SO much has been happening in Willows this half term.

Our class text for English has been How to Train Your Dragon.

The children have created and written about their own dragons, produced instructions on how to catch a dragon, written a diary entry and completed their own narrative based on characters from the book. The children have also taken on the role of film critics by writing up their own review of the How To Train Your Dragon film.

To capture the emotions and feelings of the characters for their diary entries the children carried out a series of ‘freeze frames’ of different scenes from the book. Take a look… they were fantastic!

Linking to our Viking topic in History the children designed and made their own Viking Long ships. After making them, the children evaluated their finished products and discussed what they thought went well, what was challenging and what they might do differently if they were to make it again.

Whilst learning about coordinates and translating shapes the children received some help from tiny edible bears… they even got to eat them once they had finished!

Gummy Bear Maths!

Decimal fun!

To investigate gases as part of their states of matter science topic the children carried out an investigation. They set out to find out which fizzy drink contained the most carbon dioxide.

See the scientists at work below!

It has certainly been a different term (once again) with the children adapting fantastically well to changes around school as well as new rules and routines to follow.

On returning to school Willows reflected on their time during lockdown. They wrote a letter of thanks to someone they felt had made a positive impact to their home learning and reflected on new found skills and hobbies. They produced some lovely ‘HOPE’ pictures to remember that if we are hopeful things will be alright.

Willows have been very busy learning all about sound in science. They have explored how sounds are made, how it travels, pitch and volume, protecting their ears from sound and how it travels through different mediums.

In history they have been delving into the world of the Vikings! They have learnt where they came from, how they travelled and how modern life compares to life back then. We will continue to explore the Vikings further after the Easter break.

Willows carried out a ‘Super 7 challenge’ for Autism Awareness Week. The 7 reflects the 700,000 people diagnosed with Autism in the UK.

As a class we discussed ways in which we can better understand and support people with Autism by creating 7 rules to follow.

Here are our beautiful rainbows which include our rules.

Although this half term has been a little different to the rest, Willows have demonstrated their great strengths of resilience and enthusiasm towards their home learning (those in school and at home). Whilst delving deep into the depths of new online technologies the children have covered a range of new topics.

In English, they have studied their new class text The Great Kapok Tree and explored the issue of deforestation. This links directly to their geography topic of The Rainforest, in which they have explored biomes, climate and layers of the rainforest. Next half term they will find out how plants and animals are adapted to living in the rainforest and explore the Amazon Rainforest in greater depth.

In science the children have been looking at living things and their habitats; exploring the different types of vertebrate and invertebrate animals as well as looking at how our local and global environments change over time through the things we, as humans, do to it.

In maths the children have explored the formal written method of column multiplication as well as looking at known division facts. They have also spent time learning how to interpret data using bar charts, pictograms and line graphs. At the end of this half term the children have explored how to read both analogue and 12-hour digital time.

The children have made great use of Purple Mash this half term whilst learning has been online. They have used it to learn about the members of the family in French, produce bar charts as part of their statistics in maths as well as use it for many e-safety related activities.

There is so much to commend the children on this half term; what a super job you are all doing. I thank everyone at home who is making such a brilliant effort with the home learning.

I can’t wait to have everyone back in the classroom again! : )

We have been very busy in Willows during our first half term back at school.

In History we have been studying the Ancient Egyptians.

We have learnt all about: how important the River Nile was to the Egyptians, the hierarchy that existed within the Ancient Egyptian society, the mummification process, Egyptian Gods and Goddesses and what the Egyptians believed happened to people after death!

The digestive system and teeth has been our science focus for this half term. The children have learnt about how the body digests food and which of our organs are needed to do this.

They carried out their own investigation into tooth decay using hard boiled eggs and different drinks.

Look at our results!

In maths the children have been focussing on place value and then using the four operations to carry out written calculations in their book.

Our class book in English has been The Egyptian Cinderella. This is a retelling of the classic Cinderella story with an Egyptian twist! Poor Rhodopis, the slave, is bossed about by the Egyptian servants that she lives with. When suddenly, one day, she has her beautiful rose-gold slipper stolen by a falcon. Will the Pharaoh return her slipper? Does she have her happily ever after?

The children have really engaged with the story and have been able to write: a character description about Rhodopis, a diary from the perspective of the Egyptian servant girls, a balanced argument about whether Rhodopis has a happily ever after and write their own story based on the events in the book.

We are so impressed with their hard work so far. Roll on next half term Willows!

Miss Tod and Miss Shakesby