Spring 1
English
Our focus this half term is writing an explanation text about space.
Our immersion into this topic began with a classroom planetarium and we were able to go on a journey through space. We started on the ground and worked our way up the sky until we reached the planets. We observed how big the planets were and tried to understand their significance.
We then continued with our immersion by acting out a journey to space as if we were the astronauts. This meant we had to build our rocket and imagine what a journey would feel like, sound like and look like.
History
In our history this half term we are looking at the space race. We will be exploring why Man went to the moon and what impact technology has had on today.
We explored whether man really had been to the moon and how we could know for sure.
"He really went because he took a selfie." - Addison
There is a photo of a footprint - Jack
It was in the newspapers - Zach
We explored the early attempts of flight and how it was possible to even get a transport vehicle in the air. We ordered these in the order we thought they happened. Some of us were very surprised. Then we introduced and looked at the humans and animals who went before the moon landing.
We then discussed - What makes you think he really did go to the moon?
Neil Armstrong took a selfie on his phone on the moon – Isla à but he could have edited it! – Jack
People were watching it live on TV so you can’t fake that. – Jude
They left footprints in the moon and they left a flag too – Danyal à yes but we can’t actually see the flag, they could have edited a photo of that and put it on – Leo
We then discovered the timeline of the space race and what came before man on the moon. We ordered this and then researched about how it was possible to even get to the moon!
RE
In our RE this half term we are looking at the religion of Judaism. We introduced this topic by providing an opportunity for children to bring in items that were precious to them in preperation for finding out what precious items Jewish people may have.
We explored the Sheema and what this means to Jewish people. We then created our own bank of words that are special to us.
Jewish people place their special words into a Mezuzah. We discussed and observed what these look like and how they are used.
"They touch the mezuzah to remember their God." - Dom
"They put it on the right hand side of their door on the outside." - Addison
We made our own Mezuzah to place our own special words into.
Hand 2 Mouth visit
On the 22.1.25, Hand to Mouth came to visit us for a lesson about a good smararitan and loving our neighbour.
The children listened to the story told and then created some creative reflections on the messages they took from the story.
Science
In our science this half term we are looking at plants, light and dark. We started by retrieving our knowledge from year one on the parts of a plant and what we may see on different types of plants.
This plant is called a nettle and it can sting you with its leaves - Miriam
The trunk on a tree is the same place as a stem on a plant. - James
Some plants have flowers and some have fruits that grow too. - William N
We investigated plants under our magnifying glasses to see what properties we could see.
We have created our own experiment to test out what makes a plant grow. We collected all our equipment and then changed one thing. We put half of the plant pots on the windowsill and half of the plant pots in a dark cupboard. We predicted what we thought might happen.
I predict it will grow on the windowsill because it is getting light. - Isla
I predict it will grow in the light because it needs that to survive. - Leo
I predict it might grow a little bit in the cupboard because it is still getting watered. - Riley
I predict it will not grow in the cupboard. - Noah
DT
In our DT this half term we are focussing on cooking and nutrition. Linking to our second english journey, we will be exploring and making our own healthy wraps and then writing up instructions for this.
We started with exploring the food groups and where different foods fit into these categories.
After exploring which food groups different items belong to, we explored how different foods need preparing in different ways. We have a range of equipment and we explored what worked best for each item of food.
The grater works well for the cheese. - Francesca
The scisors work best to cut smaller things. - Zach
You can use a spoon or a knife to spread hummus. - Seb
You need a knife to cut the tomatoes and cucumber. - Leo
Our hard work of preparing the foods paid off and we tasted different combinations of food to see what we would put into our own healthy wrap.
Computing
In our computing we are looking at Robot Algorithms. We discovered that an algorithm is a set of instructions and used this knowledge to create instructions on a robot Beebot.
