Maths: measurement!
Today, in Maths, we’ve been learning how to use a ruler to measure in centimetres (cm). We know that to be accurate, we must start measuring from 0cm. We’ve measured the length of books, pencils, pens and more!
We then learned that 100 cm = 1 meter (m). We went out into the playground and discussed why a ruler wouldn’t be a good idea to measure the length. A meter stick would be much less time consuming! 
We worked in groups and concluded that the playground is around 20m long!
Help at home: do you have a ruler or a measuring tape lying around? If so, why not measure small household objects in cm?
Living and Learning: healthy eating
Over the last two weeks, we’ve been thinking about healthy eating in Living and Learning.
We know the importance of having 5 portions of fruit and vegetables each day. We looked at what Miss Kay eats and decided to make some healthy changes to ensure she is having a balanced diet and 5 portions of fruit and vegetables each day, as well as the other food groups we need for a balanced diet.
Help at home by making sure you are eating a healthy, balanced diet that includes your 5-a-day!
Science: plants
This term, in Science, we are thinking all about plants! So far, we’ve discussed what bulbs and seeds need for healthy growth.
“They won’t grow without soil because then they wont get the nutrients that they need.”
“They will grow best with water and soil and light.”
“They won’t grow in the dark because the light gives them a warm temperature to grow.”
We are observing over time and looking for changes in growth of our onion bulbs. Here is how they are looking two weeks after planting:
We were shocked to see that the plant growing with no soil is germinating! Ask your child what this means.
This week, we’ve planted our own radish and lettuce seeds.
Living and Learning: I know the importance of sleep
This week, in Living and Learning, we’ve been thinking about how a good night of sleep can help us to be healthy.
We know that we need to get between 9 and 12 hours of sleep each night so that our bodies feel well rested! We talked about what helps us get to sleep: listening to relaxing music, having a cuddle with a teddy or reading a bed-time story instead of watching TV.
Here is our poem of the week, Bedtime by Eleanor Farjeon.
We talked about who the author of this poem might be talking to – we think that they are talking to an adult who has told them to go to bed! We also think that the child doesn’t want to go to bed.
“If they go to bed now then they will feel well-rested.”
“They don’t want to go to bed because they are asking lots of questions.”
“If they go to sleep now then they will be healthy tomorrow and be able to do their activities again.”
Finding fractions!
This week, in Maths, we’ve been learning all about how to find fractions of amounts! We’ve been using our knowledge of division and sharing to help us.
We’ve been learning about halves (two equal parts), quarters (four equal parts) and thirds (three equal parts).
We thought about the amount being our whole. We found a fraction of our amount by sharing and dividing.
Help at home: find fractions in your food! For example, cut your pizza, toast or sandwiches into half (two equal parts) or into quarters (four equal parts)!
Topic
We have started out new history topic all about real life heroes. The first important person we’re learning about is Nelson Mandela. You can find more about him here. He believed that everyone should be treated the same. We will be learning about equality, apartheid and the suffragettes.
We are biologists!
Biologists study living things, including people, animals, and plants. This half term, Year 1 and 2 will be studying plants.
On Tuesday, we began looking at the different things plants need to grow. We have created an experiment looking at what an onion bulb needs to grow.
We planted four onion bulbs in different conditions. 
We have four environments for our bulbs to grow:
- no light, no soil, no water
- no water, no soil
- no soil
- water, light, soil
After we’d planted them, we made predictions on which bulb we thought would grow the best or wouldn’t grow. Each week, we will be observing our bulbs to see which are growing.
Help at home
Explore plants that you have in the garden or that you see on your walk to school. Observe how plants change over time and talk about what things they need to grow and survive.
Persuasive writing!
We were so shocked this morning when we came into school and our chairs were on STRIKE!
The books last week, the chairs this week… what’s next!?
Our challenge was to write a persuasive letter to the chairs to get them to change their minds and let us use them again.
Our writing was so persuasive that the chairs wrote us a letter back saying we could use them again!
Pirate Bonnie and her swash buckling adventures!
This week, year 1 and 2 were lucky to take an adventure to Wetherby library to meet Pirate Bonnie and hear all about her swashbuckling adventures.
We heard tales of old – of pirates that lived long ago. Pirates who faced adversity and persevered through difficulty to become legendary pirates.
We saw a book that was 300 years old and had pictures and stories about the pirates we had just heard about.
Maths: more money!
Wow – what progress we’ve been making in our maths learning all about money! Today, we thought about how we can make a pound (£1) using different combinations of pence coins. We know that £1 = 100p.
We used our knowledge of related maths facts to help us work out how many coins with the same value we’d need to make £1.
Then, we used coins with different values!
