Our Knowledge Organiser and Parent Pack below contain all the information you should need about the coming term. Please do get in contact if you have any questions!
Learning about the United Kingdom
We have been learning all about the United Kingdom- firstly, which countries make up the UK and some interesting facts about each of these. We then researched different counties of England and shared our newfound knowledge about these different places. We were able to compare the differences between these and noticed how, even in the same country, some parts are very different! This learning is really going to help us later in the term when we discover where the Vikings decided to build their settlements...
Viking Beliefs
Check out our amazing fact files about some of the Viking Gods! The Vikings believed in lots of different Gods, who all had different personalities and special strengths.
Viking Longhouses
We really enjoyed finding out about Viking Longhouses, creating our own detailed sketched and researching how the Vikings built them, and what they were used for. Later in the term, we will be building our own Viking longhouses, so this learning will come in really handy!
Useful Links
Some highlight's from the Autumn terms topic 'Walk Like An Egyptian'
Ancient Egyptian Portraits
Well done Beech class for working so hard on your painting techniques and colour mixing, right up to the last day of term!
Working Pneumatic Sarcophaguses!
We have absolutely loved learning about pneumatics and hydraulics this term! After lots of investigation and planning, we have now finished our incredible Egyptian sarcophaguses which open using a pneumatic system. What super DT skills!
Our Homework Showcase
We were disappointed not to be able to invite the parents into our classroom this week to share our learning about Ancient Egypt and some of the wonderful homework that we've created. However, we decided to create a video to share our brilliant work instead! We hope you enjoy it!
The Water Cycle
We've been using the Keynote app on our school iPads to record our own learning and understanding about The Water Cycle. Check out some of these fantastic Water Cycle animations! Well done to Jasmine, Holly, Dexter, Oscar and Millie for these superb examples.
If you have an Apple device at home (iPad or iPhone), Keynote is a freely available app. Beech Class, why not teach your parents how to animate!
Mummification
We absolutely loved finding out all about the Ancient Egyptian process of mummification! After mummifying our own Pharaoh (Gary), we wrote our own explanations of exactly what took place. Can your child spot their work below?
Super Scientists!
We have loved learning about the human body this term! Check out our amazing double page spreads where children recorded all that they have learnt about the digestive system- we're really proud of them. They should be able to tell you all about what happens when you eat!
Did you know that if your intestine was laid out straight, it would be the length of a double decker bus?
Some highlights from the Summer term's topic 'Frozen Kingdom'
Our River Explorers trip to Greystones Farm
We had a wonderful trip to Greystones Farm near Bourton-on-the-Water to follow up our learning about Rivers! Using kick sampling, we were lucky enough to be able to examine lots of the different species that live in the river including Mayfly larvae, river shrimp, leeches and caddisfly larvae. We learned about how we know that the river is healthy, including water sampling and looking at the ecosystem works together. In the afternoon, we took scientific measurements of the river including the width, depth and velocity (speed). Although we got very wet, we had a wonderful time!
Homework Showcase
Take a look at our superb Frozen Kingdom themed homework from this term! Well done Beech Class for some really high quality work- you really put a lot of effort in this term!
Visit from The Wilson Museum
Beech Class absolutely loved their visit from Jo from the Wilson Museum today! We've been learning all about the local hero Edward Wilson over the past term, who was a member of Robert Falcon Scott's expedition to the South Pole in 1914. Jo was incredibly impressed by how knowledgeable the children were, and the excellent vocabulary that they used to talk about the intrepid team!
We heard the tale of the expedition in lots of detail, noting important new facts in our notebooks. We also had a chance to play with toys from Wilson's era, and dress up in clothes that he and his family may have worn!
We are now working on creating presentations on the iPads to share what we have learned about his life. Watch this space to see these soon!
Polar Bear fact files
Our newest Power of Reading text is The Ice Bear by Jackie Morris. To kick off this unit, we spent a lesson researching and writing Polar Bear fact files! Did you know that underneath their fur, their skin is actually black? Or that their fur is not white, it is actually see-through, but reflects the white of the snow?
This term, we've been working especially hard on improving our writing stamina (getting going with our writing in the time which has been given) and I'm sure you'll agree, we've made fantastic progress with this!
Coding computer games
We had so much fun using the app Scratch to code our own Polar themed computer games. It took all of our resilience and problem solving skills to get the coding correct and debug any issues that arose! We even got a chance to play each others' games and leave each other feedback about what we liked about the games, and what we thought they could work on. We definitely have some future computer programmers in our midst!
STEMWorks Lego Robotics workshop
We absolutely loved getting to grips with some coding during our recent Lego Robotics workshop! We began by creating and coding an Owl robot to make it move, hoot and even light up. By the end of the session, we were able to code instructions for our robots to move through a course! It involved a lot of trial and error, debugging and perseverance!
This is a really good start for us, as we will soon be using Scratch to create video games- a very similar system!
Artsweek: 5th- 7th January
Our whole school focus this Artsweek has been Sustainable Art. Beech Class will be working on creating collages of endangered animals using recycled materials,
We've been focusing on an artist called Megan Coyle, who describes collage as 'Painting with Paper'- find out more about her on her website here!
On Wednesday, we expressed our opinions about her work as well as writing a short biography about her life. We then learnt some different collage techniques including ripping and cutting techniques.
We also loved our willow weaving workshop with Mr Oakey and can't wait to see the finished sculptures!
