Crew Shields – French

14th April 2024Sarah Mcglone

During this lesson, we investigated French days of the week. We looked at the written days of the week and tried to identify which day was which based on any clues we could get from the spelling. We found some slight similarities in terms of some spelling, initial letters and pronunciation when they were said out loud to us.

We noticed that, unlike in English, the days of the week are not given capital letters in French. So that we could practise pronunciation and order, we listened to and began to learn a days of the week song set to a familiar tune ‘Camptown Races’.

We finished by looking at the French translations for yesterday, today and tomorrow. We practised our pronunciation by using sentence stems to create conversations in pairs.

Crew Shields – French

14th April 2024Sarah Mcglone

We have been looking at learning French numbers 1-31. From our previous French learning we were quite confident with numbers up to 12 and so we spent time looking at the written words for numbers 13-31 as well as practising our pronunciation.

We then had a go at doing simple mathematics using only French numbers. We had to work together to work out the numbers we needed to add/subtract before then working out the answer and giving the answer in French. This really got us thinking!

Crew Hamill, Crew Thompson and Crew Mcloughlin – French

14th April 2024Sarah Mcglone

During this lesson, we used our knowledge of French numbers up to 12 to play French outdoor games on the playground! We discussed the French for common phrases such as your turn, my turn, winner, and miss a turn before heading out!

First, in small groups we had to use a diagram to draw out our game area. This game ‘la marelle’ was similar to hopscotch. We used chalk to draw out the game area before taking it in turns to throw the rock to a number. We had to call out the number 1 in French before skipping to the end of the grid ‘le ciel’ (the sky), coming back to ‘la terre’ (the earth) and collecting the rock to pass on to the next person, saying à toi (your turn). The next person then had to throw the rock on to the next number and repeat the same process. If the player did not roll the rock onto the correct number they had to shout ‘manque’ to show they were missing a turn. The winner ‘gagne’ was the first person to accurately throw the rock to number 10 and move along the game area to get to ‘le ciel’.

Crew Hamill, Crew Thompson and Crew Mcloughlin – French

14th April 2024Sarah Mcglone

This lesson we were looking at the skill of being able to read numbers 1-12 in French.

We used word cards for the numbers 1-12 to try and put them in the correct order.

We then discussed how to talk about and ask ‘how many?’ in French. We practised our pronunciation and understanding by turning over unknown picture cards and asking ‘Il y a combien?’ after counting in French, our partner then had to find the corresponding written number card to create a pair.

Crew Hamill, Crew Thompson and Crew Mcloughlin – French

14th April 2024Sarah Mcglone

In French we have been looking at how to say our ages, as well as ask other people how old they are. We started by becoming language detectives, identifying areas of French that we already knew or could find cognates/near cognates for within a letter. We discussed what we could find out from the letter and key questions that had been asked. This helped us with working out particular phrases useful to our lesson.

We then looked at how to say ‘I am ____ years old’ in French. We added an amount of candles to the image on the board and practised the pronunciation of the phrase ‘J’ai _____ ans’. We then looked at how to ask someone how old they are in French before asking and answering the questions using our new French knowledge.

We then played some games where we had to listen carefully to either our teacher or our crew members to identify what they were telling us.

Crew MW – PE

14th April 2024Sarah Mcglone

In PE we have been looking at the skills needed for dance. In our first session, we listened to different sounds from the seaside and talked about what they were. We created different actions for: a beach umbrella opening, waves, digging in the sand, and an ice cream! We counted to 4 whilst doing each of the actions before moving on to the next action, starting to count to 4 from the beginning each time we changed action. We were lucky enough to perform our final noisy postcard to the children in Crew Marsh!

In the next session, we focused on creatures that lived under the sea. We moved around the hall as different sea creatures, listening carefully to the instructions on when to change to another creature. We then created actions for: an octopus, a shark, a stingray, and a seahorse. We practised using the actions and movements as we moved around the hall. Our favourite was definitely the shark!

Crew MW – End of Spring 2 round-up

14th April 2024Sarah Mcglone

We did lots of exciting things during our final weeks of Spring 2.

We planted our own sunflower seeds and can’t wait to see how they grow! We carefully made sure that our seeds had enough compost before looking at our tiny seeds and even whispering kind things to them so that they would grow beautifully. We then made sure that they were well covered and we will keep checking in on them so that they grow into super sunflowers!

As well as planting our own seeds that will turn into flowers, we looked carefully at the different parts of flowers that had already grown. We talked about the stem, the leaves and the petals. We carefully dissected each of the parts, thinking about what they looked like, how the felt and we even smelt the petals! We then used the parts to create natural art. We also used some of the petals to add to our water tray to make beautiful potions and perfumes!

We also looked at the Easter story and talked about why Easter is important and the need for us to celebrate it many years later.

We spent some time admiring our beautiful work from this expedition that is now on display outside our classroom. We enjoyed spotting ourselves and our friends on the pictures, finding our work and talking about all the fantastic learning we have done this term!

Finally, we celebrated our fantastic Spring Term by inviting our lovely grown ups into school to our Celebration of Learning. We performed our song ‘Gingerbread Man on the Run’ before completing Easter crafts with our grown ups. We also shared our beautiful work books and talked about all of the hard work we had done this term.

A big thank you to all the grown ups who came in to share this event with the children – they have worked so hard and we are all so proud of what they have achieved!

A really busy, but really fun term! Well done Crew MW, you are all superstars!

Crew Mcloughlin – Music

14th April 2024Sarah Mcglone

During this lesson, we began looking at performing the Twinkle theme on pitched instruments. We used glockenspiels and worked hard to use the notations to ensure we were playing the correct notes with the correct rhythm.

We then thought about how we could create a new variation based upon the changes we had discussed in our previous lesson as well as some new suggestions. Working with a partner, we created a short variation before sharing these with the rest of our crew. We tried to identify how the performers had created their new variation as well as praising and offering critique for improvement next time.

Crew Godley and Crew Robson – Music

14th April 2024Sarah Mcglone

We continued with our work on ‘Trains’ during music by thinking of different sounds that you would hear on a train or that a train makes. We thought about how we could use our voices and body percussion to create these sounds.

We then practised following a conductor using crescendo and diminuendo actions whilst performing the train sounds we had decided upon.

Miss McGlone played us a rhythm using a drum and after a discussion, we decided that this rhythm could be used to represent the wheels of the train. She then used a shaker to play a beat that was twice as fast as the drum. We said that this could represent the passengers on the train jiggling along as the train moved. Finally, she played a guiro that went twice as fast as the shaker. This represented the sound of the engine. We talked about how the drum and the shaker could stay at their original beat whilst all being layered on top of each other. We listened to an example of how each individual beat could be played at the same time to create a piece representing multiple different parts of a train journey.

We are ready to begin creating our own compositions next lesson that include lots of rhythms layered on top of each other, as well as using crescendo and diminuendo techniques.

Crew Godley and Crew Robson – Music

14th April 2024Sarah Mcglone

We began our new music unit ‘Trains’ by thinking about different modes of transport. We then listened to 4 pieces of music inspired by different modes of transport. We had to listen carefully and draw the type of transport we thought was represented by the music.

We were then introduced to the musical terms ‘crescendo’ and ‘diminuendo’. When the music gets louder it is called a ‘crescendo’. When the music fades away and gets quieter it is called ‘diminuendo’. We looked at the symbols that are used in written music to show this.

We practised a short rhythm and repeated this multiple times. We decided on a visual prompt that our conductor (Miss McGlone) could use to show crescendo and diminuendo and as we repeated the rhythm, we followed the actions of the conductor to make it louder or quieter.