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St Martin's Catholic Primary School

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Welcome to St Rose Class

The children in St Rose Class are in Year 1 and Year 2

The adults who work in our class are Mrs Williams, Mrs Jones, Mrs Harris, Mrs Tietmar and Mrs Waters

St Rose Class Blog

Friday 27th May 2022

We have reached the end of another fantastic half term and the sunshine is out for the holidays!

Year 2 have successfully completed the SATS papers in Maths and Reading and we are very proud of each one of them. Congratulations on staying focussed, determined and resilient.

In Literacy, we have now finished our History workshop day recounts written in the form of a letter. We concentrated on ensuring that our work was personal to each of us. We have written carefully so that our sentences make sense, used correct punctuation and included appropriate time connectives. This piece of work has been published. The target audience was someone special at home who will receive the special letter today. Enjoy reading them with your child over the half term!

We enjoyed our Science lesson this week comparing evergreen and deciduous trees. We looked at the photo of the tree which we chose to observe at the beginning of the unit. We then went out to look at it again and realised that it was a deciduous tree! We made connections with our Christmas trees and then produced our own drawings of evergreen and deciduous trees in different seasons.

On Wednesday, we participated in a very prayerful and respectful class worship session, in which we thought about how God is always with us and helps us in difficult times. In RSE we learnt about the Holy Trinity and thought about how we acknowledge the Holy Trinity every time we make the Sign of the Cross or say our ‘Glory Be’ prayer. We also thought about how we can live in community with those in need and we committed to ways in which we can love our neighbour, including by fundraising for charity, praying for those affected by war, and being friendly and welcoming to those who are alone or new to our community.

We wish St Rose class a good rest over the half term and look forward to seeing you all with renewed energy and enthusiasm for the last term of the academic year!

Friday 20th May 2022

It has been a week of focus and hard work in St Rose Class.

In Maths, Year 2 have been revising areas in the Curriculum which are tricky, concentrating particularly on money and two or three-step problems. For example - Mo has £1 and buys a ruler worth 23p and a pencil worth 17p. How much change does Mo receive? Year 2 have shown how they can tackle these questions methodically, using clear steps in their working.

Year 1 have been working on arrays in Maths looking closely at columns and rows. It is not as easy as it looks!

We have continued our work in Art and started to make 3D models of our houses. We are looking forward to printing our brick designs on these to bring them all to life!

In Geography we explored Kenya’s amazing capital city, Nairobi. We focussed on how it might feel to live in Nairobi compared to living in Reading. We looked at the land, parks and open spaces, transport in the city using matutus as well as the languages spoken and popular culture. We all agreed that a trip to visit Nariobi would be brilliant…one day.

We thoroughly enjoyed our procession into the Copse to dedicate our thoughts and prayers to Our Lady, Mary. We absolutely loved offering our flowers to Our Lady and singing, Immaculate Mary. It was a very special time being together with the whole school.

Friday 13th May 2022

We have been working very hard this week and the children have shown great stamina and determination throughout the curriculum.

We have nearly finished our personal recounts of The Great Fire of London workshop day and the writing is truly impressive. We have ensured that our recount is in chronological order, contains “Elizabeth sentences” and are full of juicy details describing our experiences. We have also been careful to include expanded noun phrases, correct punctuation and spelling.

Our Science lesson led us outside to the copse to explore which trees are found there. We had a great time looking at the leaves of all the different trees and found so many beautiful sycamore, beech and oak trees among many others!

In Geography we revisited the world map identifying continents, the equator and where Kenya is found on the globe. We focussed on where animals live in the many national parks in Kenya and how these animals have adapted to the environment surrounding them.

We continue to read and analyse texts and want to share the book list below which are suitable for both Year 1 and 2. If there are any birthdays coming up or a trip to the library, these texts are great reads!

https://www.booksfortopics.com/ks1-chapter-books

The link below is suitable for Year 2 readers.

https://schoolreadinglist.co.uk/reading-lists-for-ks1-school-pupils/suggested-reading-list-year-2-pupils-ks1-age-6-7/

In Art we have thoroughly enjoyed making our own printing blocks with foam board and used ink and rollers to make a repeated pattern. We looked at inspiring work by Williams Morris to appreciate his use of pattern and print.

Friday 6th May 2022

It was wonderful to see each other again after the Easter holidays and the children have returned energised and refreshed!

In Science this term we will be exploring nature and delving into the world of terrific trees! We had a fantastic brainstorming session to find out what we already knew and you can see for yourselves just how clever St Rose class are! What impressive knowledge! During the lesson we went to find a beautiful tree in the playground and pointed to our favourite parts which we could name and describe. We looked at the different jobs which parts of a tree has to help it survive and grow.

Year 1 have been using mathematical language to describe height and length this week. We have been measuring using a ruler, appreciating where zero lies on the ruler and understanding the units of cm. We have also used measurement to solve word problems.

Year 2 have been exploring fractions in Maths this week, understanding the importance of equal parts when looking at halves, quarters and thirds. We learned that two-quarters is the same as a half and proved this theory through drawings and using counters.

In Literacy this week, we have started to story-map our personal recounts using the photographs taken on our History workshop day as well as our assembly script about The Great Fire of London. We are particularly focussing on expanded noun phrases, spelling of common exception words and time connectives.

Our Art unit this term is printing, 3D and digital media and we have been observing patterns and prints on buildings and structures. We discovered the Spanish architect, Antonia Gaudi and learned how he continues to be a pioneer of the Art Nouveau and Modernisme movements. We sketched patterns and designs in our personal sketchbooks, inspired by Gaudi's work.

Our ICT lesson extended into our Early Work on Tuesday which was very exciting for everyone! We have been learning how to input data into a bar graph. We rolled a dice ten times and recorded our results on a colourful bar chart. We then selected a suitable title for our chart and saved our work in our folders.

As always, our Class Worship lessons are special times where we can reflect and talk together on how to be closer to God. This week we were reminded of how God listens to us and sends us help when we need it. We asked ourselves how we can help others, forgive mistakes and be a good friend to all.

We always start each Geography lesson looking at our globe and this week we had to find Kenya, as this will be the country which we will be studying this term. We sang the Seven Continents Song with great vigour and enthusiasm and pinpointed where Kenya could be found. We also found the equator on the globe. Looking at photos, we explored the physical features such as Kenya's longest river - The River Tana, Kenya's highest mountain - Mount Kenya and the world's second largest lake found in Kenya called Lake Victoria. We also looked at the human features such as the Masai Mara Villages as well as Kenya's capital city, Nairobi.

It has been a great week!

Friday 29th April 2022

The beautiful weather has made this week extra special and we have been able to enjoy running and playing in the sunshine in between our lesson times.

In Geography this week we have revisited where the equator is and defined in which continent Kenya is found. We have learned about the tropical climate in Kenya and linked this to our knowledge of rainforests. We discovered that the climate inland is very hot and dry with very little rainfall. We also learned that at night the temperature can be rather cool. We compared this information to our climate and weather in the UK.

In Maths, Year 2 have been practising for the SATS tests which they will be soon taking. We are learning how to read questions carefully and how to identify two and three-step problems. We are also ensuring that the answers which we write down are what we intended to write down and that they sound plausible.

Year 1 have been using balance scales to learn about weight and mass and have used their knowledge to answer word problems. We have also been learning about capacity and volume using mathematical vocabulary such as empty, half full and half empty to help solve problems.

We are storming ahead in Literacy writing our personal recounts on The Great Fire of London. We have focussed on using the correct tenses as well as identifying what made the workshop day extra special for each one of us.

We joined the school to celebrate a wonderful Mass this week with Father Michael and Deacon Brian and thoroughly enjoyed singing, “I the Lord of Sea and Sky” and “Follow me, follow me”! We actually found ourselves singing the songs throughout the week because the melodies are so catchy!

Thank you for supporting all the children with their reading, spellings and homework. Father Michael remarked on how well the children read the powerpoint during Mass. In reading books three times every week, we can see great progress, growth in confidence and independence in the children so thank you again!