Welcome to our Year 1 / 2,

Woodpecker Class page 

Class Teacher: Miss V Bowman

Support Staff: Miss K Fairbrother, Mrs K Tyrrell, Mrs L Clarke, Miss A Wesson, Mrs L Unwin, Miss K Mistry, Mrs T Haghighat

PE Days: Tuesday and Friday 

In Woodpecker Class we love to learn. Every week we enjoy learning new skills in a wide variety of subjects across the curriculum and enjoy implementing these skills in fun and engaging activities.

Please click on the link below for all the information on what we are learning about this half-term. 

This week (7th April 2025 - 11th April 2025)

Year 1

This week in Year 1 we have rounded off our English units by writing our biographies about the infamous pirate Anne Bonny. We have shown incredible independence in our writing this term! 

In history, we thought about whether we would prefer to live in the Victorian era or the Elizabethan era. Some of the children in year one felt that they couldn't do without their games, others were fascinated to learn about schools in the Victorian era. 

In maths, we have continued to practise our repeated addition and multiplication, with a focus on doubling at the end of the week. We used lots of different equipment to demonstrate our understanding of equal groups, arrays and doubling numbers up to 10.

In science, we have all now planted our beans outside, they were growing much too tall for the classroom! Now they will be able to get lots more sun. 

We thought about who and what we are thankful for in R.E, creating cards for people to say thank you, lots of children wanted to thank their parents and carers for all the yummy food they eat!

Year 2

This week we have been learning about volume and capacity in Maths.  We have learnt that capacity is the maximum amount a container can hold, and volume is the measurement of what is actually in it.  We have been reading scales and estimating the volume of containers then checking them.  We have also begun looking at measuring temperature in degrees C.

 

 

 

In English, we have been writing some Easter acrostic poems.  We thought of lots of words and phrases about Easter first - our Easter songs and poems have helped us lots with this! Then we used the correct starting word for each line.  The children did a great job!

In Science, we have been exploring what bulbs are and how they are different to seeds.  They store everything the plant needs ready for the warmer seasons when they begin growing again.  We drew diagrams and labelled parts of the bulbs using the words tunic, scales, roots and flower bud.  We also drew life cycles of bulbs.

In Geography, we thought about activities that people do at the seaside.  We explored pictures and videos of Wembury beach in Devon and wrote postcards as if we were at the seaside telling our friends what we had been doing.  We also read a story about a little girl who lived by the beach who found some sea creatures called 'Sally and the Limpet'

(31st March 2025 - 4th April 2025)

Year 1

This week in Year 1 we have loved learning about the pirate Anne Bonny for our English lessons. To find out about her, we had to be information pirates, hunting for clues around our classrooms! 

In history, we have continued to look at Queen Victoria, comparing the Victorian era to the Elizabethan era. 

We have been so impressed by the children's maths knowledge this week! We are focusing on our 2s, 5s and 10s, counting forwards and backwards. The children are growing in confidence and chanting enthusiastically every day!

Year 2

This week in maths, year 2 have been learning about mass.  They have compared mass by finding things that are lighter and heavier.  They have used balance scales to find how many grams objects are and solved problems about mass such as the total mass of two objects.

In English we have been planning and writing 'What am I?' riddles.  We have thought about description and making clues harder and easier.  We have identified similes and attempted to write some of our own.

In Science, we have been learning about seed dispersal and the different ways that plants spread their seeds including by wind, being eaten by animals, drying out and popping (exploding), by floating on water, by dropping to the floor and breaking open or by sticking to animals.  The children made paper helicopters to represent sycamore seeds being dispersed by the wind.

In Music, the children have been planning a short composition which involves changing pitch.  They used the theme of a playground to help structure their pieces and added short phrases such as 'Swinging high, swinging low' 'Climb up, swing across' which will them play the rhythm on the percussion instruments

In PE, they have been using the benches and mats for gymnastics, moving across the equipment safely and performing jumps at the end.

(24th March 2025 - 28th March 2025)

Year 1

This week in Year 1 we had an exciting treat with a visit from CLS to learn all about performance poetry. We listened to some poems that Cassie read, and then we learnt a poem to perform to each other. We really enjoyed our afternoon of poetry!

In History we looked at some portraits of Queen Victoria and tried to find the things that were important to her. 

We have been looking at capacity and volume in Maths. The children are getting really good at remembering what these words mean, and the difference between them. 

Year 2

This week we have completed our NFER assessments in Maths and Reading.  The children have worked so hard.

In addition, we have started work on mass in maths.  We are beginning by using balance scales to decide whether something is heavier or lighter and then introducing gram weights to show the mass of objects.

In English, we have started learning riddles.  The children have read clues and decided what they thought the riddle was about.  We are learning about the structure of a riddle and the kinds of clues to include so it's not too easy before writing our own riddles.

In History, we have looked at sources of information about King Richard III, what has been said about him in history and how he has been portrayed to decide why people thought he was a good king or a bad king.

In PSHE, we talked about medicines and immunisations and why we have them.  We talked about what we can do when we are feeling unwell other than taking medicine.

In RE we have started learning the Easter story and re-telling it using story boards.

(17th March 2025 - 21st March 2025)

Year 1

This week in Year 1 we have started to learn about another Queen in English history, Queen Victoria. We have learnt about how things were different in Victorian times, we were amazed that people had to light a fire to use their cookers!

We have been looking at a painting in our Art lesson by Claude Monet. It was a seascape and we noticed that we could see the sun shining on the water. We then tried to paint the sea by mixing lots of blue, white and yellow to create the same effect.  

Year 2

This week we have been continuing our focus on measuring in Maths, comparing measurements and solving problems involving measurements.  

In English, we have been publishing our stories after editing to make our stories the best that they can be.  Next, we will be looking at solving and writing our own riddles.

In History, we have been exploring King Richard III's skeleton remains to see what they tell us about him and what happened to him in battle.  

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In Science, we have been using previous learning to organise objects in to living, non-living and never been alive.

(10th March 2025 - 14th March 2025)

Year 1

This week in Year 1 we have been learning to use a ruler to measure in cm. We are now using the vocabulary heavier and lighter to compare the mass of two objects.

In English we have been completing our Big Writes based on 'The Pirates are Coming'. We have really enjoyed working on this story, it's definitely been a Year 1 favourite!

In History we have been looking at portraits of Queen Elizabeth II, and searching for clues about her favourite things. We noticed that she liked dogs and cups of tea!

Also look out for QR codes or weblinks that the teachers are going to post on Weduc. These are for the children to practise the phonics that the children have been learning in class. These will be links to videos that the children can access themselves. 

Year 2

This week, year 2 have been writing their own stories in English.  They have changed some traditional tales so that characters who were usually villains are now showing to be innocent.  They have been focusing on their vocabulary choices to change the description of the characters.

In Maths, we are practising measuring in cm and m.  We have learnt how to use rulers accurately to measure and to draw lines.  We have thought about things that are longer and shorter than 1m.

In Science, the children have been considering what animals need to survive.  We were able to recall our learning about humans and understand that animals also need 3 basic things to survive.  We also thought about what makes animals happy and healthy too. They made a fact file about pet animals and how to look after them.

In History, the children made shields for King Richard III's army (Yorkists) or Henry Tudors army and we re-enacted the battle of Bosworth.  

In Art, they have begun sculpting their chosen minibeasts out of clay.  

(3rd March 2025 - 7th March 2025)

Year 1

This week in Year 1 we have started to change 'The Pirates are coming' to make our own story! We have been practising telling each other the original story using our story maps. All of the adults are really impressed with how well we have learnt the story.

In Maths we have been using the vocabulary long, short, longer, shorter, taller to compare objects and items. We have been using cubes to measure items in the classroom and have been talking about not leaving gaps between the cubes, and starting measuring at one end of the object.

We have been learning about what life was like at the time of Queen Elizabeth the second's reign. We compared this to what we previously learnt about what life was like for our grandparents in October. We really enjoyed finding out about the Queen's parents, children and how heavy her coronation crown was! 

Year 2

This week in Year 2, we have been solving word problems involving division facts - grouping and sharing.  The children have been using equipment such as counters to help them but also some children recognise they can use their known multiplication facts too!

In English, we have started thinking about possible characters for our own warning story with a twist.  We wrote about why some of the characters in traditional tales might not be the villains after all.  Like the wolf who sneezed a big sneeze and accidentally blew down the houses, or the fox who was helping the gingerbread man across the river, but he fell in in his mouth while he was talking!

In Science, we have been exploring life cycles of different animals such as sheep, ducks, frogs and butterflies.  The children read some information about their chosen animal and created their own informative life cycles.

In History, we have been learning about the battle of Bosworth, when it took place and why We learnt that despite having more men, King Richard III was ultimately defeated and de-throned by Henry Tudor, ending the war of the Roses.  The children ordered the events leading up to and surrounding the battle.

We have started some World Book day activities through Scholastic, who have offered book reads and draw alongs for the children. We have had The Smeds and the Smoos and Tiddler read by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler and we have also been read That's My Flower by Alice Hemming and Nicola Slater.

     

 

(24th February 2025 - 28th February 2025)

Year 1

This week in Year 1 we have had a very exciting visit from a pirate. We found a message in a bottle that said ‘The Pirates are coming’ and we told each other what we thought might happen! The next day we saw a pirate run across the back of our classrooms and then in the playground! They dropped a map with an x on it! We thought they must have hidden some treasure. The following day we found a treasure chest in our outdoor area which was full of treasure! We all decided it must be some treasure that the pirate had left for us! 

We have also found a book called ‘The Pirates are Coming’ which we have been reading and making our own freeze frame photos from. This book has a great ending which none of us predicted!

 

Year 2

This week year 2 have been learning the TRUE story of the three little pigs.  They have learnt in this story, the wolf is innocent and he accidentally blew down the houses when he had a terrible sneezing cold!  The children have been writing character descriptions, answering questions about the story and writing sentences using conjunctions.

In Maths they have been answering questions involving the 10 and 5 times tables and seeing the related division facts.  These are called fact families.

In Science, they have started their new unit about animals and their offspring.  They have explored different types of animals such as mammals, amphibians, birds, reptiles and fish.  They looked at pictures of their offspring and discussed which ones look like their adults. 

  

In History, the children have been introduced to Kind Richard III and have found out some key facts about him including how he became king, who were the Yorkists and Lancastrians and what was the war of the roses was.