Willow wb 06.02.23

This week we've been taking part in lots of activities related to Children’s Mental Health Week, focusing in particular on the theme of Let's Connect. On Monday, we were given buddies to check in with each day and we really enjoyed finding new friends on the playground. We also talked about mindfulness and enjoyed connecting together by singing a song as a class. On Tuesday, we went in the hall where we did some yoga and breathing exercises. As well as this, we took time to find out more about each other, talking about the things we are good at. On Wednesday, we took part in a whole school walk where we joined up with our buddy and had the opportunity to talk about our week with one another. We have also completed a compliments cup which involved sharing how compliments can make ourselves and others feel and thought of plenty of examples of these. Finally, we shared the story of Enzo’s egg which is all about having a space just for you where you can reflect on the emotions you are feeling. The children then thought about a space where they can go to reflect and responded to the questions so thoughtfully.

In our Maths lessons this week, we have continued to develop our knowledge of fractions. The Year 3 children have been focusing on comparing and ordering unit fractions whilst the Year 4 children have been counting beyond one. We have used fraction walls and cubes to support our understanding of these concepts and will be moving on to look at equivalent fractions next week.

We have also been continuing with our work using the text Firebird. This week we have planned our own versions using the same structure which the Firebird follows. We then wrote these up with a focus on applying the key skills that we have been learning throughout the unit including punctuating speech, using precise expanded nouns and building in a variety of conjunctions. The children produced some amazing finished stories!

In Science this week we planned and carried out an interesting experiment using wet towels to see the effect of temperature on water evaporating. In Music, we continued with our work inspired by The Firebird Suite. We composed our own pieces using percussion instruments and recorded these using graphic scores. We looked at changing the dynamics and texture of our piece.

It has been another busy week in Willow class and next week we will be thinking about internet safety as well as coming to the end of our topic on Ancient Islamic civilisations.