Willow Class Blog 2025 -2026
Term 2 Week 2
There has been a lot of practical and creative learning happening this week! We had a wonderful time at Forest School on Tuesday. We built a camp fire and then warmed baked beans using the Kelly Kettle. It was just what everyone needed to keep them warm and energised!
We continued our science work about teeth by looking at the different types of human teeth. We had a go at making them using salt dough.
In history, we learned about how and why the Ancient Egyptians built pyramids. We worked in groups to build a pyramid out of sugar cubes. It wasn't an easy task and we realised what a complicated and mammoth task it must have been for the Ancient Egyptians!
In our English, we worked on planning a set of instructions. Inspired by our class book 'Marcy and the Riddle of the Sphinx' we planned instructions to save Father from the belly of the sphinx! We look forward to writing them next week.
Term 2 Week 1
Welcome back to Term 2. I hope you all enjoyed a lovely half term break.
Please see this term's timetable and parent information page outlining this term's learning on the Willow Class Information page of the website.
This term, our overarching topic is Ancient Egypt. In our history lesson we thought about when and where the Ancient Egyptians lived. We then discovered why Ancient Egypt was called 'the gift of the Nile', discovering all the natural resources provided by the river.
We began our new book, a graphic novel called 'Marcy and the Riddle of the Sphinx' in English and we wrote command sentences using the pictures from the book as our inspiration. In maths, we continued to crack column subtraction, solving tricky calculations including those with a number of exchanges.
To launch this term's science learning about teeth and digestion, we popped across the road to visit Byways Dental Practice. Dr Amita and her team were so welcoming, showing us around the practice, letting us sit in the dentist's chair and answering our many tooth related questions! They even gave us some very useful goody bags.
It was wonderful to be back in the forest on Tuesday afternoon. There was so much creative play on display!
Term 1 Week 7
The children completed their beautiful river collages with Mrs Lovegrove in art on Monday afternoon and then enjoyed sharing them with all the parents in assembly on Friday. I'm sure you'll agree they're absolutely stunning and the children learned so many techniques over the weeks creating them. They also created beautiful printed fish to add to the river made earlier in the term.
We read the next chapter of our class book 'Song of the River' where the village holds a community meeting to discuss whether beavers should be re-introduced to the river. Afterwards, the children took on the roles of different characters to put across their point of view. We also looked at emotive language and the use of rhetorical questions to persuade in preparation for writing a persuasive speech next week.
We focussed on using the column method to add in maths this week and really cemented our understanding of when and why we exchange. We also solved multi-step addition word problems and missing number calculations.
For our final netball lesson, we held a netball tournament, where the children really showcased all the skills learnt this term.
Term 1 Week 6
This week in English, we planned and wrote our non-chronological reports all about beavers. The children worked hard and wrote some brilliant reports, remembering to add a range of conjunctions to extend their sentences and add detail. Thanks to Fraser, we learnt that the biggest beaver dam in the world was built in Canada. It was 180 metres long and could be seen by satellites space! Inspired by this, during lunch break, some of the children worked as colony of beavers to build their own dam blocking a river. They also built a lodge with an underwater entrance. I love their creativity!
The majority of this week's maths focused on subtraction. We learnt to subtract across a boundary (such as 432 - 50) using number lines to jump back. This was quite tricky but the children persevered and did really well! On Friday, we started to use a formal written method (column method) to add 4-digit numbers. Next week, we will look at calculations where we need to exchange.
We used atlases to locate some of the main rivers of the UK in our geography lesson this week. We then used the Chrome books to compare their lengths.
Mrs Thomas was so impressed with the girls football team this week who were brilliant representatives of the school. They played with determination and enjoyment and displayed an excellent team spirit. Well done girls!
Term 1 Week 5
This week, we continued reading our class text, 'Song of the River' where the main character, Cari becomes involved in a project to re-introduce beavers into the area. We watched part of a David Attenborough documentary and read fact sheets to learn about these amazing animals. We also learnt about using different conjunctions (such as when, if, because, so that, even if) to add extra detail to our sentences. Next week, we will use all the knowledge and skills learnt this week to plan and write a report all about beavers!
In maths, we have been using our knowledge of place value to help us mentally add and subtract ones, tens, hundreds and thousands.
Big congratulations to the boys who demonstrated fantastic teamwork and skills to win the Langtree Partnership Football Tournament on Tuesday. While they were out, the rest of the class played our first netball match where more amazing teamwork and sportsmanship was on show!
Term 1 Week 4
Hello! Apologies for not posting until now. I've been having troubling loading photos but I have saved them all up and will post on here as soon as I can.
Everyone has made an excellent start to the new term. The new year 3 children have settled into Willow Class smoothly and are already familiar with the routines and the year 4 have stepped up to be the older children in the class.
We are currently reading the book, 'Song of the River' by Gill Lewis and the children worked very hard writing stories based on the book this week. I challenged the children to include some correctly punctuated speech and expanded noun phrases (such as the cosy cottage by the river). I was very impressed with their story writing.
In maths this week we worked on rounding 3 digit numbers to the nearest 10 and 100. The year 4 children also rounded 4-digit numbers to the nearest 1,000. We completed the week learning to read and write Roman numerals.
In our topic lesson we learnt about the water cycle using the words evaporation, condensation and precipitation. The water cycle song (to the tune of Taylor Swift's Blank Space) got mixed reviews!
Next week, we will be continuing to read our book, learning about how the re-introduction of beavers can help to prevent flooding.
