The children have found out about the history of the first moon landing and began some map work both to locate planets in the solar system and the continent of Africa and countries within it, such as Mali where Baboon comes from. In Art, linked to learning about famous people such as Neil Armstrong, the children have learnt to print in the style of Andy Warhol.

Next term our topic will be Punch and Judy. I hope the children are looking forward to learning about the history of the British Seaside, as well as making their own Punch and Judy Puppets to put on a show for Cubs! Have a wonderful Easter.

This included an Aladdin theme day with Cubs class, the children did genie doubling, experimented with materials to collage, designed and painted their own Widow Twanky costumes, wrote stories about magic carpet adventures and thought up and made a wish. I would like to mention three girls who won the competitions that day. The Widow Twanky costume design was won by Katie McCairn helped by Natasha Jessop and Ella Turner, and the magic carpet story competition was won by Ella Turner who created a book containing several different adventures.

The following week the children wrote a script for a daily news update broadcast about the Aladdin story, turning a fairy tale into an information text which was then recorded and made into a short film!

The rest of this term has been focused on the history of toys. We had a lovely informative visit from Mrs Revell who showed us toys from three generations of her family! We have learnt how to make moving pictures using levers and pivots and the children are currently designing their own. As well as testing the effects of pushes and pulls on toys, at the moment we are beginning to film a short movie about our findings to show to the rest of the school.

We got an early start with the nativity this year, sending out lines and begun singing practice in the first week of half term and what a relief we did with all that snow! This year as I’m sure most of you know the nativity was ‘What Christmas Means to Me.’ I’d liked to thank all the children for their hard work, fantastic singing and for learning their lines so well. It was a real success!

In class this term, Leopards topic has been Light and Dark. The children have really enjoyed the experiments we have carried out and are well on their way to becoming budding scientists. They have explored light sources and the differences between a source and a reflective surface, as well as how light travels and creates shadows. In Literacy, we have really enjoyed sharing Funnybones stories and the children have done an amazing job of writing their own versions in the style of Allan Ahlberg this term.

Well done leopards you have been brilliant this term and I’m looking forward to our Toy Story topic next term!

Mrs Bull

Our topic this term has been Ourselves and guided by Pablo Picasso we have painted some amazing abstract portraits this term as well as copying some of his paintings.  We can now mix any paint colour that we might need and all the children are developing excellent brush skills.

In Literacy Leopards have been reading and enjoying Traditional Tales.  Towards the end of the term we were so comfortable with them that every child in the class became author and illustrator of their very own Traditional Tale.

Next term, our topic will be Light and Dark and we will be looking forward to creating a dark den in the classroom and carrying out lots of experiments and investigations.  We will also be getting stuck into practising for the Cubs and Leopards Nativity. Which we hope many of you will be able to come and enjoy with us at the end of term.

For the rest of the term we will be turning our scientific attention to animals in our local environment (with a week focus on slightly less local or common animals  – DINOSAURS).

The art work that has been produced by Leopards this term has been gorgeous. Using the Great Fire as inspiration the children have created a large scale display, layered paintings, collages, watercolour impressions as their information book covers and pencil sketches. Currently, we are just putting the finishing touches onto the fire engine we have individually designed and made this term.

The children have also become scientists this term coming up with and carrying out experiments to find out more about forces. They have worked fantastically as a team and we had a lot of fun seeing how far we could make water travel, almost as much fun as Mr Shawley who joined in soaking us with the pressure hose!

Next term we are hoping for great weather (fingers crossed) as our topic will be ‘In the Garden’. This should give us the opportunity to spend lots of time outside, whether it be over at the allotments or down at the Spinney.

The final celebration that we found out about was Hanukkah.  This is a Jewish celebration.  The miracle of Hanukkah was that a candle that was only meant to last for one day lasted for 8 days.  We decided that this would be something we could teach Cubs Class and so the children got into groups and made up some very interesting presentations for the younger children.  These were fantastic when they were shown to Cubs on our Hanukkah themed day!

As well as all of this, we have also spent the term working hard on our nativity, “The Stars Come out For Christmas”.  I hope you had the opportunity to come and watch it.  We are all really proud of all the hard work we put in to produce a fantastic show.  So well done to all the Leopards children this term!

We have also been learning about our bodies, how they work, staying healthy and growing.  To build on the children’s understanding of keeping healthy, we took a walk into Little Bytham and the Spinney.  Our walk helped us to find out all about our local area and where we live.  On the walk the children took photographs and at school they sequenced these to make some fantastic journey maps.

The last few weeks of term the children have been making hand puppets.  They have designed these and are now in the process of sewing their puppets together and we look forward to finishing these off next term.

Leopards class have been really lucky this term, not only have they attended Witham Hall on a Wednesday morning for P.E. but on a Monday afternoon, a Multi-Skills Coach from Grantham has been teaching them lots of fun games to develop their agility, co-ordination, catching, throwing, jumping and kicking skills.

Our most exciting news this term has been the recent arrival of two new friends our leopard and zebra fishes that we have named, after much deliberation “Sparkle and Twinkle”.  We look forward to watching them grow and hopefully getting some more friends in the near future.

At the beginning of this term the children are going to be learning about the skills they require to become a successful artist. These skills will include following instructions, cutting, collage, painting, knowledge of colours, printing and will conclude with a study of the artist Kandinsky.

DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY: Make Me a Puppet!

This term the children will have the opportunity to work with textiles. To conclude the topic ‘ourselves’ they will design and make a puppet either of themselves or of a character they have created!

GEOGRAPHY: Our Local Area

The class will explore and learn about their local area this term. We will be looking at where they live and will compare their localities to find the key features. This will be liked to the children work in literacy where they will become authors creating stories set in familiar settings. This study will also allow the children to use ICT in the form of digital cameras.

LITERACY

In literacy the class will begin by learning about labels and lists. They will then move on to look at fiction an stories set in familiar settings and at the end of the term with the help of their puppet they will write some senses poetry.

PHSE: SEAL

This year at the Bythams we are following the SEAL (Social & Emotional Aspects of Learning) PSHE program. This term we are exploring new beginnings.  This weekly session will include time to think and reflect and to share ideas and feelings. ‘New Beginnings’ looks at settling in back at school and welcoming people, creating a community, problem solving, calming down, self awareness and exploring feelings.

SCIENCE: Health & Growth

This term the children will learn all about their bodies and how they change and grow. The class will learn all about leading a healthy lifestyle including how to exercise and what they should eat to maintain a healthy diet. Throughout this topic the children will also compare their bodies and lifestyles to those of different animals to find similarities & differences.