This term in Denmark Class, our science topic is animals (including humans). This week we were learning about mammals and birds and tied our learning in with the RSPB’s Big Schools’ Birdwatch. We learnt about different types of birds and recorded how many of each bird we could see around the school field. To help the birds over winter, we made our own bird feeders using lard and bird seed and will see if we can spot any more birds eating from our feeders over the next few weeks.

In geography, we have been researching about the continents and oceans that cover our world.  We found out there are 7 continents and 5 oceans!  We discovered that each continent and ocean has its own special features and it taught us there are so many different places around the world.  We worked together to see if we could name our continents and oceans and identify where they are in the world. 

Our history focus this term is ‘changes within living history’.  We have been discovering how shops and shopping has changed over the decades.  We travelled back in time to the 1950s and discovered that there were no supermarkets and people had to go to smaller shops which sold specific things in order to do their shopping.  A lot of people did not have a fridge in their house so shopping was done more frequently too!  We also discovered there was no internet shopping in the 50s and people paid in cash, with the shop keeper helping the customer to get all the things they needed. 

In Denmark Class, we have been learning about Hinduism in RE. With Diwali celebrations happening this week, we enjoyed a whole day of activities learning more about Hindu traditions. We made Diwali sweets, clay diya lamps, rangoli artwork and tried traditional dancing. We used all we had learnt to complete brilliant acrostic poems.

In Denmark Class, we have been learning about the seasons. Today we went on a science hunt to find signs of Autumn. The children were very observant and spotted lots of different signs, including colourful leaves, seeds, fungi and berries.

In Denmark class we have been thinking about how we are all different and all special. We thought about our unique selves and looked at mirrors to closely study our features. The children made remarks such as “I have green eyes” and “I have light brown hair”. The children drew self portraits, thinking carefully about the features that made them unique. 

We then thought about other ways in which we are all different and unique. We considered our personalities, skills, likes and dislikes with children remarking 

“I am good at running.”

“I am creative.”

“I like pizza.”

“I don’t like tarantulas.”

We concluded that it was a really good thing that we are all different and that we each had many skills and qualities that made us special. Well done Denmark Class!

This half term we are focusing on the skill of ‘drawing’.  We have been learning what drawing means and how we can use different pressure to create different marks on our paper.  We have been using drawing pencils and charcoal to create different lines.  We discovered that you can rub your pencil line to create a blurred look.  This is called smudging.  We also experimented with drawing on top of different textures to see if that would change the look of our pencil or charcoal lines.

Having fun and being creative was the focus for this week.  The children have really enjoyed exploring their surrounds, making new friends and creating wonderful play stories together.  We have had lots of opportunities to go and explore our newly developed outside area and we even took our musical maths outside.  What a great week we have had back at school and we cannot wait to see what other wonderful learning opportunities will come next!