Beckermet C of E Primary School

See what is going on in Year 1 and 2

Spring 2024

In RE we have been exploring bulbs. We looked at them closely, noticing how sad and dead they looked. We then covered them in soil, hiding in the darkness. We can't see them now but we know under the soil new life is beginning and they will soon sprout to bring flowers or food.

This reminds us very much of the Easter story when Jesus died on the cross and was placed in a tomb. It was a time of darkness.

However he rose form the dead bringing new life - a sign of hope.

English

This half term we have enjoyed reading Man on the Moon by Simon Bartram. We took inspiration from the story and wrote our own stories all about the secret aliens living on the moon, terrorising poor Bob! I think you'll agree we have produced some outstanding writing!

Maths

In Maths this half term we began by finishing off our shape topic, using all of our skills to sort shapes based on sides, vertices, faces and edges.

We have continued to expand our place value knowledge in Year 1, moving on to numbers within 20.

Science

This half term we are exploring materials. We have been on a material hunt looking for which materials are the most common in school and which are the least. We found more plastic and metal and hardly any stone!

We have also been exploring how we can change the shape of materials. We played a great game making a duck.

Autumn 2023

Science

In science we have been exploring the wonders of nature and how amazing it how leaves change colour in the autumn. We have explored what happens to leaves in the autumn. We thought it was definitely a WOW moment!

R.E.

As part of our RE topic 'Harvest' we have explored the Jewish harvest Sukkot and created our own sukkahs.

‘Sukkah’ is a Hebrew word for a kind of tent. The festival of Sukkot is a time to remember how thousands of years ago the Jewish people wandered the desert, trying to find a place to live. Along the way, they built tents out of palm leaves and branches to live in.

We know that a sukkah must have 3 walls and that the roof must be made from natural things found on the ground so you can see the stars.

We then decorated our sukkots for a special celebration and designed a special harvest meal to share with family and friends.

Maths

We have been learning all about place value. In Year 1 we have been counting backwards and forwards and comparing numbers and objects. In Year 2 we have been partitioning using part whole models and place value charts. We have all been looking at number lines. In Year 2 we became a number line!

English

This term we have been looking at fantasy stories. We have read 'The Bear and the Piano' by David Litchfield. We mapped (and walked!) the story before planning our own fantasy stories about an animal with a special talent. We chose roller skating snakes, guitar playing penguins and painting sloths!

Watch this space for some fabulous stories!

Art and Design

We had a fantastic day creating our own observational drawings of our cuddly friends. We even met Mrs Birkett's teddy Fred and we all got a cuddle and talked about how we respect others toys and each others talents.

We looked closely at the shapes and textures of our cuddly friends and used techniques such as cross hatching and stippling to create texture. We think they are fantastic!

International Day of Peace

On the 21st of September along with many other children in the world we joined together to pray for peace. Everyone has the right to a safe and happy life, but millions of people around the world are suffering because of war and violence. The International Day of Peace, is a day when we try to make a more peaceful world for everyone.

We had a wonderful day visiting the prayer station where we could be still and explore peace, we created pebbles of peace, mala bracelets and calming bottles.

We understand that peace begins with us and that we are made in the image of God and we must treat others the way we would like to be treated.

We found peace in many ways including in our outdoor woodland area where we did some yoga and explored nature. we had a wonderful day which ended with our whole school collective worship.

History

We had a special visitor in our school who talked to us about her childhood and what it was like growing up as a child in the 1950's and 60's. We looked at objects from her childhood and discussed the similarities and differences to our childhood.

Summer 2023

Geography

We have been exploring rivers and looking at how they are created and where they conclude. we had great fun making our rivers meander down a mountain.

We read the story of Pentecost and discussed:

:What would it have been like to be there?
How do we think the disciples felt?

How is it possible to suddenly be able to speak another language?

So many questions??

We then listened to some music and created a mindful painting of the gift of the Holy Spirit using the symbol of the dove because we felt that a dove was peace and that's what the Holy Spirit brought to the disciples.

English

We read 'The Night Gardener' by The Fan Brothers and made some beautiful fairy gardens. This inspired us to rewrite the story as a diary in William's point of view. This meant we had to write in the first person and use our senses to add lots of adjectives to our writing.

We have had a great time reading 'The Enormous Crocodile' by Roald Dahl!

When the Crocodile was spotted in school we came up with secret plans and clever tricks he might try out at Beckermet CE Primary School!

We have been using lots of different techniques to improve our writing. We were teachers for a day and tried to spot and correct any mistakes that had been made.

Design and Technology

In Design and technology we have been looking at wheels and axels. Year 1 have designed and created their own cars and Year 2 have created their own ferris wheels. We evaluated our work and discussed the problems that we had and if we did things again what we change. We had great fun!

Science

This half term we are exploring plants. We began by looking at what is a plant and where and how do plants grow. We explored a range of fruit and vegetables and found out which countries they are from and where they actually grow. Do they grow underground or above? Do they grow on trees or vines? We had great fun also tasting them!

History

In history this half term we are exploring Seaside holidays from the past. We explored the similarities and differences of holidays from today and the mid 1950's. We looked at what kinds of clothes were worn and what things they did for fun at the seaside. We had great fun creating our own Punch and Judy Show!

Ex Olympic cyclist, Phil Bateman visited our school and shared a Cycling Fun Day with Key Stage 1. We had great fun!

Spring 2023

Art

We have been exploring primary and secondary colours. We have enjoyed creating new colours mixing the primary colours. We looked at some artwork by Jasper John and created our own version of his painting, Number in Colours.

Science

This half term we are exploring materials.

Year 1 have been exploring opaque and transparent materials. We had great fun using the correct scientific vocabulary in the correct way to describe the materials.

Year 2 were exploring the purpose of different materials. We made the three little pigs houses out of wood, lego, pasta and paper straws. We tested if they were wind proof, waterproof and strength.

We all had great fun!

English

We came into school and our classroom was a mess and the dragon eggs had been stolen. There were clues of who may have stolen them. We think the Guardian Dragon who protects eggs has stolen them. we created WANTED posters to alert people to this dragon and to be on the watch out!

We started our new year like Kings. We celebrated the feast of the Epiphany!

Our year has begun with an exciting English twist. When we returned to school we were greeted with a curious looking box that said CAUTION DO NOT OPEN.

We then received a mysterious email informing us that we could open it at our own peril. Of course we opened it to find a nest of eggs. But what kind of eggs?

We were sent on a mystery hunt around school looking for clues........but what kind of clues?

We believe our mysterious eggs could be dragon eggs! How exciting!!!!!

Autumn 2022

In design technology we have been exploring mechanisms. We created our own moving books and shared them with Reception class.

In Geography we are exploring our local environment. We have begun by exploring position and direction in our own school. We took our geography skills outside and made plans of our school and using our compass skills positioned objects in the grounds.

In PE this week we created our own fire dance, starting small and growing into a large blazing fire. We had great fun!

We have created our own houses like those in 1666. We created London like it was in the past. The houses were close together and the flames travelled quickly through London.

Reading for Pleasure

We enjoy sharing a good book with each other. We visit our library weekly and choose a new book. We like to share our views about the books we have read and recommend books to our friends.

In PE we explored the different jobs at the time of the Great Fire of London. We created a dance to represent the Bakers and Builders in 1666. We worked hard as a team listening closely to the beat of the music.

In our spelling and grammar lessons we have been exploring verbs. We played a game guess the verb. Can you guess what verb we are acting out?

In RE we are exploring the Holy Bible. We have discovered that the Dead Sea Scrolls were found in a cave by a shepherd who was looking for his goat. We made our own scrolls and acted out the story of the shepherd.

Animals

In Science we have ben looking at different groups of animals. We sorted amphibians, reptiles, mammals, fish, birds and insects.

End of Summer Year 2 2022

Summer Term

The text we will be covering in English in Summer 1 is Harry the Poisonous Centipede by Lynne Reid Banks. We will be exploring character description and setting and non fiction writing. Watch out for some amazing centipede facts.

Design and Technology

We have been exploring sewing this half term. we have learned how to join two pieces of material together using the running stitch. Our purses are amazing!

Trip to The Beacon

To conclude our history topic "Local Heroes" we visited the Beacon Museum in Whitehaven to explore first hand how Carlisle Spedding and the mining had an impact on our local community. We had an amazing day. John said we were "Ambassadors for our school".

Art

In art we are exploring the artist Roy Liechtenstein looking closely at Pop Art.

Science

In science this term we are exploring plants. We have been exploring seeds and the different parts. We looked closely at the seed coat, the food store and the different functions each part plays in the growth of a plant.

Religious Education

In RE this half term we are exploring Special places. We have visited our Church - St John's and explored every corner. Looking closely at what is in there and what the parts of the church are called.

Spring Term

In Spring 2 our focus book is The Giant Jam Sandwich by John Vernon Lord. We will be creating our own versions of the story set in Beckermet Village.

Science Investigation

We designed our own investigation to find our which material is the most absorbent.

The Easter Story

In RE we have been exploring the Easter story. We have created a 3D book to represent the some of the stories of Holy Week.

Red Nose Day March 2022

Traction Man is Here!

We have used Traction Man is Here by Mini Grey to improve our vocabulary and grammar skills.

We have used our imaginations to bring everyday objects to life and write about adventures where Traction Man saves the day!

Here we are writing exclamation sentences!

In Geography, building on our knowledge of mountains, we explored how a river flows. We built our own meandering rivers. The source began in the mountains as a spring and flowed down the mountains to the river mouth and ended in a lake or the sea. We had great fun some of rivers flowed slowly and some of them were really fast.

In design technology we have been exploring wheels and axels. We have explored different mechanisms and designed and evaluated our own cars.

We have loved reading Beegu and here we are re-writing the story from her point of view.

We are independently using resources to help us improve our writing!

We have had a fun day taking part in the NSPCC Number day. We started our day solving number puzzles and going on a number hunt. We then had to help Mr Birkett sort her bag of toys. What a mess. We arranged the toys and created a pictograms. After that we created pictograms on the iPads and compared and interpreted the data.

Finally we ended our day reading the story of Jim and the Beanstalk by Raymond Briggs.

We measured our hands and feet using a ruler and compared and sequenced the size of our hands and feet.

What a great day