Year 1

We had so much fun this week in Geography as we used positional language to describe our surroundings. We began by directing our partners around the class using phrases such as take 5 steps forward or take one step to the left. We loved taking it in turns to give the directions. We then applied our knowledge of positional language to describe where things were in the classroom around us, and we used this to draw an accurate map of our classrooms, making sure to label the different areas, so other people could use our maps. 

In art, we combined our art skills of sketching and stippling to sketch an outline of an apple and decorate it with stipples to create our very own artwork in the style of Yayoi Kusama. We then celebrated our own and each other's work by commenting on what we liked and what went well. We are looking forward to sketching our final pieces next week to finish off our topic.  

In maths, we have begun to use the words less than, greater than and equal to compare different numbers. We noticed which number was the biggest and used the symbols < > and = to complete the number sentences. To help us remember which way round the symbols go, we compared it to a hungry crocodiles mouth, as he always wanted to eat the biggest number!

Key Messages

• Key vocab: less than, greater than, equal to, positional language, sketch, stipple

• KIRFs: number bonds to 10

• PE days are Wednesday and Friday 

• Please bring in reading books to change on Monday

• Please remember to bring appropriate clothing for The Vineyard Adventurers - class times are; Diamond Thursday afternoon, Sunstone Friday mornings, Amber Friday afternoon.

Year 2

We have now started our addition and subtraction topic in maths, beginning with re-enforcing number bonds to 10 and then exploring fact families with numbers to 20.  Diving deeper, we are building an understanding of how knowing bonds using ones can help us when we do addition with tens (if 3+5 = 8 then we know that 30+50 = 80).  The amusing story of a broken friendship has been the inspiration for our writing in English.  Tadpole’s Promise has sparked an interest in facts about butterflies - did you know that they don’t have eyelids?  It has also given the children an opportunity to demonstrate the wonderful empathy that they have for others.  Butterflies have been a theme this week when editing pictures of them in computing and creating their life cycle using pasta in science.  Finally in geography, we took a look around the capital city of Belfast and identified the physical and human features that you might see there.

Key Messages

• Key vocab: number bonds, tens, ones, fact families, addition, subtraction, tadpole, butterfly, life cycle, physical and human features

• KIRFs: Writing numbers as words to 20, number bonds to 20

• Geography Field Trip - to Richmond Green on Thursday 19th October.  Please note that we will be back in school for lunch. 

• As more coats are being brought into school, we are running low on space. As a result, after half term, please ensure your child has a book bag (no rucksacks).