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St George's CE

Beech

2023 - 2024

Spring Term 1

his half term has been filled with some fantastic progress and exciting learning experiences for Beech class! From immersive workshops to engaging projects, we have been very busy:
 
One of the highlights of this term was our visit to Salisbury Cathedral. Through spirituality workshops, the children delved deep into the meaning of spirituality, enriching their understanding with some wonderful creative activities.
 
We enjoyed a workshop by Wessex Water, where the children learned about the efficient use of water through fun experiments. It was a fantastic opportunity to blend learning with hands-on exploration.
Our topic this term centred around transport. From the evolution of transportation to the iconic Flying Scotsman, the children immersed themselves in research and exploration. Through Michael Morpurgo's 'Flying Scotsman and the Best Birthday Ever', they used the 'Talk for Writing' approach to learn a section of narrative and then honed their writing skills through diary entries. This led us to focus on writing in consistent tense and in the first person.
 
Year 1 have shown brilliant phonics progress through persevering to learn new sounds and spellings each day. 
 
In Mathematics, we delved into multiplication and division, utilising manipulatives to solidify these concepts. The children's growing proficiency in recalling multiplication facts has been excellent. We have also continued to practise our addition and subtraction.
 
Beech class delved into the significance of the Torah in Judaism, fostering empathy and understanding for different cultures and beliefs.
 
In Science, the children engaged in various scientific inquiries, from comparative testing to observation and research. Through hands-on experiments we investigated whether woodlice prefer damp or dry conditions. We also set up an environment in a large bottle for worms to live, a 'wormery' to observe the impact that worms have on our soils. 
 
The children embraced programming on Scratch Junior with enthusiasm, showcasing their aptitude for technology.
 
Our art lessons provided a platform for exploring watercolour techniques and understanding perspective, culminating in beautiful landscape paintings that reflected each child's unique style.
 
In dance, the children produced choreography inspired by water, the children showcased their energy and creativity. In SCARF sessions, they focused on safety and wellbeing.
 
We eagerly anticipate the adventures that await us next half-term!

Beech Class Spring term 1 2024

 

Autumn Term 2

This has been a wonderful half-term for Beech class. Alongside our learning, we have enjoyed a visit from the planetarium about the oceans, which inspired an adventure story. We have also loved our ‘Explorers’ topic; the children enjoyed being challenged with ‘Astronaut training day’ to give them some insight into the resilience and motivation that might be required by a real explorer. They have enjoyed using different sources to learn about explorers in history and why they had such an impact.  

In literacy this half term, Beech have studied letter writing. Using, The Jolly Postman by Janet and Allan Ahlberg as a starting point, we explored the purpose of letter writing and the important features that must be included in a letter. The children’s main task was to write a letter from the perspective of a fairytale villain apologising for their actions. The children enjoyed being creative and getting into character with this! In SPAG we have focussed on learning about the different word classes; nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs as well as learning about 4 types of sentences and punctuating them accurately.  

The children have all looked forward to phonics each day; Year 1 are coping brilliantly with all the new sounds appearing in their words. Our lessons include lots of word building, word and sentence reading as well as dictated sentence writing.  In reading lessons, we have worked with a range of texts including The Jolly Postman, The Tale of Jack Frost as well as non-fiction texts about Neil Armstrong and other explorers. The Year 2 children have become more independent with scanning a text for answers and they confidently explain their personal interpretations.  

We have covered lots in maths this half term. Our topics have spanned from addition and subtraction to shape then money. The Year 1 and 2 children have covered these at different levels with great success. Year 2 have begun to learn how to use column addition, including addition crossing 10. They have really enjoyed this method! 

In science, the children have been learning about habitats, including microhabitats. The children have shown fantastic recall of their science learning so far this term and they have enjoyed using the nature trail to investigate microhabitats and their qualities.  

In RE, the children have studied incarnation. We have learnt that God came to earth as Jesus and lived among people as a human himself. This unit has provoked us to consider what Christmas means to Christians and non-Christians. The children gave such thoughtful answers when considering what a poor person could give Jesus, suggesting that prayers, love, respect, friendship and compassion might mean more than material gifts. We went on to consider the impact of different charities at Christmas time and what we can do to help. The children always impress with their eloquent and emotive responses; not just in RE! 

In DT, the children have enjoyed completing their toy houses. They have used their own designs to print wallpaper and used recycled materials to create furniture themselves.  

In art, the children have used different printing techniques, including hand printing to make a whole class backdrop for a display. The children love being creative! 

In PE this half term, the children have been working on creating their own choreography and joining it together to make a group dance. We used the concept of explorers as a starting point for all of our movements. The children responded very well to this and created some great sequences.  

In SCARF, the children have covered valuing difference. In computing, we have studied digital writing which has allowed us to practise our typing skills! 

We have also spent time working on our Nativity performance, which came together brilliantly. The children are great performers. 

Beech Class Autumn term 2 2023

 

Autumn Term 1

We have had a very busy half-term in Beech class; the children have made an impressive start to their learning.

In maths, we have covered place value and begun addition and subtraction. The children have been able to identify how many tens and ones are in a two-digit number. We have revisited number bonds to 10 in Year 1 as well as bonds to 20 and 100 in Year 2. The Year 2s have also begun to use column addition to add two-digit numbers. The children have been working on their times tables; Year 1 have focused on counting in multiples while Year 2 have been recalling 2, 5 and 10 times tables as well as learning their 3s.

In writing, we have used the 'Talk for Writing' approach to write versions of Peace at Last by Jill Murphy. The children have been focusing on writing accurately punctuated sentences. In phonics, we have covered different spellings of the following sounds: ‘ai’, ‘ee’ ‘oe’ and ‘er’. In reading, we have practised decoding skills. As well as this, the children have studied the meaning in different books including ‘Paper Dolls’ by Julia Donaldson.

In history, the children have studied toys. We have compared toys played with by children of the 60s to the toys we play with now. The children found that many of their favourite toys, such as Lego and hot wheels existed in the 60s. We discovered that the main difference in the toys we play with is that smart toys did not exist, this led us to research the creation of the world wide web by Tim Berners-Lee. We also discussed the implications of having access to such smart toys and games online, including keeping safe online.

In science, the children have learnt about 6 life processes that make something alive. They showed their understanding by acting out the processes to demonstrate how they applied to plants and animals. The children have enjoyed investigating whether something is alive, dead or never been alive and they have begun to explore different types of habitat.

In RE, we have studied creation. We have focused on the Christian understanding of creation and the implications for Christians about the existence of a ‘creator’. The children have thoughtfully considered the significance of rest in the creation story and they have questioned how beliefs could impact someone’s sense of duty to the world. They could all agree that we should treat the Earth with respect and encourage others to do the same.

In SCARF, we have looked at friendships including reading others' emotions to help us become better friends.

In music, we have focused on finding the beat and understanding rhythm with a range of songs. 

In gymnastics, the children have created routines using rolls, jumps and balances. They focused on creating smooth transitions between their movement. We worked up to choreographing a sequence which the children performed in pairs.

In art and DT, the children have been inspired by 60's design to create printed ‘wallpaper’ for a toy house. They will continue working to complete their toy house next half term.

In computing, the children have been learning about grouping data. An example we came across was the way that a register counts and groups children into ‘present’ and ‘absent’. We then had a go at pretending we were the computer and creating our own register and calculating the groups!

I hope the children have a fantastic break after all their hard work. 

Beech Class Autumn 1 2023