We always try to keep you informed about our learning and what’s going on in school by sending home our topic webs, curriculum plans, information letters and texts, but if you’d like a reminder of what’s being taught each half term here’s our current Curriculum Plans.
During the first half term the children in Years 1 and 2 have enjoyed returning to our regular ‘Singing Assembly’ times. The children have enjoyed singing songs such as ‘Big Red Combine harvester’, and ‘Consider Yourself.’ They also have been enjoying listening to a different piece of music every week that can range from modern pop to classical and other music such as movie soundtracks or music from different parts of the world.
After listening to music, all children spend some ‘reflective time’ thinking about how listening has made them feel.
In Reception classes, the children have enjoyed listening to and singing along to many songs with their class peers.
A variety of music has also been experienced in the classrooms, as well as created in the outdoor classroom. Children have been observed making music independently, singing and moving to the music experiences throughout this half term.
In Year 1, the children have been listening to and learning about the well-known song ‘Hey You!’ They have been learning about pulse and rhythm as well as having a go at learning the lyrics and playing instruments, such as glockenspiels. When doing this the children used the C note to play alongside the music.
In Year 2, the children have been learning about feeling the pulse and clapping along to a beat. They have also been using Charanga to learn some new songs like ‘Music Is In My Soul’.
This term in Reception the children have been exploring ‘The Lion StoryTeller Bible’. Everyone enjoyed looking at the beautiful illustrations in this Bible, and have listened to several of the Christian stories. A favourite was ‘A Special Promise’ that tells the story of Noah, his ark and an exciting rainbow. The children really enjoyed talking about the different stories and retelling them with their friends.
Year 1
This term in Year One, the children have been looking at a variety of different religious stories. We have retold the story of The Good Samaritan and made sure to order it correctly. We then looked at the story of Passover and Moses and the children were able to make puppets to re-enact the story. We also listened to the story of Rama and Sita and the children found out about the Diwali Festival.
Year 2
In Year 2, the children have been learning about Islam. They looked at pictures of mosques and prayer rituals. They talked about who is part of their own community, and wrote their own rules that they thought would make the world a better place.
The children have also looked at a variety if religions as part of a philosophy focus, listening to videos from Ian Gardner and Marsha Parker about why people have different ideas of God. The children thought about morals, and if different scenarios were right or wrong, and sorted similarities and differences between religions. They ended their RE learning this year by drawing their own Rangoli patterns on the playground!
The reception children have thoroughly enjoyed their wellbeing/sports week! They started the week with a visit from Ellise who gave us some activities to do for a ‘day of calm.’ They learnt how to do deep breathing and hand breathing, and also did a listening activity where they had to focus on the sound of a chime. The next day they learnt all about bees and some of the children made hives to take home to hang up. They have also enjoyed playing some parachute games such as cat and mouse, having a boogie underneath in ‘I like to move it’, and running underneath to switch places. The mushroom we made at the end was fun too! We had fun on Wednesday at team day, earning points as a team trying different sports activities and on Thursday the children took part in ‘sports day’ led by Mr Mann, where they had a go at running different races and throwing javelins. On Friday, they spent some time doing yoga and some colouring in while listening to some relaxing music.
Year 1
Year 1 began the week with ‘A Day of Calm’ activities with Mrs Owen from the Dereham and West Norwich School Sports Partnership. Children were able to do this in their classes.
We thought about designing a calming garden to attract the bees. Part of our learning for this was to learn about how bees collect the nectar from flowers and bring it back to their hive. The children played a fun game to demonstrate this using coloured water for nectar and pipettes to extract the nectar and carry it back to the hive. We found out a lot of information about bees and what they liked and tried to include this in our design. We also did a collaborative mindfulness colouring of a giant bee.
We also had great fun learning a new team game of throw rounders. The children picked up the rules quickly and some children were able to think in a tactical way.
Mr Mann and his colleagues from The School Sports Partnership joined us on Thursday for some sports activities
Year 2
On Monday, Ellise Owen came in to teach the children strategies to keep calm, breathing strategies and some Tai-Chi movements. They also did some chime listening to heighten their listening sense.
The children all entered the BBC Radio 2 Design a Bee Garden competition. We were impressed with how detailed the children completed their designs and some of them were keen to include some of the aspects in their own gardens.
During the latter parts of the week, the children enjoyed playing a variety of different games and team building activities. This included trying to get their team across shark-infested waters with just 2 mats and lots of obstacles to overcome. They used excellent communication skills. The children enjoyed a visit from the West Norwich and Dereham Schools Sports Partnership who ran a mini sports day. The week ended with the children partaking in a variety of physical activities and such a lots of fun with parachute games!
COVID 19 has had a massive impact on Music – Imagine Primary School without singing! It has also meant a temporary halt to our Yr 4 WCIT of Steel Pan, Year 6 Samba and use of recorders in all classes.
On a brighter and more positive note, we now have a beautiful set of yellow ukuleles and have introduced whole class ukulele lessons throughout the year for Year 3 children. Charanga (the online Music resource we use for some of our lessons) has been specially adapted to be COVID safe with more glockenspiel use and sign language versions of songs being taught!
During lockdown we have made use of Oak Academy Music lessons when the majority of children have been learning at home. These are really good fun (Year 3 went ‘cup song’ crazy and have loved the body percussion sessions) and also incorporate lots of simple music theory continuing the skills taught in our usual curriculum.
‘Music from Around the World’ assemblies have been created to be shared in class giving children a chance to experience music from a range of cultures, eras and genres.
World book day this year was a bit different but we all had a really good time both at home and in school.
There were more resources online this year so that everyone could access the resources.
Everyone was able to access the live assemblies, where we heard from all the authors of the £1 books. This introduced the children to a whole range of authors and illustrators that were new to many of them. The themes of the books were:
These sessions really inspired the children, they taught us all a lot about how authors and illustrators gain their ideas.
In all year groups we completed lessons in class and online learning, linked to World Book Day. All year groups started our world book day with an assembly. We then gave a presentation of the Masked Reader videos from across the Federation, guessing which teacher was reading an extract from their favourite books! This caused much hilarity, trying to work out the voices of the readers and seeing the creative masks and disguises the teachers had used.
The children in Reception have been celebrating World Book Day by taking part in lots of animal themed activities.
Over the week, they have been listening to stories read by staff such as ‘The Little Monkey’ and ‘Blown Away.’ On Friday, the children took part in a drawing assembly with the author and illustrator Rob Biddulph to learn how to draw a penguin and a kite.
The children have also been enjoying watching Toftwood’s, ‘The Masked Reader’ and have had fun trying to guess who the staff members are before they are revealed! Some children have also had a go at filming their own version and these have been shared on the live Teams lessons for their friends to guess.
Alongside the Book Week activities, the children have been following craft tutorials recorded by Mrs Ratcliffe, Mrs Brown and Mrs Partridge. They have been busy making chain snakes, lion masks, frog puppets, handprint elephants and sloths!
For world book day celebrations in year 1, the children enjoyed watching the masked reader that the teachers had recorded. They loved using the clues to have a guess at who was reading the story and were really tricked by some of the masks.
We read the story ‘Man on the Moon’ which linked with our topic of ‘Our Planet and Beyond’. As we had been finding out about space explorers the children thought about what they would take with them if they could go into space. We then looked at part of Tim Peake’s diary from his space trip in 2015/16 and the children had a go at writing their own entry to a space diary. The children also thought of questions that they would like to ask Tim Peake if they could.
The children in year 2 celebrated World Book Day by watching some amazing authors talk about how they create and write their books. One author was Serena Patel, author of Anisha the Accidental Detective. Year 2 have now started reading this as their class reading book and are really enjoying it!
The children were mesmerised by the poet Michael Rosen reading his famous poem of chocolate cake. They were all giggling at the sound effects that he was making and the repetitive language he used when reading his poems aloud. As part of an assembly, they did a draw-a-long with the author and illustrator Rob Biddulph for the World Book Day mascot!
World book day was unusual this year as our lessons took place virtually but year 3 thoroughly enjoyed it nonetheless. The children reported that their favourite activities were the draw along sessions provided by the Bournville Book fest website; in these we learnt how illustrators read the descriptions of the author to create their interpretations of the characters. We drew Dobbie with Johnny Duddle, Doris from the ‘Nothing to see here hotel’ series with Steven Lenton and Toothless with Cressida Cowell ( we were very impressed at the fact that, not only is she the author and illustrator of her stories, but can also teach how to speak Dragonese).
The children were given some free time to create a ‘hilarious story’ using a family anecdote after we learnt that Serena Patel based her series of books on funny things that happened with her family. The children all had a giggle at some of the stories their friends were going to use from runaway lobsters to pretend spiders to leaky loos!
Lastly, the children listened to author Tom Palmer talk about how he turned his love of football into a series of books. He talked about using knowledge from an area of interest/passion to inform writing and the children used his advice to write a short story about something they were passionate about. At the end of the day, the children read their stories aloud and we learnt lots about what things the children in our classes are passionate about and spend their spare time doing!
Year 4 children created their own questions (with answers) for a World Book Day quiz that we held across the year groups later on in the week. We were really impressed with the diverse questions and the well-chosen texts that meant nearly everyone had read them and we were enthusiastic participants in the quiz!
Year 4 also looked at the World Book Day £1.00 book: “Little Badman and the Radioactive Samosa” by Humza Arshad and Henry White. We listened to their video and then read Chapter One of the book.
The children were asked to think about a favourite food or drink that when they ate it would give them superpowers – just like the character in the book: Humza.
The children were very enthusiastic with their task and enjoyed it immensely.
In year 5 the children got inspriation from the Scholastic authors who led various live lessons. The childen had inspiration from such authors as Simon James Green, Kimberley Pauley, Lisa Thompson , Helen Rutter and Vashni Handy
This gave the children inspiration to then go off and wrtie their own stories, which many are still continuting past book day; a truly inspiring day for all.
Lastly in year 6 the children did a series of workshops, run again by published authors, many of whom are familiar to them from Reading Gladiators and from them visiting our school.
They learnt how authors create imaginary worlds (our writing unit at the moment) finding inspration and how to create worlds. Then we learnt about how to create stories from our pictures. This day we have followed this up in class, as they realise that many authors write from what they know, using names, places and people that they are familiar with.
Overall the childen have been inpsired to write their own stories. There are many new authors now emerging, as many teachers are sharing new stories the children have been writing at home.
This half term Year 6 have enjoyed designing and creating their own Greek labyrinths.
The children studied the Ancient Greeks as part of their history learning. Before we started thinking about our own designs, we enjoyed finding out about the history of mazes and labyrinths and exploring images of famous mazes around the world. We spent some time thinking about our designs to ensure that they were fit for purpose. We had to be very careful when measuring to ensure that our dimensions were accurate and precise – this involved some maths skills too. When marking out our mazes, different sketching techniques were used to show lighter and darker areas. We had to make sure that we had one entrance and one exit. The children enjoyed adding in extra paths that led to nowhere!
To create our labyrinth we used cardboard for the base and art straws to represent the walls of the maze. We had to cut the straws to size, measuring each wall accurately from our plans. The children used glue to secure their walls. Over time, we found that we needed to refine some of our designs and make improvements so that the product was fit for purpose. After the labyrinths were complete, the children evaluated their product to identify what went well and what could have been made even better. Creating the labyrinths definitely reinforced the importance of measuring carefully and precisely.
Year 5 DT write up Autumn 2020
This term, year 5 have been busy making Viking longboats which include a pneumatic system.
First we looked at the design, materials and build of the real longboats and concluded that the Vikings had incredible DT skills of their own.
We carefully traced around a template of the hull, onto a cereal box, and cut it carefully using a craft knife and craft mat. We made accurate measurements of square doweling to find midway points to drill a hole, using a hand drill. We measured the round doweling to find 1/3 of the length to make the mast, which we then cut with a hacksaw. There was a lot of problem solving involved, where we had to sharpen the round doweling to fit snugly into the hole, before securing with a glue gun. As we used cereal boxes, we sometimes found the folds were weak spots in the hull, so we reinforced these areas with patches of card.
We had to talk a lot about using the tools safely and so we used blu-tac to poke holes in the card safely for the shields to be attached with split pins.
The boats also have to look good as a finished product, so we used a technique called decoupage, to strengthen and join the structure, and to make the boats look wooden.
Sails were attached with glue guns and a pneumatic system attached to make the sail “blow“ in the wind.
Time was also given to evaluate our finished products and think of alternate ways to make use of the pneumatic system i.e blowing a shield off the boat!
Year 4 DT Autumn 2020
In the Autumn term, the children in Year 4 worked on a combined Art and D.T project. The task combined making a cake stand and decorating the top with a Roman mosaic. The children learned how to make the card stronger by folding and gluing together layers; a process called laminating. The more tricky part was constructing the legs and ensuring the cake stand was stable and level. At the end of the project, the children evaluated their cake stands by identifying what had worked well and the skills they could try to improve next time. The children really enjoyed the project and produced some amazing cake stands; it was fantastic to see some children had even baked some cakes and made use of their cake stand at home!
Year 3 DT Autumn 2020
This half term, the year 3 children learned about the fascinating Egyptian civilisation and some of the famous artefacts uncovered.
During their Egyptian themed day, the children had the opportunity to investigate some of the artefacts and how they might have been made in ancient times. The children chose their own tools to carve varying lines and create different effects on scarab beetle amulets made out of soap. They also did this to engrave their names in hieroglyphs onto their own cartouche made from clay, after moulding, joining and smoothing their product. The children finished by glazing their dried cartouches with colours chosen to match their symbolic meaning.
In year 2, the children have been exploring materials this half term. The children have discussed the properties of different materials as well as conducting a number of enquiries.
They looked at whether certain materials could be bent, stretched, squashed, or twisted as well as investigating which type of paper was the strongest.
The children have also learnt about the materials that can be recycled and learnt about the process of recycling too.
The children have enthusiastically started to learn about animals and humans in our new topic ‘Animal Life’. They were able to build on their prior knowledge and experiences of animals (such as pets and trips to zoos/farms) to name and classify animals into different groups. This led to the children working together to classify animals into Mammals, Insects, Birds, Fish, Amphibians and Reptiles. They then painted their favourite animal and discussed which group the animal belonged to. The children thought carefully about what animals eat and categorised the animals into Carnivores, Herbivores and Omnivores. We used actions to help us remember each group. The children have been thinking about accurately labelling diagrams and can now label animal and human body parts using correct vocabulary. After labelling the different human body parts we thought about what our bodies could do. The children completed some brilliant home learning and discussed the 5 senses in class.
This term in reception the children enjoyed exploring Ted’s den, looking at plants and trees, birdwatching and seeing what they can dig up in the digging area. We have also been learning about our bodies, naming the body parts and finding out what food keeps us healthy.
As part of British Science week
the children enjoyed a super science day to learn more around the topic ‘Our
Diverse Planet’. We started the day with a show hosted by ‘Mad Science’. They
have visited many times and always ensure the children are enjoying their
science learning. The scientists discussed the importance of good hygiene
including effective hand washing. We believe this is particularly relevant
based on current health measures in place by the government. The scientists
discussed how we need to care for our planet and how part of this is how we
dispose of rubbish (either down sinks or toilets). This builds on the
children’s previous learning about recycling and reducing waste. The Mad
Science team showed the children how some materials, such as wet wipes, are not
biodegradable and can cause blockages. The children were shocked to see real
pictures of ‘fatbergs’ that had been created by these non-biodegradable
materials as well as congealed oils and fats. Discussions such as these help
the children be mindful of how they dispose of waste and how they can protect
the planet.
In the afternoon year 1 and 2
were visited by teachers and students from Neatherd high school. The teachers
completed an enquiry that investigated the adaptation of finches beaks. This
builds on the children’s previous learning about animal life. The children
learnt that Charles Darwin discovered on the different Galapagos Islands
finches had adapted to have different shaped beaks. They made a prediction
about which beak they thought would be best for collecting seeds. The children
used chopsticks, tweezers and peg to imitate the shapes of the beaks and took
turns to attempt picking up seeds. They recorded their findings in a table and
shared their results as a class.
Meanwhile, Reception children
explored how to make bubbles, making their own bubble wand and being creative
using washing up liquid, paint and straw to make some wonderful bubble
pictures. This builds on them exploring a variety of media and materials to be
imaginative.
Throughout the week the children
have completed several science enquiries which have supported their working
scientifically skills and encouraged them to ask their own questions. Year 1
enjoyed investigating whether our bodies are all the same, how animals can
camouflage to their environment and which materials are the best insulators
(imagining they were trying to survive in Antarctica!)
Year 1 and 2 both investigated
how much weight can be added to a ship before it begins to sink. This
experiment was based on the Cutty Sark which was used to transport tea from
China to London. They took turns to make observations and Year 2 extended this
investigation further by using different designs for their boats.
It is fantastic to see the children so enthusiastic about science and able to extend their skills through practical hands on learning!
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