Maple Class - Summer 1, week 6
Date: 21st May 2026 @ 10:57pm
This week in Maple class we have enjoyed reading The Way Back Home by Oliver Jeffers. We thought about how the book could get to the moon – could he really travel to the moon in an areoplane? Could he really climb to the moon on a rope?
We brought in the things we needed to make our rockets. We thought really carefully about our design and which of our resources would be used for each part of the rocket. We also talked about the best joining method.
We had some ‘moon rocks’ to investigate. We used magnifying glasses to look closely and wrote down our observations. We also made moon art collages and uses different media to create the moon surfaces.
We watched a video about the first moon landing and learnt Neil Armstrong’s first words on the moon. We then wrote our own ideas about what else they may have said.
In Phonics we have continued with our Level 4 phonics and we learnt to read and write polysyllabic words. Our reading skills progressed so much. We have been amazing independent writers in Explore and Learn. The children decided to have a party, Arlo wrote invitations and Finley write a list of children.
In maths we have been learning all about doubles and odd and even numbers. We have also been solving problems to do with weight. We selected two items to weigh and discussed which we thought would be heavier and lighter and then put them on the scales to see if we were correct. We used our bodies to show what would happen if we were a pair of scales and what would happen one side was heavier/lighter than the other.
In RE we have thought about what is important in a church and a mosque. We found out that a mosque has a dome, a moon on the top and a minaret. A church often has stained glass windows and always a cross.
Our last group of children made biscuits this week – we hope you enjoy them! We loved using our new weighing scales and measuring out all the ingredients. We used our new cutters so as we each had different shaped biscuits so we knew which was ours to take home.
Thursday afternoon we enjoyed the warmer weather and most of us opted to explore outside – a few of us particularly loved getting muddy in the mud kitchen and needed hosing down! We also thought about the other planets in our solar system and read the book Little Moon.
The second group of children continued with their Balanceability sessions and continued to grow in confidence. We learnt to be controlled in the movement from side to side by shuffling along a bench and moving beanbags from one side to the other. We also learnt the concept of weight transfer and effects of balance by walking the plank. We also started to glide on our bikes and learnt the technique of self-propulsion/momentum, and learnt the feeling of the Glide as well as learning the effecrs of wide or narrow base and low centre of gravity.
The girls were all very excited to be able to Show and Tell their special things on Friday. They were all able to stand in front of the class and explain what they wanted to share and why they were special to them. We will do more Show and Tell next term and will let you know the dates.
On Friday afternoon we did some Sports Day practice, which caused great excitement.
Congratulations to Arlo, Olivia and Ottilie, who have all received celebration certificates this week.
Have a wonderful half term break and enjoy all the gorgeous sunshine. We look forward to seeing you in June for our last term in Maple class - where has the year gone?
