Infant – Page 3 – Toftwood Infant and Junior School Federation

DT Autumn 2023

Reception

The children in Reception have been focusing on healthy eating and where fruit comes from. The children had a look at a variety of fruits and discussed which ones they enjoy to eat. They also learnt that fruit have vitamins in them to give us energy, help us grow and stay strong. The children then had the challenge to assemble their own fruit kebabs and try some fruits they never had tried before.

Some of the children shared their thoughts:

Rylee – “The apple is sour”.

Emily – “The raspberries are very squishy”.

Evie-Rose – “The apples are hard so it’s tricky to get them on the stick”.

Edith – “These are my favourite (raspberries) because they are juicy”.

During our ‘Celebrations’ topic we learnt about the Hindu festival of Diwali. We created our own diva lamps out of clay and decorated them using sequins. We have also been working hard practising our safe scissor skills to create with purpose. We have made some lovely decorations and paper snowflakes for our classrooms.

Year 1

This term, the children were tasked with designing a product which would allow them to carry belongings across ice such as was used by Robert Falcon Scott on his trip to Antarctica. The children were able to design their product and then make it using the materials that we have in school. They then tested their creations by placing some school equipment inside and pulling it along a table to represent the surface of the ice. The children then evaluated their products based on how well they were able to transport the belongings across the table. The children also made fish tanks and thought of ways they could make the fish move inside their tank.

The children have also been able to make shortbread biscuits as part of our English topic. They weighed out ingredients and helped to mix the dough and shape them. They then decorated them into snowmen.

Year 2 Autumn

In Design and Technology the children will design and make a lantern. They design the lantern independently and think about the equipment and materials they would need. The children have also made castles as part of their topic. They used a variety of equipment and thought carefully about what they wanted to include in their designs and evaluated them after. This is a really important part of the Design, Make and Evaluate process as it allows us to think about what worked really well and anything that could be improved next time.

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The children have also designed and made a lantern for Guy Fawkes, the children thought carefully about their design and included careful thought on how their lantern could show the most light

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The children were also able to follow a recipe to make a treacle tart as part of their history day this term. They added and mixed ingredients as well as taste testing the result. They especially enjoyed this part! They have also baked Speculaas biscuits in English focusing on these skills again.

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Computing Autumn Term 2023

Reception

The children in Reception have been exploring the new technology in their classrooms and learning environments.

The have been learning how to use the computers, interactive screens, library book scanners, pretend phones, computer keyboards and cameras.

Year 1

In the autumn term, year 1 have focused on the Information Technology strand of computing. In first half of the autumn term, the children focused on what technology is and how to use computer technology like using a mouse and a keyboard to write their name and to login.

In the second half of the term, the children learning about digital painting and being introduced to a variety of painting tools. This developed from them being able to use their mouse to control the tools to draw pictures of themselves to them being able to recreate art work like pointillism by Georges Seurat.

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 collected data and sorted it into different formats. They have created pictograms and tally charts, surveying the class to collect their data. They have also presented this on 2Count on Purple Mash, creating their pictograms on a digital device. The children spoke about how this was an easier format to see the data and diminishes lots of errors. The children spoke about different ways to categorise including by attribute.

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When focusing on Computer Science the children have been retrieving what they learnt in Year 1 about algorithms. They having been sharing ‘sweets’ and seeing how they can share equally into different sized groups – this has linked to their Maths learning on division in Autumn 2. The children had a go at ‘coding’ a robot with an algorithm for getting ready for home time. Except Rob the Robot (the teacher) needed quite a lot of debugging in the algorithm to perform the instruction correctly. The children then had a go at coding using 2Code on Purple Mash, the children have coded two different sequences; The Princess and the Frog, and The Magician, and a snail race!

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The children have also been practising their typing this term. They have completed a typing game on Purple Mash called 2Type.

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Autumn 2023

Reception

Reception children undertook activities linked to bonfire night at the beginning of November. Activities included discussing experiences of bonfire night, watching videos of the celebration, finding out about firework safety, and creating firework pictures.

During independent learning time, reception children have had the opportunity to find out about dinosaurs and explore the dinosaur bones.

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Whilst playing with the small world play castle, some children were intrigued to learn about real castles.

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Reception children learnt about Remembrance Day. They made their own poppies in class and had a class assembly where they observed a two minute silence. They watched a CBeebies video called ‘poppies’ which is a lovely video showing how the poppies grew in the field after all the grass had turned to mud.

Year 1

Year one children found out about extinct animals and also those that are endangered. They made a timeline to show when the animals became extinct.

Year 2

Norwich’s Past

Year 2 children have learnt about life in Norwich in the past. They studied the cathedral and castle in Norwich. Lessons included looking at artefacts relating to Norwich’s past, comparing old and new landmarks in Norwich, and finding out about castles and how they were defended.

See grid below to show understanding before and after the topic.

The children participated in a History Day- see special events tab for further details.

Year two also looked at the significant person William the Conqueror. They created a timeline for his life.

Night time

As part of our topic Night time the children have learnt about a significant person from the past, Guy Fawkes. The children wrote about who Guy Fawkes was and why he is an important historical person.

They picked some items that Guy Fawkes might have used in 1605 and described how he would have used them. They then explained the difference between objects that Guy Fawkes could have used, compared with what he might have used today.

Autumn Term Geography

Reception

Reception children have been very busy exploring their immediate environment, including talking about animals and plants in their outdoor area, which is known as ‘Ted’s Den’. They have also observed seasonal changes to the weather and the trees.

During independent learning time, Reception children have developed their sense of place by discussing the maps and leaflets in class.

Year one

Year one have been learning about animals and how they adapt to their region. This built on from work in reception when they studied the topic ‘Around the world’.

Year two

Year two children have been locating significant landmarks in Norwich and comparing old and new landmarks. Work included using google maps.

Remembrance Day

Remembrance Day was marked in an assembly at the Junior School. The children learnt about Armistice Day on the 11th November 1918. At 11 o’clock on that day, nations who were fighting laid down their weapons and this signalled the end of the war (known then as the “Great War”). Today, we know it as the First World War. Armistice is an agreement for peace.

One year later, the first two-minute silence was held. King George V had asked the people of Britain to pause and remember all those who had fought and died in the service of their country.

In in 1920, King George unveiled the nation’s new war memorial called the Cenotaph, where people go to remember the fallen.

The children found out about the Royal British Legion and how it remembers the fallen by launching the Poppy Appeal, where members and volunteers sell millions of red paper poppies. In the weeks leading up to 11th November and on Remembrance Sunday, people are asked to wear a poppy as an act of remembrance.

The children listened respectfully and with interest.

On Wednesday 8^th November, key stage one children were extremely lucky to be joined by the Mayor of Dereham. He talked to the children about why we wear poppies, the significance of the poppy and encouraged the children to join in with reciting a special passage to remember the soldiers who fought in the wars.

On the Friday the Infant School participated in class assemblies for Remembrance Day, including a two minute silence. Reception children also had the opportunity to make poppies.

Autumn 2 – Ian Gardner assembly

Ian visited us to talk about the parable of The Good Shepherd. He talked about how different the sheep that he had brought in looked, and asked the children ‘did that matter?’ The children said no! When one of the sheep were lost, it didn’t matter that it was the little one. We would always treat everybody the same and it didn’t matter what they looked like or how they may be different.

Black History Month

Over the last three weeks we have been celebrating Black History Month. Here are some of the activities that have taken place across the Federation.

Reception – In Reception we have been learning about some amazing people in our history. We enjoyed reading Mo Farah’s “Ready Steady Mo” and learning about his amazing achievements at the Olympics. We looked at some iconic music created by black artists and learned the sign for dancing when listening to Martha & The Vandellas “Dancing in the Streets”. We also had a go at dancing to Bob Marley’s classic hit ‘Three Little Birds’.

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Year 1 and year 2 started learning about Black History Month by discussing the importance of treating everyone equally during an assembly. We looked at our PATHS rule ‘Treat others the way you want to be treated’ and talked about the importance of British Values.

Year 1- We enjoyed dancing to Martha & The Vandellas “Dancing in the Streets” and Nina Simone’s “Young Gifted and Black”. We were inspired by the story of the Olympic athlete Mo Farah and enjoyed watching videos of his races. We also learnt about Daniel Hale Williams who was was an African-American surgeon who founded the first non-segregated hospital in the United States in 1891, as well as completing the first successful heart surgery.

Year 2 –In year 2, we have been learning about the lives of Martin Luther King Jr and Rosa Parks as part of our learning in black history month. The children have discussed how black people were treated in the past and how much it has changed thanks to the actions of people like Martin Luther King Jr and Rosa Parks. We also explored some modern day heroes like Mo Farah, Stevie Wonder and Stormzy.

Art Autumn 1 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 have practised sharing our knowledge of how to make things with others. We have been working hard at practising our safe scissor skills and using our imaginations to create with purpose. During our harvest morning we created hedgehogs using paint and fork

Year 1

The children have been learning about their favourite animals this term as part of their topic learning. They chose their favourite animal and used a photo of the animal to draw their own. They looked at the different shapes they could see and thought carefully about the sizes of the animals different body parts. They then painted their animals, thinking selectively about the colours they chose.

Year 2

In Autumn the children have designed and created their own medieval shield. The children thought carefully about the colours that they would use for their shield, many using typical Nordic colours such as gold, yellow, green. They then added their own icons to their shield, they did this by creating a stamp which they stamped onto their painted shield. The results were great!

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Music Infants School Summer Term

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.

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 Summer 1

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!

Computing Summer Term 2023

Year 1

This term, Year One have been creating our own e-books. The children have been using Purple Mash’s ‘2Create a Story’ feature to write and illustrate their own story. Firstly, the children created their characters and typed out their sentences. Then they animated their characters so that they could move as the story was read. The children also added sounds to bring their stories to life.

Year 2

This half term the children have focused on using technology to manipulate digital photography. The children have explored taking photos on their tablets and have done so for a variety of different stills/scenes. They have completed a photography bingo and have taken selfies, close up photos, action shots and pictures of landscapes. We spoke about taking landscape and portrait pictures. See some of the photographs they have taken below!

The children have also been discussing copyright/ownership, and how we have to have permission to share things online. We have spoken about what can, and cannot be shared.