Willow Class wb 16.10.23

Willow Class have had a very productive week and even managed to construct some models of Stone Age tools. On Wednesday we joined with Oak class to look at the materials used to make tools during the Stone Age and the properties which made them useful. We found that an axe would be made from a piece of flint which would be personalised to fit the hand of the person who owned it. They were attached to wooden handles using a 'glue' made from natural resources. We then made our own models to represent what these tools would look like. Once we have painted them, we are looking forward to sharing the completed models with you. We have also been learning about the changes that happened after the Ice Age and how this meant farming and more permanent homes were more common due to the rising temperatures and ground conditions. We had to make decisions as to whether the changes such as keeping cattle made a big difference, small difference or no difference to their everyday lives. 

In Science, we looked at how our muscles work. We learnt that muscles contract and relax and enjoyed demonstrating how our muscles work in pairs to move a joint. We've also been joined this week in our classroom by a skeleton (named Fred!) who has really helped us with our understanding of the bones in our body. In Music this week, we worked as a class to produce a composition based on our song, 'Let Your Spirit Fly'. At the end of the lesson, we sang our composition and we were really pleased with how it sounded.

In our Writing lessons we have started looking at a poem called 'A River' by Marc Martin which tells the journey of a river through the city as it travels to the sea. We started the unit by watching a video about a young boy who goes on an adventure with his grandpa after finding a wagon that belonged to his dad. We retold the journey, building on our learning of expanded nouns, paragraphs and adverbials. 

In Maths lessons we have started using column addition to set out our calculations and using our knowledge of this to find missing numbers in calculations. The children used dienes apparatus to support their calculations and to check their answers. We then moved on to using column subtraction and played a game which involved us working against the clock. We have also worked on our 4 times tables in preparation for our weekly times tables quizzes which will begin after half term.