Welcome to Chestnut Tree Class!

A warm welcome to parents and children from

Chestnut Tree Class!

Thank you for visiting our class page.

Here you will find lots of information about the fun and exciting things we are learning about. And as we are always very busy, please do visit our page often to see all of our wonderful and exciting adventures.

*Chestnut Tree Class

2023-2024*

                             Chestnut Tree Class 2022- 2023

We were delighted to watch the eggs hatching at school and learn more about the life cycle of a duck .It has been a wonderful experience and it has inspired some great writing and a deep appreciation for the wonders of nature. Sadly, we had to say goodbye to the ducklings as they returned to the farm.

 CELEBRATING BEE DAY

World Bee Day is celebrated every year on the 20^th of May to acknowledge the crucial role bees play in our ecosystem. We enjoyed tasting different types of honey and learned about the importance of bees in pollinating the plants, from where we get our food from. Thank you for sharing your findings and projects that helped us understand the importance of protecting these vital insects and preserving our environment.

We are very proud of our felt pouches, which we have designed and

made using a running stitch. Children have been learning to sew fabrics together and follow their designs to complete their projects.

In RE we have been learning all about the

Our Father Prayer 

We visited our school library.

We love reading and sharing books with our friends

In Computing we are learning all about coding

English

We have been retelling the story of ‘The Gigantic Turnip’ through drama. We acted out the beginning, middle and end of the story and can you guess our favourite part?

 ‘They pulled and heaved and tugged and yanked until the turnip went POP!’

The story inspired us to write our own version. Luckily, there many vegetables in the school garden ready for Harvest…

 MATHS

AUTUMN I

This term in Maths we have been learning about Place Value. Place Value, as the name suggests, is all about recognising the value of numbers! 

For example, in the number 34 we can see that it is made up of 3 tens and 4 ones.

The children have spent time representing both two digit and three-digit numbers using a variety of different concrete resources including Numicon, blocks and dienes.

RE

SCIENCE

In Science we have been spending lots of time in our beautiful school garden learning about seeds, plants and habitats. We have explored different areas of the school garden and organised items we have found into groups of ‘living’, ‘once lived’ and ‘never lived’ groups.

ECO WORKSHOP

End of Chestnut Tree Class 2021-2022

SUMMER TERM

Leavers Mass Summer 2022

D&T - Making healthy wraps

For our final project of D&T we made our healthy wraps using the ingredient combination that we decided in previous lesson. We had so much fun being chefs - chopping the cucumber, ham and cheese and designing a yummy wrap. We all ate them and evaluated them, pointing out things that went right and things to improve for the next time.

SPORTS DAY!!!

Today we celebrated Sports Day! We had three areas in the playground and garden where we played football, basketball, French and English, and we also showed our speedy skills competing in races. In the playground after lunch we did our favourite game - Tug of War - where Mrs Medina participated and together we were one of the strongest class!

We had an amazing, sunny day outside showing our good sportsmanship;

helping, collaborating and working as a great Chestnut Tree team!

- A big thank you to all parents and carers that could come and cheer for us! -

D&T - Testing different food combinations

Today we had a super fun D&T lesson! We discussed the five main food groups: carbohydrates, vegetables and fruits, proteins, dairy, fat and sweets. We all agreed that the key for a healthy diet is to have the right quantity of each food group in a week.

We had the opportunity to test which combination of vegetables - protein - dairy was the healthiest for our healthy wrap. Next week we will be making our own healthy wrap!!

GARDENING LESSON - ROASTING MARSHMALLOWS!

Today we had the BEST LESSON EVER!

Mrs Kothiria explained us how to build a safe campfire. She explained what type of materials we need to prepare: dig a hole and put stones around it, or have a metallic wheelbarrow. We went to the garden and each of us had a skewer with two marshmallows. We took turn to come closer to the wheelbarrow and roast our marshmallows. 

THEY WERE DELICIOUS!!!!

FATHER'S DAY!

Today 17th June we celebrated Father's Day in our school. Many daddies could come to our class to pray and sing with us in our Father's Day Act of Worship. It was so lovely to see our fathers coming to our classroom, reading them our Father's Day cards and sharing such a special moment with them.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR COMING!

Chestnut Tree class - Baking time!

We made some mathematical calculations to see how much of each ingredients we needed to bake our Chestnut Tree class sponge cake for Friday's Cake Sale.

ONE WORLD WEEK and ART WEEK

THE QUEEN'S JUBILEE CELEBRATION

YEAR 2 TRIP TO THE LONDON ZOO!

What an amazing day! We saw many different types of animals, from tiny ants to huge scary lions! Our favourite part was exploring the RAINFOREST where we saw many different species that we recognised from our Geography lessons! We also did a workshop about different types of animals depending on their skin and we had the opportunity to explore the skin types with tools such as magnifying glasses and tweezers. In the penguin show we had the chance to meet Charlie, the most playful penguin who loves to sing!

IT WAS THE BEST DAY EVER!

DUCKLINGS HAVE HATCHED!!!!

We are so excited to announce that the six eggs have hatched and now we have six cute little ducklings to look after in our school. We need to teach them how to swim so they can be super good swimmers when they come back to their farm!

MAKING SCULPTURES

As part of our Art topic this summer half term inspired by Alexander Calder and Anthony Gormley, we were using parts of our bodies (hand) to make clay sculptures. It was SO much fun!

SPRING TERM

Mrs Medina wishes Chestnut Tree class a restful and enjoyable Easter time with your families and friends. You have all worked incredibly hard in your learning on this Spring term and I am very proud of you!

May the Easter break bring lots of happiness and joy!

See you in two weeks time!

EASTER BONNETS!

Thank you so much to all parents and carers that came to our school today to participate in our Easter bonnet parade! All children made a great effort with their Easter bonnets, they all looked amazing!

SCIENCE WEEK!

Children became scientists this week. They presented their experiments to the class, with lost of excitement and enthusiasm from everyone participating.

We also made a class project called "Shelf Life" where we grew plants from their corresponding packaging (for example, beans in a bean can!).

 Mother's Day 

Children celebrated this special time by making personalised fabric pouches which they hand stitched and wrote beautiful poems for their mums.

Mums were invited into our class and we all gathered together for a special Act of Worship, where we sang songs, prayed together and recited some poems to our mummies.

Thank you all for coming and joining us!

CHESTNUT TREE CLASS ASSEMBLY - 11th MARCH 2022

Today it was our class assembly. We did a presentation about CAFOD Family Fast day, that we celebrate on the 11th March.

Children in Chestnut Tree class used their big acting voice to say their lines and do the role-plays of the assembly. Mrs Medina and Miss Valera were SUPER IMPRESSED!!!

WELL DONE, CHESTNUT TREE CLASS!!!

D&T: Sewing!

On this week, we have learned how to sew a running stitch. We were extra-careful and sensible with the needles while sewing. We enjoyed it so much! We cannot wait for the next lessons!

World Book Day!

Thursday 3th March 2022

The 80's Day!

Children's Mental Health Week

In Chestnut tree class we have been focusing on this year's Children's Mental Health Week theme "GROWING TOGETHER". We had lots of class discussions throughout the week about how can we help people around us to grow: sharing, being kind, helping out, being patience...

We also did MINDFULNESS exercises to help ourselves calm down and relax our minds. Relaxing minds are healthy minds! "Belly Breathing" was our favourite one - we learned how to breath slowly with our belly so we try to keep our shoulders and chest still - that really helped calming our minds!

On Wednesday we became MENTAL HEALTH SCIENTISTS and we did a social experiment in class. We wanted to see how powerful KIND WORDS are and how much they affect our mood, therefore, our Mental Health. We sat in a circle and shared how were we feeling. After that, we took turns to tell each other kind words: "You are a lovely friend", "I love your hair", "Your handwriting is amazing", "Would you like to play with me?".

After sharing all these kind words, we asked ourselves the same question: How are we feeling?

We were so amazed to check that our mood improved significantly!! We all felt happier, more cheerful and excited. KIND WORDS ARE SO POWERFUL!

Number Day!

Birdwatch week

AUTUMN I

In the first half-term, we have been learning about an important artist: Vincent Van Gogh. Children have researched about his life and artistic movement. Inspired by Van Gogh's art, children sketched and painted their own version of one of Van Gogh's most famous paintings: The Sunflowers. Children used paints and oil pastels for their artistic creations.

ENGLISH

The Sound Collector - Poetry

On the first week back to school, we explored the fascinating world of POETRY. We read the poem "The Sound Collector", by Roger MacGough and identified the sounds that were so beautifully described in the poem: the HISSSSSSING of the kettle, the TURNING of the lock, the PURRRRRING of the kitten, the TICKING of the clock...

We discussed elements of the poem that we liked and disliked, spotted the rhyming words and performed the poem all together using some instruments and body percussion. 

AUTUMN TERM

ENGLISH

Letter to Father Christmas

We were very excited to write our letters to Father Christmas. We had lots of questions to ask him in our letter - How old are you? How many elves do you have? How do you travel around the world just in one night?

We also spent some time reflecting on the year, telling Father Christmas our achievements and things to improve... things that we promise to work on in the new year!

We wish all our friends, family and school teachers a very happy Christmas and the happiest New Year!

Poetry Assembly

We had our first Poetry Assembly where each class recited a poem. Our class performed the poem "Christmas" written by M.E. Miro.

The Polar Express - Letter

We had the best time this week! We read the story of The Polar Express and we also watched the film. It was such a magical day - we were on our cozy pyjamas drinking hot cocoa and watching such a Christmassy movie!

We wrote letters to our parents retelling them our magical experience in the Polar Express.

One Plastic Bag - Poster

We raised awareness of the importance of looking after our planet and recycling by reading this interesting book called "One Plastic Bag" set in Gambia, Africa. We made posters to inform people in our school community of the importance of reduce, reuse and recycle!

Giant African Snails: Writing a leaflet

By taking care of our school pets- The Giant African Land Snails, we learn more about them. We wrote an information text to teach others about these fascinating creatures.

Zoolab workshop: Recount writing on a postcard

We had a very special workshop to help us learn more about different animals, their habitats, diet and how they have adapted to their environments. We enjoyed our ZOOLAB experience and wrote some postcards telling our family and friends all about it.

The Gigantic Turnip: Writing our version of the story

We retold the story of ‘The Gigantic Turnip’ through drama. We acted out the beginning, middle and end of the story and can you guess our favourite part?

 ‘they pulled and heaved and tugged and yanked until the turnip went POP!’

The story inspired us to write our own version. Luckily, there many vegetables in the school garden ready for Harvest…

Acrostic poem: The Sunflowers

The sunflowers in the school garden inspired our acrostic poems and helped us with measurement in Maths. We also used our observation skills to create paintings in the style of Van Gogh.

MATHS

AUTUMN II

At the end of the half term we have been looking at money. We reviewed the names of the coins and notes that we learned in Year 1, and we learned how to add and subtract pounds and pennies. We also learned a key concept: change - when we pay more than what we need, we get the difference in return and we call that change!

In order to understand the importance of money, we played a bartering game pretending we were living in London hundreds years ago when people had to trade objects. The game that helped us understand how lucky we are to use money now for transactions.

We have also been working on addition and subtraction! We have used our place value skills to help us solve problems using both one digit and two digit numbers. As this term progresses will be developing a wide range of strategies including using number lines, partitioning, tens frames and as always concrete resources to support out learning and problem solving skills.

AUTUMN I

This term in Maths we have been learning about Place Value. Place Value, as the name suggests, is all about recognising the value of numbers! 

For example in the number 34 we can see that it is made up of 3 tens and 4 ones.

The children have spent time representing both two digit and three digit numbers using a variety of different concrete resources including Numicon, blocks and dienes.

RE

Beginning with God

We have been learning about the story of Moses and the Burning Bush. We made links between our own experience and metaphors for God in the Bible. By looking at our school garden and the world around us, we learned how to be grateful for God’s wonderful creation and God’s presence in our lives.

 We explained the Trinity using the sign of the Cross.

Travelling Crib

During the month of December, two children from each class were taking the Travelling Crib home. At home, they set up the Nativity scene, had did some prayers with their family and they had an activity book to fill out. It was a very special activity to share with our families in this time of the year.

Annunciation, Visitation and Nativity

As we were approaching to Christmas, we explored the story of the Annunciation, Visitation and Nativity. 

With the Annunciation story, we wrote a diary entry as we were Mary explaining what happened on that day and describing our feelings and emotions. 

When learning about the Visitation, we read the story according to Luke and we discussed what happened on that special day when Mary visited Elizabeth. Our favourite part was when Elizabeth told Mary that her baby leaped of joy in her womb when he heard her voice.

The Nativity story is a part of the Bible we were familiar with. We read the Birth of Jesus according to Luke, but we also compared Luke's and Matthew's Gospel and see what elements were the same and what characters or scenarios varied. 

Advent

We learned about Advent as a time for preparation and excitement. We discussed what preparation entails - preparing our minds, hearts and bodies for the birth of Jesus. 

We also looked at the Advent symbols and discussed their meaning in this important time of the year. We wrote individual Advent promises and prayers that we added to our class Advent wreath, choosing one a day to read and reflect on it.

On Thursday, we were so lucky to have a special mass in our school chapel with Monsignior Roger where he talked to us about Advent.

Month of the Rosary

Moses and the Burning Bush

Mary's Grotto

SCIENCE

Use of Everyday Materials

We have started a new Topic in Science... USE OF EVERYDAY MATERIALS!

We are looking at the different types of materials around us and describing their properties.

Is it waterproof? Let's check with water!

Is it flexible? Let's pull it out!

Is it bendy? Let's prove it!

In our Gardening lessons, we looked at building a winter shelter and we had to decide which materials were more suitable to do so considering the weather conditions!

How do animals in a habitat depend on each other?

We enjoyed learning and investigating how animals obtain their food from plants and other animals and how this can be affected by the seasons. We created our own simple food chains and identified the producer and then the consumer. We had so much fun playing the food chain game!

Autumn garden maintenance

Getting the garden ready for WINTER can be hard work.

We used rakes, brushes and wheelbarrows to pick up leaves. We used forks and trowels to scoop out the leaf mulch and put on our planting beds ready for planting our seeds in Spring.

Compostable and Non-Compostable Materials

We set up an investigation to see which materials are compostable and non compostable. We collected materials from the school grounds and then sorted them into the two groups. Next we buried them in the garden and we will patiently wait to see what happens...

In the Autumn term, our science topic is ‘Living Things and Their Habitats’.

We enjoyed exploring our school garden and observing animals and plants that live in different habitats. We learned about and compared different habitats. We used our observation skills, grouping and classifying to collect and sort living things, things that had once lived and things that had never lived.

All of them make a habitat!

HISTORY

AUTUMN II

In this second half-term, we are learning about the three most important Queens of England: Queen Elizabeth I, Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth II. We are learning about their lives and key facts about their reigns.

Children have made some amazing projects and art works about each of the queens!

WINDRUSH

In October we celebrated Black History Month. We learned about the Windrush and the importance of cultural diversity. We did a reading comprehension activity, posters and activities, creating a lovely project to display in our classroom.

GEOGRAPHY

AUTUMN I

During the first half-term, we have been learning about the continents and oceans of the world. Children learned their names and where they are located in a world map. We also investigated some facts about important landscapes and animals that live in each continent and ocean.

D&T

MECHANISMS

We explored different types of mechanisms and we used that knowledge to create our Christmas Cards with levers and spinners!

PSHE

AUTUMN II

Christmas!

Christmas Jumper Day, Christmas Pantomime and Santa's visit

Remembrance Day

Odd Socks Day

Anti-Bullying Week

Celebrating Halloween!

AUTUMN I

During PSHE this half-term, we have been learning about a variety of ideas that explore our feelings and opinions on a range of topics. Some examples include how to reduce the spread of germs, the importance of rules in the classroom, incorporating Learning Behaviours and special visits. We have had an eventful first half term, please take a look at what we have done to get a real taste of our learning.

COMPUTING

This term in computing has been spent familiarising the children with how to correctly use laptops and iPads as well how we stay safe when venturing online. Computing spans across the curriculum and the children have had the opportunity to bring their IT skills into a variety of lessons, whether it be researching different continents or using programmes like J2e to record data about our garden plants.