Beech Tree Class Blog 2023-2024
Beech Tree Blog
Weekly Update-10/11/23
Mr Kyriacou (n.kyriacou) on: Beech Tree Blog
Hello everyone,
This week, in our writing, we have started looking at newspaper reports, understanding what they are, why they're written, who they're written for and the features used within them. The children have also been gathering information all about the Viking raid at Lindisfarne, which is what their newspaper reports will be all about.
In our reading, we focused on a non-fiction text all about the Vikings in Britain, and worked on our retrieval, inference and summary skills. The children have done really well with this and it's lovely to see them becoming more confident, especially with their inference skills.
In science, we are now focusing on nutrition and diet, and this week we focused in on the 5 food groups, identifying what sort of foods go in those groups, why they are beneficial for our bodies and how often you should eat these types of foods.
In computing, we are continuing our unit of work on programming, focusing in on repetition of shapes. This week the children learnt about the different codes used for Turtle Academy which would allow them to move their turtle in a variety of ways. Once they understood how to use the different codes, their task was to create a number by programming the turtle to move in a specific way so that it would write the number out.
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Take care,
Mr Kyriacou :)
Weekly Update-27/10/23
Mr Kyriacou (n.kyriacou) on: Beech Tree Blog
Hello everyone,
This week, in maths we have been focusing on using different checking strategies for our column addition and subtraction and we have also been focusing on 2 and 3 mark word problems, identifying the key information within them and the mathematical vocabulary that indicates which operation they need to use and when. These problems involved multiple steps and both operations needed to be used. The children have also been using their checking strategies e.g inverse operation to check that their calculations are correct and spot any errors that they may have made.
In English, our focus has been performance poetry that uses similes. The children have really enjoyed learning about it and practising their use of intonation, volume, pace and use of actions whilst performing different people's poems and then when performing their own at the end of the week. Well done!
In art, we have continued looking at British artists. This week, our focus was on Howard Hodgkin, who is known for his abstract pieces of work. The children were tasked with creating mixed media pieces, that involved the combined use of paint, oil pastels, pencil and glue and create their own abstract pieces of work. The children were then given the option to experiment further later in the week by being given the option to cut their pieces up and then rearrange them to create a new abstract piece. The results were really exciting and the children should be very proud of their pieces of work.
The children have also made some lovely Halloween themed art as well.
Take care,
Mr Kyriacou :)
Weekly Update-20/10/23
Mr Kyriacou (n.kyriacou) on: Beech Tree Blog
Hello everyone,
This week, the children completed the first draft of their recounts. They also spent time revising and editing their pieces of work to make them as good as they can be and finally, they have published them. They have done a great job and should be very proud of them! Well done everyone!
In maths, we have continued our work on addition and subtraction, specifically focusing on using the column method for subtraction, with one or more exchanges. We have also been looking at efficient subtraction strategies and understanding how to change a calculation slightly in order to avoid lots of complex exchanging, whilst the difference between the two numbers remains the same and therefore still ending up with the same answer e.g. 7000-2348 is turned to 6999-2347 which both equal 4652 except the second calculation requires no exchanging.
In science, we have focused on understanding what joints are, what they are for and the different types of joints in our body. The children have been so engaged and the discussions that we've had have been really stimulating.
It was also lovely to meet all of the parents this week :)
Take care,
Mr Kyriacou :)