Welcome to the start of our new school year! 

We began our new school year with a whole school theme of Growing Together. In Goldfinch Class our text was The Secret Sky Garden. Have a look at our whole school tree which we all made a part of. (Can you spot the flowers we painted and printed?) 

Our topic for Terms 1 and 2 is...

What was it like to live in a castle? 

English

Our first text is George and the Dragon by Chris Wormell. We will start with lots of book talk and discuss different parts of the text in detail. Our first writing journey will be writing a character description of the dragon. To be able to be brilliant authors and achieve this, we will be learning about the features of character descriptions, using adjectives and conjunctions as well as using question marks and exclamation marks correctly. It's going to be an exciting first big write! 

Our Term 2 text is 'The boy who grew dragons' by Andy Shepherd. We will be having lots of book talk and will be writing a diary as if we are Tomas, the main character and describing the exciting events that happened! 

Maths 

Our first area of learning in maths is Place Value, followed by Addition and Subtraction and then shape. We are using White Rose Maths as the main focus of our maths curriculum. Click on the link below for more details of our maths work. 

Science 

Rocks! We will be becoming rock experts (with the help of Mrs Bingham!) We will be observing, comparing and grouping different rocks. We will be learning how fossils are formed when things that have lived are trapped in rocks and learning that soil is made from rocks and organic matter. Our investigation this term will be finding out which type of rock would make the best caste land why.  

History 

We will be building on our previous knowledge of what happened in the past. We will be discovering what castles were like in the past, focusing on the event from beyond living memory - the Norman Conquest. We are really excited about our virtual trip to Cardiff Castle where we will meet a knight! We'll use our skills as a writer to write a recount about this day too. 

                            Geography 

We will be finding out where castles were built and why. We will learn to name and locate the world's seven continents and five oceans. We will use aerial photographs to recognise castles we have studied and identify human and physical features, creating our own map with a key. If you have visited a castle, we will add it to our map!  

Art and DT 

Our art will be based on the artist Paul Klee's 'Castle and Sun' where will be building up our skills to create our own version of this artwork. We are looking forward to looking at a castle tapestry and learning the skills to create our own weaving! 

It's going to be an exciting couple of terms! We're also super excited to use our new computer suite and to start to learn French! Phew! What a fun time for our learning in Goldfinch Class! 

Come back soon to see photos of our learning! 

Home Learning 

Your October half-term home learning challenge is to make your own castle! We have had lots of discussion about this at school so we are bursting with ideas! Remember to bring in your castles (with your name on) to school on Wednesday 4th November- ready to share at our Castle Exhibition on Thursday 5th November. 

Castle Wow Day- Thursday 5th November 

Wear your castle outfits (dress as someone who lived or worked in a castle) and take part in our Castle Wow Day! We'll be virtually visiting Cardiff Castle and sharing our castles after school with our families. We can't wait to see you there!