WC:16.1.17

1F

In English this week year 1 have continued learning the narrative “The three wishes”.

On Monday we generated some questions that we would like to ask the characters.  On Wednesday we used the hot seating method to ask questions to one of the pupils that had taken on the role of the fairy or the woodcutter. We really enjoyed this lesson. We had to think carefully before answering to ensure that we stayed in character.

2A

We were visited by Kris from the ActOnInfo group who delivered a drama workshop about The Great Fire of London. Everyone had a great time using their bodies to make different buildings and objects. Kris then read us the recount of the fire and each person had a turn in acting it out in the middle of the circle. We also have a go at hot seating Samuel Pepys! ]Thanks for coming to visit us Kris!

A trip to the woods

This week we started the week with an adventure!
As part of our Hook day for our narrative unit we took a trip to the woods as there had been reports of some unusual items in there. 
We found the following;

We were trying to think of a reason as to why and how these items appeared in our woods. When we read the story of The Three Wishes we realised that we must have been visited by a woodcutter and a fairy. These items have now become props to help us with our story retelling.

Stay tuned... pieces of work coming your way!

Super writing and robots

This half term year 2 are learning using the theme superheroes. We have been looking at including noun phrases and dramatic verbs in our writing. The photograph shows an acrostic poem where the children were challenged to use their new skills within the constraints of this type of poem. 

Leithe 2A

In year 1 we created collage robots. On each of our robots we used our very own paper that we decorated at the beginning of the lesson. We placed our paper in the centre of the robot and then worked around it using lots of different mediums to create the other parts of the robot's body.

Ellie 1A

Tayla 1A

In Year 1 this week we have been learning about capacity. On Tuesday, we used a range of different containers and resources to investigate capacity. We needed to estimate which cup would be the most suitable to fill to the full capacity with a range or items.

After we completed our estimations we needed to investigate which cup was the most suitable for each item, then record our results.

The children have been encouraged to use the vocabulary of capacity as well as explaining what they have found out.

“I liked this lesson, we had to help No-Bot to estimate which cup would is best!” Child in 1F 

  

Watford School's Trust

On Thursday year 1 were visited by Mrs Morten from the Watford School's Trust to answer some of our questions about Christianity.

We had time to think of what we would like to know and then 20 minutes of hot seating Mrs Morten. We found out so much information and finished our lesson by singing a song named God is a great, big God. 

Here are some children in 1M joining in with the song, learning the actions from Mrs Morten.

Here are some examples of the questions that 1A asked:

"Why do you go to Church?" - Jay

"Why do Churches has crosses?"- Hamza

"Who is Jesus?" - Yalda

"How do you say sorry to God?" - Lexi

Thank you Mrs Morten and the Watford School's Trust for answering our questions!

Year 2

Year 2 have been learning about the structure of the rain forest. Below is a diagram of the structure and a typed up explanation of what has been drawn. 

"This is our picture of the rainfoest. It shows the four layrs of the rainforest like the forst floor, the under canpy, the canpy and finally the emergent layer. The sun does not get to touch the forst floor and it is very dark so that’s why we coloured it in black. It’s a bit lighter in the under canpy because a littl bit more light gets there. Trees grow taller in the canopy layr because they get more sun. But the layr with the tallest trees is the emergent layer because thos trees pop out of the canopy layr. They get the most sun of all and they have a shampe like an umbrella!"

Marie-Ann and Lea

Year 1
This week we have been learning about fractions. We started the week finding parts of a whole practically using a range of resources. Here is a child in 1A piecing together parts of a pizza to make a whole. 

Here is an example of how we used the numicon to find equal pieces of a whole. This child was able to find 1/3 of 6.

 This child has split 20 into 4 groups, finding out that 1/4 of 20 =5.

In English we have been looking at traditional tales. 

1M have been retelling the story of The Frog Prince by sequencing the story into the opening, build up, problem, resolution and ending. In this video children in 1M act out the opening scene.

We loved the use of actions, expression and clear voices.

Year 2

2J have been learning about a variety of important concepts in science this week. The children worked together in small groups to explore the life cycles of humans and other animals. Also, they discussed what humans, plants and animals need to do to grow and stay healthy. As a class we drew a number of conclusions about the basic needs of living things.

Straight into learning

Welcome back to The Grove Academy. We hope you enjoyed your break and had a rest!
This week Year 1 were straight into their learning by using rulers and cubes to measure the length of different objects that you might find in a castle.

On Wednesday we got to choose which equipment we wanted to measure in when given a choice of cubes or a ruler. We had a go at recording too. 

Eg:

The flag = 12 cubes.

The flag = 29cm. 

Here is a picture of Sanuga's work from 1F

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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!