Celebrating Remembrance Day

This week we have been thinking a lot about World War One because yesterday (11th November) was Remembrance Day.

On Monday, we started the week by learning about why people wear poppies and celebrate Remembrance Day.

Can you remember why poppies are worn?

As a class, we created an acrostic poem and worked really hard to write this in our best handwriting.

On Tuesday, we learned a little but more about World War One.  We thought more specifically about animals and their role in the war.

Can you remember the three main animals that were involved in the war?

We produced some beautiful pictures to show these animals.

On Wednesday at 11.00am we all went out into the playground and held a two minute silences to think about all of the people who have been hurt or killed during wars.

In the afternoon we had a lovely treat.  Round Midnight Theatre Company visited school and Phil and Emmie played some games with us to help us to learn  more about animals during the war.

First we thought about all different types of animals and tried to become these.  Can you guess which animals we are being?

Next we thought about horses and their job during the war.  Emmie taught us a fun game to remind us of some of the things they did.

Can you remember why horses were used during the war?

After that, Phil taught us a game called Dog and Rat.  This is where we thought more about the dogs in the war.

What jobs did the dogs do?
Why did they need to chase the rats?

Finally we learned about the pigeons and played a game which showed us why they were used to carry the messages in the war.

Can you remember why pigeons carried messages?

We are going to end the week by consolidating all of our learning so far and creating some lovely writing about war animals.

Guided Reading

This week in Guided Reading we have enjoyed reading Hansel and Gretel.  We had some great discussions about this story.

Can you remember the answers to these questions?

Who is Hansel?
Why did the woodcutter leave Hansel and Gretel in the woods?
How did Hansel and Gretel find their way home again?
What happened to the path of white bread?
What was the house in the wood made of?
How did Hansel trick the witch into thinking he was still thin?
Why did the witch climb into the oven?

Diwali

On Friday we learned a little more about Diwali.

We finished painting our clay diva lamps.  We mixed glitter into the paint to make it sparkle.

We also learned about Rangoli patterns.  These are specials patterns that people celebrating Diwali draw and make.  They are very colourful and always symmetrical.  

Can you remember what symmetrical means?

 Today we were very excited as we made the classroom dark and lit our diva lamps.  They were beautiful and very bright.

Space Projects

We all worked very hard over the half term holiday to produce some amazing projects about space.

Amelie worked very hard to research all of the planets and make a mobile of them.

Jackson made a fantastic rocket out of a tube.

Ammar made a space scene.

Umar's space scene included some facts about space.

Ismah explained how she had made her rocket out of a bottle and tin foil.

Julia's space scene included a rocket, an astronaut and some very sparkly planets!

Jumping!

In PE this morning we spent a lot of time thinking about how to jump.

First we learned that balance is important when we are jumping.  We practised balancing by keeping a beanbag on our head.  To stop it from sliding off, we had to keep our heads up and our eyes focussed straight ahead.

Next we thought abut the position needed before jumping.  We learned that it is important to start a jump from a position with our knees bent, arms behind us and head up.  This allows us to jump further.

Ayesha demonstrated perfectly how to jump.

We all worked hard to perfect our jumping positions.

Spelling Stars

Well done to:
Ismah
Amelie
Fatima
Hakim
Zayan
Rico
Eshal

They got all of their spellings right today.

Diva Lamps

This we week have been thinking about Diwali, which will be celebrated on Wednesday 11th November 2015.  We read the story of Rama and Sita and learned that Diva lamps were used to celebrate the happy ending.

We designed our own Diva lamps and then used clay to make them.

First we rolled our clay into a ball.

Then we used our thumbs to make a hole in the clay, big enough to fit in a tea light.

Next we used an old pencil to put some patterns onto our pot.

When our pots are dry we are going to paint them to make them more colourful.