Our Fortnightly Learning Blogs
Weeks 3 and 4
Ferrari Class have had two wonderful weeks, displaying so many of our learning behaviours. There have been some collaborative dolphins, independent bears, motivated bees, and resilient turtles in our class. Well done everyone! Everyone is busy and enjoying their learning, happy in our class routine.
Here are some of the highlights from the last two weeks.
Ferrari Class enjoyed a fantastic Superheroes Day which linked with our English text, ‘Traction Man is here’ by Mini Grey and our topic, Movers and Shakers. All the children came dressed as their favourite Superhero, and took part in a variety of Superhero activities such as making their identity cards, learning some superhero dances and working collaboratively to solve some Superhero maths challenges. In the outside area, they built towers and used their powers to knock them down, built vehicles to transport their superheroes out of Lego and employed their super throwing skills to hit targets. We discussed the roles of real-life heroes such as fireman, police, nurses and military. We then travelled back in time to learn about the life of Louis Braille and how his invention of Braille still helps blind people today. Everyone had a great day of learning!
In our topic Movers and Shakers, we have focused on different groups or categories of significant people. We started by looking at the life of Mary Anning the scientist, and how her contribution shaped the world of palaeontology. We then learnt about the explorer Neil Armstrong and how he became the first man to step on the Moon. The Year 2 children were able to make a connection with their learning last year, where we explored the how Captain Cook became the first man to map the way to Australia. Not all Movers and Shakers make a change for good! We examined the life of Henry VIII (monarch) and despite making some positive changes, Ferrari felt he made some bad choices – especially as far as his wives were concerned! Finally, we have looked at the contribution activists make to our world through the lives of Emmeline Pankhurst and Rosa Parks.
In English, the children have used story maps to start writing their own sections of the Traction Man story. The Year 2 children have been focusing on writer’s voice and how to write in the style of Mini Grey. They really enjoyed designing their own set of costumes for Traction Man and writing a description.
This week the children have been thinking and acting like Geographers focusing on geographical skills. They have learnt the points of a compass through a game called ‘Captain Cook is coming’, created maps with keys and went on field trip to conduct a traffic survey.
Thursday was National Poetry Day. The theme for this year is ‘counting’ focusing on the concept ‘Your voice counts’. Having listened and read some poems on this theme, the Year 2 children acted like poets and wrote some super poetry themselves.
What a busy two weeks we have had!
Weeks 1 and 2
Welcome back! September 2024
We have had wonderful start to the school year in Ferrari Class. It has been lovely to see how quickly we are working together as a new class. We would like to say a big welcome to Beth who has joined us this year. The Year 2 children have set a wonderful example to the new Year 1 children, helping them to settle quickly by being kind, caring and helpful. Everyone is enjoying the new classroom, outside area and being all together in the new school building. Mrs Connell and I are very proud of all the children in Ferrari.
Our topic this term is ‘Movers and Shakers’. This project teaches children about historically significant people who have had a major impact on the world. In this topic they will learn to use timelines, stories and historical sources to find out about the people featured and use historical models to explore their significance. We started the topic by inviting an important member of our community, Dr Lamont, to come and talk to us about why he is important to our community and how he helps us. He talked about how to keep our bodies and minds healthy and showed us some of his special equipment that he uses to help make a diagnosis. He also brought in some models of parts of the human body including a spine and pelvis. The children really enjoyed using a stethoscope to listen to their heart beat. We would like to thank Dr Lamont for all he does for us and for taking time out to come and speak to Ferrari.
Following this visit we have started to look at categories of different types of Movers and Shakers. We have learnt that scientists can be ‘Movers and Shakers’ so we have focused on the life of Mary Anning, the palaeontologist. Through listening to the story and role play, the children learnt that because Mary was poor and a female she wasn’t given credit for her discoveries. Ferrari Class felt that this wasn’t fair! We then learnt that explorers could be ‘Movers and Shakers’ too. The Year 2 children made a connection with Captain Cook, from they topic last year! We looked at the life of Neil Armstrong and his quest to be the first man on the Moon. We thought about why this was such an important event and would we wish to visit the Moon!
In English we have been reading and learning about the story ‘Traction Man is here.’ by Mini Grey. The children have really enjoyed bringing in their own toys into class, writing descriptions of their toys and plotting simple adventures and role-playing games. The Year 1 children have been focusing on writing sentences that are accurately punctuated. The Year 2 children have started to write paragraphs using adjectives and similes to describe their toys.
We are number wizards! The children in Ferrari have made a great start with our new maths topic ‘Place Value’. The children in Year 1 are focusing on numbers within 10 but are proving to be able to go beyond that amount when completing the challenges. The Year 2 children have been focusing on tens and ones and partitioning numbers to 100. They have used a variety of maths apparatus to complete the challenges and have done a super job in answering the problem solving and reasoning questions.
In science the children have started the topic, ‘Human Survival’. This project teaches children about the basic needs of humans for survival, including the importance of exercise, nutrition and good hygiene. They learn how human offspring grow and change over time into adulthood. The topic has kicked off with the children examining the human life cycle. This led onto thinking about what we need to survive. After a long discussion the children were asked to rank what they felt they needed to survive. Many children felt that love was very important!
Every Friday, Mrs Pollington teaches Ferrari and this term she will be focusing on music, computing and RE.
The children have enjoyed exploring our indoor and outdoor learning areas, where they work independently on creative, construction and role play activities. We have enjoyed seeing how the children have worked and played together, sharing the learning resources in a kind and respectful way.
We have started the year with some real motivated learners. Well done Ferrari Class!