Autumn 2 Bright Lights, Big City

Week Commencing 30th October 2023

This week, we started our new topic called ‘Bright Lights, Big City.’ We learned all about King Charles and what happens in a garden party. We then had a go at having our own Balliol garden party in our outside area. We waved flags, danced and learned how to curtsy and bow. In English, we read a book called ‘Katie in London.’ We thought about what she did during her day and had a go at writing recounts in chronological order. We then had a go at writing our own recounts based on our day at school. In maths, we learned more about addition. We explored counting on from the greatest value in order to add up E.g. For 3 + 14, 14 is the greatest value and so you would put 14 in your head and 3 on your fingers and count on 15, 16, 17. In geography, we learned about physical features. We worked on naming and describing them. We also thought about what a city was and how it is different to a town and a village. In history, we learned about Guy Fawkes and the houses of parliament. We then thought about firework safety and made our own firework inspired artwork.

Week Commencing 6th November

This week, we read two books by Nicholas Allen. We read ‘The Queen’s Knickers’ and ‘The King’s Pants’. We had fun thinking of lots of different adjectives and then designing and describing our own designs. We also had a go at writing letters to the King to tell him some different plans to get his pants back. In maths, we started to learn about subtracting. We learned how to cross things out to subtract them, how to use real objects and also how to count back. We also learned that you always subtract from the whole. For example, if 6 is the whole, 2 is a part and 4 is a part, we could do 6 – 2 = 4 and 6 – 4 = 2. We then explored fact families e.g. if 6-2=4 and 6-4=2 then we also know that 4+2=6 and 2+4=6. In geography, we kept a weather diary for the week and looked to see what the seasonal weather was like. We learned about physical and human features that we can find at Balliol. We learned about the city of London. We also learned all about the countries and capital cities that make up the UK. In topic, we learned all about Remembrance day and why people wear poppies.

Week Commencing 13^th November 2023

This week, we read a book called ‘Fortunately, Unfortunately’. We learned about actions and consequences, cause and effect and then linked this to anti-bullying week. In maths, we learned how to subtract using a number line. On Friday, we also had a whole school maths day where we learned about tangrams and explored what shapes and patterns we could make. In geography, we learned about London landmarks. We learned about some of the famous ones and what makes them special. In art, we learned about famous artist Stephen Wiltshire. We then had a go at using sketching pencils to draw some London landmarks. In history, we learned about famous people from Bedfordshire such as Paula Radcliffe, John Bunyan, John Howard, William Harpur etc.

Week Commencing 20th November 2023

This week, we read a book called ‘Handa’s Surprise.’ We had a go at acting out the story and then we thought about what aspects we could change in order to make it into a new story. For example rather than Handa putting fruit into a basket and the animals taking them, we could put toys into a box or food. In maths, we learned all about 2D and 3D shapes. We learned about their names and properties. We also explore repeating patterns. In geography, we learned about aerial photos and how to identify human and physical features. We also explored maps and how to give directions. We then learned about Kuala Lumpur and compared it with London to see what was similar and what was different. In DT, we worked on our cutting skills and made a class advent calendar.

Week Commencing 27th November 2023

This week, we read books by Steve Antony called ‘The Queen’s Hat’ and ‘The Queen’s Handbag’. We had a go writing a pretend diary entry for the queen based on events in the book. We also compared the books to see what was similar and what was different. We then wrote our own diary entries. In maths, we started our consolidation weeks. We reviewed related number facts, place value of numbers to 99 using tens and ones and also ordering numbers from least to greatest value.  In geography, we explored the four seasons and the typical seasonal weather associated with each season. We also explored the purpose of different landmarks and then worked on our navigation and map skills to direct people from underground stations to a landmark.

Week Commencing 4^th December 2023