Happy New Year to you! We hope you all have a great 2025! The children have returned to school with the most amazing attitude in both classes, and we have had such a lovely week. Well done Indigo and Royal!

Here is what we have been up to this week…

Maths

In maths this week we have been learning about mass. The children have learnt about what mass is and the difference between mass and weight, and they have estimated the mass of objects and then found out their real mass. We then learnt how to convert between g and kg and vice versa. The key knowledge that they used in these lessons was that 1000g = 1kg, and that 500g = ½kg, 250g = 1/4 kg, 750g = 3/4 kg and 1/10 of a kg is 100g. They then used this knowledge to convert masses e.g. 3kg = __________g     8500g = _______ kg        3250g = ________kg. We also used this knowledge to compare masses using comparison signs (<  >  =) e.g. 6 ½ kg > 5000g<7kg. We finished off the week by solving problems involving mass.

Next week we will be learning some more about number and place value. The children will learn about negative number and count back through zero. We will also we learning how to round numbers to the nearest 10, 100 or 100 e.g. 117 rounded to the nearest ten is 120, 117 rounded to the nearest 100 is 100, and 2830 rounded to the nearest 1000 is 3000.

English

We are reading a new book in Guided Reading and English called ‘Fly, Eagle, Fly’, an African tale retold by Christopher Gregorowski. We have been using the text this week to learn how to write a good setting description whilst retelling sections of the story. The children have learnt to use expanded noun phrases, prepositions and verbs and adverbs to describe the settings. They have used these brilliantly and worked so hard with their writing this week. The children also enjoyed performing sections from the story using a technique called ‘Reader’s Theatre’. Here they are taking part in some excellent reading out loud…

Next week, we will be learning about how to write a good character description using expanded noun phrases and similes.

Thematic

This week we have been learning about the Chilton School value of Courage in our PSHE learning. We learnt about what courage is and how people show it. We found out about the life of the famous artist Vincent Van Gogh and about the courage he showed in his life. We found out that Van Gogh said this quote:

The children have recreated some of Van Gogh’s famous artwork and have written about how he can inspire people to be courageous. They have also set their own goals, trying to make these goals challenging; showing courage like Van Gogh did.

Next week we will be starting our new thematic curriculum unit called ‘Cracking the Earth’s Core’. This unit will be all about the layers of the Earth, tectonic plates, volcanoes and earthquakes. We will also be making frame structures in Technology.

Spellings

Mr Oxley and Miss Stephens groups:

Illegal, illogical, illegible, mosque, unique, antique, technique, cheque, picturesque, grotesque

Challenge words: illiterate, etiquette

Mrs Cousins’ group:

home     rose     stroke     phone     slope      stone   drove   find  mind   kind

Challenge words:

alone      envelope

Love to Learn

This week’s home learning task is maths.

Choose 5 of the conversions below and complete them in your Love 2 Learn book.

1000g = ____ kg                7kg = ____________g                     ½ kg = __________g            3250g = __________ kg

6 ¾ kg = ______________g                      1/10 kg = ___________g                      4500g = _______kg

80,000g = ____________kg

Then choose 5 of these comparisons and write a comparison sign between the masses (<  >  =).

9kg ____ 5000g          3500g ____ 3 ½ kg                       4750g __ 4 ½ kg __ 4250g                     ½ kg ____ 800g

6000g ____ 6kg                         7 ¼ kg ____ 7400g                           3/10 kg ___ ½ kg ___ 750g

9000g ___ 9 ½ kg

Please could this challenge be handed in by Wednesday 15^th January.

Messages

As the children’s afternoons are now longer (due to the changed time for the Thrive lunchtimes), their PE session is now longer. Therefore, we are no longer doing an additional sports session so the children only need to wear trainers on their PE day.

Dates to remember

Tuesday 21st January 3.30-4.30 – Thrive Coffee afternoon

 Wednesday 5th February – Young Voices at the O2

Thursday 6th February – Countdown assembly (KS2 only)

Friday 7th February – NSPCC Number Day. Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 to wear a number themed outfit and KS2 to come as Times Table Rock Stars.

Tuesday 11th February – Safer Internet Day

Friday 14th February – School Disco

 

Many thanks

We hope you have a lovely weekend,

Mrs Cousins, Mr Oxley and Mrs Tammaro