We hope that you have all had a wonderful half term break and lots of adventures! We are looking forward to another exciting half term. Our new geography topic is Viva Espanol! We will be finding out about the main cities and geographical features of Spain. Through our mantle of the expert story, we will be helping a tour operator persuade new tourists to visit Madrid and join them on guided walks around the city. Through this we will be creating and drawing maps of the city of Madrid and discover main points of interest.
Science
This half term we will be investigating forces and magnets. We will be finding out how can you make a car move? How can you change the shape of the plasticine? Which magnet is the strongest? Can you sort objects into magnetic and non-magnetic?
Design and Technology
Our design and technology project will be Spanish food and looking at a healthy Mediterranean diet. We will be following and creating our own Spanish recipes.
Outdoor learning
We will continuing visiting the forest school area every other Tuesday afternoon. We will be going out in all weather, so please make sure kits include plenty of layers (Water proof coats and trousers, jogging bottoms, jumper, gloves and hat. Please no jeans, as these can be uncomfortable if they get wet) Again, make sure kits are clearly labelled.
PE 
PE will continue to be on alternate Tuesdays and Thursdays. Please check weekly reminders on the website. It is important children bring into school the correct kit. They should have in their kit: A white or navy blue t shirt, a navy blue jumper or zip up hoodie, navy jog suit bottoms or shorts, trainers and spare socks. 
Reading.
We will change books once a week and children can take home a book to enjoy. Please make sure book bags are in school every day. It is lovely to read your comments in reading diaries, please make sure you fill in reading diaries every time you read, as we are continuing our reading challenge in class – the more you read the more chance of winning a class treat!
TT Rocks
Please continue to log in to TT Rocks. This is a really fun way to learn multiplication tables. Keep having a go as much as you can, the more times you play the more rewards you get and the better you become at your multiplication tables! Remember to challenge Mrs Humphreys or Mrs O'Grady!

We are looking forward to working hard this half term in Daffodils class.
As always, if you have any worries or questions, please let us know.

 
Mrs Kavannah, Mrs Humphreys, Mrs McTweed and Mrs Ryan


 
 

To complete our topic on Charles Darwin, we visited the Shrewsbury museum to discover more. We began our trip by studying the old market hall and looking at the buildings surrounding the square. We tried to imagine what Shrewsbury might have looked like when Charles Darwin was living there.

When we arrived at the museum we were met by Hannah, the museum curator. She took us to the Charles Darwin section and talked to us about Charles Darwin's childhood in Shrewsbury.

She then told us about how Charles liked to collect lots of different things from nature and sort them. So she set us the challenge to hunt for fossils, shells, beetles, insects and rocks. We then worked in our groups to sort them into categories.

We then had the opportunity to look at some of the collection of Charles Darwin artefacts and learn more about extinction. We discovered more about how Charles Darwin had written about how animals evolve and change.

To understand the passing of time and the chronology of Charles Darwin's life, we created a time line with Hannah. We placed objects that represented a significant part of his life. We placed a picture of the plans for his home in Frankwell to represent his birth and childhood, a chalk board to represent going to school in Shrewsbury, lots of shells, fossils, collection of butterflies, to represent his love of nature and discovering, the book he wrote called The Origin of Species, then to end our timeline, a picture of the statue of Charles Darwin outside of the library (which we saw on our journey into Shrewsbury) to represent how we remember Charles Darwin now.

To really imagine what it would have been like to be Charles Darwin, we used ink and quills to draw pictures of things Charles would have seen and collected. Hannah explained that Charles made lots of drawings to record what he had seen on his voyage.

To end our wonderful Charles Darwin trip, we were extremely lucky to be able to visit Charles Darwin's childhood home, The Mount, in Frankwell. The house is beginning to be restored to how it would have looked when Charles would have lived there. We went into the dining room and then climbed the grand stair case to the room in which Charles was born. We then made our way down the narrow servants stair case back to the entrance hall where a statue of Charles stood as a young explorer. The owner has asked us to come up with some ideas for him to use when he opens the house to other schools.
How lucky we are to be the first school to visit?! 

We had a wonderful morning in the library sampling the new books in cafe Morda! The reading champions served us up some fiction, non - fiction, poetry and biographies. We wrote down what we would have for starter, main course and dessert. 

To raise money for our trip to Shrewsbury, we decorated biscuits with a Charles Darwin theme, then sold them to our friends at playtime. 

"As Charles Darwin stepped onto the sandy shore of the Galapagos Islands, he saw animals and plants that had never been discovered before"
Together, we drew the outline of the island. We imagined what it would be like to be one of the first explorers to step onto the island, what would we collect? What animals would we discover? Remember to label each jar as you collect the different specimens!

Today we channelled our 'inner Charles Darwin' and used our curious minds to think like he did. 

• Why are leaves different shapes and colours?
• Why are the leaves higher up the beech tree changing to yellow before the lower leaves?
• Why do some leaves have a smooth edge and some a bumpy edge?
• Why do leaves have veins and how many do they have?
• How has the appearance of Forest School changed in the last 2 weeks?

Each question we thought of seemed to generate a new question. We pressed leaves, bark and twigs into clay so that we could study the patterns in more detail. Autumn is a great season for leaf spotting!