Year 1 - Squirrel

SQUIRRELS

TERM 2

In term 2, we learnt about the weather.

We read the book The wind and The sun.  We cut out characters from this and stuck them on sticks to make puppets.  We also built a stage.  In groups, we performed a puppet show explaining the story using our characters.

We were very busy making rain gauges and we measured how much rain fell every day.  We also made weather vanes and anemometers to measure wind speed.

In maths, we learnt about number bonds to 10 by going outside and writing them on the playground in chalk.

Term two finished with the Super Squirrels taking a visit to St Clements, where we were visited by David Beal; a first officer of a cruise liner. David told us how he travels the world for six months at a time and he showed us pictures of himself with penguins in Antarctica, on top of the Eiffel Tower and sailing through the Amazon rain forest in Brazil.

David promised to write us letters and send us pictures when he goes back on his cruise ship.

TERM 3

Term 2 set us up nicely for our term 3 topic; ‘Go Jetters’.

In Geography, we will be learning about the 7 continents of the world and the 5 major oceans. We will also be using a map of the world to plot David’s location when he sends us his letters.

In History, we will be investigating the Wright Brothers and the history of aviation which will involve us taking a trip to the aviation museum in Eastchurch.

In Science, we will be focusing on the push and pull forces and exploring gravity. We will be conducting numerous experiments, including the shooting marshmallow experiment, which I’m sure the children will love.

Kites and paper aeroplanes will be the main focus of our DT lessons. This will lead us nicely into our express event.

In English we will be reading the book, ‘Where the Wild Things Are’. We will be exploring the characters emotions, which will finish with us writing a letter to the character and coming up with an alternative ending.

And finally in Maths, we will be continuing to explore addition and subtraction as well as using place value.

Term 4

Chitra Soundar

Author of Pattan’s Pumpkin

After being impressed by how much Squirrel Class loved their ‘Power of Reading’ text ‘Pattan’s Pumpkin,’ I decided to message the author ‘Chitra Soundar’ on Twitter. I told her about how much the children enjoyed her book and I enquired if she would be available to SKYPE with Squirrel Class so we could ask her some questions. She messaged me back stating that she was flattered by my message and she would be over the moon to talk to the class.

On Thursday morning, Squirrel Class prepared some questions to ask Chitra and we rehearsed these in front of the class. We also prepared some of our work to read to her. On Friday the 20^th we contacted Chitra via SKYPE and she answered all of our questions. She was a lovely lady and all of the children enjoyed talking to her. Chitra now wants us to send her copies of our work.

It was the perfect end to a crazy week! - Mr Crosby