Swallows in action!
Swallows class 2022-2023
Week Beginning 23rd & 30th January 2023
We have enjoyed Den building in our Outdoor learning sessions. This week we had to really work as a team-the wind was making building our dens a little tricky! If at first you don’t succeed try… try again!
Weeks beginning 9th & 16th January 2023
We have started our new topic ‘The Final Frontier’ with a special project from Nasa! They have asked us to think of ways to improve their astronaut training program to ensure the total success of all future missions. We began by learning what life is like on space stations and how astronauts stay healthy and we will be using our further understanding of space, such as celestial navigation, to make suggestions to send back to NASA.
The children have also been attending outdoor learning sessions with Mrs Godbold. They have been making mini dens using natural resources, experimenting with negative space drawing and painting with ferns. The children are loving it!
In maths, we have been putting our times table knowledge to the test and learning how to multiply large numbers using the grid method. There are a lot of things to remember but the children have been working really hard on recalling their timetable facts whilst presenting their working out clearly.
In art, we have been looking at Peter Thorpe’s space rockets and thinking about his use of line and colour. We have been practising using colour and shading to make objects look 3D and also experimenting with colour harmony using what we know about the colour wheel!
Christmas in Swallows!
What a whirlwind of glitter, carols and treats Christmas week has been! We have enjoyed a Christingle service at the church with Reverend Chris, school Christmas dinner, disco dancing at our Christmas party with Owls and singing our favourite carols at the church!
Weeks beginning 28th November & 5th December
Years 3 & 4 had a great time consolidating all our learning about the Roman invasion and the Iceni rebellion at the Time and Tide museum. We trained with a Roman centurion, met a druid, were sold as slaves to Lady Livia and joined Boudicca’s army as an Iceni warrior!
This week, we have been learning all about sound in science. We have learned how sound is made and used a tuning fork to observe sound waves. We then used our knowledge to make musical instruments.
In maths, we have paused our learning on multiplication and division to have a play with shape and area. We have learned that area is the space inside a closed 2D shape and discovered that using squares is the most efficient way to measure it.
The school is now in full Christmas flow and the children had a lovely time decorating our tree and preparing for all our different Christmas events coming up next week!
Weeks beginning 14th & 21st November
The children have really enjoyed learning about our latest two heroes: Bear Grylls and Amanda Gorman. These are two individuals who are alive today and inspiring change. We looked at their achievements and used their courageous advocacy to inspire a range of work in school…
We wrote magazine articles about Bear Grylls discussing what makes him successful and what makes him a hero. We also looked at how we could include some of his famous quotes to support our descriptions and explanations.
We felt really moved by Amanda Gorman’s poetry and were inspired to work together on a collaborative art piece as well create our own murals to spread her message. We thought specifically about colour choices and how an abstract style gave us more freedom to express our hopes and dreams for the future.
In maths, we have been learning our timestables with the help of BBC Bitesize supermovers!
And for Children in Need our class doubled in size as we all brought in our favourite cuddly toy!
Weeks beginning 31st October & 7th November
Since returning from our half term break, we have been packing in more learning than ever. In topic, we have moved on from the Romans and have started looking at heroes from more recent history. We started by learning about Amir Latif and how he has overcome blindness to achieve amazing things as a professional adventurer and tv personality. We have also been learning about Amelia Earhart and how her determination to become a pilot challenged gender stereotypes of women at the time. We used everything we had learned about her to write her last diary entry before she disappeared…
The children were asked to highlight the parts of their writing they were most proud of and then we looked at how we could edit and improve other areas using: powerful vocabulary, fronted adverbials and extending our sentences with relative and subordinate clauses!
In science, we have been learning about electrical circuits and how they work. The children had lots of opportunities to build their own working circuit, use these circuits to test conductors and insulators and construct their own switches to add into their circuits.
Weeks beginning 26th September & 3rd October
Over the last couple of weeks we have been packing in lots of topic work on the Romans as well as some extra curricular learning!
We enjoyed ‘Faith Week’ as a whole school and spent each afternoon learning about different world faiths in our sports team groups. These included: Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam. We immersed ourselves into the different beliefs and celebrations of these religions and compared with what we already knew about Christianity.
We also participated in Harvest Festival. Our class shared our learning about Shavuot which is the Jewish equivalent of Harvest Festival and the Swallows children showed great confidence with their readings in front of the school.
In topic we concluded our learning about Boudicca’s rebellion by writing our own newspaper reports. We thought about the techniques required to make a catchy headline, wrote in clear paragraphs and presented our stories in columns. We have also been learning about the destruction of Pompeii, please see our Tapestry updates for our dance based reenactment of the events.
In maths, we have finished our unit on place value and will be moving on to addition and subtraction. We also threw in a lesson on Roman numerals!
Week beginning 19th September
In maths this week we have been testing our number sense by using number lines. We have practised putting numbers up to 1000 (y3) and 10,000 (y4) on number lines with different scales and divisions and estimated where numbers would go on lines without any divisions!
In topic, we have been thinking about who would have been considered a hero to the Romans. We have looked at two famous figures: Julius Caesar and Spartacus, and thought about what they achieved and why those achievements were/are considered heroic! We have also started learning about Boudicca and will be debating next week whether she was a hero or a villain. Please check tapestry for our Iron Age inspired ensemble we improvised to accompany a song we have been learning about the Iceni queen…
Weeks beginning 5th and 12th September
We have hit the ground running in Swallows class and have dived straight in to our new topic ‘Heroes’. We have started this topic by taking a look at The Romans and their legacy! Our full curriculum map for this term can be found on our Swallows class page and lots of our learning is also recorded on tapestry so please be sure to check in there to see what we have been up to.
In topic, we have been thinking about how long ago the Romans came to Britain and what they left behind for us to learn about them today!
In maths, we have been working on our knowledge and understanding of number and place value and building up our confidence using lots of different resources we have in the classroom to help us solve problems.
Swallows class 2021-2022
Weeks beginning 27th June and 4th July
We have been non-stop at school the last couple of weeks! From the Norfolk Show to our KS2 performance of ‘Hoodwinked’ we have been enjoying a whole range of extra-curricular learning opportunities…
Week beginning 20th June
We have been right in the thick of play rehearsals this week which are coming along nicely! The children’s singing is particularly impressive.
In between practicing our parts, we have been directing our own stop motion interpretations of Robin Hood. The full films have been uploaded to tapestry, below you will see some of the stills from each groups project.
In maths, we are moving on from time. The children have worked really hard and made great progress with that important skill. We are now learning about shape and have been practicing using a ruler to draw accurately and finding right angles in 2D shapes.
Weeks beginning 6th and 13th June
Welcome back, we hope you all had a great May half term and enjoyed the Jubilee weekend. We are changing the direction of our learning this half term and are moving on from ‘myths’ to ‘legends’. We started our learning by looking at the poem ‘The Kraken’. We have analysed the language, performed the poem as a class and created our own artistic interpretations of the feared sea monster. We have also enjoyed a visit from storyteller Paul Jackson who performed some local legends for us- we were absolutely spellbound.
Some fun extra-curricular events and activities we have also enjoyed include sports day and a visit from Norfolk Wildlife Trust. Swallows were excellent competitors in their first ever KS2 sports day and some children showed real resilience in some of the tougher events. The whole class thoroughly enjoyed the visit from Norfolk Wildlife Trust who came to teach us all about pollinators and bee lines. We spent a lovely afternoon looking for minibeasts and surveying the flowers we could find.
We have also made a start on our play rehearsals. This year we will be taking part in the KS2 production of ‘Hoodwinked’. This links nicely with our ‘legends’ learning and also gives us great inspiration for our stop motion films in computing.
Week beginning 16th May
This week we have been thinking about writing our own Greek myths. We have been thinking about all the myth ‘ingredients’ we have learned about, the history of ancient Greece, as well as our philosophy lessons, to make our myths as authentic as possible.
Week beginning 9th May
This week, we have been learning all about Pandora’s box. We enjoyed the story before moving on to draw our own interpretation of the mythical monsters which escaped from the box when Pandora opened it. We also started a new philosophy unit and discussed the difference between knowing and believing.
In maths, we have been continuing with our fractions work and have been practicing ordering fractions on a number line and finding fractions of amounts.
Week beginning 2nd May
We got stuck into our first myth this week- Theseus and Minotaur. We spent the week researching, designing, making and evaluating special trainers to help Theseus navigate Daedalus’ labyrinth and defeat the minotaur.
In maths, we have also been continuing to develop and embed our understanding of fractions. Here we are practising ‘making a whole’…
Weeks beginning 18th & 25th April
Welcome back Swallows! How lucky we were with the glorious sunny weather in the second half of the Easter holidays. You have certainly seemed re-energised and ready to learn after that boost of vitamin D.
Our topic this term is ‘Myths and Legends’, which we have kickstarted with some DT. The children designed and made some fantastic time machines to transport us back to Ancient Greece. Full video footage of their creations can be found on tapestry. Since arriving in Ancient Greece we have learned about some of the things the ancient Greeks began or invented which are still relevant to us today.
We have also enjoyed participating in our school Easter service and a whole school pet blessing.
