Infant – Page 2 – Toftwood Infant and Junior School Federation

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.

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!

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

Art Spring 1 2024

Reception

The children in Reception have been doing lots of Art related to their ‘Fantasy’ topic. They have been busy learning how to make pirate hats from folded paper, designing aliens and have taken part in a guided drawing session to learn how to draw Supertato.

Year 1

This half term we have been focussing on the different seasons. We researched about each season and looked at the different colours we could see and how the trees changed over time. The children then drew a landscape scene including aspects of each of the four seasons. They thought carefully about their use of colour when colouring in their pictures. Finally, we added a window frame to complete their artwork.

Year 2

We have learned about the artist Claude Monet, in Year Two this half term. We looked at his famous painting ‘The Water Lily Pond’ and studied the techniques he used to create this. We then visited the pond in our school grounds to make observations about what we could see. We then used watercolour palettes to create our own pond paintings in the style of Claude Monet, carefully thinking about the colours and brushstrokes.

Autumn 2 – RE Reception

This term we have looked at the story ‘A Good Shepherd’ from the bible. We found out that the bible is a book that is special to Christians. We learned that one day a shepherd counted his sheep to find that one was missing. Instead of forgetting about his sheep he looked everywhere for it until he found it. We talked about how this shows that all of the sheep were special to the shepherd. We then thought about how we were like the sheep and that we are all important.

“He called out to the sheep” – Matilda

“He was sad and he will miss the sheep” – Greyson

“It is kind to talk to others” – Darcy

We then learned about Diwali, the Hindu festival of light, and took part in a workshop with Miss Helen. We found out about the story of Rama and Sita and enjoyed retelling the story together, dressed in traditional clothing, danced to some music and made our own diva lamps out of clay.

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We have also looked at the bible again to read ‘The first Christmas’. We discovered that Christians believe that Jesus was born on the first Christmas and that this story is sometimes called The Nativity. We have enjoyed recreating the story and pretending to be all of the different characters we have learned about.

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Autumn 2 – RE Year 1

This half term, the children have discussed how a celebration can bring a community together. We thought about celebrations throughout the year and the upcoming celebration of Christmas. The children shared what Christmas meant to them and the traditions that happen in their household. We discussed how families can celebrate in different ways and took this opportunity to research how countries around the world celebrate Christmas and spoke about how some religions don’t celebrate Christmas. The children retold the Christmas story too. We also learnt about the Jewish celebration of Hannukah and the story behind the celebration and how Jewish people celebrate Hannukah. We brought our community together by inviting parents in to listen to Christmas songs and poems that we learnt to perform.

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Autumn 2 – RE Year 2

RE Year 2 2023

In Autumn 1, Year 2 were thinking about the symbol of light. They thought about why light is used, and why it is important to Christians, Jews and Hindus. The children looked at the Christingle, and learnt about the significance of each part and what they represent. The children also learnt about Diwali and the story of Rama and Sita.

In Autumn 2, the children explored the Christmas story and the significance of the nativity for Christians. They designed their own stained glass windows, made a stop animations based around the nativity and they also wrote a prayer.

Art Autumn 2 2023

Reception

In reception we have been exploring the creative areas to make lots of artwork. We have also been working on explaining what we have made and sharing our knowledge of how to make things with others. We have explored lots of different materials and media whilst using our imaginations to create with purpose.

During our ‘Celebrations’ topic work we looked at pictures of fireworks and created our own firework art using brushes, cardboard tubes, paint and glitter.

Year 1

In Year 1 this half term, the children have been using different materials to print in order to see which material gave them the best texture for painting snow. The children then selected their favourite material to make a snow globe with them inside. The children also found out which colours mixed together to make other colours.

Year 2

In Autumn 1 the children have learnt about the Impressionist artist Vincent Van Gogh. The children have taken inspiration from his Starry Night painting and have sketched and painted their own versions. The children have focused on including the swirling paintings and deep colours that he used in his own.

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We also had a go at using chalk and oil pastels to create a day and night picture. The children worked on their blending to create some beautiful pieces of art. They also incorporated the shadow of a tree to show it both in the day and at night.