Spring 2
It has been another busy half term in school. The children have been taking part in lots of exciting learning activities including the Careers Fair for our Y6 children, World Book Day, a cricket taster day, Experience Easter at Mossley Methodist Church for Y4 and a number of musical performances from Y3, Y4 and from our four bands through I Rock music school.
This half term Nursery have had lots of fun learning about ‘Growing’. Their first book was called ‘Jasper’s Beanstalk’ by Mick Inkpen, it was about growing beans and how to look after them. The children enjoyed planting their own beans and waiting for them to grow.
They have also been learning about the lifecycle of Frogs and how they change from tadpoles into frogs. The children enjoyed pretending to be frogs using their gross motor skills to hop and jump to lily pads.
For the last week of term, the children focussed on learning about Easter. They watched the story on CBeebies and discussed why Jesus was important to Christians. They made Easter cards and reenacted the story in the small world area. Every day they have thought about a different part of the story, they waved their palm leaves on Palm Sunday, had bread and juice to celebrate The Last Supper and they carried their crosses on their back.
This half term in Reception, our topic has been Traditional Tales. The children have enjoyed exploring a range of well-known stories, with a focus on The Little Red Hen. The children loved following instructions to make their own bread, just like in the story! They have also shared other familiar tales such as Goldilocks and the Three Bears and The Gingerbread Man, bringing them to life through play and storytelling.
In our topic work, the children have been learning about Spring, observing seasonal changes and discussing how Spring looks different to Winter. They have also explored different celebrations including Chinese New Year, where they tasted a variety of foods, and Easter, learning why it is a special time of year. To finish the half term, they had lots of fun taking part in an Easter egg hunt!
This half term Year 1 have been busy finding out about Easter. This has included the story of Easter and new life that they can see at this time of year. They have also made 3D birds in Art, looked at measurement in Maths and in Science, the children have been categorising animals. They all really enjoyed the Cricket taster session led by Tom from Lancashire Cricket Club.
Although this has been a short half term, Year 2 have been incredibly busy! In D&T, the children have been exploring pivots and linkages, using these skills to design and create their own moving Easter animals.
In Maths, their focus has been on measurement, with the children developing their skills in estimating and measuring in centimetres and metres.
This half term, they were also fortunate to have the exciting opportunity to try cricket. The children thoroughly enjoyed the session and showed fantastic enthusiasm throughout.
In Science, the class has been learning about the seven life processes and have been applying their classification skills to determine whether objects are living, dead, or have never been alive.
What a busy half term it has been in Year 3! In Maths, the children have been understanding equivalent fractions using a number line and a bar model. They have also been working extremely hard with their arithmetic tests. In English, the children have continued to write their adventure stories and have put a lot of effort into these.
In English, we have been looking at the story ‘Manfred the Baddie.’ The children have designed their own characters for their adventure stories, made a plan and written their own version. Their hard work has paid off because they are amazing!
In RE, Year 3 have looked at the story of Holy Week. They have studied Shrove Tuesday, Palm Sunday and Maundy Thursday, where they designed their own Last Supper and they have also studied the events of Good Friday. Then the children created some art work to show the three crosses on the hill.
In Science, the children have looked at forces and magnets and they were able to sort push and pull forces. They carried out an investigation to see which surface the car travels further on and carried out an investigation to test which materials were magnetic.
In History they have looked at the Tudors and Henry VIII. The children studied a variety of images of him and looked at how much he had changed during his reign as king. They then created a fact file all about Henry VIII. The children also enjoyed finding out about Henry VIII’s 6 wives and in particular, at the life of Catherine of Aragon. They looked at the highs and lows in her life and how she had lots of sad times during the time she was married to Henry VIII.
In Design and Technology, Year 3 have completed their unit on ‘Shell structures’. They carried out research, looked at nets and designed their own structure. They then made an Easter basket following their design specification. In Music, the children have enjoyed playing the xylophones and playing a range of tunes. In Guided Reading, we have finished reading ‘The Sheep Pig’ we really enjoyed this story and as a special treat we watched the film.
It might have been a short term, but it’s certainly been a busy one in Year 4. The children have enjoyed lots of varied topics and some engaging activities. They had lots of fun in English, using the Tear Thief book to inspire their writing. They have undertaken lots of drama and oracy activities to help them write a persuasive letter and a diary entry.
The children also wowed the entire school on World Book Day by learning extracts from the poem ‘This is the place’ by Tony Walsh.
In Maths, the children have learned all about fractions which has prepared them for our decimal topic after the Easter holidays.
In Science, the children learned all about electricity, gaining hands on experience of building simple circuits, testing materials to see if they were insulators or conductors and making their own switches. In RE, the children have deepened their understanding of Holy Week and Easter and were lucky enough to attend an Easter activity afternoon at Mossley Methodist Church.
In Geography, the children learned all about rivers, gaining knowledge about a river’s features, the stages of a river, the water-cycle and flooding. Their trip on the final day of term allowed the children to see many of these things in real life. They did get rained on, but they were able to dry off in Mossley’s Heritage Centre whilst gaining historical and geographical knowledge about the area.
Although this half term has been our shortest, Year 5 have certainly filled it to the brim with exciting learning and memorable experiences!
The children made the most of their time outdoors, building animal dens and enjoying forest school, where they even made and ate their own toast. In science, they had great fun experimenting with different materials: exploring reversible and irreversible changes by heating them, making tea bags “fly,” and even creating their own butter, which the proudly enjoyed on their toast. The children also investigated the properties of a range of materials.
In English, they immersed themselves in a magical experience inspired by Leon and the Place Between, enjoying a special morning watching Cirque du Soleil-style performances while treating themselves to candy floss and popcorn.
Their geography lessons took them on a journey to Brazil, where they learned all about Rio and its vibrant culture. Meanwhile, in maths, the children got creative by making their names using 100 squares and converting them into decimals, fractions, and percentages.
It has been a fun filled half term in Year 6. In geography, the children have been researching North America, investigating states and historical landmarks. They even re-created the famous 'lunch on the skyline' image from New York.
The children have been experimenting with electricity in Science; they had the challenge to make a battery purely from lemons - thinking about the anode and cathode sides of batteries and the way electrons move through a circuit.
In English, the children have loved being sorted into their Hogwarts house and writing multiple pieces based around the Harry Potter books. They have described Diagon Alley, made quidditch instructions and even used their ICT skills with the green screen to act out a motivational quidditch speech to their houses.