Autumn Term 2

We have began our Autumn Term 2 by learning the story of 'The Cantankerous Crocodile' as part of our 'Talk for Writing' learning. After reading the beginning and the middle of the story, the children were asked what the word 'cantankerous' could be. They thought it could mean  'Bossy, disrespectful, unkind, mean, ghastly, tough, naughty'. We found out that it means 'bad-tempered' and 'grumpy', by using a dictionary. The children have predicted the end of the story this week.

In maths we have been counting back. We made rockets and counted back from different given numbers. This is a prerequisite skill to subtraction and we are practising this skill regularly. We are learning how to find one less than a number and our puppet 'Bad Bunny' has been introduced as part of this learning. Unfortunately Bad Bunny likes to make things one less. We have learnt the rule that 'one less is always the number before'. We have been comparing sets, saying which set has 'the most'. 'the same' and 'the fewest / fewer'. In Numbersense, we have been building up our addition number facts, by seeing numbers witihin numbers (conceptual subitisng). The children may come home saying "4 add four - spider eight!". Or, "4 and 3 tree - seven". 

In Science, we have been learning about characteristics of animals and understanding that animals have features in common, and some which are unique to some animals. We have been growing our vocabulary as part of this learning, such as pouch, stomach, gills, dorsal fin. We have compared animals, saying which features they have which are the same, and which features are different. We have been learning about Australian animals, such as the thorny devil, emu and corroboree frog. We have linked this learning to our PE gymnastics lessons where we have moved like these animals, and next we will learn to perform a sequence of movements. We have learnt basic gymnastics positions, such as tuck, straight, arch, dish, star.

It has been 'Anti-bullying Week' in Week 2 and we have been learning about what a bully is, and how to be good kind citizens, both in school and out of school. After learning about bullies and kindness, we took a class quiz, based on BBC Bitesize videos about 'Why treating everyone in the community is important'. We got all of the five questions correct! For Children in Need, our focus has been 'Challenging ourselves' and we have made a kindness jar full of 25 ideas of how to challenge ourselves to be kind. On Friday, 14th November, we set out to fulfill as many acts of kindness as we could. I have been impressed with how well the children had recalled the acts of kindness, and put them into practise. Children were remembering to use their manners; to let people in front of them in the line; say kind words; make decorations and write kind messages for others. 

In Geography, we have been learning the names of the seven continents and locating them on a world map. We have been learning about which animals live on these continents. We know some animals are native to their country, such as the thorny devil, sugar glider, wallaby, koala and emu being native to Australasia. This knowledge helped us to innovate our story of The Cantankerous Crocodile and we changed the three animals who come to help the crocodile who is suffering with toothache. We built a word bank of adjectives to describe each of the animals, to further enhance the middle of our story.  We acted out the story with the new animals. 

We looked at traditional tales and discussed that some have happy endings, such as Rapunzel, and others have sad endings, such as Chicken Licken and The Gingerbread Man. The children have decided whether the end of their story will be happy or sad. Will the cantankerous crocodile show kindness towards the animals at the end of the story, or not? 

In Science, we have been classifying animals into groups according to their characteristics. We know that mammals have fur, or hair and give birth to live young. We know birds have feathers and  beak. We are revising that amphibians have wet skin, whereas reptiles have dry, scaly skin. We found out that a whale is not a fish, as they have fine hairs and give birth to live young,  so they would be classified as a mammal. The children sorted their animals and explained their choice of group. 

In the last few weeks of term, we shall we looking at animal diets and grouping them according to what they eat. The children will learn the scientific words herbivore, carnivore and omnivore. We shall revisit this in the new year with our 'poo' Science experiment. Can the children guess what diet the animal has had by looking at the poo?

In Geography, we will be exploring villages near to Brisbane in Australia and comparing it to our local villages. We shall learn about the Aboriginal people of Australia and use Emily Kame Kngwarreye as our inspiration to produce art in her style.