Term 2 

Topic

Canadian Bears worked diligently to complete the second half of our topic this term- ‘Through the Ages’. We began the term by exploring what everyday life was like for people living in the Iron Age. Children made some interesting discoveries about how life began to change as time progressed out of the Bronze Age and into the Iron Age. We continued on this learning journey to discover the Beaker folk, and we focused on how they helped to shape and influence everyday life in Britain. We also explored what farming looked like in this time period, and how iron supported tool development to make farming roles easier to manage.

We also looked at the importance of Celtic warriors within tribes and hillforts. We discussed how these warriors would have protected their land and tribes from outside invaders and tribes. Children created their own interpretations of what these warriors may have looked like and managed to creatively draw the pictures of how they thought they looked like. Finally, to conclude the topic, we discussed how life had change by the end of the Iron Age. We also compared elements of everyday life from the start of the Stone Age against the end of the Iron Age.

Science

In science this term, we began by exploring the role of the skeleton, and the role it plays within our bodies. We learned the names of a range of bones within our body, and discussed the main roles for many of these. We built upon this knowledge by conducting a simple experiment to explore how joints help these bones connect and move. The children were given a length of string and a whole length of straw. The string was put through the straw to see how well it can move around by bending it around. This process was repeated multiple times. Then, the children were given a length of string with some pieces of straw to thread. The children were able to visually see how joints help to move and bend parts of our body.

 We then went on to explore the main roles of some major muscles within our bodies with the focus on the partnership these muscles have with each other in contracting and relaxing particular parts of our bodies. The children were given the opportunity to test these muscle pairs for themselves by conducting simple movements while checking which muscle was responsible for making the movement possible.

Finally, we explored the differences between animals that have internal skeletons, external skeletons and no skeletons. We identified and sorted a range of these animals into these three groups before describing the definitions of the vocabulary ‘endoskeleton’ and ‘exoskeleton’.

To show that human beings needed bones and skeleton to support, we filled some gloves with water, which demonstrated this very well.

English

Canadian Bears completed two writing genres across the term – Cinquain poems and chronological reports. We began by exploring and learning a model text for both genres to enable the children to understand the style of writing we were looking at and the various features we needed to include in our writing. In looking at the cinquain poems, we explored syllables and how to count them within words and sentences. The style of our cinquain poem was focused on a specific number of words and syllables per line – this was a difficult task initially. However, in the end, the children ended up with some excellent poems using the correct format and features. We then moved our attention to chronological reports. We began this by learning our model text, which focused on how clothing changed through the Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age. By using text and general features for a chronological report, we were able to use this text to innovate to help us plan a new text,  focusing on how tools and weapons changed through the same periods of history.

Maths

This term, we have primarily focused on addition and subtraction within 1,000. We have been learning to use the column method to add and subtract 2 and 3-digit numbers. The concept of exchanging numbers across the columns have needed careful attention and plenty of practice to master. The children have worked hard to understand when and how to use these techniques, and they have applied them successfully to solve increasingly challenging problems. We have also focused on improving mental arithmetic skills, such as estimating answers and checking calculations for accuracy. We have been able to check our answers by using the inverse method.

RE

Canadian Bears focused on the Christmas story this term. We began the term by recapping and exploring the story of the birth of Jesus. We explored traditions that happen at Christmas, and discussed why these traditions often happen. We went on to look at how other countries around the world celebrate Christmas, and we were able to compare each fascinating tradition to the ones celebrated in Britain.

Finally, we used all of this learning to begin to explain how modern Christmas traditions link to the story of the Birth of Jesus.

During the Christmas Carol Service, Canadian Bears were chosen to create the nativity tableau during the service at St Michael’s Church, and also during the Carols around the tree in School.

We also had a daily riddle throughout the Christmas season. The children were very enthusiastic to get the answers correct. It quickly became something the children looked forward to each morning.

Library Time

As a class, we looked forward to our Library sessions every week.

We read, changed our books and shared the stories from our books with the whole class.

PE

We had fun with this term’s PE lessons- Dodgeball and Basketball. We followed all the rules which helped us to improve our skills.

Term 1, 2025-26 

Maths

For this term, we have focused on place value and practicsng our multiplication tables. We recapped our knowledge of how to use a place value grid to support addition and subtraction methods, and developed the method by including a hundred column into the place value grid, which allowed us to begin working with 3-digit numbers. We used this support to begin to add and subtract 1s, 10s and 100s to 3-digit numbers. Also, we used different manipulatives to support our learning.

Topic

This term our topic is ‘Through the Ages’. This topic explores the history and life in the Stone Age. During this term, we have explored the timelines of this period of history to begin to understand when this happened. We also developed our understanding of important key vocabulary we will be using throughout the unit. We have looked at how Stone Age man lived and how he survived in those times.  We have been very busy creating our own guide to Stone Age monuments and discovering how these were made and what they meant during this time. we have also discovered there were three main eras in the Stone Age: the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic. We explored what life was life in each of these eras, and discovered some changes that happened during the different eras.

English

We have been reading 'Stig of the Dump' as the linked text of ‘Through the Ages’. We have been learning about Barney and how Stig is the ultimate ‘up-cycler’ of his time. We have been working hard to learn and write two different genres of writing this term- historical narratives and instructional writing. We began by learning a model text with actions to support. We then explored the features of this style of writing, before planning and writing our own historical narratives based in the Stone Age.We moved onto the genre of instructional writing. Also, we begun with a model text explaining how to make a Stone Age axe. After exploring the grammatical features and layout of this style of writing we planned and wrote our own instructions based on the steps needed to make a Stone Age bow and arrow.

Science

In Science this term, we have looked at ‘Animals, Including Humans,’ specifically nutrition. We have completed our first investigation looking at which foods contained the highest amount of fat: some of the results were quite surprising.

RE

In RE this term, we have focused on the Hindu celebration of Diwali. We explored the origin of this celebration, and learned about the religious story of Rama and Sita. We produced a story map of this story to enhance our understanding of the events in the story. Also, we explored what Hindus do to take part and celebrate this festival, and we finished the unit by discussing and producing answers to our key question focused on why Diwali is important for Hindus.

Art

In Art this term, we were able to explore colours, colour wheel and investigated how they affect our well-being. We noticed that warm colours make us happy and energetic, whereas cool colours make us sad and unmotivated.

PE

In PE, we focused on two units this term - Dance and Tag Rugby. During our dance unit, we have had a focus on the theme of wild animals. Throughout the unit, we explored how to create a sequence of animal movements, interacting with and reacting to partners’ movements and creating sequences of group movements focused on different animals. We produced short performances, which we have shared with our peers at the end of each lesson.

We have been focusing on the fundamentals skills and understanding needed to begin to play this game during our tag rugby sessions. We focused on correctly holding, throwing and catching a rugby ball with partners. We built on from this by exploring the correct positioning of team members when throwing and receiving the ball. Then, we began to work with the tag belts and focused on the skill of tagging opponents. Finally, we put all of these skills together and played small sided games towards the end of the unit.

Term 6 2024-25 

English

In English, we have been writing an adventure narrative based on the true story of Grace Darling, who helped to rescue survivors of a shipwreck. We have been writing in the first person and the past tense, aiming to add expanded noun phrases to build a picture for our readers and make our writing more interesting. We read some other adventure narratives to help build up a bank of useful words and phrases, looked at their structure (opening, build-up, problem, resolution, ending) and what happened in each part of the story. We then used this to help us write our own stories.

Maths

This term, our main topic has been ‘fractions’.

First, we mastered identifying the whole and parts of different objects. We then moved on to identifying equal parts of shapes and quantities; halves, quarters and thirds.

Understanding what the numerator and denominator represent is essential because it helps us make sense of what fractions like 1/2, 2/3 and 3/4 actually mean.

For example, in the fraction 3/4, the denominator (4) shows that the whole has been split into four equal parts, and the numerator (3) tells us we are looking at three of those parts. This helps us to understand how one half is equal to two quarters.

Would you rather have ½ or ¼ of a cake? A larger denominator does not mean a larger fraction! 

Science

Our topic has been ‘Materials’. We have studied the difference between a material and its properties, and linked a material’s properties to its use. We have conducted some tests as part of this project.

The first test was about how easy or difficult it is to shape various materials, such as clay, sponge, a metal knife and plastic from a milk bottle. We discovered that some materials can keep their shape once squeezed, bent or pressed, like clay, and some revert back to their original shape, like sponge.

Our most recent test has been investigating the strength, texture and absorbency of some different types of paper. We learned that although paper is one type of material, it can have many forms with different properties. 

Topic

We have continued to base our studies on Whitstable this term.   

French Hares were particularly interested to learn about the history of Whitstable. They compared locations in Whitstable that we visited in April, with how they looked in the past.

Look carefully at the buildings in the photos – some of them are the same!

We learned about the tourist amenities in Whitstable, such as accommodation, catering and entertainment.

We are now writing the answer to our Key Enquiry Question; ‘Would Whitstable be a good location for a summer holiday?’