What we are doing this week in Lilac Class for the week beginning 20.3.23

For Maths this week in Lilac Class, we will be finding the whole from a unit fraction, initially using counters and bar models for support.  We are then using fractions as operators recognising the connection between finding a fraction of an amount and multiplying a fraction by an integer.  In Lilac Class we are then moving onto a new block of learning entitled ‘Decimals and Percentages’.  We are starting this new unit by working with decimals up to 2 decimal places and finding equivalent fractions and decimals (tenths and hundredths).  Lilac Class will be making decimal numbers using place value counters in a place value chart and will be exploring decimal numbers.

In English this week in Lilac Class, we are planning and drafting an historical recount about being a pupil during the Victorian period.  As a class we will read ‘You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Victorian Schoolchild!  Lessons you’d rather not learn’ by John Malam. This text will serve as a basis for our writing.  We will be writing about a pupil’s experience during a typical school day at St Barnabas School in 1896, the year the school was built. 

For Whole Class Guided Reading Lilac Class are reading Chapters 17 and 18 of Berlie Doherty’s ‘Street Child’ entitled ‘The Monster Weeps and You Can Do It, Bruvver’’ and ‘Away and The Green Caravan’. We will be using our explanation and inference skills to find out why Jim speaks to himself in a certain way and what Jim thought about as he pondered escaping.  We will also be thinking about why silence frightens Jim.  

For RE in Lilac Class, Father John will be coming in to talk to us about The Stations of the Cross and his visit to Via Dolorosa.  He will be showing us photographs of the 14 Stations of the Cross and the route Jesus was taken from the place he was arrested to his place of crucifixion (Golgotha’s Rock).  For Time and Place, in Lilac Class, Dave will be coming in to talk to us about what St Barnabas School was like in 1896 reading from log book entries written by different Head Teachers. We have the original log books in school and Dave gets them out to show the public during our Heritage Day.  For Science in Lilac Class, are investigating the rate of evaporation.  Our main question is ‘Does the surface area of a measuring container affect the rate of evaporation?  We will be recording the level of hot water in containers of different size.  For Design and the Arts, we are finishing off our printing of wallpaper and then we are learning about the Victorian watercolourists such as William Henry Millais, Alfred William Hunt and John Ruskin.  Why was the landscape of the countryside so important to them? We will then visit Grosvenor Hilbert Park to sketch a landscape, weather permitting! 

Please see our photos from our Trip to The Amelia Scott!  We learnt how much Queen Victoria loved Tunbridge Wells by reading extracts from her journal.  We were shown lots of photos of Tunbridge Wells during her reign and looked at and handled a selection of interesting Victorian artefacts.