Curriculum News – Page 4 – Toftwood Infant and Junior School Federation

Spring 2 – Year 2

This term we have continued to explore poetry, particularly those about Winter. They have worked together to create word banks to help them write poetry using new vocabulary. We then looked at writing an acrostic poem with the word ‘frosty’.

We have also looked at the traditional tale of Little Red Riding Hood and described the characters in the story by using expanded noun phrases. The children then listened to the story from the Wolf’s point of view and wrote questions they would like to ask the wolf which they did through some ‘hot seating’ drama. They then wrote a letter from the Wolf to Granny and a sequel to the Wolf’s story.

Spring 2

The children in year 1 have absolutely loved sharing the book ‘Alan’s big scary teeth’ by Jarvis in our English lessons this half term. They found this text very funny and engaging! The children were able to talk about the events in the story and recall these to answer a range of questions about it.

Before we started reading the text the children learnt about Alligators. They researched about their habitat, appearance and diet. They created a non-fiction fact file about alligators focusing on writing subheadings for each section.

The children were able to use this information to support their discussions about the book and it also provided the children with a range of adjectives that could be used to describe Alan the alligator too!

By the end of the unit the children got in groups to create a role-play of the story – these were amazing to watch as part of an audience. They each chose a character and thought about the words that character would say as well as how they would act!

Reception – Spring 2 2024

This half term the children in Reception have been working really hard on recapping all of the digraphs they have learnt so far this year. This has included recapping the actions and songs to go with these actions. In phonics lessons, they have practised spotting these digraphs in words and sentences they are reading and they have also been trying to spell and write words that contain these digraphs.

In continuous provision, the children have continued to access phonics and literacy related resources to embed the learning they have been doing in phonics lessons. They have been looking through the class book containing stories they have written, writing recipes in Ted’s Den and reading words on buried treasure! They have also been writing during their role play, writing medical slips for animals at the vets and booking dentist appointments.

Spring RE 2024

Year 3

In RE, Year 3 have been learning about Islam and what Muslims believe about God. This has been a very interesting and detailed unit in which the children have discussed who the Islamic god Allah is, how Muslims show their dedication and belief to Him, and why prayer is an important part of their religion (see the pictures of the children trying out the Islamic position for praying). It has been excellent to see the children enquiring about the similarities and differences between Islam and religions they have previously learned about, such as Christianity and Hinduism. Please find details of our previous March visit from Janet Marshall, in which she discussed many aspects of Islam and developed the children’s interest in exploring a new faith, under our Year 3 tab.

Year 4

This term in Year 4, the children have been learning about what a sacrifice is. This children have learnt about a variety of sacrifices such as giving up time and money in order to help someone else. All children were able to identify what different sacrifices have in common which helped them to answer our big question.

The children particularly enjoyed their role play activity where they decided how they would sacrifice their money to give it to organisations that need it most. All children were able to explain why they thought their organisation needed the money and how they would spend it to help others.

Year 5

In RE, Year 5 have been focusing on our enquiry question of ‘What does the Resurrection mean to Christians?’ They have been looking at what happens on Good Friday and Easter Sunday and have been making comparisons between the different Gospels.

On Thursday 21^st March, Reverent Laura delivered a workshop to each Year 5 class. The children started off by looking at a photograph of Jesus’ tomb, whereby the children discussed the photo, which depicts the Resurrection. The children commented how bright the picture was.

Reverent Laura asked the children why Good Friday had that name – the children thought it was because it was the end of the week! She explained that the day got its name because Christians believe that God loves us and is willing to die for us. The children discussed the meaning of names and Reverent Laura informed us that Jesus’ name means he saves. The children were very curious as to what their name meant and used the tablets to find the answer!

The last part of the workshop involved discussing the 5 meanings of Easter Eggs. The children were really fascinated that Easter Eggs are hollow, which illustrates the tomb being empty! Overall, the children discovered that the Resurrection is so important to Christians because it demonstrates a new life, a promise and a gift.

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Year 6

RE Spring Term 2024

In this half term, Year 6 considered the big question; Creation and Science – conflicting or complementary?

We began the unit by looking at some of the natural and manmade wonders of the world before recapping our learning from year 3 on the creation story in Judaism and Christianity, and how it may conflict or complement scientific theories of the beginning of the world; this also went alongside their science topic of evolution. The children wrote some lovely poems about different aspects of creation.

We had some fantastic discussions about how people interpret their religious texts and leads to differing viewpoints, even within the same religion.

DT Spring 2024

Reception

This term, the children in Reception have been enjoying their Fantasy topic. They have been using a variety of materials to create ll sorts of things they may find in a fantasy book! They have created pirate hats, dragons and many other fantastical objects. The children also enjoyed some cooking this term. They decided what to put on top of their pancakes and tasted them to check which one they liked best.

Year 1

In Year 1, the children found out about different climates and how houses are designed to survive floods in other areas of the world. The children then made their own flood-proof houses in pairs. They thought about the features of a real house in a flood risk area and applied this to their own creation. The children then tested their houses by flooding a tray with water.

Year 2

In Year 2 the children talked about different ways of travel. The children learnt about boats and designed their own. They thought about what materials would be best to use and how to ensure their boat would travel on water. The children chose their own materials to make their boats and tested them 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. The children also made bruschetta and loved getting to taste and evaluate it!

Art Spring 2 2024

Reception

The children in Reception have been doing observational paintings of daffodils. They talked about the different colours and how the paint could be mixed to create lighter shades such as mixing yellow and white will make light yellow.

Year 1

In Year 1 this half term, the children have been learning to sketch and shade to add depth and texture to their drawings. They used these techniques to draw a planet of their choice and were able to illustrate how the light from the sun creates highlights and shadows. We also discussed how we can make the planets look spherical using these techniques.

Year 2

In Spring 2 the children in Year 2 have started the ‘Art Around the World’ topic. They have learnt about the artist Wassily Kandinsky and they created their own painting and matching collage using his ‘Concentric Circles’ painting as inspiration. They will continue this topic in Summer 1 and create some more artwork in preparation for the art exhibition ‘Toftwood Tate’ when they will show the rest of the school and their grown-ups their artwork!

MFL Spring

Children in Year 3 this term, have been learning to name colours in Spanish using repetition, games, colouring, wordsearches etc. They have been able to say and write sentences about which colours they like and don’t like and which is their favourite. To extend intercultural understanding the pupils also learned about the myths and traditions surrounding Chinese New Year.

In Year 4, the children have revised numbers, days and months in Spanish to be able to say and write dates. To extend intercultural understanding the pupils also learned about the myths and traditions surrounding Chinese New Year. Pupils have also begun to be able to recognise and recall the Spanish words for parts of the face. They drew some monster faces and labelled them with descriptive sentences such as ‘El tiene tres ojos rojos’ (He has three red eyes!)

Year 5 in Spring have been exploring a range of topics in Spanish. Firstly, we reviewed our key conversation vocabulary and unscrambled a conversation that had been put in the wrong order! We then practiced our Spanish pronunciation skills and had the same conversation with our learning partner as if we were music shop owners. In our following lesson, we reviewed our Spanish musical instrument vocabulary in order to sing a song in Spanish. We have also looked and located Spanish speaking countries on a map this half term. Finally, we received our Pen Pal letters back from Spain and have used our conversation vocabulary to begin to write our own responses back in Spanish.

Year 6 have been focusing on ‘then and now’ as a link to our previous learning on places in town. We have been using adjectives to describe different places in town and have developed our descriptions at sentence level to explain what our local area was like ‘then’ in the past and what it looks like ‘now’.

Year 5 in spring 2 have been learning about the Mayans

Year 5 in spring 2 have been learning about the Mayans. To begin the topic, we read about famous Mayan civilisation artefacts. We looked at a picture of an artefact and made a prediction for what it was. We then discovered what is really was and discussed how close our predictions were. In the following lesson we then learnt about what daily life was like for the Mayans. We looked at the differences for workers and nobles as well as what the Mayans ate, what clothes they wore and what entertainment they had. Year 5 then found out about Mayan inventions and how they still affect our lives today. We have also investigated Mayan religion and why their Gods were important to them as well as identifying important Mayan places and facts.

British Science Week 8 – 17 March 2024

During this week, Year 3 have looked at dinosaurs and how they became extinct 65 million years ago!. We had a class discussion regarding the different theories including; a meteor strike, disease and volcanic activity, not to mention extreme weather conditions like an ice-age.

We then, using our knowledge about fossilisation and Mary Anning, re-created what dinosaur fossils look like using black paper and white paper straws. We chose our favourite dinosaur and matched this picture to their skeleton, making sure the features matched. Then we sketched out the skeleton and used straws to make the bones stand out.

During Guided Reading we looked at the book, A Seed is Sleepy. This non-fiction text, beautifully illustrates and describes where seeds are found, what they need to grow and over time, what they grow in to.

Science Fair 2024

To celebrate British Science Week, the children took part in their very own Toftwood Science Fair. They were excited to bring in the science projects that they had been working on at home to share with classmates, parents, carers and teachers.

The children proudly explained the science behind the investigations they had designed and demonstrated them to their visitors.