Infant – Toftwood Infant and Junior School Federation

History Day 11th September 2024

The Federation of Toftwood Infant and Junior School participated in a History Day on Wednesday 11^th September. Key stage one children began the day with an assembly about the history of our school. They found out that the school began in what is now Toftwood Social Club. The children were interested to hear about what school was like by listening to extracts from the school log books which dated back as far as 1876. They did a great job at identify staff in archived photographs and were interested to see how the school had changed. One child also recalled that he and his mum were taught by the same teacher!

Year one children had lots of fun learning about our school history. They discussed why children were absent from school and took part in a drill. They looked at an article from the log book regarding some missing keys, then participated in an orienteering activity in the school grounds to find the pictures of the keys with initials on, to discover the culprit.

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Year two children focused on school in the past. They looked at items found in classrooms and participated in Victorian style lessons. Activities included writing lines for English, reciting times tables, and a drill. They also participated in a playtime with hoops, skipping ropes and hopscotch.

Here are some quotes from year two children: “The teachers were very strict” Beau. “They had to write with chalk” Harrison. “The boys had to pick up leaves” Hermione.

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Music Summer 2

Reception

Reception children have been listening to sounds heard in a rainforest and guessing jungle animal sounds, as part of their topic in summer 2. They joined in with the song “Down in the jungle”. During independent learning time, some children also created their own musical instruments using props in the water tray.

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Year 1

In music this half term, the children have continued to learn to find the beat and pulse. They have enjoyed moving their bodies to the music and have learned new songs. The children especially enjoyed singing along to ‘Alice the Camel’ and ‘Ten Green Bottles’. They were able to use percussion instruments to play along to the beat of the music.

Year 2

This half term in music, year 2 haven been learning about music that is linked to the theme ‘our big concert.’ The children listened to a wide range of musical styles, including funk, hip-hop and calypso, which they listened and responded to, commenting on what they liked and what they didn’t like. The children also learnt the songs ‘the sunshine song’, ‘four white horses’ and ‘down by the bay’. They enjoyed singing these songs and playing the glockenspiel to the pieces of music.

Spring 1 Music 2024

Music in Reception

In maths, the children have been learning patterns, such as word patterns or making up their own body percussion patterns such as clap, stomp, clap stomp.

During Receptions topic this term, ‘People who help us’ the children went on a bus trip so we taught them the song, “The Wheels on the Bus” and they had the opportunity to sing it on an actual bus and perform to the bus driver!

Music in Year 1

During this half term, year 1 have celebrated a wide range of musical styles. The children have listened, sung, composed and performed both familiar songs like the lullaby, Hush Little Baby and new songs like learning the Days of the Week. They have once again enjoyed playing the chime bars, as well as discovering high and low notes in some of the songs they have learnt the lyrics to and performed.

Music in Year 2

This half term the children in Year 2 have been exploring many different music styles that link to community. They have listened and appraised different genres of music such as swing and classical. They have learnt different songs and performed these in class. One of their favourites was ‘The Music Man’. They have worked on listening and responding whilst learning these songs and performed these in groups. They also have been listening to music from the rainforest and drawing what we thought we could hear, the children used some of the instruments to imitate what they could hear.

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Computing Summer Term 2024

Reception

The children in Reception have been busy exploring BeeBots in the summer term and learning how to programme them to move them along a road or map. They have also been mark making with them and seeing if they could create different lines, shapes and letters!

They have also been visiting the computing suite and learning how to use a mouse by playing games which involve practising how to click.

“If the eyes are red it means it’s dead. We need to put it on charge.” Jack

“I made all those circles. If you press that one (the right arrow) lots of times then press go, it goes round and round.” Jonah

Year 1

This term, the children in Year 1 have been creating their own eBooks. They drew their characters and typed out their story. Then they added animations, sounds and a background. Finally, the children have shared their stories with their friends. The children have also been looking at what technology is and how they can use it. We have also discussed how the children can stay safe online and why they need to keep their personal information private.

Year 2

In Summer 1 the children have been focusing on the information technology unit of taking photos. They have thought about whether to capture an image in portrait, or landscape, whether the subject is in focus and centred, and what lighting makes the best photo! $P:\Photos for Evidence\Computing\23-24\Year 2\Summer 1\L1-2\RP2\IMG_5867.JPG$

In In Summer 2 they have furthered their typing knowledge and have used laptops to write sentences about the Toftwood Tate. They wrote what their favourite piece of art was and the children did an excellent job of increasing their literacy on this digital device.

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History Summer Term 2024

Reception

In the summer term, Reception children visited Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse for a fairy tale event. Part of the day involved helping the ugly sister and Cinderella with jobs around the house and gardens. Jobs included pumping water from the well to water the plants, washing clothes using the wash board and washing dolly, and milking the pretend cow. During the tractor ride, the children saw the Suffolk punch horses. This sparked a conversation about working horses and their role before tractors were used. “Those are big horses, they pulled wagons a long time ago,” said Erin.

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Year one

The topic ‘Step back in time’ is studied in the second half of the summer term. Work includes making comparisons between our school and Victorian schools. Children also visit Holkham Hall (see year group, year one tab for write up).

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Geography Summer Term 2024

Reception

During the first half of the summer term, reception children created a class story maps for The Three Little Pigs and Jack and the Beanstalk. They also had the opportunity to create their own story maps.

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The children have also created models of real places, both locally and further away.

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As part of the topic ‘Around the World’, Reception children have been learning about maps and plans. They began the topic by looking at a plan of our school, then created a whole class plan of the classroom. They used google maps to find our school and familiar places in the local community, then explored further afield. One child decided to search for the North Pole as they believed they might find Santa’s house. During independent learning time, some children chose to create their own maps and choose route and map related activities. The children develop their sense of place and knowledge of jungles, oceans, deserts, grasslands and tundra over the half term.

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Year 1

Year one children learnt about Norfolk and their local area. They looked at a map of Norfolk and had a great discussion of places they had visited and where they would like to go. The children were given riddles and had to work out places that could be located on a map. The children had an in depth conversation about the physical features of these places and if they had visited them before.

Year one children also created maps of Holkham Hall, following on from their visit.

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Year 2

Year two studied the topic “Art around the world” in spring 2 and the first half of the summer term. They studied a variety of countries, including Africa, Australasia, South and North America.

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D-Day Celebrations

Toftwood Federation held assemblies to commemorate D-Day. Key stage one children found out about the history surrounding D-Day and the background of the second world war. They discussed the term ‘allies’. Children were particularly interested to find out about the landing on the beach in Normandy. Here are some quotes from year two children. Mia – “I think it was interesting that it started with an invasion on Poland because my family is from Poland.” Arthur – “I thought it was interesting that they came onto the beaches by parachute.” At lunchtime, the kitchen staff prepared aeroplane shaped biscuits for the children to enjoy.

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RE Spring Term 2024

Reception

In Reception this term we have enjoyed reading ‘A Kind Stranger’, a bible story about the importance of showing kindness to those around us. We thought about why it is important to make good choices and be kind to others. The children discussed how we can be kind in school and linked this to our school’s Golden rules.

As it got closer to the Easter holidays we read another bible story called ‘The Happy Day’. This story taught us how Christian people believe that Jesus rose from his tomb after three days and how joyful his friends and disciples were. We learnt that this is why many people celebrate Easter and that our chocolate Easter eggs symbolise new life.

Year 1

This term in RE, Marsha and Todd visited the children and told them all about the celebration of Shabbat. They were able to link this celebration to when they learnt about the Jewish celebration of Hannukah in December.

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In the later part of the term, the children also learnt about the Christian celebration of Easter and learned the Easter Story.

Year 2

This term the children have been learning about how we may belong to a faith family. The learnt about how christenings are important when belonging to a faith family. The children acted out, and made their own Christening scene.

The children have also learnt about Passover and how it is celebrated. Marsha and Todd visited the children to talk about the celebration of Passover.They thought about the celebrations they take part in, and the objects that are important to them. They then created their own Seder plate.

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Music Summer 1

Reception

This term the children have enjoyed our topic once upon a time, where the children have been learning about traditional tales such as, little red riding hood, three billy goats and the ugly duckling etc. The children particularly enjoyed the ginger bread man where the story was told through “Zorba the Greek.” As the tempo quicken in the song so did the tension in the story. They have also been watching Cbeebies Musical Storyland episodes such as to ‘The 3 Billy goats gruff’ where musicians from the BBC Philharmonic are joined by the storyteller, playing music and singing songs. Which you can watch here: – https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001syqc/musical-storyland-series-1-1-three-billy-goats-gruff

The Children also enjoyed watching Miss Helens; perform the three little pigs, getting the children to join with building the houses and blowing them down as the big bad wolf using the music to help them express themselves!

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Year 1

In Year 1 we have been learning to play the song ‘Get ready’ from our Charanga lessons. The children have used the chime bars and talked in detail about the different notes each bar makes. They identified the notes needed to play the song and the children listened carefully to the rhythm/pulse of the song before we began to play. The Charanga lesson showed us when was the correct time to play each note and the children showed excellent concentration and perseverance. They were very proud to perform the song together as a class.

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Year 2

During Summer 1 each Year 2 class had the opportunity to learn how to play the ocarina. The children learnt how to hold the ocarina and how to blow into it correct so it doesn’t squeak! They also learnt the notes D, B and G. They have learnt how to play songs using these notes and performed them confidently. All the children really enjoyed learning to play this instrument and many commented it was their favourite part of their music learning this year!

Art Summer 1

Reception

In Reception this half term, we have been exploring art both in class and outside in Ted’s Den. We have been experimenting with different materials including pipe cleaners, buttons, gems, pebbles, leaves and sticks to make our artwork. We had to think carefully about the material we chose to represent different elements in our art frames!

Year 1

In Year One we have been looking at the artist Jackson Pollock during our Planet and Beyond topic. We learnt about the techniques he used in his artwork and had a go at creating some of our own splatter paintings. We discovered that flicking the paint created lots of different patterns including lines, dots and curves. We had so much fun making our Pollock inspired galaxy paintings!

We also looked at the work of Andy Goldsworthy and created our own sculptures out of natural materials on the school grounds. We used leaves, grass, stones and feathers to make pictures on the playground.

The children also used natural materials to weave. They found natural objects and weaved these between some pieces of string to create some lovely pictures. They also used the leaves to print into clay.

Year 2 We have been very busy in Year Two this half term. We explored the artwork of the American artist Andy Warhol, as part of our Art Around the World topic. We drew our own pictures and photocopied them to make four exact copies, in the style of Warhol. We then experimented with oil pastels to add bold colours to our work.

We then learnt about Australasian aboriginal ‘dreamings’. We explored some material with aboriginal prints to look at the colours and techniques used. We cut out bold designs and symbols in black sugar paper to create waterholes, footsteps, people and animal tracks in our dreamings. We noticed aboriginal paintings use lots of repeating dot patterns, which we then incorporated into our own art by dipping the ends of paintbrushes into paint.

The children also created some paintings inspired by the continent of Asia. We were inspired by the cherry blossoms that can be found in Asia throughout the Spring and the children recreated these with paint. They thought carefully about the colours they would need and were successful when mixing red and white to create the perfect shade of pink.