This is what we are learning next week

Mice

Next week we will be diving in to our Circus topic, finding out about where the animals that were typically used in circuses come from using maps and atlases to locate the countries. We will be using our Art skills to critiques art pieces originating from circuses and having a go at using the same features in our own work. We will be exploring the Horrid Henry series of books and choosing adjectives to describe characters and things. We will be reviewing our use of speech marks and improving the speed and length at which we write. In Maths we will be using investigative skills to find answers to problems and talking about how we solved them.

Gruffaloes

Next week, the Gruffaloes will be investigating circles, and we will find out why acts perform in a circus ring, why the audience sits in tiered seating, how to draw circles and we will find patterns that we traditionally see at the circus. In Literacy, we are going to begin looking at the style of Francesca Simon’s Horrid Henry series, and find things that are unique to the stories such as patterns and repetition. In Geography, we are going to map where circus animals and famous acts come from, using symbols and a key to represent them.

Please note that our class does not have PE or Swimming lessons next week.

Owls

Next week in Literacy we will be collecting adjectives to describe some of the characters in Horrid Henry and hopefully notice that adjectives can describe what something looks like or what something is like. We will also be looking at how using speech can show how a character is feeling. In Maths we will be looking at different methods to help us to add two numbers and revisiting telling the time. In IPC we will learning how to express different emotions through facial expressions in our Art work. We will also be finding out where different animals that were typically used in the circus originally come from and we will use maps and atlases to help us locate the different countries. We will also be visiting the Bear's Class in Year 1 to do some Buddy reading.

Snakes

It is wonderful when we can start to follow the children’s lines of inquiry and that is exactly what we will be doing this week. Two excellent questions from Armand and Yuv – they wondered about following our knowledge harvest. Why are some animals important to the circus? and, Has anything changed in the circus from the past and now? We will also be thinking of our technology ideas for a human cannon-ball model or a clown’s squirting flower. We will be using the circus (and circus vocabulary) as the context for writing, thinking about the setting, characters and perhaps using dialogue. The children’s writing is improving every week and they are beginning to write cursively in their daily writing activities. Last week we enjoyed the satisfaction of writing the letter g and this week we will be tackling the letter d. In Guided Reading we will continue to retell parts (or all) of a story -  as well as taking another opportunity at asking questions, to show our understanding of the text.  In Mathematics we will be looking at right-angles and measurement of time, length and weight. 

Foxes

Next week we will be investigating the question ‘where did the circus come from?’. We will be using a range of sources to try and research this question independently. We will be gathering some information from human sources, interviewing adults around school as we seek to find the answer. We will learn that not all sources are accurate, and we will think carefully about which interviewed adults might not be giving us reliable information! Later in the week, we will plot the historical development of the circus on a timeline and begin to find out significant geographical locations that were important in the history of circuses. In Literacy, we will be beginning our consideration of significant authors and extended stories. We will be finding out about Francesca Simon and reading some extracts from her most famous books. In Mathematics will be continuing to consider the units of measure for length, weight and capacity.