It has been a busy end of term in KS1. The children have all enjoyed looking at the topic of Spring within Science. All the children went for a walk around the school looking for the signs of Spring and also planted herbs which they took home to grow over the Easter holidays. To finish the week we had a visit from the Easter Bunny who sent the children on a hunt around the school insearch of clues, in return for their answers he gave them a chocolate egg. 

We hope you all have a relaxing Easter break and we look forward to seeing the children in a couple of weeks time. 

We have had another busy week in school this week. Thank you to all the parents who came to parents evening this week. This week we have been looking at the population of the 4 countries that make up the United Kingdom in Geography. See if your children can remember which one has the largest population and why. We looked at the force of Magnetism in Science and the children enjoyed testing the strength of different magnets with paperclips to see which magnet was the strongest. We have continued our literacy with the stories of The Last Wolf and looking at the importance of trees to our environment. In Maths Year 2 have been looking at measures with Mrs Davies group demonstrating their excellent weighing skills by making some Easter biscuits. My group will complete this activity next week. In Year 1 they have also been looking at measures looking at both length and capacity this week. We also finished this week with our House Spelling Competition.

This week the children have been continuing to explore forces. They were looking at bubbles and how we create them by blowing (push force) into a wand. The children investigated whether it mattered if we changed the shape of the wand or would the bubbles still come out as a sphere. The children had to predict what shape each of the different wands would make before testing them. 

In computing this week the children were creating their own algorithms for the Beebots to follow with their own mats.  The children began to include hazards into their mats which the Beebots had to avoid meaning that their instructions had to be very accurate.

It's been a very busy week in KS1 and all the children have been excited about our World Book Day activities. We started the week with a great drama workshop based around the theme of A Midsummer's Night Dream, the children enjoyed taking on the roles of Oberon and Titania the fairy King and Queen. The children then got to work with their Brookmans Buddies to create a dream catcher before using this as a stimulus to write either instructions on how to make one or a story based on a dream with their Buddy on World Book Day. The children also enjoyed dressing up in a woodland themed costume. 

To end the week Potters Bar Crusaders Football club came and did a session with the girls across the school to celebrate International Women's Day, which takes place on Saturday. 

It's been lovely hearing about the adventures the children have been up to over half term this week. We have begun our new Geography topic all about The United Kingdom. The children were keen to share their prior knowledge about the map of The UK and talked about where they have been. During our Science lesson this week we explored using the forces of push, pull and twist to create a Loch Ness Monster, some of them were really creative. Within our Math learning this week Year 1’s have been looking at adding two numbers to make 20 in a variety of different ways, whilst Year 2 have been looking at multiplication in particular counting in 2’s, 5’s and 10’s.

For the final week of the half term the children enjoyed their NexGen football session with a coach from Spurs. All the children also took part in the House curling competition, where all the children had the chance to win house points for their houses. Finally within our Science lessons we explored the force of twist. 

We wish you all a relaxing half term and look forward to seeing you all in a week's time.

This week we have been taking part in World Mental Health Week by spending time thinking about our emotions and what makes ourselves. During the rest of the week KS1 have been continuing to work hard this week developing their understanding of forces and how we can apply a push force to something which then makes contact with another object causing it to change the direction of travel. The children explored this through using balls and rackets, they were throwing and bouncing them and seeing how the ball travelled in all different directions.

The children have also been exploring sources in History to identify how we know so much about the Great Fire of London even though it happened 350 years ago. The children were able to sort a range of sources based on how helpful they are to tell us about what happened. During our computing lessons the children were able to explore how to adapt photos using a range of filters, changing the colours, backgrounds and cropping.

This week KS1 have been continuing to explore their understanding of forces. They used homemade catapults to understand how the greater the pull the greater the force is applied to an object to make it move. The children really enjoyed this activity. 

Within our History lessons this week we have been looking at how the people in 1666 put out fires compared with what would happen today. The children enjoyed role playing the different activities in small groups. It was hard work! We have also been continuing to look at how to adapt and make photographs better using our skills on the iPads. Finally in English the children have continued to work with the book Claude in the City working hard to really improve our sentences with a range of powerful adjectives.  Some children have written postcards in the role of Claude to explain all the things he did in the city. Some children also wrote leaflets to persuade visitors to come and enjoy an Art Gallery.  Finally we have started our Opal playtimes this week and the children have enjoyed the range of different activities and meeting up with their friends from across the school.

KS1 has had a very exciting week. They were treated to a Drumba workshop where they mixed banging a drum and exercising. The children were all thoroughly enjoyed the session and were all tired at the end. In History we have been using our historical skills to work out whether pictures were of modern day London or whether they were pictures of 1666. We had to look really carefully at the pictures for clues.  Continuing with the history theme, in music we have been working on learning the song London’s Burning and performing it in a round.  We have also been playing instruments in a high and low pitch to reflect how fire and flames move. Within Science the children were exploring what forces they needed to use to make toys work – either push or pull force. In Maths the year 2 children have been continuing to work with money and Year 1’s were beginning to look at the numbers 11-20.

This week KS1 started their History topic on The Great Fire of London. They were lucky enough to have History off the Page come in and run a workshop for them. During the day the children were able to make crafts using a range of materials that related to things that were around in 1666. They got to experience how difficult it was to put out a fire at this time as they had to mainly use buckets. 

In the afternoon the children were provided with a range of resources and had to work out what type of person they were. They dug up artefacts from ruins, looked through bags of items that people had managed to escape the fires with and then read some deeds and diary entries from the people. The children had an amazing time and were thoroughly immersed in 1666.

Happy New Year KS1! 

It has been lovely to welcome the children back to school this week. The children have enjoyed being back in the classroom engaging with their friends as well as starting our new topics. 

As a phase we spent some time working on our shape knowledge which the children thoroughly enjoyed and showed fantastic understanding. The Year 2 children also started to learn about money.  Please can you practise counting coins and making totals using different coins.

Within our English and Science lessons this week the children enjoyed exploring the topic of Winter. They performed and wrote Winter poems as well as looking at how humans and animals adapt to the Winter weather.