Term 5

English:

In English this term, we have been studying list poems. These are poems that list ideas around a theme. Our model text was about a school and all the fun things that the children did at their school.

We also read some different list poems. German Wolves favourite was called ‘Switch, Switch’ by Ken Nesbitt. This list poem is about a boy who switched his Nintendo Switch for a painted brick to trick his brother. The poem lists all the different games that his brother couldn’t play on this Switch.

To help us make our poems more descriptive we learnt some adjectives. We learnt that adjectives describe a noun (people, places and things).

Finally, we wrote our own list poem about our homes and all the different activities we do in them.

Maths:

Our unit in Maths this term has been multiplication and division. Although we haven’t started to learn our timetables yet, we have been learning different techniques to help us.

First, we have been practising counting in 2s, 5s and 10s.  We can now identify the patterns when we count in these. For example, when we count in two, all the numbers end in 0,2,4,6 or 8 and they are all even. When we count in five, all the numbers end in 0 or 5. When we count in ten, all the numbers end in 0. Some numbers appear in all three!

Science:

We have been learning all about animals in Science this term! We have found out about how scientists classify different animals and sort them into groups based on their features. The two biggest groups are invertebrates and vertebrates. Animals in the invertebrates group do not have a backbone, where as the animals in the vertebrates group do. Invertebrates include insects and crustaceans. 

Vertebrates can be sorted into five groups - birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians and fish. We found out that we are mammals, and that the group with the most animals on earth is fish with approximately 26,000 different species!

We also looked at the diets of different animals. We discovered that some animals are carnivores (only eat meat), herbivores (only eat plants) and some are omnivores (eat both meat and plants).

Spanish:

In Spanish, we have visited El Circo! It has allowed us to revise different greetings from our previous learning as well as learn how to say the different acts we might see at the circus. These include the juggler, trapeze artist and the cyclist. We have also learnt phrases to describe what each act does.

Term 4

English:

In English this term we have been writing our own journey stories. We first read and learnt our model text about a meerkat called Marley who lived in Malaysia and wanted to visit his family who lived at London Zoo. Throughout his journey he encountered different problems, these included, not being able to see through the large crowds at Buckingham Palace and the rain when he was queueing for the London Eye.

Once we knew this story really well, we then wrote our own journey story based on the features we had explored in Marley’s story. We tried our best to use different ideas that we picked up from other stories.

Maths:

In Maths, we are now learning to count and write number to 50. We have learnt that numbers can be partitioned into tens and ones for example 29 is made of 2 tens and 9 ones. We have used ten frames to represent this and help us to understand each value.

Science:

In Science, we have been learning about weather. We noticed that the weather changes as the seasons change. This includes how much precipitation we can expect. Precipitation is when water in the atmosphere falls back to earth. This includes rain, hail, sleet and snow.

German Wolves set up their own experiment to answer their question ‘how much water falls from the sky when it rains?’ The children decided that they needed a rain gauge to help them to measure how much rain falls. They made predictions about what they thought might happen. We left the rain gauge in a safe place to collect the rain, and look forward to seeing what the outcome is!

Jubilee University:

During Jubilee University week, we explored charities and how they are supported. We learnt about four different charities: Age UK, PDSA, Great Ormond Street and Comic Relief. We learnt about whom these charities support and wrote letters to people to persuade them to donate to these causes. We also helped to raise money by hosting a bake sale with biscuits that we had made and an own clothes day.

We discussed a variety of different activities that people complete to raise money for charity. These include, sponsored silences, sponsored reading and mountain climbing! We found out that Mount Everest (the tallest mountain in the world) needs approximately 44,250 steps to get you to the top. So we put on our pedometers and we tried to climb Everest as a class! Unfortunately, we didn’t quite make it, but we did climb Ben Nevis (the tallest mountain in the UK) 6 times!

P.E:

In PE, we have been working on curled, narrow and wide shapes in Gymnastics. We learnt that to be a champion gymnast we must: be silent, stretch, point our fingers and toes, and if we make a balance we must be still. We have enjoyed composing our own routines, transitioning from different shapes and trying out different movements.

Term 3

English:

In English this term, German Wolves have been writing their own postcards from far off locations such as Lebanon, Poland and Australia!

We first learnt about what post cards are and about how to successfully write a postcard by analysing a postcard Mr Hughes sent us from his trip to London. He had seen many famous landmarks from the Tower of London, where he saw ravens and the crown jewels, to the London Eye with its spectacular views.

We then wrote a postcard, using the same structure as Mr Hughes, about different attractions in London. Some of us visited the aquarium and saw various sea creatures, others went to London Zoo and Hyde Park.

We then used what we had learnt to write our final postcard from a location of our choice.

Maths:

In Maths, we have been learning about place value with numbers within 20. We have discovered that numbers above ten have one ten and some ones. We used ten frames to show this. We have used this knowledge to find missing numbers on number lines, estimate where numbers fall on a blank number line and compare numbers to 20.

Next term we will be using and building on our learning to add and subtract numbers to 20.

Science:

In Science, German Wolves have been learning about seasonal change, including the changes that occur across each season how these changes affect the weather, animals and plants.  

In our first lesson, we wrote predictions about what we expect to see as winter changes into spring. These included how the weather might change, how nature will change around us with different things such as blossom and what changes might happen to how animals live.  

Next, we focused on trees and learnt how they change over the year through the four seasons. We also applied this knowledge to the changes that evergreen and deciduous trees go through over the course of the year.

We will continue to learn about seasonal change next term; investigating the weather and how it changes throughout the seasons of the year.

Music:

In Music, we have been exploring beat, tempo and percussion. Machines inspired our learning this term. We learnt songs based on this topic, our favourite was about different jobs that robots do with lots of changes in tempo from fast rushing about to slow when they need the batteries recharging. We learnt a song that we added actions and different body percussion to. Finally, we tried out different percussion instruments such as a guiro, castanets and triangles.

In our final lesson, we listened to a classical piece of music called ‘Journey to Copenhagen’. We had to listen carefully to try to work out what machine the song was about, we used clues such as a whistle, a rumbling and chugging sound. From this, we worked out that it was about a steam train journey. From our careful listening, we were also able to explain what was happening to the train at each part of the song from the tempo of the song.

Term 2

English:

This term we have been learning more about what life in the 1950’s was like by looking at reports. Inspired by the differences and how life has changed over 70 decades, we have started to write our own reports about everyday life in the 2020’s.

First, we looked at and learnt our model text with actions to help us. We learnt that children went to the cinema on Saturday mornings to watch cartoons and cowboy films for entertainment and that children had an hour and a half lunch break at school!

We then planned our own reports, including the changes we have noticed with what we now do for entertainment, what our school day is like and the clothes that we wear.

Maths:

In Maths, we have been adding and subtracting within 10. To help us deepen our learning and solve problems, such as finding the missing part from a whole, we have used part – whole models. This has allowed us to easily see the different values in a number sentence and solve problems.

We have used lots of different manipulatives to help us such as cubes, number lines and tens frames.

Topic:

In Topic, we have been discovering what life was like in the 1950’s. We have found out that lots of things have changed in the 7 decades since the 50’s including having to visit lots of different shops to be able to buy food, instead of just being able to visit one large supermarket and now having large colour televisions instead of small black and white televisions.

We have also analysed maps to be able to spot how locations have changed over time too.

Science:

In Science, German Wolves have been exploring the human senses. We learnt that we have five senses that help us to survive, keep us safe and take in information from the world around us. These are: touch, taste, smell, hearing and sight.

We tested our senses through a range of different experiments. We found out that we have two eyes to help us to see clearer than if we only had one. We tested out sense of touch to see if we could work out what object had been hidden. Finally, we tested our sense of smell to see if we could figure out what unidentified liquids were.

German Wolves have really enjoyed finding out about our senses and can’t wait to find out more!

Term 1

English:

I am made of glass.

I am small and round.

My centre is colourful.

Children like to play with me.

What am I?

Can you answer this riddle?

In Year 1 we have been learning riddles!  We first learnt two model riddles to help us understand what riddles were and how they were written. We enjoyed trying to work out what the riddles were, describing and learning actions to help us remember the riddle. German Wolves cleverly worked out that one was describing a marble and the other a teddy bear.

We explored adjectives as they are important when writing riddles, they help us to describe the objects to the audience If we didn’t choose carefully we might confuse them and they might not guess right!

Maths

In Maths this term, we have been focusing on recognising and representing numbers to ten.

First, we practised counting forward to ten from zero. When we were confident with this, we learnt to count backwards from ten to zero. We made number tracks and used number lines to help us.

When we were secure with this, we then explored using this knowledge to help us with finding one more and one less of a given number. To help us we used a range of manipulatives, our favourite resource was cubes. We even began to use inequality symbols < and > to help us to write comparing sentences.

Computing

In Computing this term, we have been creating digital media, focusing on digital painting using the paint app. We explored the variety of tools on the app to make different effects such as the paint brush, the pencil, the fill tool and the spray can; we then explored how we could alter these by changing the colour or the size.

We looked at art from different artist such as Kandinsky, Matisse and Mondrian and tried our hand at recreating these art works on the paint app.

Spanish

In Spanish, we have been learning how to greet people and start conversations.

We learned that there are formal ways of greeting people, which we would use if we were greeting someone we did not know or someone with high authority. To say hello formally we would say “Buenos días!” where as, if we did know the person and we were friends we could use informal language such as “Hola!”.

We have learnt different phrases such as how to introduce ourselves “Mi llamo…” as well as how to ask how someone is “Cómo estás?”. We are excited to learn more Spanish!