What we are learning this week in Lilac Class for the week beginning 27.4.26

For Maths this week in Lilac Class, we will be calculating the area of compound shapes and we will then be estimating the area of a shape, giving an approximate measurement.  Our answers will not be exact.  Lilac Class will then be starting a new unit of learning entitled ‘Statistics’.  We will initially be drawing line graphs exploring what the vertical and horizontal axis on the graph represents.  We will then be reading and interpreting line graphs and tables. 

In English this week in Lilac Class, we are levelling up our sea poetry. We have read a range of poetry, for example, selected poems from Under the Moon and Over the Sea edited by John Agard and Grace Nichols.  Lilac Class have also analysed these poems, focusing on examples of personification (where the sea has taken on human characteristics). We have used the poems as stimulus for our own poetry writing. 

Our new Whole Class Guided Reading text is Shackleton’s Journey by William Grill. This week we are reading pages 7–12, developing our retrieval and inference skills.  Lilac Class will be exploring what character a member of Shackleton’s crew should have by thinking about what a ‘good temperament’ is and why this would have been important. We will also be considering why the ship was called Endurance and what this word means.

For RE in Lilac Class, we will continue learning about the Five Pillars of Islam and thinking about the ‘pillars’ that hold us up in our lives.  For Time and Place in Lilac Class, we are continuing with our labelling of a world atlas, identifying significant positions of latitude and longitude as well as the seas and oceans of the world.  For Science in Lilac Class, we are continuing with our learning about how flowering plants reproduce and the difference between insect and wind-pollinated plants.  We will be categorising a selection of plants based on their characteristics. 

In ICT, Lilac Class are identifying that drawing tools can be used to produce different outcomes.  We will be recognising that vector drawings are made using shapes and we will be experimenting with the shape and line tools. In French this week we are learning the names for different pets and then designing a poster for an animal rescue centre.

For Design and the Arts, we are singing songs about the sea and accompanying them with pitched and unpitched percussion.  Lilac Class will be learning traditional musical notation, for example crotchets, quavers, minims and semibreves.