focus this week has been a study of Mary Anning, the self-taught palaeontologist from Lyme Regis who discovered the first complete fossil ichthyosaurus skeleton when she was only 12, and went on to become one of the world's leading authorities on fossils - discovering more complete skeletons and numerous other fossils - and who helped to change the way scientists viewed the development of the Earth.  Unfortunately, because she was a poor, uneducated woman living in the first half of the 18th Century, she was not given the recognition she deserved in her lifetime.  We read stories about Mary Anning, and watched videos, and studied photographs of artefacts to gather evidence about her life.  The whole class received a Head Teacher's Award and a Certificate of Achievement for their amazing learning, hard work and concentration! 

We became palaeontologists and worked in teams using paintbrushes to very carefully excavate the fossilised bones of a Stegosaurus! We used our knowledge of the great beast's anatomy to try to reconstruct the skeleton.

We learnt about how fossils are formed, and made our own fossils of Jurassic plants, shells or dinosaurs by pressing them into saltdough to leave an impression.

We looked at images of the layers in rock formations - geological strata - and learnt that these layers represent different layers of time.  We learnt how to use watercolours by transferring the paint to a palette, adding water, and mixing colours there before using them on our paper.  We used our colours to create our own rock formation pictures.

We've also had a chance to do some more work on our 3D dinosaurs.  We worked in teams and discussed how to best fix the features to our balloons, how to make them stronger or stiffer.  Can you guess which Dinosaurs they are?

Week 2

We've been super busy this week!  In Science we have studied images and models of dinosaurs to compare their features.  We played "Are you my Mummy?" to sort the different types of dinosaurs into families, and then worked in groups to sort the dinosaurs according to features such as, for example, whether they had feathers, flippers, wings, sharp teeth, whether they walked on two legs, ate plants and so on.  We were surprised how the dinosaurs moved from group to group, but not one group was ever completely the same.

For ICT we tried to program the Dino-Bee-Bots to move around the mat, visiting the volcano, the dinosaur eggs, the river, the ammonite and the jungle, whilst avoiding the pursuing T-Rex!

For DT the Year 1s started their 3D Dinosaur project: they will be working in groups to create a prehistoric monster - I wonder if you will be able to tell which dinosaur they have chosen?  Stage one was super-exciting: papier-mache!!

We also carefully considered which features we will have to add to create our dinosaur, and drew a design sheet to show them and suggest materials we might use.

The Year R children have also been inspired by dinosaurs this week: they have made a very complex Dinosaur world and have done some lovely writing!

Week 1

We wish you all a very Happy New Year, and would like to say a big thank-you for all your lovely Christmas gifts and cards - you are all extremely kind... Thank you all.

This week we started our new topic by exploring our current knowledge -- some of us know lots about dinosaurs already, and for some of us everything will be new. 

We took a class vote on some dino-fact statements to decide whether they were True, sometimes true, or false.  We will return to these statements at the end of our topic to see if we've changed our minds...

We learnt how palaeontologists piece together fossils to try to discover what dinosaurs looked like.  We carefully studied the fossil skeleton of a Stegosaurus, closely examining the different parts of its body, and then chose one of its bones to draw.  We then used salt dough to make our own fossil bone.  

AUTUMN TERM 2 - 2019

This half term our topic is LIGHT AND DARK.

This half term, our new topic will be "Light and Dark".  We will be learning about Guy Fawkes and Bonfire Night and about the Hindu Festival of Light, Diwali.  We will study the black and white OpArt of Bridget Riley and make and evaluate our own optical illusion artwork.  We will learn about British nocturnal animals and classify them according to their characteristics, study "Owl Babies" and "The Owl who was afraid of the Dark", learn about shadows and make a shadow theatre complete with puppets and create artwork to reflect the magical wonder of the Northern Lights, the Aurora Borealis.

Christmas is Coming!

We had great fun making Christmas cards of robins and Angels, decorating baubles,   making Father Christmas and Angels, sticking a Christmas Hedgehog, and a Tea-light    Abstract Christmas tree.  We even made a paper chain that stretched from our       classroom all the way to Mrs Brown’s office!! That was VERY exciting!

Week 7: Journeys

For RE this week we thought abought the story of the Nativity and read the Russian tale of Baboushka and discussed how she felt at each stage of her story.  We learnt that her journey to find the Baby Jesus  was not just on foot, but also in her heart.  We also talked about the journeys of Mary and Joseph, the shepherds and the Magi to Bethlehem in the Nativity story and thought about how the characters felt at different points of their journeys.  We drew a concept map to illustrate our thoughts.  We thought about why the Nativity journey’s end is important to Christians.

Week 6

We learnt about the Aurora Borealis and made our own pictures of the Northern Lights.  We watched a film and noted how the colours brightened as the sky darkened, and reflected this by making brightly coloured chalk-pastel pictures of this amazing phenomenon.

Week 5

We learnt about night and day, light sources and shadows, and identified  the silhouettes of our nocturnal animals.  We watched a shadow puppet show of the Three Little Pigs, and designed and made our own shadow-puppets.  We held a show in our own  shadow theatre!

Week 4

We learnt about light sources and discovered that shadows are the absence of light, made when an object blocks the light.  We also noticed that objects’ shadows can have different shades according to whether the object is opaque, translucent or transparent.  We took great care drawing round the shadows of some of our classroom toys — can you guess what they are?

In Literacy we used an online encyclopaedia to research information on our nocturnal animals.  We each worked hard to make our own Non-Fiction book.

Week 3:

Today we've played a game sorting our nocturnal animals by structure -- whether they have fur, feathers, scales, warm blood, exoskeletons, whether they lay eggs, or whether they are mammals, reptiles, birds, minibeasts.  We were very surprised by how many creatures fitted into different groups!

Week 2:

This week we're starting to learn about Nocturnal Animals.  We started off today by doing some research online and making a book, and then creating collage owls - they certainly have character! I wonder if you can spot which is yours?

We looked at the black and white OpArt of Bridget Riley, and learnt about optical illusions.  We had a go at making our own black and white art, based on her style, and tried to make our eyes wiggle. 

The Year 1s also had a go at making OpArt on the computer.

Week 1:

Hooray for Bonfire Night!  We have thoroughly enjoyed thinking about fireworks this week - we have created a wordbank of wonderful fireworks vocabulary and written some beautifully descriptive sentences; we have learnt about Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot, and created some vivid and vibrant firework pictures by firstly blowing paint, then embellishing our artwork with glitter, and finally carefully cutting townscape silhouettes.