Summer Term Focus

Spanish Armada

Our Summer term will begin with a topic about Tudor exploration, where we will look at tactics and strategy for the Spanish Armada expedition. We will revise our knowledge of the world and Europe and design and construct a boat. We will be continuing to visit the Forest school weekly and use this time to focus on our science topic of plants, considering their main parts and their functions, we would like to have a go at growing some….. so watch this space!

The guided reading book: My Friend Walter by Michael Morpurgo will allow for discussion of our history topic, along with using newspaper articles and websites to focus our research on writing news stories, along with instructions of how to build a boat. We will be reviewing our maths knowledge so far, beginning with the four calculation methods. Following this we are focusing on telling the time, and considering shapes and their properties. If your child could wear a watch for the term this would help them, please can it not take photos.

After the half term break we will be focusing on……

Wild Weather

This second term will focus on the amazing weather systems and how weather can affect ourselves and different habitats around the world. We will learn about tornadoes, how they are formed and their impact, and extreme flooding events. This will progress to discussions about climate change and how this affects weather patterns and ourselves. We will use the data in our maths learning to consider graphs and tables and analysing the data.

As you can imagine there are so many areas to explore with this topic, I’m not entirely sure where we shall visit, from our classroom!! We shall also be introduced to Sir David Attenborough during our research, even if it’s only through his amazing natural habitats programmes. Following our research, we shall be writing poetry and a balanced argument saying what we can do to help with climate change, and sharing them with you.

Within both topics we will deepen our understanding of good and not so good feelings, and explain both the range and intensity of their feelings to others, finally we will recognise ways in which a relationship can be unhealthy and whom to talk to if they need support.

Happy Easter 

Please enjoy the break and have a restful holiday..... don't eat too much choclate!!!

Thank you for all your help and support this term, for settling so well back into the school routines and ensuring everyone has enjoyed the last term.

We are looking forward to the summer term and seeing what we can achieve in Woodpeckers.

After the half term break we will be focusing on……

Landscapes: Mountains and Rivers

This second term will focus on the amazing tropical rainforest habitat in the Amazon. Through the guided reading book: The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry we shall explore the key concepts of the water cycle, the physical features of a river, how it meanders and forms waterfalls and what happens when they are dammed and altered by humans.

We shall also learn about the properties of rocks, which then form soils, and how fossils are formed. As you can imagine there are so many areas to explore with this topic, I’m not entirely sure where we shall visit, from our classroom!!

We shall also be introduced to Sir David Attenborough during our research, even if its only through his amazing wildlife programmes. Following our research, we shall be writing poetry and letters and sharing them with you.

Within both topics we will deepen our understanding of good and not so good feelings, and explain both the range and intensity of their feelings to others, finally we will recognise ways in which a relationship can be unhealthy and whom to talk to if they need support. We will be appreciating our on-line identities during Safer internet day and exploring how to stay safe when using a digital devise.

During this topic we are reading the guided reading book: The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry together. If your child can have their own copy, it would help with their learning, it can be second hand. After we have finished using it, they will come home.

SPRING TERM TOPIC: Where does our food come from?

Our Spring term will begin with a topic about where our food comes from and farming methods, both past and present. We are inspiring our children to investigate what is healthy and why thinking about what food we eat is important.

We will answer agricultural questions, such as: what problems did farmers face when planting crops before machines were invented? Why was food an important factor in building successful civilisations? And research historical and modern-day farming methods to find out how our food is produced today. The guided reading book: Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White will allow for discussion of this topic, along with using newspaper articles, leaflets, magazines and websites to focus our research before writing news stories.

During our independent research we will also identify what nutrition humans need and where this nutrition comes from. We will debate what food we like and what we know we should eat, how we can make sensible food choices to develop mature choices as adults. Obviously, we couldn’t discuss food without tasting some…… so during the term we will learn about some festivals (Pancake day, Valentine’s day, Easter) and try cooking our own food. we can create or adapt a recipe, including some weight/volume measurements.

During this topic we are reading the guided reading book together. If your child can have their own copy, it would help with their learning, it can be second hand. After we have finished using it, they will come home.

Our book is: CHARLOTTE'S WEB by E.B. WHITE

Merry Christmas and a Happy New year!!

Thank you to everyone who gave such generous gifts and sweety treats.

You are very kind, Mrs latty and myself want to say a HUGE THANK YOU. 

Love Mrs Stiles. xx

Our new topic for the Autumn Term will be the ANCIENT ROMANS.

We will be learning about:

• Why did they invade Britain?
• How do we know about what life was like back then (AD43-AD410)?
• Who was Boudicca?
• How did Celtic people live their lives?
• What Roman features still survive today? (Roads, baths.....)

Our guided reading book for this topic will be:

Roman Invasion by Jim Eldridge.... we will learn about Bran who is captured by the Romans.... its very exciting!!

We are going to love transfroming into Romans for the day during our Roman day in school and experinecing traditional Roman food, craft activities and learning Latin!!! 

Lots more information to follow nearer the time.

Our first terms topic will be:

‘Wishing for Wonders’.

We shall be learning about the place where we live: The United Kingdom. Using key open-ended questions we will explore where we have been? What was it like there? What physical features did you see? Focusing on the land and water elements. Then consider the human influences: such as the effects of cities, ports, farming, castles etc.

If you could support your child’s learning by buying the following book:

“Maps of the United Kingdom” by Rachel Dixon,

that would greatly help them, as we shall all be looking at the book together, it can be second hand. I hope that this reference book will be something they can share with you and the family and refer back to during their time in key stage two.

Using various stories and an amazing picture book as stimulus we will be finding out about the United Kingdom. 

I hope that you are all well, and looking forward to a fresh start in school for our new Woodpeckers children. I hope to offer an inspiring, knowledge and skills-based, hands-on curriculum which the children will enjoy and thrive on. I understand that this is a huge time of change, and that routines may be slightly different but I feel it is important to celebrate our children and share amazing times together and learn as we explore.