Mad About Minibeasts
This week we have continued our focus on our favourite garden creatures through reading ‘Mad About Minibeasts’. The children have enjoyed writing their own poems about a minibeast of their choice.
A spider is black and hairy. A spider has eight legs. A spider shoots and spins a web.- Oscar
Our last butterflies have appeared too!
A butterfly has wings. A butterfly can fly. A butterfly has loads of colours.-Alice
In Maths we have focused on 15 and 3d shapes. Maybe you could hunt for 3d shapes at home too? The children began making 3d shapes with playdough and matchsticks. They then went on to make birthday cakes and monsters.
We have taken our sunflower seeds from the window ledge and planted them in the garden. Can you see what else we did outside?
We are committed to learning to skip and are having fun in the process.
Some pirates left treasure all around our classroom. We had a few volunteers to gather the golden coins.
Have a wonderful holiday and we’ll see you soon!
5/6 Certificate Celebration
This weeks certificate winners are…
For great learning…
Gaia – you put so much effort into writing your recipe this week. You even remembered to include some expanded noun phrases. Well done.
For sport and physical activity…
Paige – for demonstrating skill and enthusiasm with the new skipping ropes. You also worked well with others in PE this week. Well done.
For living and learning…
Jenson – You had a really mature attitude when discussing how harmful drugs can be. Well done!
Well done everyone!
Living and Learning : What is a drug?
We discussed drugs and medicines in our Living and Learning lessons this week. The children could tell us all sorts of important things.
Your mum or dad can give you medicine.
A nurse or doctor can give you medicine.
A pharmacist can give you medicine.
There are good drugs and bad drugs.
Never take cat or dog drugs.
If I’m poorly, I take it easy and take medicine until I feel better.
Living and learning: I understand some drugs can be harmful
Year 5/6 began the week by exploring how the correct use of medicines can support health and well-being. They discussed the safe way to use medicines and how vaccinations and immunisations can protect us from diseases. We then moved onto legal and illegal drugs. As a class, they identified the risks and effects of drug use and also the laws that relate to different drugs. Throughout this learning, the children have been guided towards places of support and places they can report any concerns.
Pixel Art – Year 3/4
Computer Games have great graphics that are created using pixel art. This has been a fabulous addition to our Computing topic and the children have such brilliant ideas.
Pixel art is a form of art, created through the use of software where images are edited on the a pixel level. In most pixel art, the colours used are extremely limited in size, with some pixel art using only two colours.
We’ve been trying to recreate some in class using a few colours on squared paper. Lots of counting, repetition, sequencing and decomposition – lots of crossovers with out programming vocabulary.
Here are some of our efforts – they’re awesome! The children are very proud of their results.
Terrific Computer Games
Our Computing topic has been a huge success.
We’ve been very busy making computer games using Scratch software.
There are so many skills that we have learned and words that we can now use confidently.
The children were asked to design and create a crossy road game, where we had several sprites (characters) that needed programming.
The aim of the game was to get the cat sprite to cross the roads and get to the other side without being hit by a car.
A challenge was to get the cat sprite to go back to the beginning if it hit a car.
Why don’t you ask your child about their game?
Some children have decided to explore this app at home too.
Here are some examples of our finished games done in school.
Computing – algorithms and de-bugging
We have been really enjoying our computing topic this half term. We have used our BlueBot programmable floor robots – making mazes and inputting algorithms. It doesn’t always to go plan so we have to de-bug and review our algorithms sometimes. We have also used the new iPads, in particular the BeeBot app. It gets really tricky as you go through the levels but is very satisfying when you make it!
Science : Tree planting
Our science topic has been all about plants and growing this half term. We ordered trees from the Woodland Trust and then each child in Key Stage One has planted a tree. We talked about how the saplings would grow into mature trees but that is would take a long time! We looked carefully at the saplings, observing the roots, stem/trunk and little leaves. We protected each one with a supporting stick and plastic protector.
Living and learning: I know what a drug is
Last week, children in year 5/6 discussed what they know about drugs. The children were very keen to point out that some drugs can be good for you and others can cause you harm. They discussed the difference between legal and illegal drugs.
Children drew a human and labelled the effects that some drugs might have on the body and mind.
Making cress sandwiches : science, food technology, reading and writing!
It was an exciting week in Key Stage One. We have been growing cress in science and reading about how to make cress sandwiches in our reading fluency lessons. This week, we made cress sandwiches and then wrote about how to do it. We talked about all the verbs we were using to tell someone how to make the sandwich: put, get, cut, sprinkle, spread.
