Beech Tree Class Blog 2023-2024
Beech Tree Blog
Weekly Update-5/5/23
Mr Kyriacou (n.kyriacou) on: Beech Tree Blog
Hello everyone,
This week, the children published their instruction texts about how to create a fire during the Stone Age - they’ve done a brilliant job and they should all be very proud of the work that they have produced!
In music, which revolves around Stage 1 of playing recorders, we have been focusing on playing and switching between two notes this week (B and A) and eventually, we worked our way up to playing a short tune called Apples and Bananas. The children are loving it. It is great to see the huge improvement already and it was so lovely for us all to play together! It's also been great to link recorders with our science topic, which is all about sound.
In computing, we are focusing on audio this half term and this week the children were creating their own podcast about the Stone Age, specifically informing the listeners about the basic steps of how to create a fire in the Stone Age. They worked in groups to create a script for an introduction, a main section and conclusion to their podcast. They then recorded their podcast using Audacity. They did a great job, worked well in their groups and it was so lovely to listen to all of their podcasts together as a class. These are the first recordings without any editing, the next task for the children will be editing them e.g. adding background music or sound effects. Well done!
The Very Smart Stone Age Podcast
Take care,
Mr Kyriacou :)
Weekly Update-28/4/23
Mr Kyriacou (n.kyriacou) on: Beech Tree Blog
Hello everyone,
This week, the children did their pedestrian skills training, which is designed to help and protect children from the dangers of crossing busy roads and to teach them key safety skills. The children were excellent throughout the activities and really enjoyed it.
In maths, we have continued our work on fractions, focusing on calculating equivalent fractions and also adding and subtracting fractions, mixed numbers and improper fractions.
This week, we have continued working on the features of instruction writing. The children have then planned their instruction text, written their draft and then revised and edited them. Their texts revolve around instructing people how to make a fire using only the materials that Stone Age people had to create them. They've done a brilliant job with these texts, including all the features required and have revised and edited them well to make them as good as they possibly can.
As part of our DT unit of work (Edible Gardens) the children have been looking at a variety of different herbs and also doing sight and smell tests to see if they can identify what the different herbs are. We have also planted lots of our own herbs this week as well, which the children really enjoyed doing.
We have also been planting sunflowers this week, which will relate to our science topic in Summer 2 (Plants) and the children will be recording the weekly growth of these sunflowers, as well as recording the growth of one sunflower that will be sat in the dark.
That's all for now :)
Mr Kyriacou :)
Weekly Update 21/4/23
Mr Kyriacou (n.kyriacou) on: Beech Tree Blog
Hello everyone,
It's been a lovely first week back for Beech Tree and the children have come with so much eagerness and enthusiasm. For our writing, we are focusing on instruction texts and have been focusing on what instructions are, why we use them and what they help us with. We have been looking at multiple examples of good instruction texts and identifying the features required to write a good set of instructions and we have then started to focus each lesson on different features, understanding what they are, why they're needed and how to use them effectively e.g imperative verbs.
In maths, we have been continuing our work on fractions, with the focus being on converting mixed numbers into improper fractions (and vice versa) and we have also been focusing on finding unit and non-unit fractions of amounts.
In science, sound is our new topic and this week, the children were focusing on understanding how sound is created (the children also experimented with hitting instruments and using tuning forks) and on identifying different sounds throughout the school and identifying what the source of the sound is and how it is created.
In PSHE, the topic for this half term is revolves around being your best. Our introduction lesson focused on having a balanced diet, and understanding the health benefits of different foods and a balanced diet. The children were then given the task of creating a three course meal for children which they thought would be healthier and more nutritionally balanced than the one that was shown to them.
Take care,
Mr Kyriacou :)