Pine class go on a minibeast hunt!

Pine class have been very excited over this last week as we have been on several bug hunts looking for minibeasts around school near our pond, in the minibeast hotel, underneath the autumn leaves and in our Year 1 garden. The children were thrilled to find snails, slugs, woodlice, ants, bees, wasps, worms, spiders and a grasshopper! The class enjoyed catching some of the creatures to view them under their magnifiers and try to identify them using their bug identification sheets. Michael also came up with a song to sing as we walked around school to investigate "We're going on a minibeast hunt, we're going to catch a big one!"

Pine's Pointillism masterpiece!

This half term, Pine class have been looking at Pop Art and Pointillism and using these techniques in their own painting. For our last lesson, we created a giant class painting about our topic- superheroes- to mimic Seurat's "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte", which measured an impressive 3m across. The class used the Pointillism and Pop Art techniques they had learned this half term to make their pictures stand out.

Star writer in Pine Class

Congratulations to our star writer for the end of this half term- Zac! Zac sequenced pictures about his hero- Batman and then wrote captions underneath to explain what happened. In his story, Zac explained that Robin phones Batman because they need help- the Joker has robbed a bank. Batman goes to the rescue and puts the Joker in jail.

Great story, Zac. Well done!

Cedar Star Writer

Congratulations to Evie Cottam who was awarded Star Writer this week for a suberb set of instructions explaining how to blow up the Houses of Parliament. What a great end to the half term Evie!

Cherry Star writer: Tyler Wager

Well done to Tyler for being our Star Writer this week. He particularly impressed because of his use of the objective. He took his time to check and re-read his work to ensure he included all the components required for a green stamp! 

Year 2 burn down their Pudding Lane!

Year 2 travelled back to 1666 this afternoon when they assembled their Pudding Lane around the fire pit. Once the houses were lit the wind blew and spread the fire around the houses just like during the Great Fire of London. The children watched on as the fire blazed across their houses. 

The trail of destruction grows...

Another houses catches!

At last, the fire had no where else to travel and died down leaving nothing but ash.

Cherry class predictions, experiments and observations.

How does heating and cooling change some objects and materials? 

After discussing how some materials will change when heated from a solid to a liquid or liquid to a gas it was time to make our prediction. Will they melt? Stay the same? Will they freeze? Next it was to time to experiment. What does the chocolate, butter, jelly look like before and after heating? What has happened? Do all things melt? 

Collaborative learning in Pine

This week, during our session about the learning power 'reciprocity', Pine class teamed up to show each other things they had learned during the week, with the aim to teach their partner/ group something they might not know or show them how to do something new. Pine class showed that working together collaboratively can assist with their learning and sharing of different skills/ideas-  and that everyone has something to offer the class.

Building a 'super' house, complete with own swimming pool!

Constructing hero houses

Working as a group to make lots of 2D shapes

Working as a team to create superhero costumes

Reviewing 3D shape names and their properties

Great learning powers Pine class!

Pine star writer

This week, our star writer is Lewis! Congratulations! Lewis wrote about what superheroes get up to on their days off. He wrote an impressive three scenarios about his superheroes, ensuring his writing was clearly written and using great phonics knowledge to aid with his writing. Well done- super work!

Cedar Star Writer

Congratulations to Adam Abubakr who was awarded Star Writer this week for a fantastic set of instructions explaining how to blow up the Houses of Parliament! Well done!

Making shapes in Pine

Pine have been looking at shape in Mathematics this week. We have been exploring shapes through creative activities: boards, construction materials, drawing and through 'shape walks' around school. We have been learning about key properties of shapes and playing lots of 'what shape am I?' games.

Keep up the great learning!