Hawthorn wb 1st November

We’ve really enjoyed welcoming the children back to school after half term, and are very impressed with the way they’ve all settled right back in! 

On Monday, we started our brand new topic – The Great Fire of London. The children acted as History Detectives and were given a set of clues to help them identify how, why, where and when the fire started. We’ve begun work on a collaborative art project for our topic display board, and the children very much enjoyed constructing Tudor houses, complete with beams and overhanging upper storeys. Next week, we’ll be recreating the River Thames and the flame-filled sky using a range of art techniques and mediums. 

There’s been lots of work on number bonds in our maths lessons; both year groups have been exploring them using a variety of resources and looking for related facts. Next week is ‘Maths Week England’, which we plan to recognise by doing additional fun activities every day.  

We have just started work on our new English text, ‘What happens when …’, where the children are told about something that has been lost and they must think about what happens next.  For example; What happens when you let go of your balloon and it floats up into the sky? What happens to your bucket when you leave it on the beach? (Believe it or not, the fish police collect it and use it as a way of trapping a naughty shark!) 

In our Science lessons we have continued with our work on animals.  The children were finding out about the various parts of animals bodies; which ones have horns, which have tusks, which have webbed feet etc. We played a game where they had to describe an animal to their partner using the scientific vocabulary to see if they could find the mystery animal! We identified tigers, parrots, turtles and deer all of which had very different characteristics.