Beech Tree Class Blog 2023-2024
Beech Tree Blog
Weekly Update-24/10/25
Mr Kyriacou (n.kyriacou) on: Beech Tree Blog
Hello everyone,
In reading, we have focused on a Viking themed poem called The Godless, which the children have really enjoyed. We have also focused on retrieval and inference questions related to the poem and practised performing the poems. We have also managed to complete our story time book, which was Billionaire Boy by David Walliams, and the children really enjoyed it!
In maths, we have come to the end of our unit of work on column addition and subtraction. This week, we focused on efficient subtraction and knowing when to use it. We also focused on word problems involving addition and subtraction and making sure the children could identify the key information and vocabulary to help them identify which operation they needed to use.
This week, in writing, the children completed the final three paragraphs of their drafts, which they have been reading and editing as they have gone along. We had one lesson dedicated to editing their pieces to make sure that their pieces were as good as they could possibly be and then the children finally published their recounts. The children have been fantastic with reflecting and acting on advice given to help improve the quality of their work and this is very evident with the amount of fantastic pieces of work that have been produced. The children should be really proud of their pieces!
In science, we have continued with our unit of work on Nutrition and Diet. This week, we have focused on understanding what a balanced diet is, why it is important to have a balanced diet and what the benefits are for your body. The children were also tasked with creating a meal that would incorporate the five food groups into it in the correct portions. The children were super throughout the lesson, and we had lots of interesting discussions together.
In art, we have focused on the artist Lucian Freud, who is known for his portraiture work. This week we focused on creating portraits (based on a piece of work by Lucian Freud) using two mediums (sketching pencils and watercolours) to create it. The children listened to the instructions, used the different techniques that they were shown, used the space on their pages well and took their time to create some beautiful pieces of work. Well done!
Take care,
Mr Kyriacou
Weekly Update-17/10/25
Mr Kyriacou (n.kyriacou) on: Beech Tree Blog
Hello everyone,
In maths, we have focused on column subtraction this week. The children have been using this method with no exchanges, one exchange and multiple exchanges. We’ve also been using the inverse operation to check that our calculations are accurate. It’s been lovely to hear the children’s explanations about why we have to exchange in the first place and seeing them coming up to the board to solve calculations and then coming up to do the inverse to check that their peer has solved the calculation accurately.
This week, in writing, we focused on understanding what subordinate conjunctions and clauses are and how to use them and then we moved onto starting our recount of our Viking trip to Murton Park. So far, the children have written three paragraphs, which covers their introduction, pottery making and bread making. They’re really enjoying the writing process, and we are constantly reading different pieces aloud to highlight what works really well and what could be improved. It’s lovely to see the children using all the resources they have to support them, taking all the advice they are given to improve their pieces as they go along and working so hard to include the great range of features required within this piece of writing.
In reading, we have continued reading Thorfinn the Nicest Viking, which the children are really enjoying. This week, the children made fantastic predictions about what will happen in the next chapter, and we had a lot of fun generating all of our ideas before the children wrote their predictions into their books. We’ve also focused on a range of other reading skills like retrieval and inference to answer questions based around the two chapters that have been read this week. We also applied these skills when we read a lovely short text about Diwali.
In science. We have moved onto our new topic of Nutrition and Diet, and this week we focused on the five food groups and understanding what food falls into each category and what each food group does for our bodies.
Take care,
Mr Kyriacou
Weekly Update 10/10/25
Mr Kyriacou (n.kyriacou) on: Beech Tree Blog
Hello everyone,
In reading, we have continued reading Thorfinn the Nicest Viking, which the children are really enjoying. We have focused on understanding and discussing the meaning of tricky vocabulary and focusing on retrieval and inference skills. The children are also really enjoying or story time book and love how funny the book is.
In maths, we continued our work on column addition. We have focused on using the column method, exchanging hundreds and thousands separately, and then focusing on multiple exchanges in one calculation. It’s been lovely to see how confident the children have become with using the method and being able to handle the multiple exchanges when necessary.
This week, in writing, we have continued with our recount unit of work focused on our trip to Murton Park. We have continued looking at the different features that will be required. We have focused on first person, banking a range of descriptive words and phrases based around our senses and feelings, using time adverbials and creating a range of powerful expanded noun phrases.
The children also completed the second half of their two-part art lesson this week. This split lesson focused on a painting by Thomas Gainsborough called Mr and Mrs Andrews. After discussing all the features of the painting and the way that the children would create depth within their paintings, the painting was split into quarters, and each child was given one of the quarters to focus on. The aim was to accurately recreate the quarter of the paining that they had been given, slowly working on the background features and then working on the foreground features in the second lesson. Once these were completed, they would be brought back together to create the complete painting. This was a challenging tow part lesson, but the children worked incredibly hard and listened to all the advice given to help them achieve certain effects, create the depth and produce an accurately recreated painting.
Take care,
Mr Kyriacou