Beech Tree Class Blog 2023-2024
Beech Tree Blog
Weekly Update-4/3/22
Mr Kyriacou (n.kyriacou) on: Beech Tree Blog
Hello everyone,
In maths, we have been focusing on identifying unit and non-unit fractions and also focusing on how to calculate equivalent fractions. They've been working very hard, they've been using accurate mathematical vocabulary related to fractions and produced some great work, which has shown a huge increase in confidence, particularly with working out equivalent fractions through multiplication and division.
We have also celebrated World Book Day. The children came in some absolutely wonderful costumes to represent characters from some of their favourite books. We did lots of fun reading themed activities, we had a parade in the hall where they got to show off their costumes and they also got to choose a book to take home as part of our book swap.
Take care,
Mr Kyriacou :)
Weekly Update-18/2/22
Mr Kyriacou (n.kyriacou) on: Beech Tree Blog
Hello everyone,
This week, we started reading the fourth chapter of Grandpa Chatterji (this is my favourite chapter) and the children have absolutely loved it. We've all been hoping that Grandpa Chatterji and Grandpa Leicester would eventually meet and this chapter finally delivers that. It's such a lovely chapter, which made us all smile and giggle. The class have been so engaged with it, we've had wonderful discussions, they've demonstrated how good their scanning and inference skills have become and it has inspired the children to produce some brilliant writing.
In maths, we have continued our work on perimeter and area, which the children have really enjoyed doing and they've shown a lot of confidence with.
As part of our topic work, the focus was around Fairtrade. We had some absolutely brilliant discussions about it, the children shared some fantastic opinions, asked important questions and understood just how important this is. As part of the lesson, the children played a role playing game. A selection of children were the farmers and a selection were the buyers for the supermarkets. The idea of the game was to get the sellers to make sure that they set an absolute minimum price that they could sell for, in order to be able to cover their costs, but also see if they could negotiate for a bit more, in order to have extra money for things like education and medicine for their families. For the buyers, the aim was to get them to understand that they have to pay a fair price for what they are buying, they can't try and get it for a ridiculously cheap price because it's unfair and wrong to do that. The children absolutely loved the game and negotiated with each other really well, but most importantly, they understood why it's so important for the farmers (sellers) to get a fair price and what that can do for them and their families.
I hope you all have a lovely week off, make sure to look after yourselves and stay safe :)
Mr Kyriacou :)
Weekly Update 11/2/22
Mr Kyriacou (n.kyriacou) on: Beech Tree Blog
Hello everyone,
It was really lovely to see all of the parents this week, and for you to see the children's progress and the brilliant work that they have been producing.
This week, we have been focusing on perimeter in maths, which continues our work on measurement. The children have been working really hard and really challenging themselves with trickier problems involving perimeter.
In science, we have continued our work around states of matter - this week focusing on the water cycle. As part of our lesson on the water cycle, we created our own simulation of the water cycle by using plastic bottles and water. The water inside evaporates as it heats up and goes from a liquid to a gas (water vapour), then, as it rises, it starts to cool down, this is condensation, where the water vapour turns back into a liquid, in the form of tiny droplets of water. We then move onto precipitation - this is when the water condenses in the air and becomes heavy and eventually falls back down to the Earth in the form of rain, hail, sleet or snow. These bottles have been sitting in the classroom all week and we have been watching the cycle repeating itself, which has really helped the children to understand the concept of how the water cycle works and to use the correct scientific language when explaining it. The children have absolutely loved this topic and been so engaged.
I hope you all have a good weekend.
Take care,
Mr Kyriacou :)