A few highlights of the last couple of weeks for Yew class include continuing to explore various forms of writing, inspired by the book ‘The Great Fire of London’. We have taken on the characters of people involved, including Samuel Pepys writing commands to the King to take action, a London dweller writing a diary entry about their experience and King Charles II himself, creating certificates for the bravest, kindest and most outstanding Londoners who helped out with the fire. In Maths we have moved onto focussing addition and subtraction, exploring ways to add across 10, number bonds to 100, and subtracting 1 digit numbers. You will see this reflected in their home learning over the next few weeks. In Science, the class have really enjoyed the experimental aspect of our lessons, exploring shadows, reflective materials and how light travels in straight lines. In music we have played with call and response, dynamics and tempo. We just enjoyed a beautiful musical retelling of Goldilocks and the Three bears, noticing the effect of different elements of the musical performance.  In computing with Mrs Davidson the class have been developing their knowledge of paint tools on the Chromebooks, including adding text.  They have used these skills to independently create posters to illustrate our rules for using the Chromebooks safely. Our rules include, listening to and following instructions, carrying them with two hands and being kind my helping each other. See the pictures for some great examples. We continue to focus on taking care of ourselves and each other. Well done Yew class!

This week Yew class moved on from making their leaflets about ‘Taking care of ourselves and our world’ to new work inspired by our next book ‘The Great Fire of London’. They have already produced some amazing research pieces on ancient and modern landmarks in London, using laptops. This ties in with our work on the History of London, where we have learned about ‘Londinium’ and the Romans, medieval London, including William the Conqueror and Alfred the Great, and on to the story surrounding Guy Fawkes. They are also in the process of creating some striking cityscape paintings inspired by the work of Ton Schulten, practising colour mixing and geometrical designs. I can’t wait to put them up on our gallery wall and share some photos with you when they are complete. In Science we are learning about how we see, and how light bounces off objects and into our eyes.
In Maths we continue with our place value work, really getting under the skin of how numbers relate to each other, which are greater, which are smaller, and making estimates and comparisons. We are also taking care of ourselves and each other, learning about our feelings, and how we can work with them to get ourselves into a calm, focussed state to help our learning.
​As ever, the class are wonderful to work with and keen on getting stuck in.

Thank you Yew class!

​We are all very excited for our trip to Plymouth Aquarium on Tuesday 2nd July. We are linking this trip to our science focus on animals and also our art focus for the remainder of the term. We will be creating recycled materials animal sculptures to help promote recycling and conservation of our natural habitats. 
 
Please can pupils start bringing in any recycled materials to help with our sculptures. Plastic and cardboard boxes would be great! No glass or tins though. Thank you. 
 
We have now completed our year 4 Multiplication Times Table Check. The pupils did a great job on this test and it is a useful measure for the school to review how well pupils know their tables. 
 
We are linking our history and reading topics this half term. We are delving into the world of Norse myths for reading and we are learning about the Vikings for history. The class is really enjoying learning about this fascinating period. 
 
In English lessons we are learning all about Shackleton and his expedition to the South Pole. It has been fun being in role as Shackleton and his crew. Our big write will be a newspaper report that highlights the hardships and challenges the crew members had to go through on this historic crossing. 
 

​It’s been an exciting start to the first half of the summer term in Yew Class.  In English we have started a new book, Ocean Meets Sky by Eric and Terry Fan.  It is a beautiful and poignant story with equally stunning illustrations and explores the themes of family, memory and loss. As a stimulus we had a box of ‘Grandpa’s things’.  This brought the class closer to the characters.  We also used role play to understand the text further.
 
We have started on art this week and looking at the Dutch Artist, Ton Schulten and his Cityscapes.  This week we were practising his style but mainly focussing on colour mixing.  It was wonderful hearing the children getting excited over discovering ‘their’ new colours!
 
Have a wonderful weekend everyone! 

Year 2 has been designing and making Ferris Wheels in groups, pairs or individually.  The choice was theirs.  It was wonderful to watch the children choose the materials that would be strong enough for this design technology project and to make choices including those to ensure that when the wheel turns passengers won’t fall out!  The children were so engaged and looked proud of their work.

English:  When we come back after Easter Yew Class will be working with the book, Ocean Meets the Sky by The Fan Brothers.  It’s a poignant story with stunning illustrations throughout and explores themes of family, memory and loss, aimed at year 1 and 2.  Through the book the class will be given a variety of meaningful writing opportunities throughout the sequence and gradually build up the skills to write an extended fantasy story of their own.
Maths:  We will be continuing with the last part of measurement with temperature and then be moving on to fractions.  I hope the children are enjoying learning 2, 5, 10 and 3 tables with apps such as Times Tables Rock Stars (TTRS) as this helps with fractions.
Science: Yew Class will be looking at Changing Materials and learning about their properties.  The children will be investigating how the shape of solid objects can change.
Art:  An exciting unit as we will be looking at the Cityscapes work of Dutch artist, Ton Shulten in which the children will be playing colour tones and blocks in creating their own cityscapes.
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Meanwhile, have a wonderful Easter and see you all after the break.

Vanessa Freeman

We are so excited as we have the Rev. Edwina Fennemore coming in every Wednesday morning to read with individual children in the class.  We have a rota so everyone will get a chance to share a book with her.  

In design technology the children have been designing and making ferris wheels in groups, pairs or individually.  Thank you to you all for sending in the egg boxes as this now enables children to work on their own if they wish.  The egg boxes will serve as the pods in their designs.  Some of the designs have had to go back to the drawing board as they failed safety tests!

And here's a picture from last Friday's World Book Day.  What a wonderful day it was - the children shared their favourite books and their costumes were truly original.  Thank you to those who were able to come in that afternoon and listen to the children discussing their costumes and favourite books.

Dear all

Year 2 have had a smashing first week back to school after the holidays, and I’ve loved hearing from them about their fun activities during the week off school! We’ve been busy as ever this week, learning to tell the time and starting to write our own retelling of ‘Charlotte’s Web’ to showcase everything they’ve learnt about writing this year. Some of the children chose to change the characters and how the main character is saved - I can’t wait to read these very individual stories! 

We were delighted to rehearse some more of Fantastic Mr Fox with Lydia, and to make the most of the sun by doing a series of multi-skills challenges on the field in PE. There was some lovely teamwork happening and it felt almost like a mini sports day. 

Finally we began learning about sacred places in RE. The children thought deeply about what would be their ideal “special place” and then designed this behind a lift the flap door. We hope to take a trip to the church in the coming weeks, to discover more about what make it such a special place for Christians. 

Best wishes for a happy and safe weekend!
Mrs Robertson