Literacy
This half term, we focused on poetry and wrote our own in the style of 'The River' by Valerie Bloom. During this unit we learnt about how to use personification, create our own similes and metaphors to create detailed descriptions to our poems. The final skill we were able to apply was exploring how to generate alliteration.
We then wrote a formal letter to the Mayor in objection to the council building a coal mine on top of Mapplewell Park. We practiced using:
- Emotive language
- Formal language
- Fronted adverbials to aid cohesion between our paragraphs
- Commas to embed extra information into our sentences
LIRA
Our first book was 'The Biggest Footprint' by Rob and Tom Sears. It explores what the world would look like if all of the 8 billion humans were 'smooshed' together into one giant mega human! We loved exploring this story and the language the authors chose to use.
Our next text was 'The Witches' by Roald Dahl. We practiced making lots of inferences using the beginning of the book where Roald Dahl introduces witches to the reader.
Maths
This half term we have, we have explored the following concepts: addition and subtraction, multiplication and division, and developed our understanding of decimals. During these units we consolidated our understanding of formal written methods which has helped improve our accuracy. Since we have been drawing upon our prior learning, we have been able to apply our understanding to solve problems.
Wider Curriculum
This half term, our topic has been all about Coal Mining with a focus on History. To hook us into our new topic, we took a trip to the National Coal Mining Museum!
We explored the chronology and significance of coal mining in the South Yorkshire area as well as looking at previous leaders of our country including Margret Thatcher and Arthur Scargill. Towards the end of our topic, we investigated the impact of the miners strike. Finally, we learnt about the legacy of coal mining in Barnsley and how the closures effected workers living in the local community.
Science
This half term the children learnt about plants. They have named and identified the different parts of a flowering plant and have been able to explain the functions of each part. The children have been given the opportunity to explore plants transport water via the stem. Finally, children ended their unit by looking at how seeds disperse.
RSHE
In RSHE, we have explored the following about relationships and bullying. We have discussed what it means to have a positive relationship and what that means to us. The children have explored how to keep themselves to safe online and forms of online bullying. Children were asked to think and name they consider as their trusted adults and why.
The children ended this unit with learning about what bodily changes they may go through and how these are different for boys and girls.