Welcome to Green Class

Miss Ashton, Mrs Olson and Mrs Wardle

would like to welcome you

to Green Class! 

Term 6

"Oh I Do Like To Be Beside the seaside!"

What did Victorian children do?

Welcome to Term 6! For our final term of the academic year we will be looking at the Victorians. We will be thinking about the question ‘What did Victorian children do?' as well as looking at seaside then and now.

Victorian Day

As our stunning start to this topic, we planned a themed dress up day where all the children came to school dressed as a Victorian and took part in a number of activities across Year 1 and 2. The children had great fun experiencing life as a Victorian school child!

Victorian Sports Day

We celebrated Sports Day on Wednesday 13th June in true Victorian style, with traditional events such as hoop rolling, hopscotch, egg and spoon race, quoit throwing and a drill. All the children had a fabulous morning and very much enjoyed watching the parents races!  

English

We started our term off by reading the book 'Queen Victoria's Bathing Machine', which has so far inspired us to design our own bathing machine as well as write a narrative to describe the Victorian invention. We have also begun to look at rhyme, firstly we identified rhyming pairs within the text then used them to create rhyming sentences.

Maths

In maths this term we will be revisiting division and fractions. We have been solving some division word problems as well as looking at dividing with remainders. We have also looked at comparing fractions by using the 'greater than / less than' symbols.

Art & D.T

We will be carrying out our art lessons this term at the beach. We will be using the skills we have developed over the year to sketch a modern-day beach scene and making comparisons with that of a Victorian beach. We will finish our topic by creating a comparative picture using pastels.

In addition to these art lessons, we are very fortunate to have Ms Hagerman to come in and work with the children to develop their sculpting skills.

P.E

In P.E this term, we will be focusing on our athletic skills and tri-golf. We will be practising and developing our athletic skill, thinking about concentration, preparation and precision as well as developing skills in order to help and support our fellow team mates.

Term 5

Ha-Pea Days!

What is hiding under the bed? 

This term our topic is ‘Ha-Pea Days’ and we are thinking about the question ‘What is under the bed?’ We will be basing our learning around the book ‘The Pea and the Princess’ which is a take on ‘The Princess and the Pea’. The children have already began thinking about what plants need in order to survive and have generated some questions that they would like to find out about such as; How do plants grow? Why do plants have colourful flowers? And a class favourite...What is the deadliest plant? 

Please see the attached curriculum newsletter above to find out more. 

D&T

Inspired by our plant topic, we decided to make concrete flower pots. First we had to think about the process and decide on the best containers to use as a mould. Then, once dry, we had to use masking tape to create a pattern on our concrete pots before painting them. We hope you enjoy the finished product as much as us!

The Big Scoop!

In Green Class we have been busy making posters to display around the school to promote responsible pet ownership! We even got a mention on Twitter from @Whitproduce promoting our good work!   

Morris Dancing

We welcomed in the summer with the Morris dancers. We were so inspired, we decided to create our own dances using claves. 

English

We have been busy reading, acting out and sequencing the story of The Pea and the Princess in preparation to write our own version of the story. We have been thinking about how we can make our writing more interesting by adding adjectives, conjunctions and using a range of different sentence starters. Throughout the term, we will be developing the skill of writing in first person from the viewpoint of the pea through story writing and diary entries. 

Maths

We started our week back by recapping the topic of measurements. We have been telling the time to the nearest five minutes as well as reading scales to tell  an amount. Inspired by the warmer weather, we have been reading the temperature using thermometers as well as reading scales to find out capacity. We spoke about how we measure the temperature in Degrees Celsius (°C) and capacity in Millilitres (ml). 

We have been reinforcing our understanding of subtraction by counting on using a bar model as well as learning our 2's, 5's and 10's times tables. We have used our knowledge of these to solve multiplication problems. 

Science 

Our science topic this term is plants and what conditions they need in order to survive. As part of our science investigation we will planting our own pea plants and taking care of them.  

We have been looking at the different parts of the plant and their functions. We then went around the school observing, comparing and discussing plants using our scientific vocabulary.  

R.E 

This term in R.E,  to ensure we give the children an opportunity to learn about a variety of religions and religious views, we will be looking at Humanism. We will be using Michael Rosen's book 'What is Humanism? How do you live without a god? And other Big Questions for Kids' which explores how people live their lives without religious beliefs.

P.E

Our topics this term for P.E are cricket and tennis. We will be looking at and developing the different skills involved in both games. 

Term 4

British Woodland Animals

'Who lives in the Woods?'

This term we will be looking at our British Wildlife, focusing on woodland animals. So far we have had some lovely pieces of homework handed in and already we can see just how engaged the children are in this topic! Please see the attached curriculum newsletter below to find out more. 

English

This term we will be focusing on writing information texts about British Woodland Animals. We will be using an array of strategies to help develop our research skills, working in small groups using both books and the internet to find out more about woodland animals such as foxes, owls, hedgehogs  and bats as well as those that are out and about in the daytime like squirrels and rabbits. We are really looking forward to our special guest who is coming in from the Kent Bat Group to talk to us all about bats!

Maths

This term we will be looking at time, reminding ourselves about o'clock, half past, quarter past and quarter to times before moving on to telling the time to 5 minutes. As the term progresses, we will revisit some of the strategies we have been learning since September to solve addition, subtraction, multiplication and division problems.

Science

To support our main theme this term, our science topic is Living Things. We will be thinking about habitats, diet and how animals can adapt to survive in different locations of the world. 

We also started off our term with a science week, where we carried out an experiment using ice. The children had to work as a team to decide on a way that they could rescue a plastic figurine that was trapped ice. They started by looking scientifically at water and how it is made up of three atoms. We then looked at how different temperatures affected these atoms. We then used our scientific knowledge to decided on five different ways that we could melt the ice and made predictions. We then carried out the experiment, collected data and wrote a recount of the investigation.  

P.E

Our PE this term will be focusing on Key Step Gymnastics routine and our first attempt at Orienteering and Boccia (a version of French boules). 

R.E

This term our focus is on the importance of Palm Sunday and the Easter story for Christians. We will be thinking about why Christians celebrate this day. and later in the term we will be discussing why we celebrate Easter with eggs.

Beach Walks

This term our beach walk focus is eco-clean up . We will be thinking about how we can help to maintain our beaches and support our wildlife. We will be looking into the effects of plastic in the sea and thinking about how we can reduce our plastic usage both in school and at home. 

Term 3

'How many different ways can we use water?'

English

This term we are developing our creative writing skills. We will be looking at the use of language used in stories to entice the reader and give detail and continue to build on our stamina for writing.  Our focus for this term will be 'Lila and the Secret of Rain' a story about a little girl living in a Kenyan village, followed by 'The Tear Thief'. We are sure that both of these books will inspire and encourage the children in their story writing and enable them to use the skills they have learnt so far to produce some extended pieces of writing.

Maths

In maths this term we will be looking at money. Firstly we will be focusing on making exact amounts in a variety of ways and then moving on to making an amount using the fewest coins, for example:

e.g. 27p = 20p+5p+2p

We will finally use all the skills we have learnt so far to solve a variety of money based problems. Towards the end of the term we will be revisiting properties of 3D and 2D shapes. 

We will also continue to use MyMaths as a homework and classroom resource as well as Active Maths.

Outdoor Learning

This term we have also introduced an outdoor learning session, where once a week we will take our learning outside of the classroom. This provides a different learning experience and will allows us to cover our topic area as well as follow the children's interests. We have started this term with looking at how we can encourage more wildlife into our outside area in particular birds.   

P.E

During our PE lessons this term we will be focusing on Gymnastics and Multi-Skills, developing our balance, movement and ball skills . P.E will be on a Monday and a Wednesday. Both sessions are indoors so plimsolls are required. Please can you make sure children have their P.E kits in school.

R.E

Our focus this term will be on 'special places' and we will be considering places that are special to us as well as places that are special for Christians.  During this term we will be planning a visit to St Alphege Church so that the children can look at the features of the church and have some further understanding as to why it is a special place for Christians.

Art

Art this term will be based on the story 'Lila and the Secret of Rain' by looking at Africa art. We will look at how traditional African art uses patterns and colour inspired by the landscape and produce some of our own African inspired pieces.

Enrichment 

Mrs Thomas will be teaching Spanish on a Friday afternoon and recorder will continue to be on a Tuesday. 

Term 2

 ‘What was it like to be a child during WWII?’

Firstly we would like to say thank you for the amazing effort that has been put into the homework challenge this term. Thank you to those who have brought us in some real WWII memorabilia. We will be displaying them in the classroom for all the children to see. 

This term our topic is WW II and we are thinking about the question ‘What was it like to be a child during WWII?’

As our stunning start to this topic we are hoping to visit the local Whitstable Museum which have an exhibit on WW11. If you have any relatives or friends who were alive during WW11 and would be prepared to visit us, please us know!

At the end of the term we will be planning a ‘welcome home’ party for our very own WWII evacuees. 

English

We  will be basing our English around our topic of WWII using books, the internet and videos to help us understand what life was like as a child during WWII. We will continue to focus on consolidating our sentence structure through writing short captions based on thoughts and feelings as well as further developing our letter writing skills. We will finally build up to writing a comparative text based on what it would have been like living in London during the war as apposed to the countryside. 

Maths

In our maths work this term we are taking a look at weight and measure.  We have been having a wonderful time weighing objects around the classroom - not only have we used the correct mathematical vocabulary like 'heaviest' and 'lightest' but we are now weighing objects to the nearest gram (g).  To ensure we have a good understanding of weight we are reading a variety of scales (horizontal, vertical and circular).

We will continue to work on our counting and place value, both of which are very important to ensure we have clear understanding of number.  Towards the end of the term we will remind ourselves about multiplication and division.

Science

In science, we will be looking at the topic of everyday materials where we will be investigating different properties and using this to help us decide what materials we should use to make a suitable WWII shelter. 

P.E

Dodgeball and dance are our two topics for this term. Dodgeball will be on a Tuesday morning and we will be focusing on developing our throwing techniques as well as our attack and defence strategies. Dance will be on a Thursday afternoon and we will be focusing on developing co-ordination and rhythm. 

R.E 

In R.E we will be looking at Sikhism. We will learn about Guru Nanak and their nine other gurus as well as find out about their holy book the 'Guru Granth Sahib' and their holy place of worship, the Gurdwara.

Enrichment

On Fridays, Mrs Burrows will be teaching Green Class Art where they will be developing their drawing and painting skills.

In addition, Ms Diamond will be providing recorder lessons for the children every Tuesday.

Term 1: Survival

What do we need to survive? 

Welcome to the first term in Green Class where we are looking at the topic of survival.  Over the next few weeks we will be looking at different aspects of survival.

On Thursday 14th September we all came into school dressed 'survival style'!  We had great fun throughout the day making items for survival using natural materials, choosing which items are 'essentials' or 'luxuries' for a survival trip and taking part in a survival assault course.  Look at some of the pictures to see how we got on!

English

We started our Year 2 topic of survival by looking at the Pixar short film Piper. To remind us all of our sentence structure we have been writing short captions about Piper's thoughts and feelings.  We then transferred this into a narrative about Piper's first experiences of having to survive without his mum feeding him.  We decided that at the beginning of the film he was nervous but as his confidence grew, with perseverance he became brave and courageous.

We are now reading a book 'Dear Greenpeace' about a young girl called Emily who thinks she found a whale in her pond to help us understand the features of letter writing. We have loved learning about whales and have found out lots of interesting facts! We have also really enjoyed learning about the organisation Greenpeace and finding out how we can help look after our planet. 

Maths

To ease ourselves in gently we have been looking at the area of number and place value.  We are using resources like Numicon and Dienes to help us identify the amount of tens and ones in a 2 digit number. We have been recapping our number bonds to ten and using the knowledge of these to work out simple addition and subtraction sums e.g. 23 + 7 = 30. 

Science

Our topic for this term is 'Animals including humans' where we will be looking at the basic needs of animals for survival. During our first lesson we discussed the different life stages that humans go through and the common features of each stage.  We then went on to look at how to keep our bodies healthy through healthy eating and exercise. 

P.E

Swimming and tag rugby are the topics for this term. Swimming commenced on Monday morning at Whitstable pool and the children were all raring to go.  Tag rugby will be on a Tuesday afternoon and we will be focusing on the skills of catching, throwing and dodging. 

R.E 

In R.E we have been learning about the faith of Islam. We have learnt about at their special place of worship, the mosque, as well as their Holy book called the Qu'ran. We have been finding out about the main aspects of life and how it is the same / differs from Christianity.

Enrichment

On Fridays, Mrs Thomas will be teaching Green Class Spanish followed by Animation. She will be linking this with our topic of survival to create a short animation based on what we have learnt this term. 

In addition, Ms Diamond will be providing recorder lessons for the children every Tuesday.