Thomas Willingale School and Nursery
Spring Term
10.1.25
Welcome back and Happy New Year.
The children have returned with a positive attitude and are straight back to working hard.
English / Reading
We are looking at a narrative called 'Gussie Goes Bonkers', and writing our own warning story. This links in with our new Makey Makey topic. We have generated some fantastic vocabulary, and planned our stories.
Maths
In Maths, we have been learning about multiplication and division. WE are learning and practising multiplication and division facts for 2,4 and 8.
Topic - Makey Makey
We started of our new topic by looking at robots and where they originated. We then located these places on a map. We will be moving the topic into a more practical element next week when we begin to design and build our own pinball machines from cereal boxes. Please send any empty boxes you have please !
RE
In RE this week term we are studying a philosophy strand. This week we learnt about the differences between, facts, opinions and beliefs.
Science
This term we are learning all about forces, gravity and magnets ! We have some fun investigations planned and completed our pre-assessments this week.
This week we have not sent out homework as 'Homework Club' is not starting until next week. We have sent out spellings and home reading as normal. Thank you for listening to your child read three times a week and helping them learn their spellings and times tables.
Have a great weekend everyone!
Mrs Sheptuha and Mrs Minhas
Week beginning 13th January
English
In English we have started writing our stories based on the story 'Gussie goes bonkers'. We are working hard to use paragraphs, inverted commas, pairs of adjectives and similes. We need to remember our full stops and capital letters!
Maths
In maths we have been learning how to multiply a 2 digit number by a 1 digit number.
We partition the number into tens and ones and then multiply both parts of the number. To make it easier, the children need to be fluent in their times tables, in particular 2s, 5s, 10s, 3s, 4s and 8s.
Science
We began learning about forces this week. We know that a force is a push, pull or twist. We are learning about different types of forces such as friction, air resistance and contact.
History
As part of our topic we learn about different types of robots and placed them on a timeline to show when they were invented.
DT
We have been exploring ramps, levers and pulleys and learning how a pinball machine uses these mechanisms. We designed our own pinball machine and are looking forward to making them next week. If your child hasn't yet brought in an empty cereal or shoe box, please send them in on Monday.
Have a lovely weekend everyone!
Mrs Sheptuha and Mrs Minhas
Maths and history
Week beginning 20th January
We have a had a really exciting week; starting off with a visit from Rock Kids on Monday!
We took part in music and dancing and listened to a very important message about how amazing and unique we all are.
In DT we made our pinball machines! Our machines had a ramp, lever and pulley system. We then used a marble to act as the ball to see if the pinball machine actually worked. Some of us had to lower our levers or increase the height of our ramps to be successful.
In English we wrote our stories based on the story Gussie goes bonkers. Our stories included: paragraphs, dialogue, pairs of adjectives, similes, sentence starters and conjunctions. We then had to edit our stories to make improvements. We went to year one and two classes to read our stories to the younger children. We tried hard to read with a loud, clear voice and expression.
In maths we continued learning methods for multiplication so that we can multiply a 2 digit number by a one digit number. Next week we will be learning about division.
In science we carried out an investigation about friction. We investigated ramps with different surfaces to see which one had the most friction and would prevent the car from rolling.
Have a lovely weekend everybody!
Mrs Sheptuha and Mrs Minhas
Rock Kids, DT and English
Week commencing 27th January 2025
We have had a great week getting to grips with our DT topic Makey Makey.
We learned how to set up a circuit by attaching a USB cable to a laptop and downloading the Makey Makey programme online. The children then attached alligator clips to the circuit board and a conductor. In our first lesson we used this to play the bongos. In our second lesson, we attached alligator clips to bananas and pressed them to make a tune. It has been great fun. We learnt that the circuit won’t work unless it is earthed. Also the object needs to be a conductor to allow the electrons to pass through.
In maths we have been using a partitioning method to divide 2-digit numbers by 1-digit. In English we have been learning about persuasive leaflets and have planned our own leaflet to advertise a pinball machine. In Science we have been exploring magnets and finding out which objects are magnetic or non-magnetic.
Next week we will be creating our leaflets to advertise pinball machines and designing a game controller.
Have a lovely weekend!
Mrs Sheptuha and Mrs Minhas
DT Makey Makey
Week commencing 3rd February 2025
We had a special assembly this week to promote children’s mental health week. We learnt that it is important to recognise how we are feeling and talk about our emotions. We also had an extra story time session where we did some mindfulness activities.
In science we have been investigating the strength of different magnets by exploring how many paperclips they can attract. In maths we continued our learning on division and flexible partitioning. In English we finished our leaflet writing to persuade people to buy our pinball machines. We published them and made sure that they looked eye-catching and attractive. They look great. In our computing lessons we have been learning how to email. We emailed our teachers and learnt how to send an email with an attachment. In DT we designed a playdough game controller to use with Makey Makey.
We also had a visit from a building company who are working on the Broadway. They explained to us how we can keep ourselves safe around building sites and reminded us never to play on them. They are running a competition to design a safety poster. We have already had some entries but there is still time to complete your poster. The winner will win a fantastic art set.
On Friday we enjoyed NSPCC number day. We participated in maths challenges around the school grounds called ‘Do its’ and we enjoyed playing with the maths board games in the afternoon.
Have a lovely weekend everybody!
From Mrs Sheptuha and Mrs Minhas
Science investigation and MIND visit
NSPCC Number Day
Week commencing 10th February
In Maths we have been learning about length. We know that there are 10mm in 1cm and 100cm in 1 m. We have been measuring in mm, cm and m and converting mm into cm and cm into mm.
In English we wrote a free verse poem about robots. Our poems had to include: adjectives, alliteration, onomatopoeia, verbs, adverbs and the use of our senses.
In DT we made a playdough game controller using Makey Makey. We had to connect up the Makey Makey board to our playdough controller and then we used it to play online games.
In science, we investigated magnetic poles. We found out that like poles repela dn opposite poles attract.
Have a lovely half term everyone!
Mrs Sheptuha and Mrs Minhas
Makey Makey Playdough Game Controller
Week Beginning 24th February
It was great to see everyone back after the half term break. We have started our new topic
'It's good to talk': a history of communication.
In English we read a book called 'Rain Player' based on a Mayan story about the God of Rain. We acted the story out and used 'Talk for Writing' to retell the story. Next week we will write the story.
In history, we learnt about how people communicated in the Stone Age times using cave paintings, drum and smoke signals and story telling. In Art, we painted our own style of cave paintings.
In maths we have continued our learning on length and measurement and next week will be learning about perimeter.
In computing we have been learning how to email. We sent emails to our friends with a positive message and we were all able to 'cc' our class teacher into the email. We also learned how to spot a fake email.
On Friday afternoon, we took part in an obstacle course on the school field led by Debden Park.
It was lots of fun!
Art
Week Commencing 3.3.25
We celebrated World Book Day in style by coming to school in our pyjamas and bringing in our cosy blankets, teddies and favourite books.
We had a lovely time reading our favourite books to the children in year one.
We had a tour of the school looking at every classroom door that had been decorated as a book cover. We also made bookmarks and some children wrote their own books. In the afternoon we made some cosy dens and settled down to read our favourite books. Finally we had a visit to the book fair!
World Book Day 2025
Week beginning 17th March
We have had lots going on this week, including celebrating Shakespeare Day and STEM day.
On Monday, the children came to school dressed in their fantastic Shakespeare costumes.
We were treated to a performance of The Tempest which the children really enjoyed. We learnt all about Shakespeare and created some information leaflets and posters.
On Tuesday, we participated in STEM Day. We had a silly science workshop where we watched some fun science experiments. We also carried out some of our own science investigations about light. For the DT aspect, the children made bowls out of paper and then considered how they could improve them by making them stronger.
In maths, we have begun learning about fractions and have been able to compare and order unit fractions.
In English we read a non-chronological report about dragons and will be planning and writing our own reports next week.
In our history and art lessons we learnt about how the Shang Dynasty invented writing and used clay to recreate oracle bone script.
Have a lovely weekend everyone!
Mrs Sheptuha and Mrs Minhas
Shakespeare Day
STEM Day - silly scientist workshop
STEM day - activities
Art / History Oracle Bone Script from the Shang Dynasty
Week beginning 24th March 2025
This week in English we have been planning and writing non-chronological reports about dragons.
First we created our own dragon using our imagination. We thought about what it was called, its appearance, its habitat, interesting features and any threats or dangers it faced. Then we planned and started to write our report. Next week we will finish them and publish them for a class book.
In maths, we continued learning about fractions. We have been comparing and ordering fractions. To help us we learned some rules:
When the denominators are the same, the smaller the numerator, the smaller the fraction.
When the numerators are the same, the smaller the denominator, the greater the fraction.
In science, we carried out an investigation to find out which materials create the darkest shadow. We found out that felt was opaque, cotton, net and silk are translucent and plastic is transparent.
Opaque objects block the light and create the darkest shadow, translucent objects scatter the light and create a light shadow. Transparent objects let all the light through and create no shadow.
In history, we learned about Egyptian hieroglyphics and the Rosetta Stone. The Rosetta stone allowed experts to decode Egyptian hieroglyphics because it had 3 different transcriptions on it.
We have also been very busy singing and rehearsing for our upcoming production 'Panto Pandemonium'.
Have a good weekend everybody!
Mrs Sheptuha and Mrs Minhas