Mrs Horwell
Teacher/ Acting Assistant Head
I absolutely LOVE 'The Famous five - 5 go to smugglers top'. It gives me such wonderful memories of when I used to have sleepovers with my best friend, and we would listen to 'The famous five' books on audio. I have particularly fond memories of listening to this one in the dark whilst eating a midnight feast and loving the feeling of being scared but needing to continue listening so that I could complete the adventure with the famous five. I love how Enid Blyton almost makes you feel as though you're an extra member of the gang whilst you read the books. I particularly liked George's character too, I felt that I could relate to her growing up, as I was a fairly headstrong girl myself! It's important to have characters in books that you can relate to.
Miss Bennallack
Support Staff
As a child, I read (and re-read!) a collection of Jacqueline Wilson novels, specifically 'The Lottie Project'. I enjoyed stories by this author as I found them really relatable as a child. The character would outline their own life and the people or hurdles within it, but would then get lost in a completely new story within the story which is exactly how I felt when reading these books! Often told in a first-person account, it made me feel as though I became the character. I've since passed these books onto my daughter who has read them all and will keep them for future grandchildren as I feel the stories and topics covered are timeless and will always remind me of my own childhood.
Summer 1
Welcome back after the Easter break! The title for Summer 1 is ‘The race for Space’.
In History we will be thinking about the significant historical event of the moon landing. We will think about changes that have happened within living memory, use sources to find out information and think about who Neil Armstrong was and why the moon landing was important.
In Science, we will be looking at careers within Science and famous Scientists from the past. We will learn about Mae Jemison the astronaut and the three hidden figures who played a big role within NASA.
In Art we will be looking at the work of Peter Thorpe and using his techniques to create our own space pictures. Then we will focus on Van Gogh’s ‘Starry night’ and create our own version.
In D.T. we will be creating our own moon buggies, ensuring that they have working wheels and axles. We will then evaluate our products.
Phonics and spelling will continue to be taught daily alongside our English lessons. This half term we will be writing with a purpose to entertain, we will be looking at the story of ‘The last wolf’ and will use the morals of this story to then write a letter from ‘Little Red’s’ viewpoint to try and protect trees and endangered animals. We will then have a poetry unit, focusing on the poems of ‘The moon’ by Louis Stephenson and ‘The moon speaks’ by James Carter. We will use these to help us create our own poems.
In maths, we will follow the White Rose scheme of work. Our focus in Year 2 will be focusing on measurement; mass, capacity and volume and then time and fractions. We will be continually reviewing our arithmetic methods throughout the half term through our ‘fluency in five’ sessions.
In R.E. we will be exploring the question: ‘Who is Muslim and how do they live (Part 2)?’ We will focus on the holy words within the Qu’ran and the importance of prayer to Muslims.
In music we will be completing the ‘Exploring improvisation’ unit, in which, singing and listening are at the heart of each lesson. The children will play, improvise and compose using a selection of these notes: C, D, E, F, G, A, B♭, B
In P.E, we will be focusing on developing balance and co-ordination. Children will need to keep control when jumping, mastering basic movements and then combining these movements together. We will then use the skills that we have learned within a circuit.
In computing, we will be completing a Purple Mash unit called ‘Maze explorers’ in which we will use ‘Maze2go’ to create, extend and debug algorithms and then create a challenge for a friend.
In our ‘Jigsaw’ PSHE lessons, the children are focusing on relationships. We will be thinking about how to make friends, how to solve friendship issues when they occur, how to help others feel part of a group, how to show respect in how we treat others, how to help themselves and others when they feel upset, and knowing what makes a good relationship and how they can show this.