Our targets this term are:

Reading: To talk about how a character feels in a story.
Writing: To use a range of conjunctions in my writing. 
Maths: To recall my number bonds to 20.

Broadstairs

As we have been learning all about the seaside this term we thought it would be a wonderful idea to visit the beach.  We started our day having fun in the sand, scraping pictures into it, digging and having an awesome time with our friends.  We even found some hidden treasures buried near the surface!

We also got to play on the rides that were nearby on the beach.  We loved the old style boats where we had to work like collaborative cats with a partner to make them swing to and fro.  There was also a merry-go-round that we could ride on together and a bouncy castle to play on.

After lunch we went to visit an old fashioned style sweet shop where the people running it were dressed in Victorian clothing.  They told us many fascinating facts.  Did you know that fudge was made by mistake when someone accidentally cooked their caramel for too long back in 1886? Or that flying saucers were voted the most popular sweets in 2004?

We had an incredible day!

 

Grace Darling

As part of our History learning we have found out about a courageous lady called Grace Darling.  We have found her story fascinating!  Back in 1838 she was in a lighthouse when she spotted that a boat had crashed in a terrible storm.  She bravely rowed a wooden lifeboat out to sea and saved the lives of 9 people.  After her heroic rescue she became a bit of a celebrity - so much so that even Queen Victoria wrote to her!

We were absolutely fantastic actors as we retold the story through freeze frames and hot seating (asking and answering questions whilst pretending to be Grace).

We have also noted down some key facts about Grace and retold the story through art work.  Our stormy sea paintings were very atmospheric.

Designing and Making Lighthouses

As part of our Design and Technology learning we have created our very own lighthouses.  We started by gathering and organising thoughts - looking at different lighthouses and exploring what features they have and why they have them.  Then we generated our ideas, drawing different style lighthouses.  After that we decided which design we would like to try to recreate.  Next we implemented our designs and made them.  Finally, we evaluated our lighthouses, sharing what went well and one thing that we would do differently or change next time.

They all looked fabulous!

Maths

This term we are learning about shapes and fractions.

Shapes

So far we have made our own 3D shapes, built models using different 3D shapes and sorted shapes into groups according to their properties.  Our shape knowledge is progressing really well and we can now name many different 3D shapes and describe them using words like ‘faces’, ‘edges’ and ‘vertices’.

Fractions

We have been focusing on halving.  We have found half of shapes, lengths, containers (about half full or half empty) and are now finding half of an amount.  We are all superstar mathematicians!

Beach Day

This term we are learning all about the seaside past and present.  We will be looking at the seaside from the Victorian era through to today and comparing them; thinking about what is similar and what has changed. 

Our beach day helped inspire us and to get us thinking about what the seaside has to offer.  We played games like hook-a-duck and bowling which were great fun and tested our accuracy and determination.  We also used other skills like measuring when working with different sized shells and when filling cups of glittery water (using different amounts of different colours to make our own ‘drinks’). To inspire us and others to visit the seaside we created posters to help capture people’s attention and, after thinking about what we might eat at the beach, we created our own menus.

Putting our beach expertise to good use we had a sandcastle competition.  We had to work out what was the best amount of water to use to create the perfect sand castle.  Some were too dry, then too wet and some came out just perfect!