Welcome to Spring 2 in Firecrests.
As well as being busy with our learning, we will also be undertaking another practise SATs test, to show how much progress we have made.
Behaviours for Learning
Firecrests will be learning about Going for Goals. This theme focusses primarily on the key aspect of motivation, with a subsidiary focus on self-awareness. It gives an important opportunity for all children. Children will be given the opportunity to reflect on themselves as individuals, particularly their strengths as learners and how they learn most effectively. They will also learn how to set a simple goal and recognise how their behaviour affects other people.
English
Our text will be The Owl and the Pussy cat by Edward Lear.
Children will explore the themes of the poem, write in role as the characters, create fictitious interviews, create lists of items they can take on their honeymoon and eventually innovate upon the poem to create their own versions.
Maths
After completing our multiplication and division unit, we will be turning our focus to Length and Height, where we will be measuring in centimetres and metres, comparing and ordering lengths and heights, and then using the 4 operations within the concept of length and height.
We will then move on to mass, capacity and temperature, measuring and comparing in grams, kilograms, millilitres and litres, before turning our focus to temperature.
Science - Materials
This unit builds upon the work in year 1 on materials and magnets. After recapping materials, to check that we know that they have specific uses according to their properties, we will be putting materials under the microscope to see what they are made up of before understanding solid and liquid states. We will also investigate how scientists approach their work with matter and how inventors use the properties of matter to help them invent useful things.
History - The Tudors
Leaping from our previous history unit, The Romans in Britain, children will learn about how The Tudors, who were a powerful dynasty, where power was inherited and passed down through the male line, ruled over Britain. We will focus on the lives on Henry VIII and his three children: Mary I, Elizabeth I and Edward VI.
Religious Education
Firecrests will explore the question ‘Is it true that Jesus came back to life again?’ by exploring the Christian bible story of Easter and the events that Christians believe followed Jesus's death.
PE
Gymnastics Children will learn, explore and develpp basic gymnastic actions on the floor and using apparatus. They will develop the gymnastic skills of jumping, rolling, balancing and travelling individually and in combination to create short sequences and movement phases. Children will develop an awareness of compositional devices when creating sequences to include the use of shapes, levels and direction. They will also learn to work safely with and around others and whilst using apparatus.
Ball Skillls Children will develop their fundamental ball skills such as throwing, catching, rolling, hitting a target, dribbling with both hands and feet and kicking. They will look to perfect these skills with increasing control and accuracy using co-ordination and balance.
Life Skills
Children will be learning all about how to keep themselves safe in a range of everyday situations. They will explore what to do when meeting new people and how to identify trusted adults, learn about medicines and why they should only be taken with adult supervision, and develop their understanding of fire safety and the role of the emergency services. The children will also be taught how to make a 999 call in an emergency, including what information they might need to give. Finally, they will learn important online safety rules, such as keeping personal information private and knowing what to do if something they see online makes them feel unsure or unsafe. This sequence of lessons builds children’s confidence, independence and awareness, helping them make safe and sensible choices in the world around them.
Computing
In e-safety, Firecrests will explore managing online information. Then Firecrests will be learning about creating media to create music.
Music
Recognising Different Sounds: When voices or instruments work together to play different pitches that sound at the same time, we can hear harmony in music! Children will explore the voices and instruments used within the music in this unit to identify how and when harmony takes place. There are many different instruments used in the songs in this unit. Singing and listening are at the heart of each lesson and children will also be learning to play, improvise and compose using a selection of these notes: C, D, E, F, G, A, B♭, B.
DT
Children cook gingerbread biscuits. Children willl be introduced to the concept that spices (in this case ginger) can be used to flavour food. Recipes for gingerbread are very old and first arrived in Europe when spices were brought from the middle East during the Crusades (religious wars between Islam and Christianity) in the medieval period. Spices were expensive and therefore gingerbread was seen as a treat. Consequently it was traditionally eaten at Christmas time. Children will then make the biscuits and then taste and evaluate what they have made.
Linked below are the knowledge organisers that will help you support your children with all this learning during the half-term. Thank you for all that you do to support your children with their learning at Glade.