LKS2 – Newsletter – 26.01.2024

What a week it’s been! We’ve had wind, snow and a whole lot of fun. 

In English, the children put themselves in the story, “There’s a pharaoh in our bath!” To do this, they had to dress-up like a mummified pharaoh and pretend to be on the loose around school! The children had to decide where they thought it would be best to hide, whilst they decided what would be best to do. At each location, the children had to describe the area and their emotions. They used resources to aid the enrichment of their language. 

In Science, we have learnt more about how sounds travel. To begin the lesson, we recapped what a sound it and how sounds are made by objects vibrating. We then figured out that sounds can be louder and quitter depending on how big the vibration is by getting some children to leave the room and make different sounds. We also found out that sound can travel through objects and some materials block sound more than others. Our experiment was to make our own string telephone in order to find out how sound can travel along an object that is vibrating and into the ear. We worked in tables to make our sting telephone, then wrote down our equipment, hypothesis, observations and conclusion on large paper.

Despite the storm this week, we still managed to have wonderful PE lessons in LKS2 as we built upon our county dance routine! We warmed up by using the beat of 8 and ensuring we were all in time with one another. We then practiced the ‘Heel Tapping Boots’ routine that we had learnt in our previous lesson and performed it in different ways. First, we performed it in unison and then we watched a choregraphed routine in which they performed one after another in a ‘canon’. We then separated our group by row from front to back. The first row started the dance, second row joined in after the first 8 counts and the third row joined in after the second row completed first 8 counts etc. At the end of the lesson, some people volunteered to showcase the dance in a group or solo performance!

We also developed our netball skills by completing a race against the clock activity to pass the ball to every member of the group within 2 minutes! We completed this activity by using a chest pass and then as a bounce pass. We then discussed our key word ‘dynamic’ and how this means being ‘on the move’. We applied this in our learning by changing direction to lose a defender. We then played ‘Through the gate’ where half the class were ‘defenders’ and stood between two cones to make a gate and defend this. All other pupils were attackers and scored a point by running through a defender’s gate. Defenders used side steps to delay the attacker and get in their way. We then played a 4v4 game in which applied our learning of passing, moving and play within the footwork rule. We aimed to pass the ball between our team to our team mate who was the ‘saver’ at the other side of the court and score points.

This week in Miss Nodding’s Maths group we have been developing our understanding of the 3, 4, and 8 times tables. We applied our knowledge of equal groups and used a range of concrete and pictorial representations to deepen our understanding of multiplying. Initially, we did this through counting in multiples of 3, 4 and 8 by using songs and sticking post-it notes around the classroom. We completed a range of activities to strengthen our understanding of multiplication, before we move on to using the formal written method for multiplication next week. One station in the carousel was a matching task in which we worked in pairs to find the times table, the answer and the matching addition sentence. Another station worked on Times Table Rockstars to develop quick recall with these times tables. The third station completed a representation grid in our books and showed a times table as repeated addition, as an array and as our own choice of pictorial representation. Such as 4 plates with 3 strawberries, 3+3+3+3 and 4×3 = 12.

In Forest Schools we have continued to learn about starting fires by revisiting fire lays after last week’s session where we all failed wonderfully to light and maintain a fire independently. We used the previous session to review and reflect on where things had gone wrong and the fine details as to why we couldn’t light a fire. Children were able to discuss areas to improve and then create solutions to overcome the problems and barriers they encountered last week. We then worked as teams to create fire lays which would set on fire in readiness for next week’s sessions where pupils will try again. Groups persevered with their fire lays and during our review and reflection at the end of the session they all decided that their fire lay making skills had improved and were full of confidence for the next session where they will be lighting fires and keeping them alive for a longer period of time.

 

 

 

 

In French, the children worked as a group to develop our speaking and listening skills in French. The group asked the speaker “Quelle est ton adresse?” The speaker structured their sentence using the words cards, without the rest of the group being able to see this. They then responded to the group’s question by reading their address in French.  The group used their listening skills to understand the response and write it onto their whiteboard.