Welcome to Dahl Class

Teacher

Mr G Byrom-Jones

Teaching Assistants

Miss E Bell

Mrs A McCleave

Mrs N Kwiatek

Summer 1 Week 3

W/C: 29/4/2024

We have been very creative in class this week . We have painted our Christ the Redeemer Statues , created Christ the redeemer sunset pictures , coloured animal masks and made  mini-beasts out of paper plates . What a busy week !

English:

In English this week we have been creating our animal poems linked to our work on the Amazon Rainforests. On Monday we created our own animal shape poem which included a simile and on Tuesday we created our own animal acrostic poems . We concluded the week by preparing to write a senses poem relating to the rainforest and watched a calming video were we had to identify what we could see, hear and  possible feel in the rainforest. In phonics we have continued to work on our differentiated sounds .

Maths:

The focus this week has been on time . Some of us have been learning to read the time when it is o’clock and half past the hour on an analogue and digital clock,whilst some of us have been  reading the time at 5 minute intervals and another group have been developing their understanding of the 24 hour clock. To support our learning we have participated in a number of practical activities as well as using computer software to support our learning.

 On Friday it was time for ' Cafe Dahl' with learners developing their money and communication skills relating to our individual targets. This week we had the opportunity to 'buy' and taste pancakes and croissants. 

Science:

We have consolidated our understanding of  animal classification and at the start of the week we were given animal masks to decorate and used this to sort ourselves into the different categories of mammals , reptiles , birds , fish and amphibians based on their characteristics. The masks also look great on our Science display . We have also designed our own animals and used their descriptions to show which animal group they belong too . To support our learning  had lots of fun on the computer game 'Zoo animal mix up' were we had the opportunity to create a new animal by mixing different animals up!

Topic:

We started the week by painting our Christ the Redeemer Statues and made sunset pictures with Christ the Redeemer silhouettes . They look great . We have also made our own junk model favelas.  

In other areas of the curriculum:

It was lovely to have parents / carers on  Tuesday for our exhibition day . Linking to the theme of mini beasts , we got crafty and made insects and spiders  out of paper plates and pegs. ( Did you know that insects are classified as insects because they have three body parts and six body parts and a spider us classed as arachnids because they have eight legs and two body parts. 

 We also got competitive when we played a beetle drive.

Have a lovely extended weekend 

Mr Byrom-Jones, Miss Bell, Mrs McCleave  and Mrs Kwiatek

Summer 1 Week 2

W/ C: 22nd April 

Here is what we have been learning this week :

English:

This week we have continued to link our work to Brazil , particular to the Brazilian animals . On Monday we wrote a letter from the perspective of animal in ‘ Great Kapok Tree’ begging the axe man not to cut down the tree , with examples  being that they would loose their homes and their source of food . On Tuesday we extended our learning by writing a day in the life of our chosen animal . We used sequence adverbials in  our work with examples being ‘ first ‘, ‘then ‘ , ‘next’ and ‘later ‘. 

Towards the end of week we planned our own non chronological report relating to the Amazon Rainforest / Amazon River. 

 In phonics we have been working on our individual sounds based on our assessments . Sounds of focus have included ‘ ai’ , ‘oi’ and ‘ou’.

Maths:

We have been consolidating our learning on money and have applied it to a practical context . During the course of the week we have had various opportunities to purchase  snacks and drinks from Cafe Dahl  with pupils  having opportunity to pay using different coins and with some of us having the opportunity to work out and give change . 

Science :

To further our knowledge on animal classification we started the weak off my playing ‘ headband’ with each other . We were each given an animal and we had to ask questions to find out what we were relating to classification eg do I have fur? do I have feathers ? do I lay eggs etc ? To support our learning further Mr Byrom-Jones brought in his tortoise Oliver . He told us all about the reptile , the food he ate and how he had a lamp to energise him as he is cold blooded . We took turns to bath him and cleaned his shell with a toothbrush . It was really fun . 

 We also wrote our own animal riddles relating to what we have been learning . 

Can you guess what it is ?

I am a mammal 

I eat meat 

I can have a mane 

Who am I ? 

Topic:

In topic we have recapped on Brazil and in cooking we made some Brazillian biscuits called  Sequilhos. The biscuits consisted of corn flour, butter and condensed milk. Most of us liked them.

We also  made our own  Christ the Redeemer statues out of salt dough and look forward to painting  them and finishing them next week.

In other areas of the curriculum:

In PE we played Boccia with Miss Bell

We have been learning about bodily changes in PSHCE. 

Have a lovely weekend

Mr Byrom-Jones, Miss Bell, Mrs McCleave and Mrs Kwiatek

Summer 1 Week 2

W/C: 15^th April

What a lovely first week back. We really hope that you enjoyed the Easter holidays. This is what we have been learning this week:

English:

We started off the week by sharing our holiday news and incorporated new targets into our writing. The book that we have started reading is ‘The Great Kapok Tree’ linking to our topic ‘Brilliant Brazil’. We all listened attentively to the story and were hopeful that the tree wouldn’t be cut down as the animals would lose their home. After reading the story we wrote think bubbles and sentences about the animals’ thoughts and feelings as well as writing some animal fact files linking to the animals in the story.

 In Phonics we have completed our phonic assessments and participated in the interactive game ‘Phonics Play’ to support our learning.

Mathematics:

Our focus this week has been on money. We have completed lots of practical work to support our learning with examples being playing shop and the use of the website ‘Topmarks’. We started off the week by familiarising ourselves with different coins, with some of us working with monies up to 10p, some of us working with monies up to 50p and some of us working with monies up to  £10. Some of us even challenged ourselves by giving change.

Science:

This week we have been sorting and classifying animals into different groups. We started off the week by  looking at pictures of different animals and deciding on common attributes on the animals before sorting them. Examples of how the animals were sorted included fly / not fly, swim/ not swim  and carnivore/omnivores. On Thursday we learnt about how to sort the animal into the named classifications before making our own playdoh animals and placing them in the appropriate group.

Topic:

Our topic this half term is ‘Brilliant Brazil’. In our food technology lesson Mr Byrom-Jones gave us different fruits from Brazil to try which included: mango, pineapple, passion fruit, avocado, banana and dragon fruit. The favourites were pineapple and banana and dragon fruit with avocado being the least favourite. In topic we also discussed our prior knowledge about Brazil, coloured in a map and used an atlas to label the capital Brasilia , Rio de Janeiro and the Christ the Redeemer statue. We concluded the lesson by making our own Christ the Redeemer statutes out of playdoh.

In other areas of the curriculum:

We have been learning about the Ten Commandments in RE and wrote our own rules which we live by.

In PE we are learning about cricket.

Have a lovely weekend

Mr Byrom-Jones, Miss Bell,Mrs Kwiatek and Mrs McCleave

W/C: 18th March 

English 

This week we have recapped on non-fiction with Mr Byrom-Jones before creating our own non-fiction text on the Vikings. We were able to identify and highlight the key features of Non Fiction with in our own work, with examples being headings, subheadings, bullet points and captions. We have been working on our differentiated phonic sounds with Miss Taylor and have completed activities such as phonics snakes and ladders.

Maths:

In Mathematics we have been learning division with Mr Byrom-Jones and have been using grouping to solve division problems whilst Miss Taylor has been recapping on Place Value and been working on some of our IEP targets.

Science

We have been learning about light and on Monday we learnt about  the terms transparent , translucent and opaque.  We tested different materials to see if they were transparent (allows light to pass through it), translucent (allows light to pass through, but not transparent) and opaque (not transmitting light) . We found a lot if examples in the classroom were opaque.

In Topic we have been learning about the Viking diet. We compared a Viking diet to modern day and we found out that they ate a variety of animals include fish, bear, hare , fox and beaver! They also used the fat from seals , called blubber in their cooking.

Pupil of the week: Zachary Bradshaw.

Next Week: A lot of our activities will center around Easter.

Mr Byrom-Jones will return his full time teaching position next week and we thank Miss Taylor for teaching us.

Have a lovely weekend 

Dahl Staff 

Spring Term 2

We will be learning all about the Vikings. 

Literacy

We will be reading Viking Sagas

We will also be making our own Horrible Histories video after writing our own script. 

Numeracy.

We will be looking at Fractions and decimals

Science.

Our topic is Light 

We will also be covering the Easter story and looking at Money matters. 

Spring Term 1

We have been learning about all things Water

We have been finding out about The Water Cycle and learning some large words 

We created our own water cycle using a bowl by the window. 

We have completed some excellent work using the book Bog Baby as our starting point. 

In Maths we have been working hard to understand lengths and measurements. 

We took advantage of the snow to see who made the largest snow ball.

Please have a go at some of the activities below

Autumn 2

4 / 5 - W/C: 27th November

What a busy couple of weeks we have had. We have been learning about Division in Numeracy and continued to learn about the Anglo-Saxons. We have also been practicing our Christmas play. Here is what we have been up to:

Literacy:

We have completed our work on Beowulf and have really enjoyed it. We have retold the story as a storyboard and have incorporated our targets in our written work, with most of us achieving our writing targets. We have also used drama to  retell the story of Beowulf. We showed some great acting skills in Dahl. 

 In phonics some of us have been developing our confidence with the phonemes 's a t p i n m' and blending and segmenting phonemes to build VC and CVC words. We have been using phonics play to help with this. Another group have been developing their confidence with the 'igh' sound and blending and segmenting words with this sound, as well as being introduced to the 'oa' sound.

Numeracy:

For the past couple of weeks we have been learning about Division and have undertaken lots of different and practical activities to develop our understanding. Some of us have been sharing physical items up to 10 between two and three groups, with examples sharing cubes, biscuits and acorns on a tree. Another group have been developing their understanding of sharing quantities up to 20 and beyond , whilst another group have been using arrays to help them represent and solve division problems.

Science:

In Science we have been continuing to learn about electricity. We have talked about the importance of being safe around electricity as well as investigating different materials to see if they are conductors of electricity.  We found out that the metals are good conductors

Topic:

During the past couple of weeks we have looked at and made our own jewelry in the style of the Anglo-Saxons, as well as learning about the different Anglo-Saxon Gods. To support our learning we designed our own and they were very impressive.

In other areas of the curriculum:

- We have been learning badminton with Miss Bell

- We have been practicing our nativity

Pupil of the week: Tyler 

Writing Award: E'Lara 

Communication Award:  Leah 

Homework is available on See-Saw (Phonics)

Have a lovely weekend 

Mr Byrom-Jones,  Miss Geoffroy, Miss Bell and Miss Kwiatek

Autumn 2 Week 3

W/C: 13th November

This week we have learnt about Anglo-Saxon runes, continued with multiplication and written our own scene for Beowulf.

Literacy:

This week we have continued to learn about the epic poem ‘Beowulf’. Activities this week have included writing a newspaper article about Beowulf defeating Grendel, making a playdoh model of Grendel's mother and using adjectives to describe her. We have also written another scene in the story.

In phonics some of us recapped on the /igh/ sound whilst some of us have continued to develop our confidence by building words using the phonemes ‘ s a t p i n m’.

Numeracy

We have continued to develop our understanding of multiplication and on Thursday we attempted to solve word problems using the strategies taught.  Some of us have been using Numicon to solve problems, some of us have been making arrays to solve problems, whilst some of us have been using the grid method and a multiplication grid to help us solve problems.

Science:

Thank you to those who have completed the home work task and identified electrical items in the home using battery or mains.  We recapped on electrical items in the home / school before making our own Lego model which we lit up using a simple series circuit.  We had lots of fun.

Topic:

Our work on Anglo-Saxons this week has focused on the Anglo-Saxon alphabet – runes. We had lots of fun tracing and writing our name in runes, as well as writing secret words and messages to each other which we had to crack.

We have also learnt about Children in Need, Pudsey as well as decorating our own bears.

Pupil of the week: Rosie.

Homework : Numeracy homework this week has been put on See-Saw. Any problems accessing this or you would like a hard copy, please let me know.

Have a lovely weekend

Mr Byrom-Jones , Miss Geoffroy, Miss Bell and Miss Kwiatek.

Autumn 2 Week 2

WC: 6/11/23

This week we have been to the cinema and learnt about Anglo Saxon homes. Here is what we have been up too.

Literacy / Phonics:

We have continued to read the story ‘Beowulf’ and are continuing to enjoy. This week have written letters from the perspective of King Hrothgar asking for Beowulf’s help and we used lots of emotive language in letters and exclamation marks. We have also written character profiles and descriptions about Beowulf . In phonics some of us have used software to recap on s a t p i n whilst some of us have been learning , reading and writing words with the ‘igh’ sound.

Numeracy:

This week we have continued to learn about multiplication. Some of us have been doubling eyes on monsters and smarties on biscuits, some of us have been using Numicon and arrays to solve  multiplication problems to 20, whilst another group have been multiplying 2 digit and 1 digit numbers using the grid method.

Science:

We have continued to learn about electricity and identified items which use mains electricity , batteries or both. For homework please can you send a photo of an electric item in your home which uses mains / battery or both. This can be put on see-saw. Please can this be done by 15^th November.

Topic:

Our focus on the Anglo Saxons this week has been their homes. We looked at examples of Anglo Saxon homes and made our own out of lolly sticks and straw. To support our learning further we made an estate agent’s advert for an Anglo Saxon home.

In other areas of the curriculum:

In Art we have made clay poppies with Mrs Gallagher

In PE we are continuing with Badminton with Miss Bell

In RE we are learning about the Christmas Story with Miss Hall.

Pupil of the week:  E’Lara

Please check See-Saw for homework .

Have a lovely weekend

Mr Byrom-Jones, Miss Geoffroy, Miss Bell and Miss Kwiatek

Autumn 2 Week 1

WC: 30/10/23

Welcome back after the half term break. What a busy term this half term this is! We've already celebrated Halloween and thought about Bonfire Night and now we are looking forward to our annual cinema trip and practicing for our Christmas Production. Here is what we have been learning this week:

_{Literacy/ Phonics:}

This week we talked about what we got up to during the break  before designing (and later playing) a Halloween themed board which included 'bossy' verbs.  We had lots of fun playing the games dressed in our Halloween costumes.

 We have also started our new class text 'Beowulf ', linking to our topic 'Smashing Saxons' which is an old epic poem in Denmark. So far we have learnt about the  monster Grendel and how he takes and eats people from the King's Hall. To support our learning we made our own playdoh Grendel monsters before using adjectives to describe him.

 In phonics some of us have recapped on the 'ng' and 'ai' sound before being introduced to the 'ee' sound, whilst some of us have continued  to build words with the phonomes ' s a t p i n'  as well as being introduced to the 'm' sound.

Numeracy:

This week we have started to learn about multiplication. Some of us have been introduced to doubling and had to double spots on ladybirds as well as doubling Numicon shapes (up to 5). Another group have been using Numicon to solve multiplication problems  (to 20) whilst another group have been creating arrays to solve multiplication problems up to 100. 

Science:

This half term we are learning about electricity. We talked about the discovery of electricity and completed a sorting activity, identifying different electrical equipment in our homes.

Topic:

Topic this half term is the 'Smashing Saxons (Anglo Saxons). When the topic was introduced , nobody had heard of them. We learnt that they came to England after the Roman's had left an from Germany and Scandinavian countries such as Denmark. We discovered that they arrived in England because of floods in their country and made it difficult to farm their land and that they arrived on big ships. To support our learning and for our classroom display, we drew  and coloured Anglo-Saxon ships.

In other areas of the Curriculum:

We have been learning to play Badminton in PE

We have been listening to our Christmas song in Music (more to follow)

We have learnt about the history of Bonfire Night and made chocolate apples.

Also:

Pupil of the week - William  S

Thursday 9th November - Annual Cinema Visit (We are watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles at Southport Cinema

Have a lovely weekend

Mr Byrom-Jones, Miss Geoffroy, Miss Bell and Mrs Kwiatek

Autumn 2 Week 7

W/C:  16/10/23

What a busy half term! This week we have had a Disney day , linked Numeracy to Halloween, learnt about Switzerland (and tried Swiss food) and completed and read our sequels to ‘The Witches’.

Numeracy:

In Numeracy this week we have done a mixed bag of 2D Shapes and Co-ordinates.  We started off the week by recapping on 2D Shapes before linking it to Halloween . On Tuesday we completed a 2D Halloween picture and used a key to help us identify the 2D shapes and colour them. In our next lesson we had to make our own Halloween pictures using 2D Shapes. We had pumpkins, witches and Frankenstein monsters.  On Thursday we learnt  about co-ordinates and used the co-ordinates to reveal a Halloween picture. We had lots of fun.

Literacy:

This week in Literacy we have completed our  sequels to ‘The Witches’. We incorporated our writing targets into our work and included some illustrations. On Friday we were fortunate to share our stories with Carroll staff, who really enjoyed them.

In phonics some of us have continued to build words using ‘s a t p i n’ , whilst some of us have been introduced to the ‘ai’ sound and have spelt words containing the sound.

Topic:

We have concluded our topic on ‘Eurovision’ with our final country of focus being Switzerland. We located Switzerland on the map, coloured in a flag , tried some Swiss food before creating our information leaflet. We tasted some Swiss cheese and cholate with Toblerone being very popular amongst us.

_{Disney Day:}

To celebrate 100 years of Disney we had a Disney day in school. We learnt about the history of Disney and learnt that Mickey mouse was originally going to be called Mortimer! We also participated in some Disney ‘Just Dance’ and watched one of the early Disney animations with Mickey Mouse ‘Steamboat Willie’.

Next Half term:

Beowulf

Anglo Saxons

Multiplication and Division

Electricity

Have a lovely half term.

Mr Byrom-Jones, Miss Geoffroy, Miss Bell and Mrs Kwiatek

Autumn 1 Week 6

WC: 9/10/23

This week we have been learning about Poland in topic , subtraction in Maths and learnt about a balanced diet in Science.

Literacy / Phonics:

This week we have continued with the ‘Witches’ and we will be completing our stories with illustrations next week. In Phonics some of us have continued to build words with the phonemes  s a t p i n whilst some of us have been working on the ‘ng’ sound’.

Numeracy:

Our focus this week has been on Subtraction. Some of us have been using Numicon to subtract from 10, whilst another group were subtracting from 20. One group have been subtracting two digit and three digit numbers using the split strategy.

Science:

We recapped on the importance of exercise in Science and the staff were very impressed when we remembered that exercise makes our heart, muscles and bones stronger as well as making us feel good and helping us sleep. To support our understanding we made posters. We have also talked about the importance of healthy eating and a healthy diet and after Mr Byrom-Jones showed us a healthy eating plate we designed our own balanced meal out of playdoh. We learnt that a majority of our meal should have vegetables / fruit as it helps us with our digestion. We learnt that a third of our plate should have protein (such as fish, eggs, meat etc) to help repair cells in our body, whilst a third should be carbohydrates (grains, potatoes , rice , etc) to give us energy.

Topic:

The country of focus this week has been Poland and we have been very fortunate to learn about the country with the help of Mrs Kwiatek who used to live there. Mrs Kwiatek brought in some polish food to try which included some polish bread, pretzels and pickles.  The pickles were not very popular but the Pretzels were! Mrs Kwiatek told us how to say hello in Poland ‘Cześć’ and told us about the climate. We also learnt about some Polish landmarks including the Salt Mines and Auschwitz , which was a terrible place during WW2. To support our understanding we made a leaflet about the country.

In other news:

Well Done Rosie for being our pupil of the week.

Disney Day on Monday 16^th October – pupils may come in dressed in Disney character costume if they wish.

Have a lovely weekend

Mr Byrom-Jones , Miss Geoffroy, Miss Bell and Mrs Kwiatek

Autumn 1 Week 5

WC: 2/10/23

This week we have visited Greece in topic and planned and started to write our own sequel to Roald Dahl’s The Witches.

Literacy:

This week we have planned and started to  write our sequel of ‘The Witches ‘. We looked at how the story ended with Mr Byrom- Jones helping us devise a plot for our stories . The chosen plot was Grandma and the mouse going to America with the mouse making potion and encountering the witches in another hotel ! This time Grandma and the mouse put the potion into some American foods ( pancakes / cola )  before the American witches transformed into mice . We also tried really well to incorporate our targets into our work , with some of us creating story sentences with the aid of colourful semantics . Next week we hope to read our stories to Carroll class. 

 In phonics some of us have been building cvc words with the phonemes / s a t p i n / whilst some of us have revisited the ‘th’ sound and written and read words with the sound .

Numeracy:

Our focus this week has been on addition . Some of us have been using Numicon to help us solve addition problems , with some of us working on calculations to 10 and some of us working with numbers up to 20 . Another group have been working on numbers to 100 and partitioning numbers to solve addition calculations. We concluded the week by having a go at word problems at differentiated levels . 

Science:

We have been learning about exercise this week and the benefits of it. We started off the week by producing a class survey on exercise with swimming being the class favorite! On Thursday we conducted an experiment to show that our heart rate increases after exercise and learnt that this is because our heart pumps faster to carry oxygen around our body and to deliver it to our muscles. We also found out that exercise helps our bones, produces chemicals to help our mood and  helps us to sleep.

_Topic:

This week we have visited ‘ Greece ‘ as part of our topic . We located Greece on a map of Europe and found it was the furthest county away from England so far . We then role-played the journey  and learnt about some of the sights in the capital city of Athens such as Mount Olympus and the Acropolis before trying some Greek food. Olives and Feta Cheese were not very popular but Mousakka was, with some of us wanting seconds! We concluded the session by watching and copying some Greek dancing called the Zorba. On Thursday we created our own information leaflets about Greece based on what we had found out.

In other areas of the curriculum:

We have been learning to play Boccia in PE with Miss Bell

We have been continuing to learn about the Creation Story with Miss Hall

In other news:

See-Saw is up and running with this week's homework. Some learners are working on /s a t p i n/ and some learners are working on the 'th' sound.

I would also like you to produce a poster on the importance of exercise and how it helps our hearts, lungs , bones and muscles and how it helps us feel good and helps us sleep.

Have a good weekend

Mr Byrom-Jones, Miss Geoffroy , Miss Bell and Mrs Kwiatek

Autumn 1 Week 4

WC: 25/9/23

This week we have made blood in Science, 'visited' Spain as part of topic , whilst some of us have been learning to count in 2s.

Numeracy:

This week we consolidated our understanding of place value and partitioning numbers into Hundreds , Tens and Ones  / Tens and ones before moving on to counting in twos whilst some of us have completed number patterns which have included negative numbers. Some of us enjoyed matching pairs of socks to support our understanding of counting in 2s whilst some of us used Numicon to help us count in 2s.

Literacy:

In Literacy we have completed two leaflets as part of our ‘Eurovision’  Topic work. One leaflet was about France and one was about Spain(see below). The staff were all very impressed with our knowledge to help us complete our leaflets. We have also continued with our work on ‘The Witches’ and after exploring some wind up mice we thought about the different verbs to illustrate the movement and activities of mice, with examples being ‘hiding’, ‘running’, ‘climbing’ and squeaking. At the end of the week we wrote a news report about the infestation of mice in the story which incorporated some of our literacy targets.

 In phonics some of found pictures of words from phase 2 sounds in the tuff tray, whilst some of us when on a scavenger hunt outside before writing the word from phase 3 which the picture represented..

Science:

Our focus this week has been on blood. After watching an animation about the human body we learnt about red blood and white blood cells and how the white blood cells are like ‘police’ in our body. To support our understanding further we made a blood sensory bottle after recapping on the parts of the blood and their purposes (e.g red blood cells carry oxygen, white blood cells fight infection / disease and platelets , which help our blood to clot when we are  bleeding ) we used different ingredients to represent them. We had lots of . We also enjoyed the sensory tray which represented blood as well as watching an episode of the Magic School bus ‘Inside Ralphie’ to link with our learning

Topic:

Our country of focus this week has been Spain. We identified Spain on a map, learnt about it’s culture as well as tasting some Spanish food which included chorizo, Spanish omlette and sangria (child friendly of course),

In other areas in the Curriculum:

In RE we have continued to learn about the Creation Story

In PE we did Curling with Miss Bell 

Maths Homework is on See-Saw , any problems let Mr Byrom-Jones now

Have a lovely weekend 

Mr Byrom-Jones, Miss Geoffroy and Miss Bell 

What a busy week we have had this week. This week we have been learning about France in topic and learnt about British Values. Here is what we have been learning this week:

Autumn 1 Week 3

W/C: 18/9/23

Numeracy:

This week we have continuing to learn about Number and Place Value. Group 1 have been comparing quantities and saying which is more and less.

Group 2 have continued to work with numbers up to 20 / 50 and compare the value of numbers using the less than and greater than , before partitioning numbers into tens and units with aid of Numicon and Base Ten.

Group 3 have continued to work with numbers to 100 and beyond , which have decimals to 1 decimal place and negative numbers! We have also used the symbols of  less than and greater than to compare numbers as well as using Base Ten to partition numbers into hundreds, tens and ones.

Literacy:

We are continued with Roald Dahl’s ‘The Witches’. This week we have made sugar mice  and  written a diary entry from the perspective of Bruno Jenkins .

Science

We have continuing to learn about the circulatory system. To support our learning further we roleplayed a model of the circulatory system using play tunnels and a pump. We started off by being the oxygenated blood crawling through the artery (red tunnel) before crawling back as the waste gas / deoxygenated blood through the vein (blue tunnel). We had lots of fun.

Topic:

The European country of focus this week has been France. We firstly discussed some French landmarks and discussed different foods , before making different French foods out of playdoh. We have also been fortunate to taste French food and on Thursday we made cheese and ham croissants with Miss Geoffroy. They were delicious! On Friday morning we roleplayed the journey to France. We roleplayed the Eurostar, explored the French landmarks before ordering brioche and baguettes in French!  We concluded our learning by creating a travel leaflet about France.

British Values Morning:

As part of our British Values morning we recapped on the British Values. We discussed the different British Values (democracy 2. the rule of law 3. individual liberty 4. mutual respect 5. tolerance of those of different faiths and beliefs) and gave examples  in school and in the community. We supported our understanding by designing our own island  which promoted British Values with the island having a police station (to keep people safe ' rule of the law'), town hall (democracy)  and different places of worship (tolerance of different faiths and beliefs).

Next Week:

We are learning about Spain in topic

Have a lovely weekend

Mr Byrom-Jones, Miss Geoffroy, Miss Bell and Miss Dimmock

Autumn 1 Week 2: 11th - 15th September

This week we have continued to learn about Roald Dahl’s ‘The Witches’ and roleplayed a visit to ‘Italy’ after making pizza as part of our topic Eurovision. Here is what we have been learning this week: 

Numeracy:

In Numeracy we have been continuing to learn about Number and Place Value. Some of us have been ordering Numicon Shapes, matching to numerals to 10 and ordering numerals to 10, whilst some of us have been ordering numbers to 30 and other group have been ordering numbers to 100 which have included some decimals and negative numbers. 

Literacy: 

This week we have continued to listen to ‘The Witches’ and watched some clips from the recent film to support our learning. We started off the week by learning about the wacky , strange and revolting items that went into a witches’ position before designing our own and considering what the potion would actually do. Examples included turning a child into a frog, bug and even a car! We then wrote our own character descriptions of the different characters we had been introduced to in the story. The class staff were very impressed with our listening skills. We concluded the week by roleplaying the witches , using props. We had lots of fun.

Topic:

As part of our work on Italy we made pizzas ready for our Italian restaurant roleplay the following day. Prior to our roleplay activity, we recapped on our map skills and identified Italy on a map (we remembered that it was shaped like a boot). We then roleplayed a journey to Italy with our passports and learnt some Italian words, learnt about some Italian landmarks (the Colosseum, the Trevi Fountain, Vatican City and Pompeii) before eating pizza and ice cream (gelato). We found out that the Italian word Ciao means hello as well as goodbye! We consolidated our understanding of Italy by creating a simple informative leaflet. 

In other areas of the Curriculum: 

-We have been looking at  European buildings in Art with Mrs Gallagher

-We have been learning about the Christian Creation Story with Miss Hall

- We are learning to play Bocha with Miss Bell.

Have a lovely weekend 

Mr Byrom-Jones, Miss Geoffroy, Miss Bell and Mrs Kwiatek

Welcome back! We hope you had a lovely summer. We are settling into our new classroom and our new class routines. Here is what we have been up to this week:

English:

We started off this week by sharing our holiday news with each other by writing postcards to each other. It was lovely to hear about different holidays and days out that we had been on.

 This half term we are reading 'The Witches' by Roald Dahl. After reading part of the story we completed a Venn Diagram comparing traditional fairy tale Witches and the witches from the novel. We noted lots of differences such as witches in fairy tales have a pointy black hat and a broomstick, whilst Dahl's witches are bald, wear gloves to hide their claws and have blue split! Later on in the week we made a wanted poster and wrote a news report about events in the story so far.

Maths:

This week we have been participating in lots of mathematical games whilst adults have been completing assessments. Games have included bingo and a particular class favourite funky mummy.

Science:

In Science we have started to learn about the circulatory system. We watched an episode from the 'Magic School Bus' to support our learning before learning that a heart is a pump and a muscle and that the arteries carry oxygen in our blood all around are bodies and the veins carry blood and waste back through our body which we breath out as carbon dioxide. To support our understanding we illustrated the circulatory system with the aid of icing pens on a gingerbread person. We particularly enjoyed eating them!

Topic:

Our topic this half term is 'Eurovision' were we shall be learning about the continent of Europe. We have started off the week by familiarising ourselves with the countries in Europe and using an atlas to colour and label a map.

Next Week:

The Witches

Place Value

Making pizza

Exploring Italy

A model of the circulatory system. 

Have a lovely weekend

Welcome to Dahl Class (2022 - 2023)

Teacher:

Mr G Byrom-Jones

Teaching Assistants:

Mrs A Murray

Miss A Clare 

Miss E Bell 

Spring 2 – Week 1 , Week 2 and Week 3

20^th February – 10th March

What a busy couple of weeks we have had in Dahl. Over the past few weeks we have been learning about 2D Shape and 3D Shape,  listening to the story ‘There is a Pharaoh in the bath’ by Jeremy Strong , learnt about plants and their life cycle in Science and in our topic work we have been learning about the Ancient Egyptians. Please see below:

Literacy:

This half term linking to our ‘Ancient Egyptian’ work we have been reading Jeremy Strong’s ‘There’s a Pharaoh in our bath’. Mr Byrom-Jones has been very impressed with our comprehension skills and have remembered important parts of the story such as how the Pharaoh escaped from his tomb in modern times, encountered an ice cream van, had a bath and played on a computer game. Written activities around the text have included predictions, news reports, diary writing and character profiles. We have also had the opportunity to hot seat Sennapod himself to help with our diary entries.

 I

Numeracy:

In Numeracy we have been learning about 2D shape and 3D Shape.  During the past couple of weeks some of have been learning and identifying the names of some 2D and 3D Shape,  some of us have been learning about their properties and some of us have been exploring 2D Shape through tessellation and using geometric material to build 3D shapes .

Science

This term we have been learning about animals and plants including the life cycle of a plant. We started off by exploring seeds and explored the different seeds we find it fruit.  We really enjoyed using our senses to explore fruit and made fruit kebabs with them. We have also learned about the life cycles of different plants / fruits and have used playdoh and real fruit and seeds to illustrate them.

Topic :

We are currently learning about the Ancient Egyptians and we are really enjoying it. We started by learning about the River Nile and how important the river was to civilization , as the river enabled the growth of crops , travel etc. We then looked at Egyptian dress of the time (particularly the Pharaoh’s) and created our own head dressers and collars. Don’t they look great? We have also been learning about mummification and the mummification process and not only have we made mummy sausage rolls with Mr Banks but we have also had the opportunity to mummify each other and the staff! We have had lots of fun.

Have a lovely weekend

Mr Byrom-Jones , Mrs Murray, Miss Clare and Miss Bell

W/C: 30th January

Here is what we have been learning this week:

Literacy

On Monday we concluded our work on 'The Pied Piper' and used drama and props to retell the story. Later on in the week we moved on to information texts. We discussed some different types of information and their features. We then had to complete a task were some of us were given a cut up example of an information text (linking to our topic work on mountains) and we had to put it back together before labelling the features e.g heading, subheading , photo, caption etc. We also did something similar on Friday and created an information text on the River Nile after watching a video.  This week's homework relates to researching and creating our own information text on a topic of our choice, which we will look forward to sharing.

  In phonics some of us have been continue to build and read words using / s a t p i n /, whilst one group have been working on the /sh/ sound and another group have been working on the 'lt' word ending. 

Numeracy

This week we have been learning about money with Miss Hindley . We all particularly enjoyed roleplaying in the shop with some of us counting pennies, some of using different coins up to 20p and some of us using different coins to pay to £1.00 and beyond

Science

In Science we have continued to to learn about forces and on Monday we revisited the force of upthrust and talked about water resistance after making model boats from our designs. We enjoyed racing them and had lots of fun.  Miss Hindley taught as about the force of friction on different surfaces and we explored this with toy cars on different materials.

Topic

In topic we had a go at making our own river using tinfoil after recapping the features of the source , tributaries, meander and mouth. However unfortunately tin foil was as effective as we thought, so we have decided to emulate our river using guttering next week were we also hope to float our boats.

  We have also been introduced to Pointilism this week, which is artwork using dots. We had a go at creating our own river scene in the Pointilism style and used cotton buds to create the dots. They were very effective.

Have a lovely weekend

Mr Byrom-Jones, Miss Hindley, Mrs Murray , Miss Clare and Miss Bell

W/C: 23rd January 
This week we have been collecting data with Miss Hindley  and made rock cookies , listened to the narrative poem ‘The Pied Piper’ and produced work around it , learnt about the journey of a river and learnt about the forces of gravity and upthrust in science . Please see below for more information:

Literacy 

We started off the week by listening to narrative poem ‘The Pied Piper’ and identifying  some rhyming words in the poem . We then thought about how we would feel if we were one of the townsfolk  and were dealing with an infestation of rats !using examples from the text we wrote to the Mayor of Hamelin , with some of us using punctuation to emphasise our concerns . Continuing with the letter theme we then wrote a persuasive letter to the Pied Piper from the perspective of the Mayor with  the promise of a reward … . Other activities during the course of the week have included writing a wanted poster , retelling the narrative poem in our own words and considering what might be in the mountain were the children are taken too.

 In phonics we have continued to learn about sounds in our designated groups . Some of us having been working on the /sk/ sound , some of us working on the /ch/ and some of us developing our confidence when building words using s a t p i n. 

Numeracy 

Miss Hindley has been teaching us numeracy this week and we been organising given data into graphs , collected our own data on animals and pets before turning that into a pictogram. Some of us were challenged in our learning , especially when one picture represented two people . However some of  us recognised that for one we would have to half the  picture . We have also been learning to talk about our data and our findings .

Science 

On Monday we undertook an experiment on gravity when we made our own rockers with film canisters, fizzy tablets and water ! We all carefully watched as the chemical reaction from the water and fizzy water  pushed and shot the lids off before landing back on the ground . We had lots of fun. On Thursday we were introduced to the force of 

Upthrust and learnt about why objects float and sink . We took part in a class investigation and explored items around the  classroom to see if they floated or sunk , with some of us making predictions beforehand .

Topic 

On Monday we were all very excited to erupt our volcanoes ! Firstly after recapping on the names of different mountains / volcanoes and how they are formed , Mr Byrom-Jones put food colouring , bicarbonate soda and vinegar into our models and we watched them erupt . It is far to say all the volcanoes were active .

 Miss Hindley introduced rivers and made river sensory bottles , while Mr Byrom -Jones showed us a video about the journey of a river and introduced us to the vocabulary of source , tributary , meander and mouth . To support our understand we drew our own portraits to illustrate the journey of a river before labelling them . They were very impressive . 

In other areas of the curriculum :

In PSHCE we continued to talk about discrimination and prejudice and how we can wrongly judge someone by their appearance . Miss Hindley linked this to the Hulk , as although he looks scary he is actually a hero .

Cooking - linking to our topic work  on mountains we made rock cookies .

Next Week we will  learning about money , identifying the features of information texts as well as making out own model boats and testing them on our home made river . 

Have a lovely weekend 

This week Miss Hindley has been teaching some of our lessons . We have continued to listen to Roald Dahl’s rhymes ,  revisited subtraction in mathematics , continued to learn about gravity in science and mountains in topic .

W/C: 16th January 

Literacy:

We started off the week by sharing  and writing our weekend news with Miss Hindley so she could get more familiar with us . On Tuesday we moved on to rhyme stew with the traditional tale  being Hansel and Gretel  and  we found Dahl’s version to be very similar to the traditional tale . Activities around the text included writing a witch’s menu ,  and an estate agent advert for the witch’s house . On Friday Mr Byrom-Jones' read us Rapunzel before turning the story into a 'Revolting Rhyme' like Roald Dahl's. Some of read the verse with an adult and had to choose the correct rhyming word from a choice of two, whilst some of us had to choose the rhyming word from a given choice and finally another group had to independently select an appropriate rhyming word to go in the poem. 

 In phonics some of us have have continuing to build words with the aid of the phonemes s a t p i n , some of us have been learning the /qu/ sound and some of us have been learning the /ft/ sound .

Numerac:

This week in Numeracy we have been learning about subtraction. Some of us having been using Numicon to help us with calculations up to 10, some of us have been using a number line and some of us have been using the column method and have taken away decimals!

Science:

We have continued to learn about forces being pushes and pulls and to support our learning we explored different playground equipment , participated in blow football and completed a  sorting activity relating to pushes / pulls . 

 On Thursday we explored the force of gravity being a pull and demonstrated our understanding by dropping pom poms in paint at different heights .We had lots of fun 

Topic:

On Monday we made salt volcanoes before learning how volcanoes are made and on Thursday we painted them . We look forward to erupting them next week . We have also looked at different mountains in the world and put them in order of size , with some of us using the actual measurements . 

Cooking:

This week we made biscuits in the shape of the witch's house in 'Hansel and Gretel'. We all took turns to weigh out the ingredients, mix, roll and cut. We particularly enjoyed decorating them and they were delcious!

In other areas of the curriculum:

-Miss Hindley talked about fair and unfair rules linking to our previous work on discrimination.

Have a lovely weekend

Mr Byrom-Jones, Miss Hindley, Mrs Murray, Miss Clare and Miss Bell 

W/C: 9th January 

Here is what we have been up to this week.

Literacy :

We started off the week by recapping on Roald Dahl’s Revolting Rhyme ‘ Little Red Riding Hood’ and writing a wanted poster about the character . We then compared the traditional tale to the Dahl’s version on a Venn Diagram . Later in the week we read Dahl’s ‘Three little pigs’and compared it to the traditional tale. We were surprised when Red Riding Hood also appeared in Dahl’s version , but even more surprised when we discovered that Red Riding Hood shot the wolf and turned the pig into a bag ! We then discussed if Dahl’s Red Riding Hood was good or bad and put her on trial. The evidence from the text found her to be guilty!

 In phonics we recapped  on the sounds in our different groups after playing the change places sound game .

Numeracy :

We started off the week with Place Value . Some of us continued to learn about odd and even numbers , whilst some of us have been counting and ordering numbers to 10 , whilst another group have been introduced to numbers with one decimal place before ordering them from smallest to biggest .

 We then revisited addition with some of us participating in practical addition activities with the aid of Numicon , with some of us developing their confidence with a number line and some of us adding three digit numbers using the column method , which included decimals . The fishing game to generate sums has been a particular favourite with all groups.

Science :

Our focus this half term is forces. On Monday we discussed the names of the different forces we have heard of before identifying that all forces were pushes / pulls . To support our understanding further we participated in lots of activities which  involved pushing and pulling with activities including painting with cars ( pushing and pulling them through paint ) , making bread ( kneading the dough ), blow football and a sorting activity .  Next week we are going to look at  gravity in more detail  and identify if it is a push / pull .

Topic:

We are continuing with our topic ‘Misty Mountains and Raging Rivers ‘ . We recapped on our previous learning and on Monday Mr Byrom-Jones demonstrated how some mountains are formed with the aid of biscuits and cream , with mountains forming with the collision of tectonic plates which push the rocks up , thus forming mountains. We then created our own mountain art with the aid of torn paper . 

PSD:

In PSD we have been learning about discrimination and how people are treated and judged from the way they look . We used ‘Hans Christian Andersen’ ‘The Ugly Duckling ‘ to introduce this and how he was treated differently in the story . 

In other areas of the curriculum :

-We were fortunate to be visited by the OT this week . She helped us develop some fine motor / regulation exercises with the aid of theraputty as well as guiding us through sensory circuits to help us with our regulation . 

Have a lovely weekend

Mr Byrom-Jones, Miss Hindley,  Mrs Murray, Miss Clare and Miss Bell

Welcome back and Happy New Year! We hope you all had a lovely Christmas break. It has been lovely to hear what everyone got up to during the holidays.

 Last half term was particularly busy as we were busy with the Christmas production and our enterprise project (reindeer food and wreaths). We also found time to make snowman slime which we particularly enjoyed.

 This half term is also a busy one. We have Miss Hindley (A student teacher) teaching us in Dahl class for some lessons and we now have Miss Bell supporting us in class and she is already familiar with some pupils.

 This half term we will be learning about Roald Dahl’s ‘Revolting Rhymes’ / ‘Rhyme Stew’ and comparing them with other traditional tales and fairy tales. We will also have a go at writing our own! We shall also be creating texts on mountains and rivers linking to our topic ‘Misty Mountains and Raging Rivers’.

 Below is what we have been up to during our first week back.

W.C: 3^rd January

Literacy:

We started off the week by sharing and writing our holiday news. It was lovely to hear about the different gifts, food and activities that we had taken part in. We also have new  writing targets and have been trying really hard to incorporate these into our writing. We have also introduced ‘Revolting Rhymes’ before writing our own version of Little Red Riding Hood based on our own understanding, with some of us being creative by writing their own version! After listening to Mr Byrom-Jones read Dahl’s Little Red Riding Hood we discussed rhyming words before we went outside for a rhyming word scavenger hunt. We had lots of fun.

 In phonics some of us have been building CVC words, whilst one group have been learning and identifying words with the /z/ and /zz/ sound and another group focusing on the /nk/ sound.

Numeracy

This week we have been learning and revisiting Place Value. Some of us have been working with numbers up to 10 and have used Numicon shapes to match with numerals, quantities and to aid with ordering. One  group have been learning about odd and even numbers and have participated in activities to support their understanding using Numicon to sort, the characters of Odd Todd and Even Steven as well as participating in a fishing and sorting activity.  Finally another group have been recognizing the value of different digits to one thousand and beyond and have participated in activities including ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire’.

Topic :

Our topic this half term is ‘Misty Mountains and Raging Rivers’. We started off the week by finding out if anyone knew anything about rivers and mountain, with some of mentioning world rivers and mountains such as Mount Everest, the River Thames and the Nile. We then split of into groups with some of using atlases to place UK mountains and rivers on a blank map, with examples including Ben Nevis, Scarfell Pike and the Thames, whilst another group used playdoh to make a model river and mountain.

PSHCE/ Cooking:

This week we have discussed New Year’s Resolution and thought about things we could learn, change or get better at. After the discussion we wrote our ideas on a leaf before Mrs Murray made a new year’s tree with our resolutions.

We have also discussed about safety in the kitchen and identified procedures we need to follow to keep safe.

Have a lovely weekend

Mr Byrom-Jones, Mrs Murray, Miss Clare and Miss Bell

WC:21st November 

What a fun week we have had in school. We have been to the ‘Snow White and Seven Dwarfs’ pantomime, watched ‘Sonic 2’ at the cinema and begun to practice our Christmas play. We have also made Stone Age soup, bread and used fruits and flowers to make natural dyes.

Literacy :

This week we have finished reading and watching ‘Stig of the Dump’ and the majority of us all really enjoyed the story. On Tuesday we read the chapters were Barney and his sister went to a fancy dress party and Stig caught an escaped Leopard from the circus. We created missing / wanted posters for the leopard using examples from the text.

 In phonics some of us have continued to build words using s a t p i n, some of us have been learning and identifying words with the /w/ sound and some of us have been reading and identifying words with the /mp/ sound.

Numeracy:

We have continued to learn about time. One group has focused on o’clock and have matched the times to the clock faces and iced clock face biscuits to show the time at o’clock. Another group have been reading o’clock and half past and have participated in matching activities and played time bingo, whilst another group have been measuring time in seconds and have been working out the time (when at o’clock and half hours) when asked to change the time to two hour and one hour before and after.

Topic:

This week we have made Stone Age soup and bread using vegetables of the time. We used nettles, chickpeas, beans and carrots. Most of us liked it. We also explored natural dyes of the time and we used rocks to crush raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, beetroots and flowers before applying to paper. We thought blackberries made the best natural dye .

In other areas of the curriculum:

We had a mental health and wellbeing afternoon with Mr Mahmood and the Christmas story in RE.

Have a lovely weekend

Mr Byrom-Jones, Mrs Murray, Miss Geoffroy and Miss Clare.

W/C: 14th November 

This week we have made fraction flags, learnt about time,made stone age jewellery and made stone age stewed fruit. We have also continued to read  'Stig of the Dump', written planet riddles and role played the solar system. 

Literacy:

We started off the week by becoming estate agents and wrote estate agent adverts for Stig's den. We tried really hard to use lots of adjectives and persuasive devices to make a caveman want to live in Stig's den and used evidence from the text to support the advert e.g windows made from glass jars and a chimney made from tin cans. We have also written character profiles and wrote newspaper articles about Barney and Stig catching the thieves in the story. In phonics some of us have continued to build words using /s/a/t/p/i/n whilst some of us have revisited the /v/ sound/ and some of us working on the consonant blend /ng/.

Numeracy:

This week we have been learning about fractions and time. We started off the week by designing our own flags, with some of us collaging the other half of a flag and some of us designing flags using halves and some of us designing flags using quarters and three quarters. Some of us also identified the fractions of world flags and later designed our own using peg boards. 

In time some of us have been ordering our day and ordering days of the week and months of the year (which some of us found tricky) . We have also used biscuits to show the time in our differentiated groups, with some of  us reading time  at 0'clock and half past on an analogue clock and some of us reading the time on a digital clock and applying our understand to a biscuit clock face.

Science:

Using our knowledge of the solar system we wrote our own planet riddles and after colouring in a paper plate to support our planets we displayed them. They look really good. Later on in the week we role played how the planets move in the solar system.

Topic:

This week we have made and modelled stone age jewellery out of clay to emulate animal bones. We have also investigated Stone Age diets by examing poo (chocolate playdoh) and discovered lots of interesting things in their diets including seeds, nettles and caterpillars! On Wednesday we prepared and made Stone Age stewed fruit using fruit from the time. Most of us really enjoyed it.

In other areas of the curriculum:

This week we has been anti bullying week and we have been promoting kindness in the classroom. We also used an apple to emulate that although someone may seem ok from the outside they may feel bruised and hurt on the outside and that it is always important to speak to an adult if we have any worries and concerns. 

Next Week:

Pantomime - Monday 21st November

Cinema - Thursday 24th November 

Have a lovely weekend

Mr Byrom-Jones, Mrs Murray, Miss Geoffroy and Miss Clare 

W/C: 7th November 

What a lovely week we have had. We have been fortunate to have been on two cinema trips and have had three birthdays in class! We have also designed and made our own pizzas as part of fractions. Please see below:

Literacy :

This week we have continued to read 'Stig of the Dump' and wrote diary entries from Barney’s perspective and how he felt when he first met Stig. We have also thought about appropriate gifts we would give Stig if we met him with some of us elaborating using the conjunction ‘and’. We have also recapped on the sounds we have been learning in our differentiated groups with examples being ‘ s a  t p i n ‘, /j/ and /st/. 

Numeracy:

We have been learning about fractions this week and the fractions of shapes. After establishing that fractions were about dividing into equal parts, some of us started the week by learning about halves my making playdoh biscuits and halving them whilst some of us practiced halving and quartering circles and using the segments to turn into fish! We have also designed and made our own pizzas using our knowledge of fractions, with some of us choosing 2 different toppings to for each half of a pizza and some of choosing 4 toppings for our understanding of quarters. Some of us also learnt about 3/4 . The pizzas were delicious!

Science:

We have continued to learn about the solar system and to support our understanding of the ordering or planets, we learnt songs / poems. Examples have included My Very Easy Method Just Speeds Up Naming as well as My Very Elegant Mother Just Served Uncooked Nachos!  Some of used this to compete am ordering activity whilst those of us who are more secure had a go at writing their own to order the planets! Well Done! As well as continuing with our solar system dioramas some of us decorated biscuits to emulate the planets and their colours. 

Topic:

We have continued to learn about life in the Stone Age and have started to make our own Stone Age jewellery using clay to emulate the bones of animals. 

In other areas if the curriculum. 

We learnt about Remembrance Day and participated in the 2-minute silence to remember the soldiers. To support our learning, we also made our own poppy biscuits.

Have a lovely weekend 

Mr Byron-Jones , Mrs Murray , Miss Geoffroy and Miss Clare