Summer Term

Our big question this term is 'Why is our food so fabulous?'. We are going to be learning about plants and seasonal changes in Science, changes in farming in History and weather types in Geography. Our Design and Technology this term will focus on cooking and preparing food and the artist that we are studying for art is Van Gough. 

Routines

PE - Is on a Thursday morning. Remember you need to come into school dressed in your PE clothes. Mr Cooper will be teaching PE outside this term with a focus on tennis and athletics. 

Spellings - You are going to get new spellings each week on a Monday. Your spellings will include words with the sounds we have been learning in phonics but also some tricky words. We will have spelling tests every Friday morning. 

Reading - Reading books are now being changed three times a week on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday. We are encouraging your child to do lots of reading at home and to read the same book more than once to improve reading skills, expression and comprehension. Please write in your child's reading record book. 

Value of the term

Our value for this term is Truthfulness.

We will be focusing on 'Jacob and Esau' as our Bible story. 

Please look out for the 'Truthfulness Postcards' that have been sent home in the reading record books. We are looking for children telling the truth and being honest. 

Maths

In Maths we have been looking at multiplication and division. We have be practicing counting in 2s, 5s, and 10s and we have loved joining in with videos to do this. 

We start thinking about multiplication by finding and making equal groups and seeing how many 'objects' there are altogether. We have been using counters to show, make and count our groups. 

When we move on to division we are going to think about sharing counters and splitting them into equal groups. 

English

In English this term we are using the story of 'The Little Red Hen' to inspire our writing. We are going to be thinking about story writing and instructions. We have really enjoyed listening to this story. So far we have created a story map and have worked on retelling the story with actions. The children have also planned a 'what next' story, about what might happen to The Little Red Hen and her farm animal friends in a new story. 

This week we have moved onto looking at instructions. We've worked in groups to identifying instructions from a range of different texts and then we looked at the features that instructions have, becoming the teachers and highlighting our example text with a checklist of instruction essentials. 

History

We have started our topic learning by thinking about the history of farming. We have done some brilliant work comparing the past and the present using time words like: then, now, before, a long time ago, old and new. 

We learnt all about how sheep farming has changed and why it used to be really important in Chipping Campden, and we were lucky enough to have a visit from Nettle the lamb. 

We've continued with our topic looking at the changes in farming from the past to the present. We've looked at how dairy farming and crop farming have changed. Using Past and Present to spot the changes in farming and using photographs as our sources.  

Last week we looked at the development and changes of tractors. We learnt about Harry Ferguson and how he helped invent the modern day tractor. Did you know he lived in Stow on the Wold?

Science

In Science we have started our topic on plants. We have planted sunflowers ready to observe how they grow and we learnt how most plants start to grow from a seed. We are also going to experiment what plants need to survive so planted extra sunflowers under different conditions. 

This week in science we learnt the names of some common garden plants. We got really lucky with some lovely sunshine and enjoyed a walk around Chipping Campden identifying lots of different flowers and plants. The children really enjoyed being out of school and could name lots of different plants when we got back into the classroom. 

This week in science we have looked at wild plants. We learnt that often wild plants are planted by anyone and that they can self seed to spread and grown again and again in the same area. We named some wild plants and look around the school site to find and identify them. We showed great observational skills as we walked round the KS1 playground, forest school and the KS2 playground. 

Computing

During our computing time we have been learning about programming robots. We have been investigating and using the floor robots that we have in school.  So far we have learnt about buttons, directions and programming a robot with a command. 

We have extended our knowledge of programming robots my mapping our routes and algorithms. We have used out prediction skills to see where a Beebot's route would finish, once it had been programmed. 

Art

In art this term the artist that we have focused on is Vincent Van Gogh and his painting 'Sunflowers'. We've been really trying hard to focus on art techniques this term including: use of colour, lines shape and space. 

We looked at the expressionism movement in art and how Van Gogh used paint and brush strokes to create mood and emotion. We then had a go at seeing the difference in creating short, little brush strokes and long brush strokes in our sketch books. 

We used what we learnt to paint our own version of Van Gogh's 'Sunflowers'. 

Music

We've been really enjoying our music time on a Friday afternoon this term. We have learnt some key music vocabulary including: pitch, high, low, pulse and rhythm. 

This week we got to play Glockenspiels, where we learnt to compose and improvise using notes C and D. 

RE Week - Who is Jewish and how do they live?

For our first RE week this term we have been thinking about Judaism. We have learnt about lots of important Jewish objects and how Jewish families live. We also shared our own ideas and opinions about what we think God is like before learning about the Shema a Jewish prayer about God. We learnt how the Torah and other important prayers are written in Hebrew and then we had a go at writing our names Hebrew. Finally we learnt about an important Jewish celebration called Shabbat. 

For our second RE week we have continued to think about Judaism and Jewish celebrations, festivals and important stories. 

We learnt the importance of the story David and Goliath, and how to Jewish children it encourages them to be brave and courageous. It shows that we don't need to be frightened or worried as God is always with us. We had a great day learning all about Hanukkah; retelling the story and acting it out with our friends. The last celebration we learnt about was Sukkot, we found out what a Sukkah is and had a go at constructing our own model Sukkahs. Ask your child about a Jewish celebration and see what they can tell you!

Our Sukkah models: