Another wonderful week has flown by in the Owls classroom! The children have been busy completing topics, learning new skills and enjoying lots of exciting activities across the curriculum. It has been fantastic to see their confidence grow as they apply their knowledge in new and creative ways.

In Art this week, we completed our topic on clay. The children created their own clay tiles in the style of a house, carefully applying the skills they have developed over the past few weeks. They demonstrated how to impress patterns into clay, score surfaces and attach three-dimensional pieces using clay slip. The children also enjoyed creating their own pinch pots and showed great creativity in their designs. Owls, can you tell a grown-up what scoring means when working with clay? Why do we use clay slip when joining pieces together?

In RE, we completed our topic of “Belonging” by exploring how Jewish wedding ceremonies compare to Christian weddings. The children discussed the different traditions and celebrations before showing their understanding by completing a Venn diagram to identify similarities and differences between the two faiths. Owls, can you remember one similarity and one difference between a Jewish and Christian wedding ceremony?

In Computing, the children thoroughly enjoyed creating their own jokes sequencing coloured coding blocks appropriately and following algorithms they have learned about so far. They worked brilliantly with their partners and particularly loved recording their voices using the microphone so that everyone could hear their jokes.

In Maths, we have started our new topic on Position and Direction. The children had great fun learning through movement by following the instructions from the Cha Cha Slide song. They have become experts at identifying left and right, moving forwards and backwards, making quarter and half turns, and understanding the difference between clockwise and anti-clockwise turns. Owls, can you explain to a grown-up how you know the difference between left and right? Why not teach your family some of the moves from the Cha Cha Slide this weekend?

In English, we have continued reading our stimulus, The Way Back Home. The children have been learning all about imperative verbs and commands, and they loved playing a special version of Simon Says to help them understand how commands work. We have also explored the suffixes -er and -est and practised using them in our writing. The children applied these grammatical features when writing instructions to help the Martian return home safely after becoming stranded. Owls, can you tell someone at home what an imperative verb is? What punctuation do we often use at the end of a command to show urgency?

In Phonics, we have been learning the "i" that makes the long “I” sound. We have supported our learning by listening to the song Tiger and I and reading the story Into the Wild. The children have been practising adding the suffixes -ing and -ed to words containing this grapheme and have also explored how to make these words plural. Thank you for continuing to support your child's reading and phonics practice at home using Spelling Shed.

In Science, we began our exciting new topic, “Animals and Humans”. This week, the children learned about the basic needs of humans and animals and discovered that both have offspring which grow into adults. We enjoyed discussing how animals and humans change as they grow and what they need to survive and stay healthy. Owls, can you tell a grown-up the basic things that humans and animals need to survive? What is an offspring?

The children have worked incredibly hard this week and should be very proud of everything they have achieved. From creating clay masterpieces to learning new coding skills, they have approached every challenge with enthusiasm and a smile. We have loved seeing their confidence grow and watching them celebrate each other's successes.

Keep hooting with pride, Owls, and showing us how brilliantly you can learn! We can't wait to continue our learning journey with you and discover what exciting challenges lie ahead.

Have a lovely weekend!

Mrs A and Mrs T-D 😊