Book of Wonder – Regina Flowerton

In Summer 1 term we were working at Flowerton Enterprises in our new roles as researchers. The world famous explorer and botanist Regina Flowerton was setting up a Nature Centre, a world class tourist attraction. The Researchers investigated plants and habitats and completed tasks to help Regina set up the centre. We helped Regina find out about plants and animals and found out what they need to grow and survive.  We had a Garden Centre role play in the classroom where everyone enjoyed playing.  

In English we completed a rewrite of the Lambton Worm.  This was fun to write and we had some brilliant work.  The children worked really hard to use everything needed for a good story including character descriptions and excellent use of punctuation.  Maple class also completed their SATs week last half term.  Everyone tried their best and we quite enjoyed the week especially the juice and biscuits following all that hard work. I have to say all children were just outstanding at how they approached the tests and I am incredibly proud of them all.

Next half term we have our visit to Alnwick Gardens which nicely rounds off our Flowerton Enterprises unit of work.

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The Time Institute – Autumn 2

This half term we have been working as time agents.  We had to stop the evil Chronos who is a master criminal who steals famous people from the history timeline.  We have had to work super hard to defeat him and restore Neil Armstrong and Gustav Klimt to the timeline. In English we have written reports about these famous men.  We also wrote our own version of the fairy tale Hansel and Gretel.  We have been using adverbs and adjectives to make our writing more interesting.

 

We have really improved our skills in written subtraction methods of 2 digit subtract 2 digit numbers.  Our arithmetic scores are improving and we are getting much better at remembering methods of calculation we have been taught.  It has been a super half term where we all enjoyed the Christmas festivities including the pantomime and the Christmas parties.

Welcome

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Investigation Bureau 2023

Maple Class worked as investigators this half term, challenged with the task of solving the mystery of the stolen designs!

Professor Crankpot’s designs had been stolen and it was our job to find them! Once we recovered the stolen designs we soon realised improvements needed to be made to them. Investigators worked together to improve and make some of Crankpot’s products.

In Maths we worked on Place Value.. making the most of equipment to help us learn.

We were very excited to end the half term with a Celebration of the Arts.

In Science we have been investigating materials as well as watching how the weather changes over time.

Portal design.

 

This half term we have been working for Portal Design. Maple class were brilliant designers and created a healthy snack including packaging for children aged between 6 and 12. They used 3D nets to create packaging and designed it all themselves. As well as all this designing, Maple class have had a wonderful half term learning about Zog the flying dragon. They have written stories, diaries, postcards, wanted posters and used all of their skills to do so. Their use of punctuation, adjectives and adverbs is coming along brilliantly. In PE they created and performed their own Zog dance. They have enjoyed maths this half term and are becoming much more confident in using their knowledge to answer SATs style questions. In music they have had great fun singing and taking part in a variety of music games. Of course, let’s not forgot a memorable visit from Professor Crankpot, who always makes Maple class laugh and they love to see him coming through the classroom door. I hope they enjoyed term 2B and are all looking forward to our next half term.

Portal Advertising Agency

Olive Stein set Agency 2 a brief.  To design, create and make a healthy food product which is targeted at children aged between 6 and 12.  The product needed to appeal to children to help them make improved food choices.  The Advertising Agents had to begin with brainstorming and move through all the processes of creating a product. They came up with Chickpeas2go and Smoothies2go.  Both healthy and nutritious with no added salt or sugars.  All agents made smoothies, learning how to chop and slice fruit.  They wrote recipes, created their artwork and even made their own advert for television.

In PE they performed a fabulous dance to the music from Zog, a book and film by Julia Donaldson.  They created different movements in sets of 8 from a sad Zog who couldn’t fly to a happy dragon who had found his wings and could fly confidently.  They wrote a fantasy story about dragons and enjoyed writing a wanted poster for a very badly behaved Zog. In maths there was lots of multiplying using the 2, 5 and 10 times tables as well as sorting out maths problems for Olives Advertising Agency.  They do often get in a muddle and Agency 2 were fabulous at helping.  A fab half term  We are all looking forward to next half term.

THE TIME INSTITUTE

Maple class have been kept very busy by Kronos, the evil villain, who kept stealing significant people from history.  Maple class worked hard to replace famous people from history to the timeline.  Their first task was the intrepid astronaut Neil Armstrong who was the first man to step foot on the moon.  Their next challenge was the popular Austrian artist Gustav Klimt.  They were a bit shocked when the alarm for Kronos first went off in class but they soon became used to it and knew it was a signal for them to work as time agents.  As well as all this hard work there was Christmas!  Maple class had a lovely time at their party and thoroughly enjoyed the pantomime.  I hope they enjoyed their Christmas holidays are are ready for next half term.  In English we had some fabulous rewrites of Hansel and Gretel and the class are so good at using adjectives in their writing. They worked hard in maths to understand how to recognise different coins and count money.  Hopefully this would have helped them spend their Christmas money wisely!  We are still in the process of completing our very own Gustav Klimt tree of life paintings which will be sent home as soon as they are finished.  I hope Maple class enjoyed last half term and are looking forward to working for Olive Stein next half term.

Investigation Bureau

Our first half term in Maple class has been very busy.  We investigated materials and found out what different objects are made from.  We know the difference between man- made and natural materials and can sort these.  We enjoyed investigating materials especially when Professor Crankpot came in to see us.  He had lost some of his new inventions and could only remember what they were called.  He asked us to create some new inventions for him using different materials.  We came up with different ideas including  a dog walking robot and a machine which tidies up children’s bedrooms. We have also been amazing in maths this half term and have made lots of progress in addition and subtraction.  In writing we have completed a story and written postcards  as different characters.  Hansel and Gretel has been our main focus, we enjoyed writing recipes for the witch to cook Hansel into something tasty like boy bolognaise or Hansel soup.  We are all looking forward to next half term.

Portal Design

This half term we have been looking at healthy lifestyles.  We have investigated how to keep ourselves healthy and what constitutes a healthy lifestyle.  We then began looking at taking care of animals and what they need to stay well and healthy.  All the information we gathered was given to Olive Stein to help Portal design in creating brochures and leaflets related to a healthy lifestyle.  The children designed a selection of healthy smoothies using fruit.  In English we focused on improving our independent writing using the Julia Donaldson book Zog as a stimulus for several pieces of writing.  We have had a super time in PE as we have had the opportunity to use an qualified Futsal coach.  The children have learnt different skills with a football and have improved their dribbling skills. We have continued to practice our arithmetic and calculation techniques and methods in our maths lessons.  Maple class are fabulous at maths and we have had some super lessons where we have investigated a problem using different areas of maths such as fractions or statistics. We are all looking forward to Summer 1 term and the challenges it will bring.  Our SATs week will be week beginning 20th May.

Portal Animations

This half term we have had the great pleasure of working for the formidable Olive Stein and her new company Portal Animations.  We created several different animations across the half term.  Most were based on the story St.George and the Dragon.  We also created a short animation of a David Hockney painting.  We hope you attended our animation afternoon, if not then you can view the animations online.  We have also had a football coach in who helped us improve our footwork and ball control skills.  We have done some wonderful story writing and we are going to continue this into next half term.  In maths we have learnt all about 2D and 3D shapes and their properties.  We looked at division and using our times tables knowledge to help us solve division questions.  It has been a super half term and we are looking forward to the challenges next half term will bring.

The Investigation Bureau

Our first half term is over and the children have had a great time working for the Investigation Bureau.  Professor Crankpot couldn’t remember anything about materials so the children set to work investigating materials and their properties.  They were lucky enough to have a visit from the great scientist himself.  They told him all about different materials such as rubber, glass and concrete and what their uses are.  They sorted man made and natural materials which had him so confused.  He also forgot some of his recent inventions and asked Maple class if they could come up with some new inventions to help him.  We had some wonderful ideas such as robots to wash windows and machines to pick up dog poo! The class enjoyed his visit and were brilliant at explaining their work.  In English the children read The Twits by Roald Dahl.  They enjoyed the story which was a stimulus for postcard writing and character descriptions.  They have begun looking at Grimm fairy tales which we will be continuing into the next half term.  The whole class have worked brilliantly in maths.  They have learnt a written method for TU + TU and have been working on improving their arithmetic test scores. We have been very lucky this half term as it was our turn for yoga which is taught by a specialist teacher, Mrs McAllister.  The first half term has gone quickly and I am sure the whole class are now settled and ready for their next challenge.