Dear parents,

We hope you all had a lovely Easter break!

We have had an exciting first week back exploring the Medieval Ages, Kings and Queens. The children have been comparing King Charles II and King Charles III and thinking about the differences between them and life now and in the 1600s. We have been ordering key moments of King Charles III life discussing how time has changed. The children have been fascinated with the castles and learning the different features of them, such as drawbridge, moat, tower, battlements and turrets. The children created their own castles using junk modelling, making castle pictures using 2D shapes and painting castles inspired by Paul Klee.

We learnt all about Knights and their armour and the importance of it and a Knight’s role. The children were inspired to design and create their own armour using a variety of materials and junk modelling, they made helmets with visors, shoulder guards, chainmail, swords and shields. We have also been making catapults using lolly sticks, elastic bands and plastic spoons, the children had competitions to see whose catapult threw the ball the furthest and measured and compared the distances. We read George and the Dragon and discussed how we could change the characters and the ending of the story. The children wrote lots of imaginative ‘Helicopter Stories’ about Kings, Queens, Knights and dragons!

In Phonics, we have changed the groups around this term. Here are some videos for you to support your child’s reading at home!

Blending

Word Time Spelling

Word Time Reading 

set 2 ‘or’ 

Set 2 ‘air’

spelling ‘or’ 

spelling ‘air’

In Maths, we have been looking at pattern in number, mostly focusing on odd and even numbers, going on to think about what happens when you add two odd numbers together and 2 even numbers, what happens? We have also been exploring 2D shape and pattern, practicing creating complex ABC repeating patterns using 2D shapes. Here is a fun song to help learn which numbers are odd and which are even! I’m a Number Cruncher song. 

In PE, we had a lovely time outside in the sun, playing medieval games on hobby horses! The children were grouped into teams and had to co0mplete the obstacle course on their hobby horse.

In cooking, we made our own fruit jelly! The children enjoyed chopping up all the fruit and pouring the jelly liquid into their moulds and watching them set throughout the day in teh fridge, ready to be enjoyed on the Friday morning at snack time!

We will be continuing to explore the Medieval ages next week, getting ready for our Medieval Banquet!! We will be writing invitations to our banquet and tasting different foods which were commonly eaten at a banquet and thinking about table manners when at a banquet. We will be listening to medieval music and using instruments like recorders and string instruments to play along as well as creating our own dances. It is St George’s Day next Tuesday, so we will be learning all about who he was and why we celebrate.

Reminders:

PE Kits: We will be teaching PE outside this term, could you please make sure your child has a pair of trainers in their PE kit to wear.  We are happy for you to send your child in to school in their trainers on Thursdays, so that you do not have to keep a pair at home and a pair at school. Please still send your child in wearing their school uniform on Thursdays, as we are still practising getting changed.

Challenge:  Can your child prepare some ideas in order to have a class discussion on what they would do if they were king or queen for the day!

Thank you for your continued support! We hope you have a lovely weekend.

The Kites team.