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Welcome to Robins Class Archive

Click here to visit our Robins 2018 - 2019 

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Spring Term 2018

We have been extremely busy with our Pioneers topic this term!   Not only did the time machine take us to the time of the first moon landing, but we also got a telegram from Queen Victoria who actually paid us a visit!  She inspired us to find out about Victorian times:

The children were transfixed when Queen Victoria actually came to our classroom!

Here we are looking at how steam was used to power a boat! 

Then we looked at George Stephenson's pioneering 'Rocket' steam train.

  The children then explored any pioneer of their choice that they found interesting with amazing results:

 We even had to make our own Class Museum!  All of this studying made us so interested that we then planned a visit to the Black Country Living Museum.   The children learnt about living in rich rural housing and poor 'back to back' housing and we explored different types of transportation and learnt why the 'Black Country' was 'black'!  Highlights included watching the chain maker and a trip to the Victorian school. 

 This term our topic is 'Pioneers'.  We started the term by looking at a fiction book called 'Man on the Moon', mapping the story to help us to create our own versions:

Then, we designed and built our own time machine:

The Time Machine.... finished product:

Neil Armstrong

Amazingly, the time machine travelled back in time and brought a letter from Neil Armstrong- the first man on the moon.  So we have been finding out lots about astronauts and space and we even found Neil Armstrong in our classroom one day!

 Inspired by our study of the moon and space, we have been doing lots of measuring in maths.  We have weighed space food and understood how astronauts survive in space.  We have been looking at temperature and have been busy measuring the temperature back on Earth to compare with the moon.

  

Autumn Term 2017

Please click here to see photos of our Christmas play:

A trip to Birmingham Airport

This week as part of our 'Flight' topic, we were lucky enough to go to a working international airport and access their 'Flight School' area for schools where we got a great view of planes taking off and landing.  The children thoroughly enjoyed observing all the different job roles and equipment in use.  We managed to get a few photos!

 A special visitor

This week we were lucky enough to have a visit from a parent who is a midwife.   As we are studying 'growing and changing' as part of our 'Animals Including Humans' science topic, this provided valuable insight and the children were fascinated to find out what it feels like to be a baby inside the womb: 

Up.... Up and away......

Robins have been busy understanding how hot air balloons work and have made their own models:

Meanwhile, we have been learning our model text 'Blue Balloon' off by heart using a text map and have started to make changes ready to rewrite an improved, more exciting version:

What a brilliant design! Building, floating and sailing a boat during forest school. Check out the other boats on the forest school link page shown above. 

 

Following our study of 'Aliens Love Underpants' we have now moved on to our new topic:

Flight

We launched the topic by sending a helium balloon up into the air from school and we attached a note to it asking whoever found the balloon to let us know how far it had got.  We are still waiting to hear.....

This week we have been looking at the invention of hot air balloons and working out how they work.  Here we are investigating what happens to deflated balloon when placed over a bottle neck when the bottle is placed in hot water. 

Welcome back to our new Year 2's and an especially big welcome to our new Robins!   We have started the term with a transition topic based on the book 'Aliens Love Underpants'!  We have made a roleplay 'Alien Pant Shop' and have been having fun with masks and stick puppets.  We have even done some alien maths as well as junk modelling spaceships and designing our own class mosaic underpants!

The children are thoroughly enjoying themselves as you will see:

Summer term - Indian Spice

Where is India? Can you find it on the Asian continent?

You will notice on the map there are objects to be found. Can you find them all?

Now you have found everything on your object list, can you spot the seal? I will give you a clue, he looks a bit like this but smaller.

Images taken from Spot the Seal around the World by Sarah Khan and illustrated by Simon Morse.

Indian Banquet

We started our India topic by sampling some Indian cuisine! The children loved trying poppadoms, mango chutney, onion bahjis, samosas and homemade dahl (dahl is a stew made from lentils, onions and spices).

                          

Texture maps

We have been learning about the different areas of India in Geography/Topic, including the Himalayan mountains in the North, the Central Plains and the Tropical South. The children have been working hard to make texture maps, using different materials such as rice and tissue paper to show these areas!

                  

                                        

RE: Hindu Weddings

We have been looking at Hindu weddings and the different rituals, which are unique to their Hindu celebrations! The children really loved re-enacting a Hindu wedding and dressing up as the bride and groom!

The classroom was arranged as a wedding with chairs for the guests and an aisle for the bride and groom:

In the photo, our bride and groom are putting the flower garlands around each other:

    

Exploring toys from different eras

This term we are looking at toys from different eras and comparing them with toys of today.

Below are the children busy creating their own peg dolls from scraps of material found in school. Victorian children would have enjoyed playing with peg dolls, although their presentation would have been very different for rich and poor families. If you were poor you would have had an abundance of wooden pegs but the clothes would be made from rags. Whereas the rich children would have had luxury materials to use and expensive toys.

  

  

     

In forest school, the children were supported in making hoops to roll with a stick. It was quite successful as you will see below.

     

Summer Term - Forest School: Seed Dispersal using water

In forest school, we were trying to work out a way to transport a seed from point A to point B using different methods including waterfalls. Here is a video of our first attempt:

Poles Apart ~ Spring Term

This half term we have been busy studying the globe and different continents.  We have learnt the story 'Lost and Found' about boy helping a lost penguin find its way back to Antarctica. 

After finding out all about the Arctic and Antarctic regions, we moved on to looking at all the continents and then the children wrote their own journey story about a different animal finding its way back to its own continent. 

In maths we have been focussing on place value with lots of work on adding tens and ones.

                

And in PE we have been learning the Brazilian martial art of Capoeira which is a 'game' invented by African slaves in Brazil and is like fighting but is non contact and is played in a circle with everyone involved clapping and playing musical instruments.  The children have LOVED doing this. 

 

The 'Big Burning'

For the culmination of the Great Fire of London topic which the children have loved, we had a big burning of the children's handmade Tudor style houses in a controlled environment.  We discussed how the weather conditions affected the fire and how the breaks created were the key to stopping the fire from spreading.

Science Investigation 

As part of our science topic this term we are looking at everyday materials and their properties.   We carried out an investigation to see which materials burnt most easily.  The children made excellent predictions and their conclusions also showed good scientific thinking.

   

Fire of London Dance

 

 

Avoncroft Museum 

As part of the Fire of London topic, we have been looking at the construction of timber framed houses and understanding how the fire spread.  In science, we have also been looking at everyday materials and their suitability for different purposes.  Visiting Avoncroft was great as it put all this learning into context and the children were able to explore a medieval timber framed house and understand how fires were used for light and heat.  They also took part in a timber frame group construction challenge and a wattle and daub making workshop.  They loved the day!

      

    

Spring Term 2017- The Great Fire of London

We have launched our new topic of the Great Fire of London with some very exciting activities including a visit from Bromyard Fire Brigade!  The children were SO excited!!!  Here are some pictures to show their visit:

    

    

 

Gingerbread Man Text Map video November 2016

 

 Seasonal Artwork - October 2016

In Science, we have been observing seasonal changes in autumn.  We looked at the work of Andy Goldsworthy for inspiration and made these beautiful artworks outside on a glorious sunny afternoon.

  

  

 

Gingerbread Man - October 2016

This term  our topic is 'Traditional Tales'.  We have been busy learning our 'Gingerbread Man' story using Pie Corbett story mapping techniques.  We have done lots of talking about the text and learnt our story by heart with actions.  All children should be able to recite the story!

Here we enacted the story using puppets