Welcome to Meerkat's Class!

Hello and welcome to the our Meerkat's class page. Our teacher is Mr Mannion and our teacher assistant is Miss O'Brien. We are really excited for this year as we have lots of fun learning planned! 

PE

Our P.E days are Monday and Thursday. Please send and leave PE kits in school and we will return them to be washed at the end of the half term.

Reading Books

Please send book bags into school every day to be checked. On Tuesdays and Fridays staff will change the children's books for them.

Spring Term

Our learning journey question: Would you rather live in Calverton or the Isle of Struay?

Week 4

Question of the week: What is it like to explore our local area?

This week in Meerkats, we went on our amazing bus trip around Calverton to explore our local area. We saw all the different landmarks we have been learning about around Calverton village and other familiar sights that the children recognised. Children were able to pay for their own bus fare and received a ticket for their journey. Along with this, we have been continuing our fact writing in English by looking at different animals in the Scottish Highlands.

In Maths, we have been looking at doubles and near doubles.

School Value: Communication

Molly for her amazing talking and writing about the animals we have been researching in English.

Sonny for always putting his hand up and having a go even if he is not sure of the answer.

Well done!

Week 3

Question of the week: What is a map?

This week in the Meerkat class, we have continued to explore more about our local area but also began our journey into the Scottish Highlands. In English, we have started our new book, An Amazing Animal Atlas Scotland. We have been learning all about the amazing animals that live in Scotland. On Tuesday we created a pair of binoculars that we use for our classroom boat trip on Wednesday. We imagined we were on a boat tour seeking out different animals. We saw some dolphins, a basking shark and some puffins. After we wrote a recount all about our outstanding boat trip.

Within Geography this week, we have been looking at maps and how we can use a map to help us find places. In class we created a 3D map of Calverton and placed all the landmarks on the map that we could recall from last week.

In Maths, we’ve reinforcing our knowledge of our numbers to 20 and comparing them with each other. We have also been ordering our numbers from smallest to greatest and vice versa.

School Value: Creativity

Autumn for her amazing painting work in PSHE.

Lexi for creating kind and beautiful artwork for Miss Hanson.

Well done!

Week 2

Question of the week: What is my local area like?

This week in the Meerkat class, we have been learning all about our local area, Calverton. In Geography we have been exploring some of the key landmarks in Calverton village and understanding whether they are a human or physical feature. Along with this, we have been continuing our work around our class book, Katie Morag delivers the mail. In English we have been exploring words ending in 'ed' and including them in our writing. Moreover In art, we have begun to develop our skills in creating a collage, this week we were creating the sun.

In Maths, we’ve been learning about number lines to 20 and using this knowledge to be able to estimate where numbers could be placed on a number line.

School Value: Kind

Laveah has shown kindness to other this week during break and lunch times.

Yana has shown kindness around the classroom by helping Mr Mannion.

Well done!

Week 1

Question of the week: Where is Calverton in our amazing world?

This week in the Meerkat class, we have been learning about where Calverton is in our amazing world. In Geography we have started learning about the different continents around the world and which continent the UK is located in. We have also looked at where Calverton is located in the UK and the meaning of a village. Along with this, we have been reading and exploring our new class book, Katie Morag delivers the mail, which is set in the Hebridean Isle of Coll (as known as the Isle of Struay in the book series). We have started looking at our over arching question of the term, would you rather live in Calverton or the Isle of Struay? From our learning journey this term, children will be able to make a informed judgement to answer this question.

In Maths, we’ve been understanding our numbers from 10 – 20 and learning about how many tens and ones these are made up of.

School Value: Ready

Isaac and Skylar have both shown a readiness to learn in phonics this week.

Well done!

Autumn Term 2

Week 3

Goldilocks and the Three Crocodiles Conclusion 

We have been writing Goldilocks and the Three Crocodiles' story in our own words this week by using the story maps we created. Ensuring the events were written in the right order was important. Writer Michael Rosen and Illustrator David Melling' sent Meerkats and Hummingbirds a letter' asking us to make a moving image for their book. For DT, we therefore created snapping crocodiles with a lever mechanism. Subsequently, we got a second letter from Michael and David requesting us to give instructions so they could also create a snapping crocodile! Which led us to writing instructions. In math, we have been concentrating on subtraction this week. We have walked the plank on a our pirate ship in class and used a human ten frame to write and answer subtraction number sentences. In our books, we also used cubes and counters to solve problems. Continuing from last week, we have also been material scientists and have looked at what materials would be best for a shelter to protect Vlad the flea and Boxton the rat from the wind and rain. We constructed some amazing shelters and tested them to see if they were windproof and waterproof.

Week 2

Goldilocks and the three crocodiles

This week we have continued our story about Goldilocks. The book is an alternative version and Goldilocks meets three crocodiles! We have really enjoyed it. We focused on the crocodiles in the story and sorted statements about crocodiles into 'real' and 'not real'. We then generated 'I wonder...?' questions in preparation for researching information about crocodiles. Once we had researched some facts we used them to complete a fact file about crocodiles. In maths we have focused on adding more and solving addition number sentences using a ten frame and counters and also a number line. We have been Super Scientists and our investigation this week was inspired by the book 'Vlad and the Great Fire of London' which we read a few weeks ago. We focused on the end of the story where the people of London made shelters out of blankets. We went outside to investigate whether the blanket, being made of fabric, is a suitable material for making a shelter. We have also had our first Design Technology lesson. We made a slider to make a moving picture. We created a background and used characters from the Goldilocks story on the slider. We have also learnt about Diwali. We created some firework pictures, made a dive lamp from dough, made lanterns and decorated hands with mehndi patterns.

Week 1

Goldilocks and the three crocodiles

This week in Meerkats we have been looking at and predicting what is coming next in our new mystery story book. We have discovered the characters of the story this week (Goldilocks and Tiddles). We have also been roleplaying in English as Goldilocks and Tiddles discussing what the characters will do next in the story. In Maths we have began our new topic of addition and subtraction. This week we have been looking closely at our number bonds to 10. We have been doing a lot of practical activities to really deepen our understanding of number bonds. Within R.E this week we have been discussing about different ways in which we can help people who are in need. Through looking at different scenarios we have been have some great conversation around how we can help people who maybe in need.

Autumn Term 1

Week 6

The Tin Forest

This week our text has been The Tin Forest. For English this week we have focused on the story setting. We discussed the setting at the beginning of the story using adjectives to describe the setting. We also discussed whether or not we would like to live there and why. We compared the setting at the beginning of the story to the setting at the end. We discussed how the setting had changed and again whether or not we would like to live there. We used our ideas to write about the story setting. In maths we have focused on identifying parts of whole numbers and discussed the part, part whole model. 

We have celebrated Harvest in the local church where our parents were invited to see us recite a poem, tell the story of The Little Red Hen and sing a song. We were amazing!

Week 5

The Little Red Hen

This week we have been focusing on the story of the Little Red Hen and learning about harvest. We sequenced the events and used the images to help us recite the story. We then wrote the story in our English books. We painted some of the characters too! We have also learnt a harvest poem and a harvest song. In maths, we have been ordering groups of objects and numbers. We have continued to use the vocabulary of most, fewest, greatest, smallest. We have also been using a number line to count forwards and backwards, identifying one more and one less and completing missing numbers on the number line. 

Week 4

Vlad and The Great Fire of London

This week in English we have been writing our own stories based on the book Vlad and the Great Fire of London. In Maths, we have been learning about comparing signs and how we can use these to compare numbers. Along with all our learning this week, our class also got to experience an immersive Great Fire of London workshop. This included role playing, teamwork and communication.

Week 3

The Great Fire of London continued

In our English lessons this week, we have been looking at how to tell events in order. We have been focusing on key words at the start of our sentences to help the reader understand how the events happened. We have also been roleplaying as fire fighters who tried to put out The Great Fire of London. This week in Maths we learned to count backwards from ten and find one more or less than a number. This week we became material scientist. In Meerkats Class we have been looking at different objects and what they are made of.

Week 2

The Great Fire of London

This week we began our new topic for autumn term, The Great Fire of London. In our English lessons, we have embodied the role of people who experienced the Great Fire back in 1666 and written about what they might have said during the horrific event. This week in Maths we learned to recognise numbers as words and how we could solve maths problems which include these words. In our enquiry area, we have been looking at landmarks within London and investigating where they are on different maps of London.

Week 1

In Our Hearts

This week we have been reading our new book In My Heart and learning about all different types of feelings. In English we have been using similes and adjective in our writing to describe different emotions we were feeling on our first day back to school. During Maths this week we have been looking at how to sort objects into groups based on different criteria. We have also begun our new adventure of being meteorologist this year. We have looked at different types of weather this week and began to track our weather in Calverton so we can compare over the year.

Welcome to our new classroom!

There are numerous spaces in our new classroom where we can keep learning. They consist of the workshop area where we can create and paint. An enquiry area where we can learn about being scientific, historical, and geographical. A small world and building space where we can create our own stories. Additionally, we have a construction area, a writing area, and a math area. We have a carpet where the entire class learns together and a space where we work in groups to finish independent work.