Beech Tree Class Blog 2023-2024
Beech Tree Blog
Weekly Update-22/5/26
Mr Kyriacou (n.kyriacou) on: Beech Tree Blog
Hello everyone,
This week, in our writing, we completed the resolution and conclusion sections of our narrative story based on the athlete who got lost in the Sahra desert during an ultramarathon event. The children all knew that he survived, but the question was how he survived and who rescued him. The children really enjoyed writing these and they came up with some super ideas for how it was all resolved and how the story ended. They managed to include a whole range of features within their work as well which made them so exciting to read. After editing and publishing these pieces, we then proceeded with reading the complete story and comparing the events in the real story with the ones that the children had come up with.
In reading, we finished reading the final two chapters of The Cat Mummy. The children really enjoyed the story and wrote some lovely book reviews about it. It’s also inspired them to seek out more of Jacqueline Wilson’s works because of how much they enjoyed her style of writing. We have also finished our story time book (Astor Chimp) which the children also really enjoyed.
In maths, we finished our unit of work on money this week and have just moved onto our new unit of work on time. We have focused on years, months and weeks in the first lesson and have just moved onto hours, seconds and minutes for the following lesson.
In computing, the children used all of their knowledge and skills that they’d learnt from last week ‘s lesson, which focused on modifying code for a game, and used it to create their own games from scratch. The children had to select a background of their choice and three sprites that related to the theme of their background. They then had to programme the sprites to move around the screen at steady pace, move in a random way, make a sound when clicked, change costume and get smaller each time they are clicked. The aim of the game being to catch and click the sprites until they can’t get any smaller. For children who successfully completed the game, they were tasked with modifying their code to make the sprites move faster so it was more challenging.
In art, the children have been making clay sculptures of Anubis, the ancient Egyptian god of the dead, mummification, and the afterlife. The children first made armatures so that their pieces had a solid internal structure and rough shape to work with before placing the clay on top if it. They then worked extremely hard to mould the clay, create the head of Anubis and used a variety of tools to add all the details to it. These will be left to dry and then painted when the children return to school.
Take care,
Mr Kyriacou
Weekly Update-15/5/26
Mr Kyriacou (n.kyriacou) on: Beech Tree Blog
Hello everyone,
This week, in our writing, we have started our new unit of work on narrative writing. We started by reading a portion of a real story about an athlete called Mauro Prosperi, who was taking part in an ultra-challenge marathon in the Sahara Desert. This athlete gets caught in a sandstorm, and because he chose to continue running for six hours during the storm, he completely goes off the track and gets lost. The children’s task with this piece of writing will be to write their own resolution and conclusion to the story. After reading the story, the children came up with a range of predictions with how he gets rescued (because they know that he survives) and then we have also focused on using fronted adverbials with sentences relating to the story and creating a range of similes and expanded noun phrases relating to the story as well.
In maths, we have started our new unit on money. We have been working on wiring money using decimals, converting between £ and p, comparing amounts of money and estimating money as well. It’s been great to see the children using their decimals knowledge and applying that to the work we have been doing around money.
In computing, the children have been focusing on modifying lines of code to create their own modified version of a game. This involved an underwater theme where lots of different sea creatures move around the screen, and the aim of the game is to click them (and they will make an underwater themed sound and disappear) before they go off the screen. The children absolutely loved this, and it was fantastic to see them succeed with modifying the code and then enjoying the game.
In PSHE, we have been focusing on the topic of Being My Best and the lesson was focused on making choices. The children learnt all about what a choice is, we discussed and shared the different types of choices that we have made in our lives, some easy and some difficult. We then focused in discussing the choices that adults make for children and why, the choices children can make and why, the choices that adults can make and why and choices that people are never allowed to make and why. The children really enjoyed the lesson, and we had lots of interesting discussions about it.
Take care,
Mr Kyriacou
Weekly Update-7/5/26
Mr Kyriacou (n.kyriacou) on: Beech Tree Blog
Hello everyone,
This week, in our writing, the children have completed their biographies about Howard Carter, they have edited them and they have published them. They have put a tremendous amount of effort into these pieces of writing, and they were a joy to read. The children have been so keen to learn more about him, Tutankhamun and ancient Egypt.
In reading, we have continued reading the next two chapters of The Cat Mummy by Jacqueline Wilson. The book deals with lots of serious themes and it has created lots of good discussions amongst the class when we have been commentating and sharing our opinions about what we like and dislike and what questions we have about the story, the characters, the themes, the author’s choices and inspirations for the book.
In science, we have planned our plant themed experiment which is focused around whether the number of seeds planted in a pot will affect the way that they grow. The children learnt all about the equipment they will use and how they will conduct the experiment in a fair way in order to produce reliable results.
As part of our first two lessons in our art unit based on ancient Egypt, the children have been learning about and using a range of skills to create their own self-portraits, and in the second lesson, they have been learning all about what death masks are, different versions created in different cultures and then creating their own pen portraits of an Egyptian death mask, which combined skills from the previous lesson alongside new skills they have learnt from their second lesson.
Take care,
Mr Kyriacou