Our Learning

Welcome to Whale Class!

This half term, our big question is:

Could you have survived as a Victorian child?

Stay tuned to see what we've learned so far!

Week 1:

Whale class have had a brilliant first week back after half term. We introduced our new big question and jumped straight in by looking at different artefacts and writing down our questions. In English we have been using the story Major Glad and Major Dizzy. We've drawn a story map and have been rehearsing retelling the story with expression. We have been learning about suffixes and past tense alongside this text! In maths we have been learning about position and direction. We have been using key vocabulary like left, right, quarter turn, half turn, three-quarter turn, clockwise and anticlockwise. We have had fun directing partners around mazes in the playground! In Geography we have been using Google Earth to take tours around Sunbury and have applied our direction knowledge by using correct terminology including compass points! We are looking forward to continuing with our learning journey next week.

Week 2:

Whale class have had another fun packed week of learning. In History we have continued our learning about Queen Victoria and have explored her life and achievements through a timeline. We have been discovering more about what life may have been like for a Victorian child and many were shocked that families usually only owned one bed and even shared a toilet with their entire street!

In Maths we are extending our knowledge of direction and have learnt clockwise and anti-clockwise. We have awoken our budding artists and had an amazing morning exploring techniques Rossetti used with charcoal. We showcased our learning to our peers and everyone was impressed with all our wonderful work. We have even been able to take to charcoal home to continue our designs at home. In English we have continued with our story Major Glad and Major Dizzy and children have innovated our story map and have worked really hard at apply expanded noun phrases to our writing. After a very warm end to the week we are looking forward to what fun our learning journey will bring next week.

We hope to see some of you at our summer fair tomorrow!

Week 3:

Whale class have had a lovely week full of some really exciting learning. In maths we have been learning about time! We have learned about o'clock, half past, quarter to and quarter past. We transferred our learning skills into the playground where we practised being the hands of a clock and learned how to turn clockwise and anticlockwise. In English we have been continuing with our text Major Glad and Major Dizzy. We have been innovating our own stories and looking closely at the timeline of events. We then moved on to looking at Dr Bernardo past and present and used hot seating to really understand and empathise with the character. In Science we have been exploring the work of Charles Darwin and doing our own flower pressing where we could apply our understanding of plant parts. We have also been learning about which materials are best for muffling sound and making suggestions for Victorians working in noisy factories! We used role play to explore why ear defenders might be needed. In art we have been putting all our skills of watercolour, charcoal, pencil and collage together to create a multi media self portrait! The outcome was brilliant!

Week 4:

We have been so proud of Whale class this week and very much impressed with their positive attitude, resilience and bravery as they embarked on two days of class swap up at Chennestone! It was so nice to have Whale class back on Thursday full of exciting things to tell us about their new teachers and new friends. In Maths we have been learning about telling the time to 5 minutes. In Music, we have learning a few new songs and we're hoping to be able to sing them to you very soon! In Art we have been exploring the work of William Morris and his patterns. We undertook research and expressed our opinions about his wallpaper designs! We are looking forward to next week where we have a playtime scheduled with Turtle class, class photos and sports day!

Week 5:

Whale Class have had a brilliant week! On Monday, Year 2 members of gardening club were lucky enough to take a trip to Superbloom at the Tower of London! It was a wonderful experience to see 20 million flowers that had been planted to celebrate the Queen's Jubilee. While we were there, we took a ride on a giant slide and even saw the crown jewels!

On Tuesday, Turtle class came to join us for an afternoon playtime at Beauclerc. It was so nice to see our new friends again and start to form friendships following class swap days.

In English we have been securing our knowledge of adverbs as well as writing a fact file all about Queen Victoria. In Maths we have been continuing with our learning on time and have been busy comparing durations of time.

On Thursday we took part in sports day. It was such a wonderful afternoon where we had a picnic with our family and friends followed by taking part in many different activities at 6 different stations. Parents followed us around and cheered us on and we were all so proud of ourselves.

We have another exciting week planned for next week and we can't wait!

Week 6:

This week in Whale Class we were excited to go and watch the Year 6 play - Darwin Rocks! Evie says it was really good and funny! Once we had watched the school play, we had a playdate with Turtle Class. Diana says I played with lots of new children and made more new friends. We have been working hard to practise for our Year 2 graduation. Theo says my favourite part is my line right at the end! In art we have been making silhouette portraits just like the Victorians had! Felicity says: I got very sticky but had lots of fun! In maths we have been learning about duration of time and weight. Otter says we got to compare the mass of objects. We have been continuing with our learning on Victorians in history. Heidi says female teachers had to wear long dresses and I prefer my school uniform now.

We are all looking forward to next week - pleasure ensure that all children have hats, water bottles and sun cream!

Last half term, our big question was:

What makes me a super species?

Have a look at what we learned about:

Week 1

Whale Class have had a brilliant first week back. It was wonderful to see all the children and hear about their exciting Easter holidays.

On Tuesday, we introduced our new big question and we thought carefully about what we would like to find out. In Science we planted seeds and set up our first investigations to really understand what a seed needs to grow. We made observational drawings using magnifying glasses, made predictions and discussed the differences between bulbs and seeds.

In English we have been using adjectives to describe settings. We used inspiration from the chocolate room in Willy Wonka's factory and we even found golden tickets in our English books!

In Maths we have been continuing with our learning on fractions. We have been investigating thirds and securing our understanding of equal parts.

We can't wait to continue with our learning next week and finish the week on Friday with our trip to Kew Gardens!

Finally, before the Easter break, both Beauclerc and Chennestone took part in Science Week. Many children researched scientists and brought projects into school. Children were able to share their projects in assembly and our science lead Mrs Bowden came to Beauclerc to see all the amazing work. Cerys in our class amazed us all by creating a video where she interviewed a real life scientist - Professor Caroline Smith, who works at the Natural History Museum! We are thrilled to be able to share the video with you on our school websites and it's well worth the watch.

To see the video, click on the purple tab to the left 'children', then click on 'school videos' and you will see the video under 'Whale Class'. Well done Cerys and everyone else who produced truly inspiring pieces of work and presented so beautifully and a huge thank you to Professor Caroline Smith.

Week 2:

Whale class went to Kew Gardens! We had such an amazing time. We started our day with a trip to the palm house. It was hot and humid and made us feel like we were in a tropical rainforest! We then walked over to the children's garden where we got to play on a huge climbing frame as well as in a sandpit area. We took a quick pitstop for lunch before heading off for our workshops and to explore Kew Gardens a little more. Our workshop took us on an adventure to look at plants from around the world and how these plants have adapted to the climate where they live. We finished the day on a huge high, ready for a nap! Well done to all the children in Whale class who were brilliant with their behaviour and a huge thank you to the parents who helped support us on the day.

Week 3:

We have had a brilliant week in Whale Class! In Art we have been learning about Leonardo Da Vinci. We learned all about his style of drawing and painting, we shared our opinions and we had a go at recreating one of his masterpieces - the Mona Lisa! We have been checking in on our sunflowers and broad beans and are impressed with the rate at which they are growing. In Maths we have been continuing with our learning on fractions and we have also been practising our number skills. In English, we have been writing a recount from, our time at Kew Gardens. We shared photos and sequenced the day carefully. We extended our sentences with a range of conjunctions and edited our work to improve our vocabulary choices! We hope you all have a lovely weekend and we look forward to seeing everyone on Monday!

Week 4:

Whale class have been super busy this week! In maths we have been learning about measuring length and height. We have used cubes, rulers, meter sticks, trundle wheels and measuring tape! We learned how to measure accurately and thought carefully about starting from 0. In English we have been using the book 'Lost and Found' and learning about letter writing. We wrote letters from the boy to the penguin and thought carefully about character feelings and punctuation. In DT we have been exploring healthy eating. We researched, designed, made and evaluated fruit pizzas! They weren't to everyone's taste!! Have a lovely restful weekend.

Week 5:

Whale class have been working incredibly hard this week and have completed all their quizzes. We had to remember all our maths skills and we had to concentrate hard to read questions carefully. We celebrated with a whole class special certificate and we all stood up in assembly while the rest of the school gave us a clap! All the adults in Whale class are super proud of the children so a massive well done from us!

Aside from quizzes, we have been continuing with lots of fantastic learning. In Science we learned about germs. We used glitter to show the importance of washing our hands and we thought about different types of germs and how they can be helpful and unhelpful. We also put our senses to the test to see if we could beat some amazing animals! We investigated if we could see as well as cats in the dark and if we could smell as easily as grizzly bears! We had lots of fun.

In Art we have been preparing ourselves for the Queen's Jubilee celebrations next week. We have drawn portraits of the queen, decorated bunting and made flags!

We hope you all have a restful weekend and we look forward to lots more exciting learning next week.

Last half term, our big question was:

Who were the famous explorers of our world?

Have a look at what we learned about!

Week 1:

Whale class have had a brilliant first week back! This week we have been learning about Amelia Earhart and introduced other significant explorers, we even made our own aeroplanes! In maths we have been investigating how to interpret keys using pictures to represent amounts using both block diagrams and pictograms. Within English, we have been using our knowledge of sentence type to create a monster wanted poster. As a class we have created digital impressionist artwork on our laptops, we are also reading Paddington for our class story.

Week 2:

Another fantastic week for the Whale class! We must thank all the children and adults for making book week thoroughly enjoyable, we saw some amazing costumes! The whole school had a fancy dress parade in the afternoon where children could show off their costumes and it was a treat to see Cruella (AKA Mrs Mulhall) strut down the catwalk too! We also celebrated the day with the Whale class children by reading our favourite books with hot chocolate and biscuits.

This week we have created our own comic books to tell the story of what adventures Amelia Earhart could have gone on. In maths we have been learning all about 2D and 3D shapes and we have been singing a very catchy tune to help us remember. We are continuing to read Paddington, which is getting really quite exciting, to be continued...

Week 3:

Whale class have had an exciting week learning all about Bessie Coleman. Ask us to tell you her inspirational quote! We thought carefully about what life might have been like in those times and how brave and resilient Bessie was.

In English we have been writing our very own 'defeat the monster' tales! We used our model text to help us structure our ideas and used our boxing up template to identify the different parts of our stories. We will finish writing these stories next week. In Maths we have been continuing with our learning on shapes. We have been learning about lines of symmetry and using mirrors to help us draw symmetrical shapes! On Thursday we seized the opportunity to revisit money and check we knew how to use coins to make different amounts.

In ICT we used the chromebooks to design our own Mondrian pictures. We have been thoroughly enjoying using the chromebooks each week and are so grateful to our PTA for raising the money to buy them - they've made a huge difference! Thank you from Whale Class!

We are looking forward to meeting a real life explorer next week! We hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Week 4:

This week has been a very busy week. Whale class have been amazing in their quizzes and shown real determination to do their best.

On Tuesday Whale class, became scientists for the day! we learned all about different materials in the world around us and we carried out an experiment to explore which ,materials were ever absorbent or waterproof. We continued our day by looking at growth and investigating the link between the size of our hands and our height to see if there were any comparisons. We were super scientists!

Our exciting week did not end there! As we are learning about explorers, we invited James Ketchell, who is a British adventurer, to come in on Friday and present he amazing adventures to the whole school. Afterwards, Whale class joined a workshop with James where he showed all the amazing equipment he will be using on his next expedition, to ski across the Greenland Ice Cap. James Ketchell is the first person to complete the triathlon of rowing across the Atlantic Ocean, summiting Mount Everest and cycling around the world.

We have had a busy and fun packed week! Whale class have really shown resilience and we are very proud of them.

Week 5:

Whale class have had a busy week learning all about the world's five oceans. We learned facts and compared sizes, we sang songs and took part in quizzes. We learned why the oceans are so important and how they help us as humans. We learned why the oceans are under threat and how we can help protect them. In maths we have been continuing with our learning on shape. We are starting to secure our understanding of vertices and edges and we finished our week with a shape investigation lesson.

In English we have been learning about recounts. We recalled our science day and wrote letters to James the explorer to tell him about what we learned. We focussed on past tense words and sequencing events.

We have been enjoying the sunshine and we even had a moment of mindfulness on the grass - we felt very relaxed afterwards!

Have a lovely weekend, we're looking forward to all the exciting events (including explorer dress up day) next week!

Week 6:

Whale class have had an exciting end to the Spring term! On Wednesday, we dressed up as explorers for the day! We thought carefully about where James Ketchell had explored and we worked in teams to design him a new vehicle! Some of the features chosen were very interesting!! Check out our photos. In Maths we have been beginning our learning on fractions. We now understand equal parts and can recognise half. We will continue with this learning after the Easter holidays. In English, we wrote our recounts using our plans to support us. On Friday, Beauclerc was lucky enough to have a visit from the Easter bunny! As a whole school, we went on an Easter egg hunt in the playground! We then enjoyed our class treat of a film with popcorn after successfully earning enough marbles over the term! We hope you have a lovely Easter break and we look forward to returning in a couple of weeks time. Whale class over and out!

Last half term, our big question was:

Where in the world would I take Beegu?

Week 1:

Last week, we found out that during the Christmas holidays, a spaceship had crash landed in Sunbury! The police even had to be called! From there, we thought carefully about who or what may have landed and we met our character Beegu. We wrote questions, using a question matrix to support our vocabulary and thought about what we would teach Beegu and where we would take her. We drew a story map to sequence our Beegu story and we made our own alien characters to take us through our learning journey! In History, we travelled back in time with Beegu and we met Edward the Confessor! We learned about the 4 different contenders to the throne after Edward died. We debated who should become King and used role play to persuade others! We are looking forward to seeing where our learning takes us next!

Week 2:

Wow what a week in Whales! We have been so busy, time has flown!

In maths we have continued learning about multiplication. We have explored how to use arrays and have shown our learning partners how multiplication can be shown as equal groups.

In English we have been focusing on Beegu. Beegu is lost and we have been trying to help find her by creating our own posters using adjectives to describe what she looks like.

In Geography and History we are discovering landmarks in London. We used maps and co-ordinates to locate parks and famous buildings before researching the Tower of London. We were all shocked to learn that Queen Elizabeth I was imprisoned there by her very own sister! We were interested by the story behind the ravens of the tower. Ask the children what will happen if they leave.

We are looking forward to next week and continuing on with all our learning. Don’t forget our ‘Royal’ dress up day next Friday (21^st January).

Week 3:

Whale class have had a great week! We have been learning about the build up to the Battle of Hastings and all the events that preceded it! We weighed up the pros and cons of each potential King and produced some lovely writing. In Maths we have been learning times tables, starting with our 2s. We have been recalling doubles and halves and learned how to draw number tracks. In English we innovated our Beegu story and wrote all about a mouse named Squeak and his adventures in the sewers! In Science we have been learning about materials. We designed and made prototypes of shelters for Beegu. We also learned about living and non living things. We went outside to investigate and decided on a third group of 'once lived'. On Friday we finished the week with a Royal Dress up Day! We learned about the Battle of Stamford Bridge and the start of the Battle of Hastings. We used role play and timelines to re-enact the battle and we visualised the scene on Senlac Hill!

Week 4:

This week Whale class found out the ending to the Battle of Hastings. We used role play to understand the full sequence of events and then made swords and shields to re-enact the Normans conquest. We're looking forward to seeing how this historic event will link to our very own school! In English we wrote our final 'losing tales' and based our stories on our alien puppets. In Maths we have been learning about our ten times table. We spotted patterns and played games. On Wednesday we celebrated Australia day. We used maps to learn about physical and human features of Australia, wrote fact files and designed, made and evaluated pavlovas!

Week 5:

Whale class had a very busy week! In History, we learned all about William the Conqueror. We followed his family tree and learned a little about his life before and after the Battle of Hastings. We learned how William the Conqueror influenced life in England and we briefly touched on the Domesday Book in preparation for next week. In Geography we made comparisons between Australia and Sunbury and we made recommendations for where Beegu should live! In RSHE we continued with our dreams and goals unit and thought carefully about how we can support each other when working towards a shared goal. We very much enjoyed passing round a smile in our lessons!

Week 6:

What a busy last week to the half term! Whale class learned all about Henry Beauclerc and were excited to find out his Dad was William the Conqueror! In Maths we have been learning about collecting data and representing this information using tally charts and pictograms (we found out that lions are very popular in Whale class!). We have been lucky enough to have 3 art lessons led by Ms Silvestre! First we learned how to blend colours using water colours and pastels. After this, we had an exciting afternoon of creating a huge class creation in the style of the Bayeux Tapestry! We will upload some photos once we're finished with it! After half term, we will be shortly losing Ms Silvestre to another school so she can continue with her exciting journey towards becoming a teacher! We will welcome Mrs Tibble who will join us for the next half term before Ms Silvestre returns once more! We can't wait to find out how Ms Silvestre gets on in her new school and we will miss her dearly for the half term!

Last half term our big question was:

How has history shaped our capital city?

Last half term we learned about three significant events that happened to London during the 1600s; The Gunpowder Plot, The Great Plague and The Great Fire of London.

We used maps and first hand accounts to follow the events. We used role play to explore how Guy Fawkes plotted and thought carefully about the sequence of events. We hot seated characters and wrote diary entries and letters.

We had many things to look forward to in this topic as we created a class assembly which was enjoyed by all. We also had a day of an interactive workshop where we made candles, plaques, scent bags and did some weaving. We thought carefully about materials of houses during The Great Fire and used junk materials to build our own houses.

We made comparisons between The Great Plague and life as we know it today and explored how far we have come in keeping people safe.

We wrote warning tales and thought carefully about warning signs, why they are used and what they are used for. We used the story of The Selfish Giant to help us structure our own texts. We enjoyed the excitement and suspense of this genre!

Take a look at some of our pictures from last half term!

Last half term our big question was:

Would a dinosaur make a good pet?

Last half term we were learning about the world's oceans and continents. We took a dive into the past and discovered how the world's continents were once a large super continent - Pangea.

In Science learned about animal adaptations. We applied our learning to designing our own dinosaurs in different habitats.

In English we used the text 'Harry and the Bucketful of Dinosaurs' to plan and write our very own stories.

In Maths, we worked on securing our knowledge on number whilst working with tens and ones and using lots of equipment!

We went on a trip to Chennestone to attend a dinosaur workshop! We dug for fossils like real life palaeontologists and researched our findings. After lunch we met a terrifyingly friendly dinosaur called Sophie!

We received a very important package from the Natural History Museum... it contained a baby dinosaur egg! We had to follow their instructions to look after it carefully and then we wrote our own instructions to help others to look after a baby dinosaur egg too! We had a very smelly delivery from Lisa White in the USA... we had to put on gloves to have a real dig around! (we ended up needing to use our knowledge of carnivores, herbivores and omnivores)