Retelling and Ordering

1F

In year 1 this week we have been learning about ordinal numbers and positional language.  On Thursday, the children used characters from the narrative Curious George and the Hot Air Balloon to use positional language to explain where the characters are.

The pictures show us using puppets to say where George was on the Trim Trail.  

                                                                          

“George is on top of the beam.” Child in 1F

2D

The children worked in groups to sequence the story of Katie in London.

They created a story mountain and put the 5 main parts of the text in order.

They then worked to retell the narrative using story language.

As an extension, the children were given two extra images to sequence into the story mountain.

Success criteria

- 5 main parts (opening, build up etc)

- verbs

- adverbs

- varied openers

- generalising words

- language bank

- story language

“The children were exhausted”  Marie-Ann

“Suddenly they heard a huge groan” Mia

“All of a sudden the grey statue turned gold … he was alive!” Ivo

“He looked at them sadly” Lea

Transport on fire!

1F

Inspired by range of vehicles, year 1 wrote descriptions of the vehicles. We used some features of a poem, including adjectives and alliteration and onomatopoeia. 

2J
Wednesday 4^th November 2015

Learning intention: To write a poem.

The Great Fire of London

In London when the fire started to spread,

While the bakery man was still in bed,

I think the building should,

Be made of bricks, not wood.

The year was 1666, late one September night,

The baker’s shop in Pudding lane was alight,

All the lovely people began to run,

But the baker didn’t know what he had done!

The flames started to give off smoke,

But then some people began to choke.

                     - by Lily Hazel (2J)

About this poem: This term our theme is The Great Fire of London. Lily wrote this creative poem using her comprehension skills to recall key historical facts about the fire. 

Maths patterns

This week in 1A we have been learning about patterns. We started by continuing colour patterns then used our bodies to create shape patterns. Here are two different positions we got ourselves into. Can you identify the repeating pattern? 

Children in 1A

Harvest learning

This week was our second lesson from the Watford Schools Trust. We learnt about Harvest in preparation for our school collection next week.

Here are pictures of us opening a present- inside was the Earth.

Some children in 1A gave feedback on the lessons. We gave Watford Schools Trust two ticks and a wish on their lesson.

Ticks: 
"The lessons was fun because there was lots of songs and actions"- Ndey
"There was lots of learning and information" - Alex

Wish:
"Come back again at Christmas" - Tao

Thank you for coming to teach us!
From Year 1

Watford Schools Trush

2D
Year 2's chosen narrative this term is Barry the Fish with Fingers. Here is Marie-Ann's retelling of the story. She has followed the success criteria to make her writing fantastically detailed and interesting for the reader.

Year 1
On Thursday we had some lovely visitors in from Watford Schools Trust. They taught us all about the Creation story from the Bible. We listened to a poem then created actions to accompany it. Here is a picture of 1M acting out the part when "the waves rolled back".

Road Safety

This week in KS1 we talked about road safety and the importance of stopping, looking and listening.
In 1A we took our learning outside and created a mini road using ourselves.
Half of the class were people, the other half were cars, motorbikes or trucks. As the roads got busier the people had to stop, look ad listen before crossing over to the next bit of pavement.

Here are some pictures of us in action.

 These are our vehicles ready to start their journey.

Here are the pedestrians looking left and right before crossing. 

Arts Week

This week has been our Take One Picture week. Our picture was Mr & Mrs Andrews by Thomas Gainsborough.

Year 1

1A decided to recreate the picture using different backgrounds. We took on the role of mr or Mrs Andrews ad posed in their positions in different places around the school. Can you tell where we are?

Children in 1A

In 1M we thought about what might have happened before and after. We created a narrative base don the painting.

Cameron 1M

Year 2

In Literacy, 2S made up a dialogue between the couple and then acted it out.

What do you think the couple are saying to each other?

In 2F we have been using our imaginations. We have created character descriptions for Mr Gainsborough. Please take some time to read Oli’s description.

Oli 2F

In 2D we spoke about how the characters may be feeling in the picture and then we described it. Here are some of our quotes.

The gun is glistening with the suns reflection. - Krish

Mrs Andrews’ clothes are swaying like water rushing down a drain. Whilst Mr Andrews shoots down birds, Mrs Andrews looks away in disgust. - Ewan

Mr Andrews holds a gun like a hunter wanting to spy on an animal. - Danny

The man is standing still and wearing a hard, black hat. - Aidan

His face, which is very grumpy, is as pale as a peach.- Ashwin

Solar Systems and Sandy Seasides

Year 1

Our space theme has meant that we are learning the planet names and their order in the Solar System. We enjoyed watching a very informative video clip about them. We had to cut out and assemble the plants in the correct order. Rylee used his phonics to find the correct names and has stuck these next to the corresponding planet.

Rylee 1A

 

Here is what 1D had to say about the Solar System during their lesson.

 

“The sun is a flaming ball of fire.” - Ebrima

“Venus is the same size as Earth”. -Dorothy

“Venus is the same size as Earth but it spins the opposite way and moves slower.”- Daniel

“Life on earth depends on the sun.”- Merlyn

“Mercury is the closest planet to the sun.”- Sam

In our Literacy lessons we have looked at a space countdown poem. After exploring it through drama we wrote our own using alliteration and other ambitious vocabulary.

 

Felicia 1M

 

 

 





Year 2

This week in 2D we have been creating our own puppet shows. We used three puppets to help us create a story and wrote a play script to go with it. We also made a back drop to show what our setting looked like.

Here are the girls writing their script. Below is their performance.

 

2F have been creating list poems about the seaside. Phoebe has used a range of poetic devices to create her poem about what can be found in the waves!

She has chosen to use alliteration to describe the sand and descriptive language to bring the dolphin to life. She has also used personification to describe the seaweed and shells.


Within the peaceful waves...

A minuscule, sparkly, pink dolphin
A tiny hermit crab scuttling on the silky sand
Shells fighting the water
A message in a bottle from a school
The seaweed waving elegantly

How wonderful this place is!

-Phoebe 2F

 

 

 

 

Bits and Bobs from week 2

Year 1
This week we have written our own narrative based on How to Catch a Star by Oliver Jeffers. We changed our story to feature a little girl, who is afraid of the dark, on her journey to catch the moon.

Below are photos of Gabriela's whole story. She used some initial ideas but wrote the story on her own.

Gabriela 1A

Here is Ivo's amazing problem, resolution and ending:

First she tried dad's rocket boots. She put them on her feet and switched it on and flew into the sky. But it ran out of fuel so she crasht back down. Next she tried getting mum's puwrful shooting bow and arrow but it kood not reach the silvery moon.
Suddenly she sees the moon in the pond so she grabt a fishing net and grabt the moon. "Yes finily I grabt the moon!" She estaticaly screamed. She did not know that it was a paper mashae moon with a light bul in it. "

Ivo 1D

Linking to our space theme, we learnt about the history of space travel. We put significant trips into space onto a time line. Here is some writing about Neil Armstrong, the first man to land on the moon, alongside Buzz Aldrin.

Felicia 1M

Year 2
This week in 2F have been writing postcards from the seaside to our friends from last term’s topic the rainforest. Brandon has written a post card to Mr Sloth telling him all about his trip to the beach.

 

Brandon 2F

 

This week in Literacy 2S we have focussed on various ways to communicate in writing, to others about our day at the seaside

We have looked at letters, emails and postcards …..

 

 Imaan 2S

2D has been looking at adjectives to describe people. We wanted to see how each person in our class thought of a word differently. One of the words we looked at was beautiful. The children needed to use anything they could find outdoors to represent this word.

Ewan, Mark and Massimo worked in a team and created a princess doing ballet.

 

"When Miss Denny said the word beautiful my team immediately thought of a princess but we didn’t think it was good enough. We changed our idea to a princess doing ballet because ballet is just as beautiful as a princess."
-Ewan

 

Ashwin, Krish and Pratik created an image of a tree.

 "We picked to create a tree because nature is beautiful and some plants have very beautiful flowers."
-Ashwin

 

See you next week!

 

 

Off to Space via the Seaside

Year 1

In phonics 1A created our own alien words using a range of sounds. Check out our celestial alien and try to read the words!

1D had an interesting theme lesson where we were learning all about space travel. We looked at the first animals to go into space and read other interesting facts. Here are a few that stuck with us:

"I learned that we live on a planet that is whirling through space. Earth spins all the time and that is why we have day and night."

-Ife

"The earth follows its orbit around the sun and it is also spinning like a ball. Venus is very gassy. The earth goes around the sun once a year. The sun is much bigger than the moon. The atmosphere is full of white clouds.  Mars is a red colour. The moon is a long way away from the earth."

- Daniel 

"Today we learnt about space.

We’ve been talking about the Russian dog that went to the moon just to make sure it is safe for innocent people.

-Daisy.

"Did you know they used to send animals to space before humans went? Do you know why? It’s because they did not know if it was safe. One of the animals was a monkey and another was a dog. "

-Marie-Ann

"We learned that lots of countries launched rockets up to space. First they launched a monkey because they didn’t know if it was safe for the people. "

-Jessica 

In PSHE 1M looked at men and women who have been into space. We wondered if their goals were to be astronauts when they were younger. We then thought about our own goals.

Laithe 1M

Year 2
Year 2 went to South End beach on Wednesday. We went to the Sea Life Adventure then explored the beach and sea.
Here are some quote from 2D's experience:

Massimo - "I learnt that star fish have 5 eyes and 1000 legs."

Danny - "I learnt that you should never throw rubbish because it could kill an animal. It also takes plastic 1000 years to dissolve."

Nkem - "I learnt that crabs eat dead fish, fish poo and starfish stomach."

Krish - "I can't believe that a starfish can rip its own stomach out and throw it away."

2S had first hand experience on a pebbly beach and cold, frothy sea.

After such a fabulous experience, the children used the following words and phrases in their writing …

‘Awesome’       ‘amazing’        ‘exhilarating’

‘waves crashing lightly’      ‘slimy, squidgy seaweed’

‘stoney, pebbly beach’          ‘bumpy, sharp shells’

‘the reflection from the sky made the sea look blue’

2F have written descriptions and recounts of their trip to South End. We have focused on using descriptive language and our senses to describe.

 Hasim has written about both the visit to the beach and Sea Life  Adventure.

Instruction Texts and The Riveting Rainforest

 

Year Two

As part of their Rainforest theme, Year Two have been writing poems inspired by the rainforest.

I can see beautiful blossoms.
I can see spiky thorns.
I can see a tree as big as a plane.
I can see brown bark on the tree.
I can hear birds singing.
I can feel melting branches.
I can smell fire.
Someone is trying to burn the rainforest down.
Preston 2F

The forest floor is very quiet.
A long poison snake slithers in the leaves
A colourful monkey spying on the snake’s delicious food.
Alfie 2F

Meanwhile, in geography, Year Two have been getting creative outdoors by using natural resources to produce a representation of the layers in the rainforest. They had to use their reasoning skills to explain to their peers why they chose a certain leaf or stick for their picture.

“I chose this leaf for the understorey because it is big enough to catch water and sunlight from the canopy and emergent layer.”
 Jack 2D

“I found a furry feather. I am going to use it to represent the birds in the rainforest.”
Massimo 2D

“I need something for the tree trunk otherwise the leaves have nothing to grow off of.”
Krish 2D

“I used scrunched up dead leaves for moss because hardly any light gets to the forest floor. That means the plants can’t grow that big.”
Alfie 2D

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Instruction Texts and Forest Layers

Year One

In Year One, the children have been exploring the features of instruction texts. They created actions to help them remember each of the features.

Title

Introduction

What you need

Method

Top Tip

Year Two

As part of their Rainforest theme, Year Two have written poems inspired by the rainforest.

Success Criteria

I can see beautiful blossoms.
I can see spiky thorns.
I can see a tree as big as a plane.
I can see brown bark on the tree.
I can hear birds singing.
I can feel melting branches.
I can smell fire.
Someone is trying to burn the rainforest down.
Preston 2F

The forest floor is very quiet.
A long poison snake slithers in the leaves
A colourful monkey spying on the snake’s delicious food.
Alfie 2F

Meanwhile, in geography, Year Two have been getting creative outdoors by using natural resources to produce a representation of the layers in the rainforest. They had to use their reasoning skills to explain to their peers why they chose a certain leaf or stick for their picture.

“I chose this leaf for the understorey because it is big enough to catch water and sunlight from the canopy and emergent layer.”
 Jack

“I found a furry feather. I am going to use it to represent the birds in the rainforest.”
Massimo

“I need something for the tree trunk otherwise the leaves have nothing to grow off of.”
Krish

“I used scrunched up dead leaves for moss because hardly any light gets to the forest floor. That means the plants can’t grow that big.”
Alfie

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Experiements and Adventures

Year 1

In preparation for writing our narrative The Magic Bed we looked at different locations. We chose one that we wanted our main character to go to in the build up of our story and described it. 

"In New York city you can hear cars beeping their horns." 


"You can smell burgers with onions and tomatoes. There is a hot dog stand with delicious hotdogs." 


"The screeching seagulls are swooping across the city."

-Hannah 1D

We then mapped out the 5 main parts onto a story mountain.

Luca 1A

Georgina 1A

Year 2

2F have began to plan and write their own rainforest  inspired narratives this week. Here is the class working in groups to mind map ideas for a new character.

Our science topic is 'Plants'. 2S have planted a sunflower seed and are ensuring it has all the conditions it needs to grow. They are record their findings in a Sunflower diary.

They have also carried out a experiment- 5 seeds have had particular condition withdrawn and observing what happens over the next couple of weeks.
Seed 1- planted in sand
Seed 2- no sunlight
Seed 3- planted in damp paper
Seed 4- no water
Seed 5- in an empty pot

Alexis

Nisa

2D went outside to build animal shelters as part of their future lab. Once they had returned from their adventure they wrote some instructions.

Please leave us a comment so you know your thoughts on our work.