Hedgehog

Friday 3rd March 2023

We have had a great start to the half term. Our 'Coastline' topic is continuing into this term where we will continue to learn about the human and physical features of coastlines as well as processes such as erosion. 

Our D+T work has also been linked to coastlines. Before half term we looked at the features of beach huts and designed our own. We then measured and sawed wooden dowel to make the frame of our beach huts. Once we had glued our frames together, we used straws to decorate our beach huts to make them look more colourful and attractive. 

This week we have started our new book 'The Lighthouse Keepers Lunch'. After we read the story, we did some hot seating where we pretended to be the characters from the book. We considered their thoughts and feelings at different stages of the story. We are going to continue to use this story to help us develop our own writing skills such as using apostrophes to show possession (like in the title of the book) and also learn how to write questions using the correct punctuation. 

In Maths, we have been looking at measuring and have started measuring mass using grams and kilograms. We used balance scales to compare the weight of different objects and also weighing scales to find the exact weight of them. We are going to continue our topic by looking at length and height.

 

Friday 9th December 2022

The festive season has well and truly begun in Hedgehog Class and we have been very busy over the past few weeks learning the songs for our nativity, as well as using the stage to act out the story. We hope lots of you will be able to come and watch the performances, as we are sure all of the children will do a fantastic job!

In Maths we have been looking at subtraction. We started by consolidating our understanding of why subtraction is not commutative, before subtracting ones from a single digit and then moving onto subtracting ones from a 2-digit number. We have also used our understanding of place value to support the subtraction of multiples of 10 and 2-digit numbers.

During Art sessions, the children have investigated primary and secondary colours, before using this knowledge to experiment with colour mixing. We then discussed and compared pieces of art.

In Geography we have learnt the names of the seven continents and where they are located on a map – why don’t you see if your child can remember the song we used to help us! We have also located the equator and discussed how this affects the climate of the countries both nearby and further away. Most recently the children looked at the four countries of the United Kingdom and researched their flags, capital cities, populations and the languages spoken.

As you can tell, the children have been very busy and we are very impressed by how hard they have been working!

 

Friday 18th November 2022

We have been learning so much in Hedgehog Class this term and we are really impressed with how well the children are doing. Lots of the children are now reading regularly at home and are doing brilliantly with their book quizzes in school. 

In Maths, we have been looking at addition. We started by adding single digit numbers before moving on to adding multiples of 10 and then 2 digit addition. The children have learnt different methods and strategies to help them solve these questions so we will continue to practice these so they have a bank of methods to choose from. We are now moving on to subtraction and applying what we know about addition to help us solve problems.

If you came to our assembly, you will know that we have been looking at the book “Malala's Magic Pencil”. It has fit perfectly with our History topic about significant people and the children have really impressed Mrs P-T and I with how much they have remembered about these people and the impact that they had on the world. This week we have been re-writing Malala's story and have focussed on using conjunctions in our work to link our ideas and sentences. 

We are now moving on to Geography in our curriculum lessons and the children will be learning the skills of using atlases as well as being able to name and locate the 7 continents.

 

Friday 30th September 2022

We have had a wonderful start to the year in Hedgehog Class! The children have settled in well and are already demonstrating their fantastic attitude towards learning.

In English we have been focussing on our class story ‘Greta and the Giants’. The children have been developing their understanding of verbs and the past tense, as well as looking at how adjectives are used to describe nouns. We can’t wait to read their retelling of the story where they will be able to apply everything they have learnt so far!

In Maths we have been looking at place value and number. We have been ordering 2-digit numbers, using the < and > signs and plotting and estimating numbers on number lines. We are so impressed with how hard the children have worked to use their reasoning skills to explain patterns they have noticed.

This week we were lucky enough to go on a trip to Pizza Express. The children had a wonderful morning becoming chefs and were excited to bring their pizzas away with them. The classroom smelt delicious for the whole afternoon so I hope everyone enjoyed their pizzas at home! The staff at Pizza Express were very impressed with how the children behaved – well done Hedgehogs!!

 

Thursday 26th May 2022

In Hedgehog Class this half term, we have been working really hard on our phonics to get ready for the Year 1 phonics screening check after half term.

The children have enjoyed learning about the local area in our History topic and are excited to learn more about the Victorians as the topic progresses. After half term we will be having a Victorian day in class. We will send out more information about this in the next few days.

During Health Week, they have loved trying all the new activities on offer, particularly the Quidditch and martial arts.

Friday 25th March 2022

Hedgehog Class have settled well into their new classroom, and have welcomed Mrs Coussell as their teacher.

This half term we have continued exploring all about London, with our final pieces of writing being persuasive posters, trying to convince people to take a trip to London.  In Art we have been learning all about how to make weather motifs and collagraphs, and have really enjoyed learning about this process. Science has seen us plan and conduct an experiment about the wind, investigating where the windiest parts of the school grounds might be. Our Design and Technology lessons have taught us all about wheels, axles and chassis and we have made our own taxi’s, using recycling, which we are looking forward to bringing home in the next week. In Maths, Year 1’s have learnt how to partition numbers up to 20, as well as how to measure using cm, and Year 2’s have been learning all about multiplication and division.

Friday 21st January 2022

Sadly, on Monday Hedgehog Class said goodbye to Miss Collard and we wish her well for the future.  Mrs Ball will still be in the class to support the children.

In Maths, Hedgehog Class have been exploring 3D and 2D shapes, finding out their names, how many sides and edges they have. In Literacy we have enjoyed reading and talking our new book “Katie in London”. In the book Katie visits London and the sites.  She visits Buckingham Palace which, the Hedgehogs were excited to learn, is where the Queen lives and where she hosts tea parties.  We had our own royal tea party in the classroom. We all made our own crowns using sequins and glitter and wore them while they enjoyed eating cake and drinking juice.

Finally, this term Hedgehog Class have been introduced to the subject Geography. We have been learning all about the United Kingdom.  We have learnt the four countries that make up the United Kingdom and their capital cities. We have discussed what makes a city and what physical and human features are. We are excited to carry on exploring our new subject, Geography.

Friday 17th December 2021

The end of the year is here! Hedgehog Class have been really busy writing a set of instructions on ‘How to Make Winter’ in Literacy and solving more addition and subtraction problems in Maths. Alongside that, we have been rehearsing for our Nativity lots! We are all so excited for you to see it.

Mrs Ball and I are so proud of how well the class has adapted to being Hedgehogs. They work hard and make us laugh everyday. It has been a busy term but they have achieved so much. Have a lovely break and we will see you in January to start our new Geography topic ‘Bright Lights, Big City’. ‘Knowledge Organisers’ for this will be sent home this week. Merry Christmas!

 

Thursday 25th November 2021

The first term is going very quickly in Hedgehogs! In Literacy, we have been working on our book ‘Traction Man’. ‘Stapler Sam’ wrote us a letter because he needed help from Traction Man! We then had to write an extra page of the book describing how he saved him. We are now starting a unit on ‘instructions’ and are looking forward following instructions to play different games and make Christmas wreaths which will help us write our own instructions.

In Year 1 Maths, we have been exploring numbers all the way up to 100. We have been doing lots of counting as well as using number lines to help us do that. The Year 2s have been solving lots of addition problems in lots of different ways!

In Curriculum time, we have just finished our unit on ‘Childhood’ in the 1950s. One of thing things we found the most fascinating was doing our own research on the Chromebooks all about the Queen’s Coronation in 1953. To finish the term, we are looking forward to doing Geography, R.E and Science (as well as fitting in some Nativity practice!).

Friday 22nd October 2021

Hedgehogs have been very busy this month! In Literacy, we have been adding extra pages to our literacy book ‘Emily Brown and The Thing’ whilst thinking hard about how to use full stops, capital letters, finger spaces, verbs and nouns like excellent writers!

 In Maths, we have been looking at 2D and 3D shapes. The Year 1’s have been understanding what is the same and different about 2D shapes. In Year 2, we have been starting to understand symmetry as well as faces, vertices and edges on 3D shapes.

Our new Curriculum topic is ‘Childhood’. We have been learning all about childhood in the 1950s and how life was different back then. To help us, we have been using the book ‘Wilfrid Gordan McDonald Partidge’. We have also made memory boxes and family trees to understand the different stages of life. Perhaps our favourite part so far has been looking at the classes’ baby photos and trying to guess who is who, so thank you very much for sending them in!

 

Friday 24th September 2021

We have had a fantastic start to the year in Hedgehogs! All of the children have settled really well and it has been lovely to start getting to know them.

In Literacy, we have been learning all about Hedgehogs. We started by looking at a Percy the Park Keeper story about a Hedgehog who wanted to fly! We learnt the story using actions and then ‘hot seating’ each other imagining ourselves as the hedgehog. We also made our own non-fiction booklets with Hedgehog facts. ‘Emily Brown and The Thing’ is our next book which we have just started reading.

In Maths, we have been looking at place value and number. In Year 2, we have been using the < and > signs as well as plotting and estimating on number lines. In Year 1, we have been doing lots of counting forwards and backwards from a given number as well as learning how to write numbers in words.

In Curriculum afternoon time, we have been using our class mascot (Tim the Hedgehog) to learn all about how and why we look after animals. We have also started using the Chromebooks in ICT lessons and learning more about what computers are!