Curriculum News – Page 18 – Toftwood Infant and Junior School Federation

Book Week Spring Term 2020

We focused our federation Book Week on the book ‘Inside the Villains’. This book was a wonderful stimulus to start our week and had the children captivated by the mechanical elements and moving parts! Each year group planned for some amazing activities and learning opportunities based around this book and the final products are brilliant!

‘It is wonderful to have these opportunities in the school year to inspire children to have a love of reading and encourage children to realise that they can aspire to become authors, poets or illustrators for their future careers!’

Reception

The children in Reception have been reading the Wolf section of the book ‘Inside the Villains.’ We read the story of ‘The Wolf and the seven little Goats’ and talked about what we thought a villain was. We read about the Wolf’s strengths and weaknesses and we enjoyed talking to our learning partners about our own. We have also been very busy reading wolf themed books and taking part in a variety of crafts.

Year 1

Year one children enjoyed exploring the villain characters in books this week. Their work was based around the wolf character and they listened to stories with wolves and other villains in. The children had to invent their own villain animal character and looked at words that might be used to describe them and what their qualities might be. The children also enjoyed sharing books with children in Year 4.

Year 2

Year 2 looked closely at the three villains in the book and thought about villains they knew of from other texts. Throughout the week the children worked towards creating a whole class book based on villains they have read about. They researched their villain using the kindles and thought carefully about their strengths, weaknesses and other attributes. Each child had to plan and make the character by thinking about moving parts and how these could be secured. Some children created pockets for implements, like the Giant, some children made tabs to hide things under, like the witch and some children made parts to pull out, like the Wolf’s stomach! By the end of the week the children had created the most marvellous class book and shared this with year 3 on Friday.

Year 3

During book week, Year 3 shared a story with year 2. The children took it in turns to read to each other and ask questions about the stories they were reading. We also created our own villain in DT, based on the villains in the book we focused on for the week. Year three created a wanted poster in English based around their own witch, using adjectives to describe them. In maths, we made a bar chart of our favourite villains in each class. The children collected the data and created a bar chart from this, both in their maths books and on Excel.

Year 4

During book week, Year 4 shared a story with year 1, children took it in turns to read to each other and ask questions about the stories they were reading. We also created many villainous top trumps cards. Year 4 got creative with story cubes and made some fantastic finger puppets. We also enjoyed using these to create a puppet show!

Year 5

Year 5 really enjoyed the chosen text, “Inside the Villains” by Clotilde Perrin. We used hot seating and questioning techniques to try to find out more about the characters’ feelings and motives. We studied their fact-files carefully and used that format to introduce the character that they had made up. These were presented very carefully to compile a class book. For DT we explored ways to make flaps, pockets, levers and pop-ups and then we developed these to create our own characters to add to the class books.

Bedtime stories

The children of both schools were able to attend the Federation annual Bedtime stories event. The children and their families came back to school in their pyjamas and with blankets and teddies to share stories, relax and listen to school staff reading and performing some of their favourite texts.

NSPCC Workshop

Year 5 and 6 classes have all taken part in workshops organised by the NSPCC, to build upon what we learnt in our assembly recently, reminding us to “Speak Out and Stay Safe. These talks by visiting speakers, such as Grahame, are an important part of our PSHE curriculum. Grahame showed us the mascot again, Buddy, who is a speech bubble, reminding us to speak out to a trusted adult if we have any worries.

Through a quiz, group discussions and various scenarios, we were reminded of the different categories of abuse. We also debated if secrets are good or not. A lot of our discussions concluded that we can judge situations by how they make us feel – comfortable or uncomfortable.

Grahame was very impressed with the emotional vocabulary that we have been taught in our PATHS lessons and so were able to use confidently in our discussions. Words such as distraught, uncomfortable, isolated, misunderstood and neglected helped us to describe the character in the film clips and we used our inference skills to read the situation. He was confident that we listened well and were in a good position to look after ourselves, and to look out for each other.

Children’s Mental Health Week 2020

The week beginning 3^rd February 2020 was Children’s Mental Health Week and we recognised this week across the federation in a number of ways.

We started the week with assemblies in both schools, which included discussing what Mental Health is and the theme of the week ‘Find Your Brave.’ We talked about what it means to be brave and how we have been brave in our lives. We shared the idea that being brave means trying new things even if you are afraid and sometimes little steps in the right direction is the most important thing.

On Thursday it was Time to Talk Day so we celebrated this by mixing with other children in our own year group and other year groups to talk about different topics, all to promote the importance of conversation.

Other activities throughout the week included mindfulness colouring, listening to calm music, mindfulness challenge activities, Jumpstart Johnny and yoga to promote the importance of physical activity for mental wellbeing.

This was an important week for the children to ensure they are equipped with the tools to cope with different challenges in life and that they recognise the importance of looking after their mental health as well as their physical health.

D and T Autumn 2019

Throughout the Autumn term, Year 3 have had several opportunities to cook things in order to practise the skills of following instructions, joining and combining a range of ingredients and working safely and hygienically. During each cooking opportunity, the children worked in groups to measure and weigh food items. Their first opportunity to combine ingredients required no baking – the children make a bruschetta snack as part of their cultural understanding day. They chopped and sliced basil leaves, tomatoes, onion, crushed garlic and poured balsamic vinegar and olive oil before spooning it onto slices of baguette. We discussed different components of a balanced diet and then revisited this as part of a STEM Day challenge; the children had to design, make and evaluate a street food based around a British-grown pepper. We stuffed the peppers with healthy options that would make us feel full. There were lots of fabulous alternative designs and we discussed how well they each contributed to a healthy and varied diet.

Their latest cooking challenge was to bake Egyptian-style flat bread to understand a cultural difference in an everyday food and to see how it was cooked differently using oil. The children were very surprised at its size and taste compared to traditional British bread!

After learning about the key processes of Ancient Egyptian life in History lessons, Year 3 learnt about key artefacts, including the cartouche that recorded a person’s name. As a class, we watched a tutorial on how to shape and mould separate pieces to layer the structure to ensure it looked authentic and how to join the pieces of clay effectively to ensure that, once dry, they would stay stuck together. We discussed and planned, as a class, the tools that may be most effective and useful for each stage of the product and how to be safe whilst using them in the classroom. We trialled and tested the proportions of clay that were needed for the base, the outer edge and the bar to ensure accurate assembling and the children assessed this as they went, remodelling where necessary. Once it was dry, we finished off the product by glazing it using paints to make it look more decorative to suit it’s purpose and seal the clay. The children chose colours that they thought the Egyptians would have had access to and use to show wealth.

Year 4 D and T Autumn

Year 4 have been learning about the design and technology skill of lamination. We designed and made a cake stand in the Roman style, with a roman mosaic on the top.

Children learned that if we layer materials, it makes it sturdy and strong. They were able to discuss what was good about their products and what they could do to make them better.

To finish off, we made some authentic honey cakes to adorn our cake stands. Well done to year four for putting in lots of effort for whisking their eggs in the Roman way!

Year 5 D&T – Autumn 2019

Moving Monsters and pneumatics has been our autumn term topic for D&T. We have looked at different objects that use pneumatics, how they work and how compressed air can be used to move things. We connected tubes to different kinds of pumps to see which were more effective and then began to think about how we could make a pneumatic ‘Moving Monster.’ We are now designing our monsters and will soon be connecting them to a pneumatic system to make them move.

Year 6 D and T Autumn

This term in Year 6 we have been learning about the Ancient Greeks. As part of this topic we have looked at Greek gods and architecture and then used this to plan and make our own version of the Parthenon. The audience for our models was to be another child to help them to understand more about Greek architecture.

First, the children used their computing research skills to find out as much as they could about the architecture, structure and use of temples in order to use a range of information to inform their design. They then did some investigative work to find out: the strongest type of columns; how to create a net for a triangular pyramid (which would be used to make the roof) and making a base with steps which would support our temple.

After discussing the children’s findings, it was then time to plan their temples using their DT skills; considering the culture and society of ancient Greece in their designs. We discussed the need for accurate measuring in order to ensure precision for their final model and the importance of making sure that their product was strong and “fit for purpose”.

Once the model temples were completed, the children used their evaluative skills to:

Refine and further improve their product.
Identify how it could be improved it,
Asked if different resources would have improved their product.
Finally, they posed the question “does our product meet all the design criteria?”

The children worked very hard and thoroughly enjoyed the activity, demonstrating great team work and communication too.

Autumn 2 2019 – Christmas Around the World

December has been a busy month for MFL. We have been thinking about what Christmas is like in other countries. Not only does this help us with our geographical understanding but it also helps us to understand and appreciate cultural differences within our wonderful world and wider community. We have been developing our speaking and listening skills through learning new language. Our previous knowledge of language learning has enabled us to identify familiar words within different contexts.

Year 3 had a fantastic time learning about a variety of countries including how Christmas is celebrated in Norway, China and Germany. They took part in three different sessions based on the three different countries. They made Norwegian heart baskets, Chinese paper lanterns and German Gingerbread houses.

In year 4, they have been discovering how to say ‘Merry Christmas’ in Italian, Croatian and German, among others! They also created a Christmas card with a festive message – using their newfound multi-lingual knowledge.

Year 5 had great fun locating countries on a map and discovering how they say Merry Christmas in that country. Did you know that Merry Christmas in Ukraine is ‘Веселого Різдва’?!

Year 6 got quizzical with a Christmas culture quiz. They enjoyed using an advent style quiz to test their comprehension and team working skills to work out the answers… They were not easy!

Science – Autumn Term 2019

Reception Understanding the World- Autumn 1

This term in reception the children have been learning about healthy and non-healthy food. The children read The Very Hungry Caterpillar focusing on what is a fruit, a vegetable and a special treat. They have also been learning that some foods give us lots of energy and why is it so important to have a balanced diet. Everyone in the year group looked at body parts and spent time learning the names of them. To help us remember the names of some body parts the children have been singing the song ‘heads, shoulders knees and toes.”

Year 1 Science- Autumn 1

This half term we have focussed on identifying and classifying enquiries about animals. The children worked together to classify animals into groups (mammals, fish, insects, reptiles, birds and amphibians). They also thought carefully about animal diet and classified the animals as carnivores, herbivores and omnivores. We thought of fun actions to help us remember the names of the groups!

The children also had an amazing educational visit to Banham Zoo, learning more about animals and completing a workshop about animal diet with expert zoo staff. For more information about this please see our Year Groups, Year 1 page.

The children have also enjoyed a ‘Mad Science’ visit for another fun filled assembly and we are sure the after school club will inspire the children who attend to continue to be curious and to ask lots of scientific questions.

Year 2 Science – Autumn 1

In science this half term, year 2 have been looking at different materials. They have enjoyed exploring materials such as wood, plastic and metal and described them. The children also enjoyed going on a material hunt around the school. The classes discussed the objects they found around school and what materials they were made from and then discussed the suitability of these materials for their uses. The children also learnt a materials song which helped them to understand the properties and suitability of a range of different materials. Have a listen and sing along at home; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOKr462HLc0

Well done to all the children who completed some amazing home learning linked to this work!

Science Summer Term 2019

Nursery

Barefoot sensory walk. We talked about the textures of items as we walked through them.

Rainbow walk- we looked at the colours in the rainbow and made coloured footprints!

Bubbles-children had a go at blowing giant bubbles using a hoop. They talked about techniques for making the best bubbles.

Shadow puppets! Children talked about shadows and how they were made.

Reception

This term the children have enjoyed exploring the outdoor areas. They have encountered several mini beasts and this led to lots of questions! When the children found a worm they were very keen to try and measure the length of the worm and made estimations first. They also thought carefully about what they could do to help a spider that they found. Some of the children were inspired to write their own mini beast story about what they found!

Year 1

Year 1 children have enjoyed learning about inventors during our Step Back in Time topic. We have learnt about Thomas Edison and how he invented the light bulb. We explored lamps, wires and batteries and investigated how to make a circuit. We were very pleased when we found out how to do it and we switched all the lights off so we could see our lamps shining!

We also learnt about Alexander Graham Bell and his telephone. We looked at different photos of telephones through the years and made our own phones using cups and string. We explored how the different length of string affected the sound.

Year 2

This term the children have enjoyed learning about habitats and environments. They built on their previous knowledge and explored the school grounds, including the pond area, identifying and classifying different animals. The children researched some of the animals they found and created amazing non-fiction fact file booklets in Literacy.

As part of this topic we visited Easton Farm and were able to ask lots of scientific questions about the animals and their habitats. More information about this can be found on the Year 2 tab of the website.

Literacy Infant Summer Term 2019

Nursery

Nursery children have been writing their own scribe stories with an adult. Some children heard initial sounds and were able to write their initial sounds. They have come up with some amazing story ideas and characters! They have also written their own party invitations including firework pictures.

Reception

The children have written about going to Gressenhall and the magical journey they had been on. The children wrote about their favourite part of the trip. A big highlight of their day was getting magic from the tree and finding a golden egg!

Year 1

The children used their recent trip to Holkham Hall to write about real events in the style of a chronological report. They used photos from the three activities to order and write about their day. The children loved this trip and it really inspired their writing to add extra information.

Year 2

The children watched a Disney short clip called Lava. They then researched about Hawaii using holiday brochures and talked about the descriptive language written. They then wrote and made their own brochure! These were fantastic and made the staff want to visit each of their hotels!

They have also written to inform by making a non-fiction Minibeast booklet. They were very excited to make this in to a book to share with the year 1 children.

Design & Technology Spring 2019

EYFS

Nursery

Our topics for this term are ‘Dinosaurs’, ‘Roots, shoots and muddy boots’.

Here are some observations from Tapestry of children using Design and Technology to develop their learning:

A child came to show me the plane that she had made, I was very impressed. She told me that it was like the plane that she went on a long time ago. When I asked her where she had gone she said, “On holiday, it was hot, I like when it hot. I like swimming.” I agreed that holidays were good fun. I looked at her plane and wondered if anything was missing, she was unsure so we looked at a picture of a plane together. The child noticed the writing on the plane and the windows, I suggested that she add them to her plane. She knew that she needed either a square or a rectangle but was unsure how to draw one, I modelled how and she tried hard to draw them on her plane; she even drew a window for the pilot to look out of.

Reception

Our topics for this term are ‘Fantasy’, ‘People who help us’.

Here are some observations from Tapestry of children using Design and Technology to develop their learning:

A child and his friends decided to use the large construction to build themselves a new juice machine. As the machine was taking shape the child realised that it wouldn’t stay standing up. I explained to him that it wasn’t ‘balancing’ and we chatted about what this word meant. We looked at a chair and I pointed out that each of its four legs were in the corners and this helped the chair to be stable. The child noticed his machine had only three legs and two of the were on one side. He worked hard to redesign his machine and we then tested how stable it was by gently bumping into it.

A child came over and showed me that she had made a watch on the making table. I asked her what we use watches for and she told me we use them to tell the time. I asked her if she could remember what we had talked about in maths before about time and she was unsure, so I reminded her that when the big hand points to the 12 we say O’clock at the top. She then remembered and did the action while saying it. I then looked at her watch and realised that she had drawn 2 O’clock as the time and asked her if she knew what time she had drawn. She had a look at and said 2 O’clock! Well done!

Key Stage One

Year 1

This term our topics have been ‘Weather Experts’ and ‘Our Planet and beyond’.

The children discussed traveling around on the moon in a moon buggy. They looked at some photos of moon buggies and talked about what features a moon buggy would need such as
wheels and a steering wheel. The children then worked hard as they designed and made their own moon buggies and tested them in motion.

Year 2

This term our topics have been ‘Air, Land and Sea’ and ‘Art around the world’.

During the topic ‘Air, Land and Sea’ the children made Ham pasta bake and enjoyed eating this in school. It was delicious!

The children also talked about how people travel on water and discussed what is special about modes of water transport and who might travel on water and why. The children then designed their own boats to travel on water. They thought about what materials would be best to use and how to ensure their boat was going to float. The children chose their own materials to make their boats and tested them in a tray of water to see if their design and build had been successful. They then evaluated their boats and thought about what they would do differently next time.

As part of our ‘Art around the world’ topic the children have been learning about different countries. They made and tasted a vegetable curry and this was new to many of the children but most said they enjoyed eating it and some said they would like to have it again.

Artsmark Gold Award!

We have received some very exciting news to let us know that here at Toftwood Infant School we have been awarded the Artsmark Gold award! We have received this from the Arts Council England and everyone should be proud of the hard work that all the grownups and children have put in to show how valued and enjoyed the arts is in our school. Arts Council England were impressed with how our school provides external opportunities that enhance arts teaching (music, drama, dance and art) that benefit the children and how proud the children are of all the achievements in these areas they are able to make.

“Your children are offered equal opportunity to plan, experience, participate in, and evaluate a broad range of high-quality arts and cultural activities, and your children have an opportunity to further develop their knowledge, skills and understanding of arts and culture through experiences provided.” – Arts Council England.

A huge thank you to all the staff and children at school who have worked so hard over the last two years to achieve this award. It is fantastic to see the children enjoying the arts so much and we all look forward to seeing what excitement is next! Below are a few pictures of some of the exciting arts projects we’ve had in the run up to achieving our Gold award. Well done everyone!