Curriculum News – Page 5 – Toftwood Infant and Junior School Federation

Computing Spring Term 2024

Reception

The children in Reception have continued to learn about the technology in their classroom learning environments. They have particularly been focusing on gaining independence when using equipment, for example being able to change the colour of the pen on the SMART programme, bringing up a clean page and learning how to erase marks they’ve made.

Year 1

The children in year 1 have been learning about grouping and comparing data. They were able to link their computing learning to classifying objects in Science. They were tasked with grouping a range of classroom objects and talking about why and how they grouped them this way. We also discussed how computers would group and compare data as part of web searches to find the correct item that was typed in.

C:\Users\r.parfitt\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\Content.MSO\D3326E46.tmp

During Spring 2 the children were excited to learn about algorithms and coding. They were able to use the beebots to support their learning and to give clear and precise instructions for their beebot to move around an area. They logged in to Purple Mash to complete the task ‘2go’ to help navigate the bee to each flower.

C:\Users\r.parfitt\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\Content.MSO\F5555A44.tmp

Year 2

In Computing this term the children have focused on two strands of Computing, Digital Literacy and Computer Science.

When focusing on Digital Literacy the children have been thinking about computing systems and networks. They begun by using laptops for the first time, learning about the mice and keyboard. The children thought about different digital devices that they have and can use. They drew pictures, typed sentences and even played some typing games on Purple Mash to improve their digital literacy for typing.

P:\Photos for Evidence\Computing\23-24\Year 2\Spring 1\Laptops\KR2\IMG_2413.JPG

P:\Photos for Evidence\Computing\23-24\Year 2\Spring 1\Laptops\KR2\IMG_2420.JPG

When focusing on Computer Science the children have been retrieving their learning from Year 1 and building on their learning from Autumn all about algorithms. They have used beebots to plan a route, and have even had a go at predicting what their algorithm will lead to. They have then designed their own mats on Purple Mash and navigated their beebot/character through their mat by programming. Albie R said “This is programming, it was tricky to program.” Bradley said that he “found it tricky to predict where he wanted his beebot to go”. The children also created some Musical Algorithms using Purple Mash 2Beat.

P:\Photos for Evidence\Computing\23-24\Year 2\Spring 2\2Go purple mash\IMG_7802.JPG

P:\Photos for Evidence\Computing\23-24\Year 2\Spring 2\2Go purple mash\IMG_7810.JPG

KS 2 Music Spring

Ukulele Club have continued to meet each week. It has been really lovely to have one of the children, Poppy, writing out the chords to a couple of songs and teaching these to the rest of the group including Mr Hardy!
Mr Oparaocha, who joined us as a Teaching Assistant in Year 5, is an extremely talented musician and has started Lower and Upper School choirs which are proving very popular with the children.

In Year 3 the children have begun to learn the ukulele, which they will continue with now until the end of the school year. They have learned to name the parts of the ukulele (It has a body, neck and head – but it’s got no arms and legs!), how to hold the instrument correctly, playing different rhythms by strumming and some quite tricky picking patterns. Finally, the children were introduced to their first chord (C major)! Everyone is giving it their best effort and as a year group they are making very quick progress.

The children in Year 4 have explored a number of songs from different genres including disco, folk and classical. They have sung together and also had their first taste of playing the recorder! Pupils have also composed their own pieces of music to fit a backing track using an app in charanga to drag and drop notes on to the stave – improving their recognition of traditional musical notation.

Year 5 in Spring 2 have been using the website https://www.norfolkmusichub.org.uk/ ‘Charanga’ to create their own piece of Hip Hop music using ‘YuStudio’. The children have all really enjoyed creating their own pieces and listening to others. By following the videos children have added in a range of drum beats, bass and chords. Some children have included other musical instruments as well as adding in melody sections to their piece. Some have been continuing on at home using their log ins which has been great to see!

Year 6 have been focusing on the key question: ‘how does music teach us about our community?’ as a link to the social theme ‘music is a builder of community and guardian of cultural identity’. We have been listening and responding to a variety of songs such as ‘Let’s Rock’, ‘Simple Gifts’ and ‘Friendship Should Never End’. This has helped us to sing along by clapping and moving to the rhythms we have heard. We have developed our performance skills by working together in groups to perform parts of the song.

History Spring 2024

Reception

Reception children talk about their past experiences, including days out with their family and special times such as birthdays. They find out about the past and how life has changed from a variety of sources, including photographs, objects and stories.

Classes looked at castles and found out they were usually made of stone, placed on a high hill and sometimes had a moat with a drawbridge. They also learnt about Norwich castle. Following on from these carpet sessions, some children played with the catle small world play and created their own castles using construction in the classroom.

Year One

Year one studied the topic of ‘Our Planet and Beyond.’ The children learnt about the history of space travel including learning about the race to space and the astronauts Neil Armstrong, Yuri Gagarin. The children thought of questions they would like to ask an astronaut. They have been introduced to time lines for the events of space travel.

Year Two

During the topic of ‘Air, Land and Sea’ the children have learnt about Lord Admiral Nelson. They found out about important dates in his life and could use prior knowledge of how a timeline works to create their own timeline for Lord Admiral Nelson. Some of the children were able to expand on the information and wrote additional facts for each date.

Geography Spring 2024

Reception

During the topic “People Who Help Us” children found out about the jobs of members in our community. The first week involved learning about bus drivers.

A bus trip around Dereham and Toftwood was organised for the Reception children with special thanks to the team at Konect bus. The children enjoyed sharing the places they knew with their friends, as they travelled around their locality. “I go to that shop and my house is that way,” said O. “McDonalds and Aldi is down there”, said O. It was lovely to hear the children explaining their findings to their friends, including how to press the button to stop the bus.

During the interview with the bus driver driver, they found the answers to their questions. This included where the bus fills up with fuel, why the bus has a number 8, why the bus is blue and where the bus driver ate lunch.

The children really benefitted from the experience and wanted to get back to school and recreate their own bus and role play being the driver and passengers.

$C:\Users\SSutterby\Downloads\GSR Class\bus ride.jpg$

Staff from the fire service, local vets and police also visited Reception to talk about their roles in the community.

Year 1

As part of their topic “Weather Experts”, year one children studied the weather in our school grounds; they identified daily and seasonal weather patterns in the locality. They also learnt about climate zones. The children also learnt how to use a compass and completed orienteering activities in the school grounds.

Following on from writing weather reports for the UK, the children recapped the UK and it’s 4 countries. They also discussed places they had visited in Norfolk.

The children also worked on finding out about a specific country, including the food, climate and flag.

Year 2

Year two children named and located the UK’s four countries and capital cities; they named the seas surrounding the UK. The children worked on naming the seven continents and five oceans. This will prepare them for detailed work on the continents later in the year.

Spring 1 Music 2024

Music in Reception

During this term, the children in Reception have been learning about Chinese New Year and enjoyed their online lesson from Miss Helens from Music and Movement. The children experienced dancing with ribbons, listening to instruments they like to use in China and pretending to feed a Chinese dragon wanting to eat cabbages! The children also watched Musical Storyland and learnt about the story of Chinese new Year. They also saw musicians playing several instruments, which included the traditional Chinese musical instrument the Guzheng.

The children have also enjoyed our topic this half term called ‘Fantasy’, having the opportunity to listen and dance to sea shanties during Pirate week and ‘Heroes Unite’ during superhero week!

Music in Year 1

In Year 1 the children have enjoyed introducing Tempo and Dynamics into their lessons and celebrating a wide range of musical styles. They have enjoyed listening, singing, playing, composing and performing to a variety of music, which has included familiar songs like Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes, and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star as well as new songs like Sparkle. The children loved performing music using the chime bars.

C:\Users\h.tataryn\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\Content.Word\IMG_6651.JPG

C:\Users\h.tataryn\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\Content.Word\IMG_6650.JPG

Music in Year 2

In Year 2 this half term the children have been focusing on the theme ‘How Does Music Make the World a Better Place?’ We learnt to sing and perform the songs ‘Rainbows’, ‘Hands, Feet, Heart’ and ‘All Around the World.’ The children also learnt how to play the notes for these songs on the chime bars, focusing on learning A minor. The children enjoyed finding out about a steady beat, and following rhythmic and melodic patterns. They enjoyed listening to a range of songs from different genres and we discussed our opinions about these songs.

DT Autumn Term 2023

Year 3 Autumn 2023

As part of our Ancient Egyptian unit, the children translated their first names into hieroglyphs, made a cartouche design and then moulded their own cartouche from clay. They researched the colours that the Ancient Egyptians used and tried to replicate these when painting and glazing their own cartouches.

In their food technology unit and using some of their food technology skills of chopping, weighing and mixing, the children made Egyptian bread ‘Kaak’ to taste test at home.

The recipe was adapted from one found on the tomb of Ramses III and involved creating a snail shape, boiling the dough – under adult supervision and then baking the bread.

Year 3 also created a cross curricular piece of work – combining art with D.T. be designing and creating a tile plate for the Gaudi inspired artwork of repeating patterns.

Year 4 Autumn, 2023

This term in DT, we made Roman cake stands to place our apple crumbles on. We used our mosaic knowledge to design the top of our cake stands. Once completed, we began assembling our cake stands. This involved lots of trial and error.

We enjoyed using a wide range of materials to see what would work best for our cake stands. Then we made our apple crumble. We used many of our Food Technology skills such as peeling, chopping and mixing. Once completed, we were able to test the strength of our cake stands and taste test our apple crumbles.

Year 5 – Autumn 2, 2022

In DT this half term, we have been focusing on designing and creating a Viking Longboat with a pneumatic system. This has been linked to our History topic of the Vikings, where the children have learnt lots about the designs of Longboats and why they were designed that way.

First, the children completed a design brief, where they carefully considered what materials and tools they were going to use. The children used many skills such as: sawing, measuring, drilling and cutting using a wide range of equipment. After the structure of the Longboat was built, the children were able to decorate their boats. The children were so proud of their final products!

As part of the food technology unit, Year 5 chose to make stained glass window shortbread biscuits. They continued to develop their food technology skills through chopping, weighing and cutting when following the recipe.

Year 6 Autumn 2, 2022

As part of our topic on World War 2, the children designed and made Anderson Shelters. They used their measuring, cutting and design skills to create their shelters and then evaluated them based upon their strength and appearance. The children worked very hard to make them look authentic; some even had little vegetables growing on the roof just as they did during the war.

Year 2 – English Spring 1

During the spring term, the children in year 2 have explored many areas of writing and have been inspired by many types of stimulus.

The first text children enjoyed reading was the story ‘The Storm Whale’ by Benji Davies. During this area of their learning, the children enjoyed researching about Whales and wrote a non-fiction factfile using their own research. They also wrote diary entries from the perspective of the whale and made predictions about what might happen as a sequel story!

Our next stimulus was the Disney clip ‘Lava’, about two volcanoes who fall in love as they emerge from the Pacific Ocean. This inspired the children to learn about volcanoes and write a non-chronological report about them. They also researched the volcanic islands of Hawaii using various resources. The children then created their own holiday brochures trying to persuade people to visit there.

Year 2 – English Autumn 2

This half term the children in year 2 completed activities using the book ‘The Flood’ as a stimulus. They learnt about what to do in a flood and used their notes to make a fact file about how to stay safe.

C:\Users\e.bruce\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\Content.Word\IMG_9966.JPG

We watched the short film ‘Man on the Moon’ and used The Usborne Mini Astronaut’s Handbook’ for our next unit of work. The children wrote captions to go with parts of the story told in the film. They used it as a starting point to write a newspaper report about the sighting of a man on the moon.

C:\Users\e.bruce\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\Content.Word\IMG_9969.JPG

The children then learnt about the astronaut Tim Peake and took notes before using these as a basis for a fact file and then a diary entry from the astronaut.

C:\Users\e.bruce\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\Content.Word\IMG_9970.JPG

Our next learning focused on the story ‘How to Catch a Star’ By Oliver Jeffers. The children designed a rocket and wrote instructions about how to catch a star. They then wrote a recount of when we found a magical glittery star outside our classroom door.

C:\Users\e.bruce\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\Content.Word\IMG_9971.JPG

We then listened to Michael Morpurgo reading his story ‘Coming Home’ about the migration journey of a Scandinavian Robin. We learnt about the migration journeys of Spider Crabs, Arctic Terns and Basking Sharks. The children made notes about the animals and why they migrate. They turned their notes into a story map which they then used to write their own migration story.

C:\Users\e.bruce\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\Content.Word\IMG_9967.JPG

C:\Users\e.bruce\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\Content.Word\IMG_9968.JPG

Finally, we made Speculaas biscuits and look at instructional writing. We talked about the key features of instruction, in particular recipes, and wrote our own recipes for making these Belgium treats.

Year 1 English Spring 1 Term

This half term the children have become weather reporters and have really enjoyed this writing unit! They had a visit from Mr Bell, a meteorologist to start their Weather Experts topic. He spoke to the children about extreme weather but also gave some great advice for writing their own weather reports. Mr Bell provided the children with key words and phrases for their own reports.

Each day the children used the enquiry skill for Science, to observe over time, and recorded the weather patterns as a class. We then watched the weather report for East Anglia and made a word bank of more key words and phrases.

Before writing their weather report the children placed weather symbols on a map of the UK and used a script template to write their weather reports. Once finished, the children recorded their own weather report using Canva which made it look like they were really on the television!

They absolutely loved being weather reporters and look forward to seeing some of them being meteorologists when they are older.

Literacy in Reception- Spring 1 2024

This half term the children have continued to work very hard in their phonics lessons and have been busy learning many new digraphs and tricky words.

Our topic has been ‘Fantasy’ and the children have been enjoying listening lots of stories such as Supertato, Room on the Broom and Aliens Love Underpants. They have also been acting out these stories using masks and props!

In provision, the children have been busy exploring literacy activities such as writing potions & magic spells, leaving notes for the fairies to read and using picture cards to sequence stories.