Maple Class Blog

In RE, we have been thinking about why people do good things and why people do bad things and we had to rank them in groups.

In Science, we have been learning about homogenous and heterogenous mixtures and separated mixtures by sieving.

We have also had some new books delivered – The Girl with Space in her Heart and the Percy Jackson series. We have really enjoyed reading them during DEAR time.

We have had a very busy week this week! In PSHE, we went on a secret mission. We completed an agility and endurance test and showed lots of determination to keep going.

On Wednesday, we went to Cattle Country. We had great fun with Willow, especially on the bouncy pillow and slides. Miss Powell even went on the slides too!

In Science, we continued our work on thermal conductors and insulators. We tested different materials including felt, bubble wrap, paper and tin foil to see which material kept the heat in.

Finally, in Art we created our own surreal photo collages using old magazines.

This week, Maple Class have been writing their own diary entries based on the old man in the Tin Forest. We have also been learning about paper collage in Art and we experimented making our own based on line, texture, colour and shape. Finally, in PSHE we discussed different scenarios that we might face online and worked together to decide which were safe and unsafe.

Maple Class have had a busy week. We really enjoyed taking part in the Coronation dance workshop on Thursday. In Art, we have been learning about different paper crafting techniques including decoupage, quilling, paper folding and marbling. In Maths, we have been learning about mixed number fractions, proper and improper fractions and adding them together. ​

This has been tricky, but we have shown great determination! Finally, we have been thinking about self-esteem and ways we can improve our self-esteem in PSHE.

We had great time visiting the allotment yesterday! We planted potatoes and got to take some rhubarb and carrots home.

We will hopefully be going back during the Summer term to pick potatoes and onions so that we can make a seasonal soup.

Have a lovely Easter break!

We have had another busy week in Maple Class. We had great fun at the sports taster sessions. Miss Powell was very impressed with our dancing and fencing skills!

We have been learning lots about keeping healthy in PSHE. This week, we focused on what to do in an emergency situation. We learnt about the recovery position and when it would be appropriate to use it.

Maple Class have been reading ‘Quest’ by Aaron Becker. This is the sequel to the ‘Journey’ that we read in the Autumn term. We have enjoyed looking at the pictures and making inferences.​In Music, we have been creating and performing our own body percussion sequences.​

We have also been learning about old age and how the body declines in Science. Willow loved helping us with this lesson! He also loved our crazy hair for Comic Relief!​

Maple Class have been doing lots of activities linked to reading this week. At the start of the week, we visited the library and had great fun choosing our own library book. On World Book Day, we heard for an author, Helen Rutter. She told us about her new book ‘The Funniest Boy in the World’. Some of our parents also visited us in the afternoon and shared some stories with us.

In English, we have started reading our new story – ‘Leon and the Place Between’. We are looking forward to writing our own stories about a place between soon. In Maths, we have been learning how to compare and order fractions. This has been tricky, but we have stayed positive and determined!

Maple Class have had Willow again this week! In Art, we have been learning about photography and why black and white photos create such a dramatic effect. We experimented taking our own photos of natural objects from different angles. We loved this lesson! Willow has also been finding out about the features of explanation texts. We have been planning our own based on the human life cycle and will be writing one next week. The oracy competition took place on Monday too. The winners were Vaslat and Joshua and they will go head to head and present to the rest of the school in the next couple of weeks.

Maple Class have continued to develop their understanding of long multiplication in Maths. We learnt what a bar was in Music and we have learnt about what makes a mammal a mammal is Science. We will be using our knowledge of mammals and their life cycles to write our own explanation text in English.​

We also had a visit from a police officer who talked to use about anti-social behaviour.​

Maple Class have been learning about human reproduction in Science. We learnt about how the embryo changes and grows over 40 weeks. In Maths, we have been working really hard on multiplying numbers using distributive law and long multiplication. It’s been very tricky, but we have been determined! Finally, we learning about fruits and vegetables in French. Watermelon was very popular!

Maple Class have been very busy this week. In Maths, we have been learning about prime numbers and squared numbers. Miss Powell has been very impressed! We have also been reading our new class text – Hansel and Gretel. We will be using this as a basis to write own story over the next few weeks. In Art, we have been learning about different types of shading using pencil, ink wash and biro. We experimented with smudging, stippling, cross-hatching and scribbling.

We have been very busy in Maple Class practising for the Christmas Play.  We also had a DT day on Wednesday where we learnt about pneumatics and how they work. We planned and made our own moving monsters using a syringe, tube and balloon. We also completed our clay casts and painted them different shades and tones of green using water colour.

Maple Class have had a busy few weeks. We have been planning our own recounts based on Mog’s Christmas Calamity and we will be writing them next week. In Maths, we have completed our unit of work on multiplying and dividing whole numbers and decimals by 10,100 and 1000. Miss Powell was very impressed! In Art, we have been making our own paper casts and clay casts. We can’t wait to paint them. We have been continuing to learn about the solar system in Science. We learnt about the different phases of the moon. We also performed our class assembly. Thank you to all those parents who attended.

Maple Class have been working hard on adding and subtracting decimals. It has been quite tricky, but we kept persevering! We have also been reading our new class text – How to Catch Santa. We will be writing our own instructions on how to catch him next week. In Science, we have been learning about Space and naming and locating the planets. Finally, we went to the Really Wild Reading Festival and met Fleur Hitchcock. We loved finding out about how she gets her ideas for her books and listening to some extracts. Thank you so much to all those parents that donated or made cakes for Children in Need too. We certainly enjoyed eating them!

Maple Class have been reading the story ‘Journey’ by Arron Becker and we have used this to write our own stories about a journey. In Maths, we have been doing lots of work on mental addition and subtraction and looking at the numbers involved to see if we can work the answer out mentally, with a jotting or using a written method. In PSHE, we have been learning about racism. We also learnt about what a toccata and we had a go at creating one of our own.

In English, we have been focusing on the picture book ‘Journey’ by Aaron Becker. We looked carefully at the pictures and answered questions about the story. We will be using this as a basis to plan and write our own story about a journey next week. In Maths, we have been learning about nets of a cube, cuboid, prism and pyramid. We made different nets and identified which ones would work and which ones wouldn’t and why. We have also had two very exciting visits this week! We loved meeting Cain and finding out about his disability. He was so positive and funny. Our favourite part was feeding Mr Hales and Miss Powell. We also enjoyed the construction workshop.

Maple Class have performed the Ning Nang Nong in Guided Reading. We have also carried out an experiment in science to test the effects of water resistance. We found out that more streamlined shapes had less resistance than flat shapes with a bigger surface area. We also had a visit from the Dogs Trust and found out how to look after and care for dogs.

Maple Class have been very busy this week. We have been writing our own poems based on Chocolate Cake by Michael Rosen and we really enjoyed performing them. We are starting a new unit this week based on non-chronological reports and we will be writing our own on the Shang Dynasty. In French, we have been learning about school subjects and saying what we like or dislike about them. We have also learnt about time zones in Geography. We also learnt about the skills needed to work effectively as a group in PSHE. We had to build the tallest tower by listening, communicating and delegating tasks to the members of our team.

As it’s National Poetry Day, we have been learning about the features of narrative poems. We have read ‘Chocolate Cake’ by Michael Rosen and are looking forward to writing our own narrative poems based on our favourite food. In Maths, we have been finding fraction and decimal equivalents for tenths, hundredths and thousandths. In RE, we have been looking at how cathedrals are designed and how they show God is holy and loving. Finally, we made parachutes in Science. We were looking at the effects of air resistance and how the surface area of the object changes the amount of air resistance.

Maple Class have been working hard this week. We have had Willow and he has been helping us with all our learning. In Maths, we have been recognising regular and irregular polygons and plotting them on a co-ordinate grid. We have been learning about levers in Science and how the mechanical advantage changes based on the location of the load, fulcrum and effort. We have also learnt how to make safe passwords in computing.