Welcome to the Dragonflies!
Hello and welcome!
*Meet the Dragonfly grown-ups*
The grown-ups in the Dragonfly class are Miss St. Bernard and Mrs Jones. We love teaching the Dragonflies and we are so proud of their achievements!
If you ever have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask. Thank you!
*Our Christian Value for the term*
JUSTICE
Our value in term is 'Justice'. Justice is about ensuring fairness in the way people are dealt with and making sure that all people are treated equally. It is having the quality of being reasonable and fair. It is striving to put right or prevent an injustice.
Proverbs 21:15 When justice is done, it brings joy to the righteous. Amos 5:24 But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream. Psalm 106:3 Blessed are those who act justly, who always do what is right. Isaiah 1:17 Learn to do right, seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.
What can you do to show justice? Here are some examples:
Include everyone in your play. Don't judge people by how they look - remember we are all the same on the inside. Take turns with equipment and resources - don't keep something for yourself but make sure it is shared and everyone has a turn. Are you good at working as part of a team? Show consideration and empathy for others. Are you good at resolving arguments with others? How can you ensure a fair outcome?Practise seeing things from someone else's point of view. Think about ways that you can help people in the world who may not have as much as others. What can you do to help them? How can you bring about positive change in the world where everyone is treated fairly and equally?
"There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest." Elie Wiesel
*Our Learning for Summer Term Two*
A Victorian Seaside Holiday
English:
This term we are focusing on the popular story Zog by Julia Donaldson as well as the model text ' Why Dragons are afraid of Mice'. Towards the end of the term children will write their own explanation text.
Like every half term, we will be starting with a cold task. This gives the children the opportunity to show us what they have remembered and what they are applying in their writing. We can then plan the remaining English based around what the children need to improve their writing further.
The first week children will explore why pixies are purple and start to create their own word banks with vocabulary and ideas. We will watch a clip from Harry Potter about the pixies in that film. Children will learn facts such as that they cannot communicate with humans.
We will then write a class innovation about why dragons capture princesses. Children write their own why dragons... explanations such as a different fantasy creature, why trolls eat goats, why ogres have fat tummies, and why giants love gold. We will continue to broaden our vocabulary and use thesauruses to find a synonym. For example different words for petrified such as frightened, amused, worried, puzzled.
We will continue to use the ZOR (zone of relevance) on our working wall where children will write their own words and magpie it for their writing. The grammar foci will be on present tense, third person, time conjunctions to guide the reader, vocabulary that shows why or how (e.g. because, so this means that). We will also explore rhetorical questions to interest a reader and use this in our writing.
Children will create a grid for what they already know and what they want to find out more about. We will continue doing short burst writing everyday to build up children's stamina for writing.
Cross curricular link- Children will create their own clay dragon eyes, we are very excited to be doing this!
You are all doing an amazing job!
We have lots more planned so keep checking twitter @GlowwormsStF for more of the exciting things!
Maths:
This half term, children will be recapping some of their learning and key skills from the year in preparation for their move to Year 3. They will consolidate their understanding of place value; partitioning numbers, number line work and representing numbers using picture representations and number sentences. They will consolidate their understanding of the 4 operations (+ - x ÷), using concrete, informal and formal written methods to help them solve problems and develop their mathematical thinking. Children will revisit column addition and subtraction as well as tackling more complex missing number problems and apply their knowledge in problem solving activities, We will continue to use SLAM (speak like a mathematician to enable the children to use their mathematical vocabulary, Please work on 2, 5 and 10 times tables at home.
Science: We are linking some of our science to the Titanic through looking at suitable materials. We will be looking at the best materials to make an unsinkable ship!
The children will also be looking for patterns and similarities in plants, seeds and how they grow.
Geography: This will be through Forest School.
Music: Oh I do like to be by the seaside! We are going to be learning a variety of seaside songs and sea shanties. We are going to learn about the beat, rhythm and learn them off by heart before doing a small performance.
RE: We will be revisiting the Five Pillars of Islam and think about what is believed now how that links back to key stories.
History: We are going to focus on the sinking of Titanic as this is a key event in history. We are going to start this half term by creating a lapbook focusing on the key features of Titanic, the survivors and what has happened as a result of that terrible night.
FOREST SCHOOL FOCUS
It's that term where we can be outside all of the time!
Here is a brief plan of what we are going to do this half term in Forest School. This is an outline, we may add things or swap weeks around based on resources.
We have added a list of resources under each week, so if you can help by bringing some in, that would be amazing!!
Week 1
We will set up a science experiment in Forest School. Children will plant different bulbs and watch them them grow weekly. They will use a ruler to measure in centimeters and compare the growth weekly. Children will start a diary entry of what they have done in Forest school every week.
We are going to plan and design a clay model dragon eye! We are very excited to do this. Children will focus on the detail and paint it with metallic paint. We are so excited for our dragon topic to come to life!
Please continue to bring in recyclable materials such as plastic bottles and bottle tops for our bottle top competition!
Resources - different bulbs, bottle tops, clay, tools for the clay.
Week 2
We are going to check our bulbs and see if they have grown yet. We will explore the different parts of plants.
We will also plant some broad beans in different zip lock bags and see which conditions grow better. We will grow them in soil, cotton, paper towel, and put them indoors and outdoors on the windows, and in cupboards.
We will start to paint our dragon's eye a metallic colour and start to assemble our dragon's eye with the eye.
Resources - broad beans, zip lock bags, paper towels, cotton, soil metallic paint, dragon's eye.
Week 3
We are going to explore the outside environment and link Science to our outdoor learning. We will explore our outdoor environment regularly to find objects that are alive, living, and have never been alive. We will use ipads, and use an app to see if we can identify the different plants that are growing in our beautiful surroundings!
We are going to build dens with our friends and continue our Forest School diary entries.
Week 4
We are going to continue measuring our bulbs and broad beans and write record these in a table. We will continue to explore our beautiful outdoors and look for things that have been alive, never been alive, or dead and hopefully go to the Common for a field trip! We will take our ipads and take pictures and sort them at school.
We will also create our titanic models for our stop motion project that we will be doing.
Week 5
As our History topic is about the titanic. We will start to create our stop motion video in pairs. Practice makes perfect!
We will then link DT making ice- cream for our Seaside topic. We will make ice cream in a bag! You only need five ingredients to make this. You could have a go at home if you wanted too. You will need half milk, half cream, salt, ice, vanilla, and ice.
Don't forget to check your bulbs and broad beans!
Resources - ice, milk, cream, salt, vanilla
Week 6
Throughout the term we will be checking and looking after our plant beds, broad beans, and bulbs.
DT- We are going to show Year ones our stop motion titanic projects that you have put together. We are very excited to showcase your work!
We may finish the term with a fire pit!
Ongoing activities
We will be checking a record of our weekly activities in a simple diary in our topic books and on a Friday we will continue our spelling quiz.
Information for Forest Schools
Please ensure that your child is dressed appropriately. They needs waterproofs for if it rains. Children may not be able to go outside if not dressed correctly for the weather as we do not have enough spare clothes.
Children need to be dressed in trousers, top and jumper. Layers if it is due to be cold and trainers - NO PARTY OUTFITS OR SANDLES.
Please ensure that they have a change of shoes so that we do not trample mud around school. The children will still need to go into the lunch hall and toilets and will need clean shoes to do so.
Computing: We are going to be using our focus of Titanic to create a stop motion movie of the sinking. We will be working in small groups and have a director and animator roles. The children will share their movies with you so keep checking Natterhub and Twitter.
E-Safety - We will use Natterhub to explore digital footprints; exploring the importance of leaving a positive digital footprint and what to do in various situations if they haven't made a good choice online.
RSE/PSHE: Throughout the term the children will learn about growing older, naming body parts and moving into Year Three.
We will also be thinking about safety in different environments, risk and safety at home and emergencies
We are also continuing with our 'be ready, respectful and safe' behaviour system. The children are very knowledgeable about what this looks like in school and have been working hard to show these behaviours at all times.
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