Summer 2- A knight to remember

Week 1: Welcome to Hillcross Castle

We kicked off our whole school topic with an amazing launch of dressing up as characters from medieval times and having a banquet in 'The Great Hall'. As actors, this week we imagined the people who would live in a castle and acted out their different roles in a castle. As musicians, we responded to mediaeval music using ribbons. We paid close attention to the tempo of the music to ensure we were moving our ribbons in time with the music. As white hat thinkers, we carried out research using a range of sources to find out more information about castles and shared what we had learnt with the class. As historians, we also learned the key features of a castle and why the different features were important in protecting the castle and keeping the King and Queen safe. We have had a brilliant week acting out being Kings, Queens, Knights and Jesters and look forward to learning even more about what the medieval times had to offer!

Week 2- Castles around the world:

We were captivated by another fascinating week all about castles around the world. We began by looking at the features of a castle in the UK, then, as geographers, we looked at a range of castles from different countries including: The Hemeji Castle in Japan, Eltz Castle in Germany and Malbork Castle in Poland. We used our skills, as communicators, to compare and contrast castles around the world to the castles in the UK. We identified similarities and differences between them. As designers, we showcased all we had learnt about the features of different castles to build them using a range of resources. You can see the pictures of these below! To wrap up the week, we used our imagination, as writers, to write a sentence about what we would do if we lived in a castle. Lot's of us were very brave and would take on the role of dragon taming! 

Week 3- Knights and Dragons

A week we have found very interesting: knights and dragons. As artists, we used our fine motor skills and skill of modelling malleable materials to create our own dragons. We worked hard to think of the features of a dragon and implement these in our design. As writers, we were delivered a very special letter by the dragon Zog who asked for our help regarding how he can be kind to people, so as the kind people we are in Team reception, we wrote him a letter back. We all thought of some lovely ideas to show kindness and we are sure Zog found them super helpful! As mathematicians this week, our focus was on partitioning numbers into two parts. That did not stop our mathematical learning in other areas as many of us used 2D shapes to create models of castles. As artists, we thought about life in medieval times and how pictures were taken before we had phones or cameras. We explored the idea of portraits and produced some beautiful self-portraits! Another busy week is over and we look forward to even more exciting learning next week. 

Summer 2- Week 4

Our highlight of this week has to be our amazing family trip to Hobbledown Farm! We had a fantastic time exploring the different animals, holding millipedes, cockroaches and stroking a turtoise as well as having a fantastic time playing with our friends in the sun! It was amazing to see everyone together having a phenomenal time! To prepare us for our trip to Hobbledown, as historians, we explored the similarities and differences to the farms we have now and the farms that were present in the Medieval times. We all agreed that we much prefer the farms we have now! We also celebrated National Poetry Day on Wednesday, as writers, we created a poem, learnt it and then performed it. We had a brilliant week. 

Summer 2- Week 5:

What a topic it has been and what a way to end a topic every single one of us loved, was enthusiastic about and took a deep interest in! This week, we took on the role of entertainers and as musicians, played and recorded a song using instruments. As writers, we wrote poems and jokes to perform as jesters! On our finale, which you can see pictures of below, we were able to meet a knight, feel the armour, hold a sword and ask lots of questions we have been saving all half term. Not only that, but we also got to hold a real life barn owl! We showed amazing confidence and risk taking by overcoming our fears here! We have had an absolutely phenomenal time learning all things mediaeval! It has been a fantastic topic filled with so much creativity and interest!

Summer 2- Week 6!

This week we kicked off our first week out of two of our trailblazer topic: Summer! As scientists, we recapped our senses and used this knowledge to complete a summer walk around the field using our noticing lenses to identify the signs of summer. As communicators, we compared and contrasted the season of summer to the season of winter. We explored objects we would use in the summer and not the winter and in the winter but not the summer. We also had a very exciting Friday celebrating Malawi day. We completed a Malawi walk around the school field and created posters which we can send to our Malawi partner school and help them to learn just like us!