As part of this years British Science Week, the children of Team JF were given the amazing opportunity to secure their understanding of materials with a visit from a real scientist! During this workshop, they discussed a range of materials, their properties and everyday uses. From this, they were given a very special job to create their own material - slime! As you can imagine, this generated a great excitement and they worked incredibly hard to ensure they made it accurately! The children thoroughly enjoyed this experience and gained better understanding of how materials are made as they did it themselves!

As part of poetry day, the children were very lucky to have a poet Conrad visit our classroom! Conrad initially shared a range of poems with the children for them to explore the different types. From this, they created their own rhyming poem together! The children loved this and even included actions as they performed! 

As part of our history unit, the children were given the exciting opportunity to take part in a workshop. A lovely lady from the History Van came into school to bring this historical period to life! To begin with, the children were able to explore what life what life was like during this time. They were given the opportunity to try on many different items of clothing, complete the washing, iron the linen and even scrub the pots! Some of the children were quite shocked when they realised just how much hard work it actually was! From this, they started to explore hospitals during this time. The children were given the task of role playing a ward during the Crimean War.  They were absolutely incredible at this! They threw themselves into role as wounded soldiers and nurses and began to carry out the daily duties. 

During the afternoon, the children wrote letters using a quill and ink to experience what writing was like during this time period. Finally, the last session included how medicines were made and how herbal remedies were used. The children each made their own lavender bag to take away too! 

Team JF LOVED this day and it was a great addition to their learning to really secure their understanding of this significant period of history! 

This week the lovely Team JF headed to church to perform their Christmas Carol Service. The children worked on a range of carols and a reading to perform for others and they truly gave their all! They sang their little hearts out and left us all feeling a little more festive!

I was incredibly proud of the children and the performance they gave. Well done Team JF you really are the best! 

Maths 

Team JF have been working really hard over the past couple of weeks to master the skill of addition. To begin with, the children were adding a two digit number with a single digit to spot any patterns. As learning progressed, they moved into adding two two-digit numbers using the formal column method. The children demonstrated great resilience to master this tricky skill! As they became experts with this, they moved into addition crossing the boundary and they always remembered to give any extra tens to their neighbour! 

Literacy

This week Team JF have worked really hard consolidate and secure a range of skills. To begin with, we focused on identifying statements, questions and commands. The children worked really hard to identify these, punctuate them and write their own! As the week progressed, we then moved into identifying and using the conjunctions 'and', 'but', 'so'. 

Science/Geography

This half term Team JF have worked incredibly hard to explore seasonal changes and weather around the world. Initially, the children focused on our weather and became familiar with the seasons and the changes we experience during these times. From this, we started to explore a world map. We studied the continents and oceans before identifying the weather in different countries. 

One Life 

This half term Team JF have worked really hard to identify a range of emotions. The children have used a variety of different books to aid their understanding of these. As learning progressed, the children started to make the connections with these feelings and themselves. We had lots of discussion around the sensations in our bodies when we are experiencing strong emotions and how we could react and respond to this. The children have become familiar with their 'inner cheerleader' and their 'inner critic'. 

Maths 

Over the past couple of days, Team JF have started to explore bridging 10. The children used their existing knowledge of bridging 10 using a number line to aid their understanding when using a place value grid. To begin with, we recapped our knowledge of tens and ones. From this, we made the numbers using Base 10, talking through each step. As we became confident with this, we started to talk through the importance of counting from our ones and found the total. We quickly realised we had too many ones and gave the whole tens to our neighbour. The children practised these steps, talking through each with their partner, to gain a secure understanding of what was happening to the numbers and why they were moving columns. 

Literacy

This week the children have worked really hard to complete a shared write of instructions in preparation for their own independent writing. We initially made a class tin bee and broke the steps down to instruct others of how to do the same. The children provided excellent imperative verbs and adverbs to use within the instructions and remembered to keep the steps in order. Next week, we will begin an independent write. 

PE

​This week the children worked really hard in small groups to perform entrances and exits safely using apparatus. The children ensured they had squashy knees and hands out in front when landing / jumping up, over and from apparatus. They also followed the teaching points of Entrance: Feet together, neutral (straight body), extended arms above head. Exit: Feet together, neutral (straight body), extended in front, line with shoulders. They were superstars and really enjoyed the session. 

Maths
​This week in maths the children of Team JF continued exploring addition. We started off by counting three groups of objects and understanding how to put this into a calculation. From this, we began working on strategies we could use to help us be successful. We initially counted on from the given number, however, we found this could lead to us becoming confused. We then started to break it up into smaller chunks to make it easier. As our learning progressed, we then created our own calculations in pairs by rolling a dice three times and solving the calculation we made.

Literacy
This week in literacy we made plans to make tin birds just like in our book The Tin Forest, we planned to do this from recycled tin materials. Working in pairs, we used a tin can to form the body of the bird, and then added a range of other tin materials/card/coloured paper in order to make our ‘tin bird’. We added eyes, beaks, wings and legs to our model. Afterwards, we came to the carpet and shared our ideas with the rest of the class. 

History Day
This week the school travelled back in time for our 'History Day'. All of the children looked amazing and really enjoyed explaining why they had chosen to dress up as that individual! During the day, we researched time capsules to find out what they are and why people create them. From this, we decided to create our own profile, adding our age, favourite foods and the things we enjoy doing. 

Science 

This week Team JF worked really hard on this half terms enquiry focus- 'researching using secondary sources'. To begin with, we discussed what research is and started to recognise a range of sources we could use to research with. From this, we started our very own research project about how to care for a dog. Once we had gathered our research, we out our information into a poster to share our knowledge with others. 

Geography/Science 

This week in geography, we decided that we would go out of school and have a look at our local area, Wombwell. We looked at the environment around us, we used our senses to describe what we had found and if things had changed, like the trees, the season and the weather. The children were fantastic! Well done Team JF! ​