During the first half of the spring term we have been very busy. 

In art and design we have been working on painting with colours that make us feel warm or cold.  The children were able to discuss a variety of primary and secondary colours that make us feel cold or warm.  They then began to create pieces of art using those specific colours.  They also learned about the artist Gustav Klimt.  One of his most famous pieces it The Tree of Life.  The children created their own interpretation of this using half warm and half cold colours.

In computer technology, the children have been learning about digital writing.  They have been using the mouse/trackpad and the keyboard on laptops to write digitally.  They have been able to type, delete, undo mistakes, change the font size, colour and style.

In maths the children have worked extremely hard.  They have been learning all about the place value of numbers up to 20 and understanding different ways of adding and subtracting 2 numbers.  The children have used a variety of methods to do this including games, number lines, counters and tens frames, cubes, part/part/whole models, more or less tables and base 10.  They children have also began to double numbers below 10.

In English we have been looking at information texts and poems.  The children investigated a great poem called Firework Night by Andrew Collett.   They used there investigation to write their own poem about the four seasons of the year (spring, summer, autumn and winter).  The finished poems were very imaginative.

In science we have been looking at seasonal changes.  The children have thought about what happens in each season and what we might do or wear too.  We discovered which months of the year fall into which season and have combined this with geography to look at various weather conditions we might also expect to have in each season.  We made rain gages out of plastic bottles and play dough so that we could measure the rainfall in February, unfortunately we had no rain!  We also measured the change of shadows throughout the day.  We made a plan to draw around the shadows at 9am, 12pm and 2.15pm to see if the shadows had changed.

In geography we have been looking at all different type of weather.  We have observed the weather forecast and been out on the playground thinking about the temperature and wind speed.  We knew lots of different types of weather and where in the UK they were most likely to be experienced (harsher weather in the north of Scotland than in the south of England).  We also learned what 'sleet' is as it is something that many of the children are yet to experience.

In PSHE (Jigsaw) we were looking at what we had to do to achieve dreams and goals and how it made us feel to be successful or unsuccessful.  We had various challenges to complete including, making craft flowers, building the tallest tower, making our mane from play dough and making a 3D shape.  Some were easier than others but being successful make us want to try other things and being unsuccessful made us resilient and determined to try harder.

Finally in PE we began with gymnastics where we became 'champions' but pointing fingers and toes, working quietly and freezing in a chow pose.  The children were excellent at producing wide, narrow and curled shapes/movements with their bodies on mats and different apparatus.  They have also been learning different ways of jumping and using our arms and legs to propel us further.  We have also been practising skipping which we have found very challenging but have been determined to master!  More practise is needed!