Our spelling focus this week has been the ‘are’ sound, and the children have been working hard to spot and use this pattern in their reading and writing.
Our Explorer’s Magic Bag delivered a magnifying glass and a letter from Brazil, which led to some fantastic writing. The children created their own detective stories, using the magnifying glass as a key clue in their mystery. We also wrote an informative fact file all about magnifying glasses — what they are, how they work, and why they are useful.
In word work, we revisited prefixes and played Real or Imposter, a fun word-building game that helped us explore which prefix combinations create real words and which do not.
In maths, we learned how to use the chunking method for addition, building on our knowledge of number bonds (friends to 10) to help us break numbers apart efficiently.
Our Speedy Skills focus this week has been times tables, and the children have been practising quick recall through games and challenges.
We continued exploring symmetry, looking at symmetrical patterns in the world around us and creating beautiful symmetrical butterfly images.
This week’s UNCRC focus was Article 29 – the aims of education. We read A Superpower Like Mine and discussed how everyone has their own superpowers, skills, and talents. The children reflected on what makes them unique and set personal goals for something they want to grow or improve.
Our big question this week was: “What happens when forces are equal and unequal?”
We read The Great Paper Caper and explored the forces involved in flying paper planes. The children investigated how pushes, pulls, lift, and air resistance impact speed, distance, and motion.
On Friday, the whole school enjoyed Big Play — an afternoon of open classrooms where everyone was free to explore, play, and spend time together. It was a fantastic opportunity to help build a strong sense of community, with children of all ages sharing spaces, activities, and plenty of fun. We also had a visit from Winnies mum and her new puppy. We all loved getting cuddles and watching him play.
Our spelling focus this week has been silent ‘h’, and the children have been working hard to spot this pattern in their reading and spelling activities.
In our Explorer’s Bag, we discovered some mystery keys left by the Magical Explorer, who also told us he had been travelling through China! This inspired lots of fantastic writing — the children wrote imaginative stories about unlocking a mysterious door, described a disgusting sandwich the Explorer found in his backpack, and created their own acrostic poems. They even created their own mysterious doors out of Lego, junk and blocks.
We also learned about prefixes, creating bright and creative prefix flowers to show how adding prefixes changes word meanings. This week also saw the introduction of our new independent reading time and task, giving the children space to enjoy reading and reflect on what they’ve read.
In maths, we worked on counting in tens, hundreds, and thousands, and continued exploring symmetry — this time using LEGO to build symmetrical designs and patterns. The children showed great focus and teamwork while creating their builds.
Our Health and Wellbeing focus this week was Article 12 of the UNCRC – the right to have a voice. We read The Day the Crayons Quit and discussed why it’s important for everyone to have a voice in our class, school, and community. The children shared thoughtful ideas about how we can listen to others and make sure every voice is heard.
Our big question this week was “How do different surfaces affect how things move?
We read Mr Grumpy’s Motor Car friction and how friction affects movement on different surfaces. The children took part in a hands-on investigation using ramps and toy cars, experimenting to see what makes things move faster or slower and how motion changes depending on the forces applied.
This week’s PE session was calm and creative — a yoga session based on the book Dear Zoo. The children used movement and balance to represent different animals, showing great focus, imagination, and coordination. We did have to finish with some parachute fun too!
This week, we continued practising our tricky words and began an exciting new writing adventure! The Magical Explorer left us a map and letter in the special bag, telling us all about his recent travels to Egypt. We used atlases to find Egypt on the map and began to plan how we could track his journey as he continues to explore the world.
The children wrote about where the map might lead, described what Egypt might be like, and created thoughtful diary entries about how they felt when they first received the map.
In writing, we have also been working on using adjectives to make our sentences more interesting, and continuing to focus on sentence openers. We were lucky to have Miss Farmer join us during our writing slot this week — she led a brilliant STEM challenge where half the class worked on building pyramids, linking our literacy to our Egyptian theme!
In maths, we combined creativity with number work by making firework pictures using glitter and arrays for windows to help us visualise times tables. We also explored addition and subtraction fact families through fun games, and consolidated our knowledge of friends to 10 and 20 by creating chatterboxes.
We also continued our work on symmetry, recognising symmetrical patterns and shapes around us and creating our own symmetrical designs.
Our big question this week was: “How do pushes and pulls help us move things in the world?”
We explored different examples of forces in action, from everyday movements like opening doors and pushing swings, to bigger forces like pulling up fishing line to dropping a ball. The children made great links between what they already knew and what they observed in action.
We also tried out some live movement activities, experimenting with how our bodies push, pull, and balance — helping us to consolidate our understanding through play and exploration.
This term, we are learning about some of the UNCRC articles and how they relate to ourselves, our class, and our community. This week we focused on Article 2, exploring what equity and inclusion look like in our class and school. The children shared thoughtful ideas about how we can make sure everyone feels valued and respected.
We also read the inspiring story “What To Do With an Idea?” and discussed its message — that all ideas are important and worth sharing. We talked about how even big ideas like kindness and respect have to start somewhere, and how our own ideas can grow if we nurture them. The children then created beautiful artwork based on inspirational idea quotes, which turned out so well that Mrs Johnson has proudly displayed them at the front office for everyone to see! 🌟
In PE, we had a firework dance session! The children used movement to express different fireworks, played a teamwork game called “Pass the Spark”, and worked together with the parachute to show rhythm and coordination. Everyone showed brilliant teamwork, creativity, and enthusiasm — and our firework finale was spectacular!
Mat Skills Focus:
Apparatus Focus:
This approach supports creativity, problem-solving, and physical literacy.
Everybody loves this term in the gym, so I’m sure their will be plenty to talk about when they get home.
PE Reminder
Please ensure pupils:
Week 1 and 2 Mat Skills
Week 1 – Shapes and Rolls
WEEK 2 – ROLLS, HANDSTANDS AND CARTWHEELS
Over the last three weeks, we shifted our focus to rugby, where pupils learnt essential skills like carrying the ball, moving away from defenders and passing.
FOOTBALL
RUGBY
