Autumn 1

Reading

We are reading these books as a whole class to link in with our topic - 'Irritating Invaders'. 

Writing

In our writing, we have been looking at portal stories. A main character finds a door, goes through it and finds themselves in another land - often magical in some way. We started by imagining what our own portal doors would look like and designing them. We have also been learning about expanded noun phrases (where we got to write on the tables!) and fronted adverbials to improve our descriptive writing. 

Check out the pictures below to see what we've been getting up to!

National Poetry Day

For National Poetry Day, we wrote our own poems about our dream day and played poetry games.

Have a look at the pictures from the day below!

Maths

In maths, we have started the year by learning about place value and are focusing on introducing numbers up to 10,000. Below is a summary from the Maths No Problem website, explaining what is covered in the first unit.

We then moved onto addition and subtraction. Here is an overview.

Irritating Invaders

Our topic this term is all about 'Irritating Invaders'! We will be learning about the Vikings and Anglo-Saxons in History and about cities and villages in Geography. We kick started our topic by making our very own Viking helmets and took some pretty terrifying photos. 

In our Geography lessons, we have been discussing the difference between cities and villages and focusing on physical and human features. We became geographical surveyors when we compared human features in Manchester with a small village called Thornton le Dale. We even looked at different maps of the UK in an atlas!

Geography

In Geography, we planned a route from the city centre to various villages around Manchester and then recorded ourselves giving directions on how to follow our planned travel routes. Scan this QR code to go and watch some of the videos we made!

History

In History, we have been looking at the Anglo-Saxons and the Vikings. We became historians and researched what life was like in the Anglo-Saxon and the Viking era.

Art and DT

In Art, we used oil pastels to create sunrise and sunset blends and then cut and stuck images of our local skyline over the top. Check out some of the finished pieces!

In DT, we researched Anglo-Saxon houses and then had a go at making our own. We stuck lollipop sticks on the outside to give a wood effect and cut and stuck frayed paper on the roof to look like straw. We were very happy with the final results. 

P.E

Our two topics for P.E this term are Dance: Myths and Legends and Orienteering.

Check out some pictures from our dance sessions where we created freeze frames of monsters in groups of 3!

Autumn 2

Reading

This term, we are reading:

Writing

In writing, we are looking at non-chronological texts. Our focus for these is Pokemon! We started by designing our own Pokemon - have a look at some below!

Maths

We've moved onto multiplication and division. Here is an overview of what we will be looking at. 

Learning Challenge

In the dark, dark night

Our topic for this term is 'In the dark, dark night' and we will be looking at electricity and the Normans! To get our children hooked, we did an interactive drama activity using our nowpressplay headphones. The children helped to solve the mystery of the power cut!

Science

We have started our science topic by looking at electricity; where it comes from, how it is made, different power sources and much more. We also created a human circuit to power a cosmic ball and proved that we are conductors!

Spring 1

Reading

This term we are reading 'Crater Lake' to link in with our 'Spooky Stories' writing unit. 

Writing

We have been looking at creating suspense, tension and 'show not tell' descriptive writing in our 'Spooky Stories' writing unit. Check out some of our excellent setting descriptions below!

Mathematics

In maths, we have moved on from focusing on times tables and simple division facts to look at multiply 2 digit numbers. Here is a summary of our current unit from the Maths No Problem website:

Learning Challenge

Our learning challenge topic for this term is 'Wonderful Water'. We started by looking at the water cycle and exploring how all the water on Earth is part of an endless cycle of evaporation, condensation, precipitation and collection. Our first experience was to try and guess what was inside a mysterious box - it was a glove filled with water and frozen! There were some great reactions and we discussed the different states of matter - solid, liquid and gas. 

We even participated in a NowPressPlay activity where we pretended to be water droplets!

We also made our own class water gauges that we used to measure the rainfall during one week. 

PE

In PE, we have started our gymnastics unit indoors, focusing on balances and travelling. The children have enjoyed practising front and back support balances, as well as dish and bowl. Why not ask them to give you an example at home?

We've also been lucky enough to have a coach from Manchester United taking our outdoor PE sessions this term. He has been teaching them different net and wall games and discussing key elements to games with them and how they can improve. 

Spring 2

Reading

Writing

In writing, we have been creating newspaper reports. We have focused on writing catchy headlines using alliteration, including direct speech from witnesses and capturing the events of the report in chronological order. 

Maths

We've been very busy in maths learning all about fractions, graphs and time! Check out the chapter overviews below:

Mi Casa Es Tu Casa

In Learning Challenge, our topic was 'Mi Casa Es Tu Casa'. We focused on classification of animals, the environments they live in, the dangers of plastic to the environment and then learnt about how the Industrial Revolution changed and shaped Manchester forever. We were also lucky enough to have a visit from 'The Wild Roadshow' who spoke to us about different animals and also let us hold some reptiles! Have a look at the pictures below by scanning the QR code below: 

Art

As we had been focusing on animals, we decided to create some art that would raise awareness about endangered animals. We created prints and then used them on tote bags to get the message out there that some animals need our help!