Autumn Term 2

 Autumn 2 in Phase 1

 

General blurb

It has been wonderful to see Phase 1 continue to thrive in our community, as it has strengthened over Autumn 2. All the children have been determined and committed to showing our school values, which was especially seen on our first school trip to the Horniman Museum. All the teachers were so proud of how Zephaniah, Benjamin and Morpurgo conducted themselves throughout the whole day, and cannot wait to go on another trip!

 

English

In Year 1 English we focussed on retrieval questions in reading. This means that the answers to our questions were in our text. We also looked at how to make inferences. This meant we had to use our knowledge of the text to answer questions. Our texts this term were Where The Wild Things Are and The Storm Whale. The Storm Whale was a great text, where we learnt about Orcas. We also read a non-fiction extract about whales in captivity. We then made a poster with the facts we had learnt about why whales thrive in the wild.

In Year 2 this term we have been looking closely at how a story is formed, and the skills involved in retelling one. We have studied the books, Paddington and Mrs Noah’s Pockets to help us upskill in summarising and other reading strategies. We also started writing stories, where the focus was on vocabulary that can entertain the reader and help them visualise what is happening in the story. To end the term, we began learning about invitations and how we can make our guests feel excited about an event by using a formal tone.

 

Maths

In Year 1, we have been looking at the properties of shapes and how to compose and tessellate them. So far, we have looked at the similarities of 2D shapes and reasoned about how to fit them into spaces appropriately. We have also been manipulating these shapes and using spatial reasoning to solve tricky practical problems.

In Year 2 maths, we have been working hard on linking facts that we know and learning about fact families. Our topic this term was fluency within 10. Here we focused on how to be more efficient with our calculations, as well as adding and subtracting odd and even numbers. 

 

Science

In Science this term, our topic was Animals Including Humans. We had so much fun learning about categorising different animals into mammals, birds, fish, reptiles and amphibians. We learnt we are mammals because we are warm-blooded, give birth to live young and breathe air. We finished this topic by going on a class trip to the Horniman Museum where we had a treasure hunt to find different animals in the museum.

 

Geography

 

Phase 1 has been world travellers this half-term! We have been learning all about the globe and can now speak confidently about the continents and the oceans. We also looked closely at the 4 different countries which make up the UK, including their capital cities. We learnt that England is a big place and challenged our creativity to invent a second capital city to work alongside London. Where would you choose? 

 

Art and Design

In Art we focused on paintbrush techniques, particularly ‘dibbing’ and ‘dabbing’ to make appropriate marks. Whilst unpicking Pier Mondrian’s work, we were able to explore primary colours and how to paint using curves and straight lines.

 

Design Technology

In DT, we have been looking at landmarks and the technicalities behind building firm and stable structures. We experimented with creating towers and problem solved what would be an appropriate base for any long-lasting structure. Finally, we created our own towers out of boxes, after research into real landmarks and structures. 

 

RE 

This term's focus in RE has been on Christianity and the lead up to Christmas for those who celebrate. We learnt about what Christians believe, including some of the stories that are studied in their Holy Book, the Bible. Phase 1 students also learnt about why Christmas is important to Christians.

 

PSHE

In PSHE we celebrated our differences. We had so much fun creating a Gingerbread person! We wrote anti-bullying slogans on his hat, things that we have in common with our friend on his T-shirt and things that are different from our friend's on their shorts! We learnt we are unique, and it’s important to celebrate what makes us special. We love our mindfulness meditation and our favourite warm up game was huggy bears.