Welcome To Our Learning Journeys

 Autumn 2023

The children have started learning about World War 2.  The main class text we are using in our English sessions this term is The Lion and the Unicorn by Shirley Hughes.  We are also using our guided reading sessions to build up our topic knowledge by reading a range of non-fiction texts about the war.

English:

The children will start their learning through narrative, exploring how an author begins stories using setting descriptions. The children will then write their own story opening using the evacuation period at the beginning of the War.  We will look at the features of a letter and then write our own letters as if we are evacuees.  We will then bring this to life by performing the letter using Adobe Spark.  

 

Maths:

Our Maths focus is 'number'. This includes: place value, ordering and sequencing, negative numbers and rounding. Additionally, the children are taught to apply their skills using mental and written methods for addition and subtraction. 

Science:

In Science, we are focussing on electricity. Using our investigative skills, we are learning how to create an electrical circuit and explore the properties of lots of different materials in order to establish whether they are conductors or insulators. 

Art & Design:

In Art, we are looking into the work of Henrik Simonsen.  From these, we will sketch poppies in our sketch books and then use a permanent marker to draw them on to acetate and paint them with glass paint. Our beautiful poppies will then be placed onto a piece of our written work.

 In DT, we will look at a range of Anderson shelters, and then we design our own.  We will measure, cut and join wood to create a wooden frame for our own Anderson shelter.  We will then decorate and place them in a shoebox garden.

                                  

History / Geography:

With our topic being history based, we will become experts in WW2, addressing our enquiry question: What was it like to be a child during WW2? We will chronologically explore WW2 starting at where and why it began, the declaration of war, the evacuation process, Blackout and the Blitz, the role of women, D Day and eventually V E Day.  We will also research the role of Redditch in the war for our local history element and hold our own Remembrance service.

                       

 

Geographically, we will explore Europe using an atlas and investigated which countries were invaded and the particular paths armies took through countries in order to defeat the enemy!