Summer 2- 17.6.22
Week 2 complete! Another very busy week for the plum class team!
This week our year one friends have continued to learn about castles and have specifically focused on the features of a motte and bailey castle. Can you remember what these words mean? We started the week by looking at various motte and bailey castles around England and talking about their main features (motte, bailey, keep, moat, barbican etc). We then compared these models to Alnwick castle and talked about why castles in the past had to be changed.
Later in the week the children began designing their own castles ready for building next week. They were sure to include up to 5 key features! I can't wait to see their finished pieces.
We ended the week with some geography work and we looked at local castles nearby and had a go at labelling them on a map of Northumberland. Lots of us found it tricky to remember some of the castles we looked at (Warkworth, Dunstanburgh, Bamburugh, Lindisfarne) so why not do some research and find out more about these castles!
Meanwhile...reception friends have been busy learning more about the history of the seaside this week. We have spent lots of time comparing seaside trips in the past with seaside trips now. Ask your child what they can remember? What has changed? Did you know that in the past, women didn't like to get changed in front of others and so used to get changed in beach huts before getting lowered into the sea. The children found this very silly! We enjoyed writing a bit about what we had learnt.
In maths this week year 1 have been busy counting in 2's (also known as skip counting). The children had fun practising counting in 2's using number lines, hundred squares, counters and numicon as visual prompts. Lots of us found this much easier with visual prompt. Keep up the practise at home too!
Reception have been building their understanding of subtraction this week and we have continued to use the language first, then now to help us with subtraction stories. For example- first there were 5 people on the bus, then 3 got off and now there are 2. Lots of us found this concept pretty straightforward. Next week it will be our turn to count in 2's!
In other areas of learning, we have been busy practising our handwriting, our fine motor skills, we have been practising for sports day in PE with emphasis on- everyone is part of a team! We have been busy bees in plum class garden this week and have enjoyed planting courgettes and various flowers. The children have taken a shine to helping out in the garden and we have started to reward children with special gardener badges at the end of the week. These children get the important job of watering, tidying and checking on the garden on Friday's before we head off for our weekend.
In other exciting news... our butterflies finally hatched from their cocoons this week and we loved releasing them out into plum class garden! The children have been so excited to watch them grow right from caterpillars and were thrilled to watch them fly away!
Next week is another busy week, so take care and have a restful couple of days-Miss F