Author: Mrs Hogarth

This week in topic we have been powering up the laptops again. Our current learning is all about computing and how to create programs. Using the Scratch platform we have been creating our own chat bot games. These are interactive games that allow a player to answer questions. This children needed to use selection to choose the correct blocks and build the algorithm for their game. The children also needed to select a background and a sprite (character). We will continue to work on our projects and we will debug any issues with our games.

Help at home: Can you help your child learn our computing vocabulary?

 

Tuesday saw 5,6B having a go at yoga. We began the session with some breathing exercises to some relaxing music. We then began to learn some yoga poses such as river and tree. These are based on stretching and balancing and were actually very tricky. We also did some poses that involved working with a partner and it was great to see the children working together. By the end of the session we were very relaxed and chilled!

We have linked our reading to writing this week and looked at the use of vocabulary. The children are noticing that authors make choices in their writing to help create a mood and effect on the reader. They have read lots of extracts over the last couple of lessons and identified the effect it has on them. Did it make them feel anxious? Elated? Petrified? They found evidence in the text to identify the deliberate word choices that the authors had used.

We have been having a great time over the last few weeks learning lots of new dodgeball games. As a class, we are very competent players at the original game, however the children needed to test their skills at some brand new games. Dodgeball is a fast paced game that requires quick movements, good defence and an accurate aim. The children played games of ‘poison ball’ which is a ‘last person standing’ game. They played large team games such as ‘benchball dodgeball’. This involves losing your team to a bench on the opposite side of the court if they are hit. It’s a game of attack and defence. These new games have definitely been great fun and we are all out of breath by the end of our PE sessions.

Exploring vocabulary was the focus of our reading lessons this week. We read a text about the Islamic Golden Age and identified lots of facts that we previously didn’t know. We then went on to identify unknown words within the text. Using dictionaries and iPads, we identified the definitions of these words and also searched for antonyms and synonyms. We were able to use these words in our own sentences to show our understanding.

Science this week has led to the children investigating which materials make the best thermal insulators. Thermal insulators don’t let heat pass through easily or quickly. They planned their enquiry and tested bubble wrap, tin foil and fabric. Which one would keep the water hottest for longest?

The children used thermometers to measure the temperature every five minutes and they recorded their results. Next week we will analyse the results to see which was the best insulator.

We were lucky enough to have D:side visiting us this week. The children got to learn about the different types of drugs including legal, illegal and medical – they learnt about the impact these have on our bodies. Caffeine was even talked about and that this is in the energy drinks that children often consume. They also contain a huge amount of sugar. Smoking and vapes were identified as very harmful and the children now understand the harmful chemicals that are in just one cigarette – there are 4,000.

This was an incredibly informative session and the children engaged brilliantly. They recalled previous learning well and asked some great questions to deepen their knowledge. Some children even applied their learning about peer pressure from our living and learning lesson last week.

We are being chemists this half term. We are investigating different materials and their properties. The children were introduced to their new vocabulary which they will be learning. 

We investigated which materials were electrical conductors and insulators. The children made circuits and inserted different materials to see if they let electricity flow through them – if they did, they were a conductor. we were ably to use the skill of comparing, classifying, grouping and predicting.

Help at home: Can you help your child learn the new vocabulary?