Blackbirds

Spring 1 - Lost: Explorers

What a brilliant and busy half term we have had so far. This term we have been studying explorers from the past and present, with both Christopher Columbus and Neil Armstrong making appearances. I am sure you will agree, they are two very different styles of exploration!

We have focused our writing this half term on a short animation titled 'Adventures are the Pits', which is about a young boy and his journey back to the surface of a ball pit. The children have worked really hard in producing their recounts of the story creating suspense and excitement in their writing.

In Maths, we have investigated solving problems using all 4 operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division) as well as learning how to understand money, and the unique questions it can pose to our understanding of number. We have used coins and were even lucky enough to have a visit from a real accountant who talked to the class about what his job entails.

Autumn 2 - Art Attack

The half term was so busy with many wonderful activities and events taking place! We had a fantastic time working with a professional artist, a visit from a paramedic as part of our Aspiration Curriculum and of course the performance of 'I'm Gonna Shine' that we were so lucky to be able to perform for all of you for the first time in a long time!

Welcome back to another exciting half-term in Blackbirds!

It has been so lovely to get to know you through these first few weeks and the children have settled into their slightly different routines really well.

We started the half term with an art attack of our own whilst testing out our archery skills to create a piece of alternative artwork for our classroom display.

We have since created artwork based on the style of Claude Monet's impressionism, investigated the benefits and pitfalls of making sculptures using Play-doh and are about to take that knowledge into Forest School as we make sculptures from natural resources.

Autumn 1

Traction Man is Here!

Our theme for Autumn Term 1 is "Traction Man is Here!".

Our work across the curriculum will be based upon the series of Traction Man books written by Mini Grey.

The children will be going on a series of adventures with Traction Man and his trusty friend Scrubbing Brush. They will be set a series of challenges that will develop their skills across the curriculum as they help him on his special missions.

Where is Traction Man?

When we came into class Traction Man, Traction Girl and Scrubbing Brush had disappeared!

We searched around the school for them and eventually found them in the Music Garden.

We used our searching adventures as the stimulus to write a recount.

Can we compare materials?

Traction Man needed our help! He was on a special mission when it started to rain. He had a selection of materials in his backpack but which one would keep him dry? We developed our science enquiry skills; we made a prediction, tested the materials, made observations, recorded our investigation and used our findings to make a recommendation.

Creating Story Characters

In her books, Mini Grey creates characters by bringing household objects to life. This inspired us to create our own story characters.

We stuck eyes onto objects, created character names and used some of them within our story writing.

Investigating Materials
We tested a selection of every day materials to see how the shapes of solid objects made from some materials can be changed by squashing, bending, twisting and stretching.

We made scientific observations and recorded our findings.

Dare to be different day!

We all chose to dress up in any outfit that we wanted.

Can we develop our Design and Technology skills?

We each made a super hero hand puppet. We planned a puppet design on paper, developed our sewing skills to join the felt hand templates, cut and attached all of the design features out of felt and then evaluated our final product against our plan. 

Proud of our achievements.