Willow Class Blog 2024/2025

Term 2 Week 5

We planned and began writing our explanation texts about volcanoes in English this week.  We realised how much knowledge we already had, but also used some selected websites to find some interesting new facts.  Lots of children were very excited to discover the biggest volcano is actually on the planet Mars!  In maths, we continued working hard on our multiplication and division facts- the 8 x table for year 3 and 7x table for year 4.  We thought of different ways to remember each fact and the children are doing really well remembering these.  On Tuesday lunchtime we were very excited to receive a flypast from Santa!  He circled the school waving at us all in the playground!  In preparation for sewing our own Christmas stockings next week, we learnt three different stitches - running stitch, back stitch and blanket stitch.  We also designed what we would like our stockings to look like and the colour and type of stitches we will use where. 

Term 2 Week 4

This week has been Assessment Week across the school and I was very impressed with how each child in Willow Class worked hard and gave each assessment their all.  They are very useful for me to see what the children know, and what we need keep working on.  Our afternoon lessons continued as normal.  On Monday afternoon, we created some volcano art inspired by a piece created by the artist Nick Roland.  After drawing and colouring the volcano using pastels, we used paints to create lava by tapping paint brushes, blowing the paint using a straw and flicking paint using a toothbrush.  Everyone created some wonderful and unique art work.  We were lucky to have a cold but sunny day on Thursday so we could continue our science work learning about shadows. 

Term 2 Week 3

This week, we used all our work in English so far this term to write our own 'Escape from Pompeii' stories.  There was some wonderful language used and a sprinkling of speech too!  In maths, we have been working really hard learning our times tables and related division facts- x3 for the Year 3s and x6 for the Year 4s.  We thought about both the positives and negatives of living near a volcano in geography.  In science, we had great fun exploring and understanding shadows.  The children were really creative making skylines, Stonehenge and shadow puppets.  On Friday the PTA treated the whole school to a wonderful theatre production of the Selfish Giant with lots of audience participation.  It was fantastic!

Term 2 Week 2

This week was Anti-Bullying Week with the theme: Choose Respect.  We enjoyed taking part in Odd Socks Day to celebrate what makes us all unique.  We learnt about volcanoes in geography, learning about why they happen and where they occur.  We read the next part of our book 'Escape from Pompeii' in English and wrote powerful descriptions of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.  We also learnt about using inverted commas to punctuate direct speech and wrote conversations between characters in the book.  In Science, we learnt about reflective materials and conducted an experiment to order different materials from the most to least reflective.  We made the most of Wednesday's sunny afternoon to get outside and practise our hockey dribbling.

Term 2 Week 1

Welcome back! I hope everyone enjoyed a good half term break.  Please see this term's curriculum newsletter outlining the learning for this term on the Willow Class Information page on this website.  Our over-arching topic this term is 'Extreme Earth'. 

We began reading and exploring the book, 'Escape from Pompeii' in English.  We used a thesaurus to generate lots of synonyms for the verb 'shake' and then wrote our own short poems to describe the earthquake.  In maths, we learnt how to multiply by 10 and 100; learning why there is a 0 in the ones when you multiply a whole number by 10 and why there is a 0 in the ones and tens when you multiply a whole number by 100.  We learnt about the different layers of the Earth in geography and began learning about light sources in science.  In PE we learnt about the different positions in netball and had a proper match.  Meanwhile, some of the girls went to a football tournament at Langtree.  They did amazingly well and came home with the first place trophy! Fantastic!

Term 1 Week 8

We worked really hard to finish writing our sensational Stone Age reports this week.  They are packed full of interesting facts and information.  Our history took us from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age and then the Iron Age.  We thought about how life changed with the discovery of these metals.  We learnt all about Iron Age hillforts and designed and planned planned our own hillfort.  In maths, we recapped rounding numbers before using rounding to estimate answers to calculations.  In our PSHE lesson, we thought about the different emotions we all feel and we thought about suitable strategies to manage difficult emotions.

I've been so impressed with Willow Class' hard work this term and I wish everyone a happy half term.

Term 1 Week 7

In science this week, we turned our focus to soil.  We thought about what what soil is made of and discussed the different types of soil such as sandy soil, clay soil, chalky soil and peat.  We investigated further by putting soil in a bottle, adding water and shaking it  100 times!  We left it for 24 hours before looking at all the layers it had separated into.  We completed our online safety computing unit  by completing an online quiz to show all we have learned.  We continued our work on column subtraction in maths and I am impressed with how hard the children are working to understand this method.  We have planned a report bout the Stone Age using all our knowledge from the term so far and we look forward to writing and illustrating it next week.  

Term 1 Week 6

On Tuesday, we had a fabulous trip to Earth Trust to learn even more about the Stone Age.  No one let the weather dampen their spirits and everyone represented Checkendon Primary School beautifully!

Term 1 Week 5

This week we have been doing lots of making to help us with our learning.  As part of our English work, we followed a set of instructions to make a woolly mammoth model.  We then thought about whether the instructions were easy to follow and why this was and whether the instructions could be improved in any way.  In science, we learnt about fossilisation and we used created our own fossil models to help us to understand the process.  We have began a new unit in maths - addition and subtraction.  We learnt how to clearly set out our calculations and started to learn about exchanging.  We will continue this next week.

We look forward to going on our school trip to Earth Trust to learn more about the Stone Age next Tuesday.

Term 1 Week 4

We have had a busy week of learning in Willow Class.   We used our planning from last week to write action-packed Stone Age stories.  They were full of adventure and excitement and I really enjoyed reading them all.  Continuing our Stone Age work, we worked in pairs using the tablets to research the Stone Age village, Skara Brae.  We found out so many interesting facts and information about how the  Stone Age people lived in the Neolithic period.  In science, we investigated permeable and impermeable rocks.  The children were able to predict which rocks they believed would allow water to pass through them using their science learning from the term so far.  We then tested them to see if the predictions were correct.  Happily, we also managed to dodge the rain and play some 3v3 games of netball using the skills learnt so far!

Next week, we start our instruction writing in English using the book 'How to Wash a Woolly Mammoth'.  We will also be learning all about Stonehenge. 

Term 1 Week 3

We continued our work on the Stone Age by looking at Stone Age artefacts this week.  We thought about what they tell us about the Stone Age and also what information we can deduce from them.  There was lots of interesting discussion.  In science, we explored different rocks.  First, we observed them carefully and described them, then we looked in reference books to classify them as igneous, sedimentary or metamorphic before researching what they are used for.  We had our first lesson using the Chrome Books in Computing this week.  We learnt about logging in and why it is so important to keep our passwords safe.  We created freeze frames in groups to plan our own Stone Age stories in English and we are looking forward to writing them next week.  There were some fantastic ideas so I am really looking forward to reading them!

We began the week with a visit from PCSO Haynes. In our session, we focussed on equality and the similarities and differences between us all.  

In English, we continued our work on our class text 'Stone Age Boy'.  We focused on adverbials of time (such as ' as dusk fell) and adverbials of place (such as 'next to the cave.)  We used these to write a letter home as if we were the central character in the text describing our adventures in the Stone Age.  In our maths this week, we practised placing numbers on number lines up to 1000 and, for a challenge, 10,000.  We also practised counting in steps of 50 and 25.  Our science began with an introduction to the three main types of natural rock - igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic.  We used the power of chocolate to help us remember how these different rock types were formed!  We continued our history by learning about cave art; thinking about how we can use it to help us find out about the Stone Age and the materials used.  We then worked in pairs to create our own fantastic versions.

Term 1 Week 1

Welcome (back) to Willow Class!   I have been so impressed with how everyone has settled back to school and has been so quick to learn the class routines.  We have jumped straight in to our topic 'The Sensational Stone Age'.  We thought about where the Stone Age fits on a timeline and explored what Stone Age people used to survive against threats.  We also started reading our class book, 'Stone Age Boy'. In PSHE, we thought about our school rules and how important it is for us to work as a team. We created a beautiful class display (see below) to illustrate this.  When the sun shone on Wednesday afternoon, we enjoyed some fun PE games outside.

Next week, we look forward to a visit from PC Ben and our first Forest School session on Monday.