Summer Term 1 Science: Plants
This term is all about growing plants. Included in this post is a list of our new vocabulary for this topic.
Yesterday, we looked at some typical flowering plants and identified their parts and functions. Photos are some children’s work will follow.
I was so impressed with the knowledge the children already had!
We progressed to ‘plant’ our own broad beans so we can see the journey they take from seed to shoot and root (simply put into a cup with water and cotton wool -we’ll check what’s happened next week).
You can support your child at home by planting your own seeds in your garden, or in a flower pot and just observe over time the changes that take place.
Or, you can watch these excellent video clips.
| stem | holds the plant upright and supports the leaves; contains tubes that allow water to travel from the roots to the rest of the plant | |
| roots | helps anchor the plant into the soil; takes up water and nutrients from the soil | |
| leaves | catch sunlight and use this to make food | |
| photosynthesis | how plants turn sunlight into food | |
| pollen | a dust-like powder that causes plants to make new seeds | |
| pollination | transferring pollen from the male parts of a flower to the female part of a flower so new plants can be made | |
| stamen | the male part of the flower which produces pollen | |
| stigma | the female part of a flower that pollen attaches to during pollination | |
| seed dispersal | the way seeds get from the parent plant to a new place so that they can grow into new plants |
Herea re some lovely pictures of children’s flowers they drew using oil pastels:
Living and Learning: First Aid
This week’s Living and Learning statement:
I know how the emergency services can help.
We talked about keeping safe, hazards, calling for help and casualty help. The children were really engaged in their learning and acted out many role play situations.
Maybe ask your child – what is a hazard?
What does LIONEL stand for?
- Location. Tell them where the emergency is and where you want them to arrive.
- Incident. Tell them what has happened.
- Other services. Do you need more than one?
- Number of people that are involved.
- Extent of the injuries. What types of injuries do people have?
- Location. Repeat again where they need to arrive.
Here is the video we watched.
Further information linked to first aid can be found at:
Living and Learning: health and prevention
Our Science and Living and Learning lessons have been all about microbes, handwashing, health and preventing illness this week.
We have talked about how microbes can be harmful but also how some can be good for us. We have set up an experiment about growing mould. We are testing to see which conditions are best for mould growth.
Hand washing
Washing our hands is really important. All the children could all talk about this, with our experiences of Covid-19!
We’re growing … mould!
Growing mould on bread
We’re learning all about micro-organisms (tiny living things).
We know three: bacteria, fungi and virus.
Our learning today was about setting up a fair test to grow mould on bread.
The green stuff on your slice of bread (sometimes) is called mould. Mould is a microscopic, living organism in the Fungi kingdom, related to yeast and mushrooms.
We decided to set up three conditions:
- wet and dark
- sunny and dry
- refrigerator
We out three pieces of bread- all exaclt ythe same – and placed the in three different conditions. ALl we need to do now is wait a week to see if any mould grows. If it does, which condition do you think will grow the most mould?
Get ready, get set … read!
With only 4 weeks to go until Easter, we’ve launched a reading challenge for our Year 3/4 children.
The challenge is to read one book a week and bring in your reading record to get it signed and checked. If the book is long (too long for a week’s reading), then it can also be counted as one book.
If children read more than one book, then that can also read a bonus book!
We’ll keep a tally in school to count up all the books the children have read. We’ll also get chance to share books and recommend any great reads.
There will be prizes for all challengers – so get ready and read!
In our reading session today we looked at authorfy.com
One of our favourite authors – Andy Griffiths – is our author of the week. We watched his 10 minute video which inspired us to draw the next layer of 130th story Treehouse. Check out our drawings below…
A huge thank you!
Last half term, we set the children a maths challenge in which they had to learn some number facts or some multiplication tables. We asked the children to collect sponsors and see how much money we could raise for our school charity (Leeds Autism Services) and our school. You have absolutely gone above and beyond what we anticipated. The total so far that we’ve raised is £2318.15! This is just amazing and we can’t thank you enough – you are a very generous school community. This huge total will be split between the charity and school. Keep an eye out for more fundraising this half term, but again, thank you so much.
3,4 C Class News
On Thursday, we had great fun celebrating World Book Day.
We shared our favourite books and talked about our favourite characters. After watching a masterclass on creating interesting characters, we had a go at creating our own.
Our Topic for this half term is Computing. We can explain what a computer does using the words input, output and process. We are continuing to talk about the importance of online safety, referring to these rules to help us stay safe online.
Our new Spring topic – Computing.
Online Safety
Although we had a Safety Week last term, this is still high on our list of priorities, especially as we’ve started our new topic – Computing.
Computing topic
It’ll no doubt be a very enjoyable and engaging topic for our pupils and they’ll come home wanting to explore some more. There is a list of useful websites below for further coding, Scratch and online tools – you could explore together!
Golden Rules
Every week we shall be reinforcing the ‘Golden Rules’ with our children, which came from a helpful workshop GoWiseOnline last term, delivered by Sarah Lynch.
https://www.coderkids.com/blog/scratchjr-projects-for-kids
Living and Learning: Safety Week – Road Safety
We had a great morning (although chilly) with Harriet, our visitor from Leeds City Council’s road safety team, learning all about keeping safe while crossing the road. We learned lots of new skills about how to cross the road.
Ask your child about their new skills.
We crossed near the school; we crossed at a T-junction; we crossed behind parked cars; we crossed as a whole group, and then in partners. By the end of the session, the children were confident in crossing the road super safely.
Living and Learning Year 3,4
Over the last couple of weeks, we have been learning about our identity and celebrating the similarities and differences between us all.
We have discussed the meaning of the word community and have shared the communities that we are part of, including the school community. We have looked at the role of different members of the community from health care professionals to firefighters.