Willow Tree Class Blog
Willow Tree Class Blog
Weekly Update 21.1.22
K Simms (k.simms) on: Willow Tree Class Blog
Hello everyone!
This week has been a very busy one with lots of exciting visitors in school to support our learning! On Wednesday, the children met "The Music Man" Tony Preece who talked to them about how music intertwines with all the subjects in our curriculum. He spoke to the children about the different skills needed for woodwind and brass instruments and even taught them how to make their own trumpet out of a garden hose, a funnel and a mouthpiece! Tony is part of the Music for Schools Foundation who offer woodwind and brass instrument lessons to any children wanting to learn a new instrument or to any children who want a bit of extra tuition.
Please find a digital copy of the MfSF letter sent home on Wednesday here.
On Thursday, the Academy of Northern Ballet visited Willow Tree, Cedar Tree and Beech Tree and the children took part in creating a sequence of ballet moves including the arabesque and terdu. The children had lots of fun and photographs will be in a gallery on the Willow Tree Class page.
In maths, we have started our new topic of measurement and the children led their own enquiries around school to measure the length of various objects and rooms using a variety of equipment. Then, we practiced converting from centimetres to millimetres and metres to centimetres using our ever-developing multiplication skills.
In English, we have continued our work with the class text "Grandpa Chatterji" with a focus on Chapter 2.
In science, the children conducted an experiment to investigate the melting points of different objects to develop our understanding of solids, liquids and gases. This was very exciting as we used very important equipment to help us do this....especially the chocolate!
This week's spellings and homework can be found here and the next chapter of Tick Tock Cafe can be found here. Please bring this back Wednesday.
We have had lots more children reading everyday this week which is fantastic, please keep going!
Don't forget that even if they have not read their school issued reading book we still encourage additional reading for pleasure please make a note of anything else they have read this week in their red Reading Record.
This weekend, please can I ask that you have a look through school hoodies and jumpers and bring back any that may have been picked up by accident, we seem to have had a few mix-ups with these!
Have a restful weekend,
Miss Simms
Weekly Update 14.1.22
K Simms (k.simms) on: Willow Tree Class Blog
Hello everyone!
Wow! What a busy week we have had in Willow Tree Class! The children have been working extremely hard in every single subject and I am particularly impressed with their efforts during English this week.
For this term, our class reader is Grandpa Chatterji and this week the children have been busy retelling the story in their own words using Superstar vocabulary including a range of fronted adverbials and conjunctions.
During science, the children were able to help plan a party by investigating how much carbon dioxide there was in different types of fizzy drinks.
There was an extra special treat for the children on Wednesday when they were invited to watch a performance by the Bollywood Brass Band! This was a great link to our topic of India and Fairtrade and the children had lots of fun dancing around and listening to the fantastic music.
In PE, the children are developing their skill at gymnastics and have introduced a number of controlled jumps to their ever-growing bank of moves!
Homework will be sent home tonight and is due back in on Wednesday - if you have any questions please email me via the class email address.
Have a lovely weekend,
Miss Simms
Weekly update 7.1.22
K Simms (k.simms) on: Willow Tree Class Blog
Hello everyone,
I hope you had an enjoyable Christmas… Happy New Year to you all! It was lovely to see everyone back in school this week, the children have made a brilliant start to 2022.
- In geography / ICT we introduced our new topic for the Spring term – India & Fairtrade. The children developed their enquiry skills by using Google Earth to ‘go for a walk’ in India. We discovered a wide range of geographical features – including mountains, deserts, forests, jungles, lakes, huge cities and tiny villages.
- In English we read the first chapter of our new class reader - the brilliant ‘Grandpa Chatterji’ by Jamila Gavin – after making predictions and learning new vocabulary.
- In maths we developed our multiplication and division skills – and learnt to solve real-life problems involving scaling and proportion.
- In science, we used the properties of materials to sort them into solids, liquids and gases.
Well done to everyone who kept reading over the holidays! As always, the biggest impact parents/carers can make on their child’s learning is to encourage a love of reading for pleasure – and by listening to them read at least five times per week. It is little surprise that the children who read the most at home last term, also made the most progress in their end-of-term reading comprehension tests.
I’ve also been really impressed with the super effort children have been making with TT Rockstars. A huge congratulations to the following children who won times tables badges this week: Viraaj, Amber, Eva and Jakub.
REMINDER…BRONZE BADGE = x2, x5, x10SILVER BADGE = x3, x4, x6GOLD BADGE = x7, x8, x9SUPER GOLD = x11, x12 and all others at speed
Have a lovely weekend,
Miss Simms