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.
Visit to Leeds Art Gallery – 24 January 2022
Year 3/4C had a fantastic trip to Leeds Art gallery yesterday morning, and it was well worth the wait! The children enjoyed two workshops: 1) art detectives – looking at abstract art and asking questions; 2) sketching and drawing abstract art – looking at shapes and patterns in and around the art gallery and drawing them on paper.
So, what is abstract art?
Amanda Phillips the leader of the workshop, explained to us what abstract art is.
“Abstract art is inspired by something in the real world. ”
“Abstract art is shape, pattern, colour, texture and also the spaces in between.”
Barwick Maypole celebration – dancers wanted
The Barwick Maypole Committee (barwickmaypolecommittee@hotmail.com) are looking for primary school aged children to dance at the maypole celebration this year. Please contact the committee on the email address above and they will let you know about rehearsals and how to join in the fun!
3,4B Class Novel: Queen of Darkness
Last week, 3,4B began to read two books as our class novel. They both link to our current history topic and they’re both great reads. They’re also written by the same author.
As we read more of each book, we thought hard about which book we’d like to read as our new class novel. Then, on Friday, we had to decide. Because we live in a democracy (ask your child how this word links to their previous history learning about Ancient Greece), we had a vote.
We chose… (drum roll, please)
Queen of Darkness, Tony Bradman
Help at home by asking your child about what they’ve read at school:
- What’s happened so far?
- What do you predict will happen in the end?
- Who is your favourite character? Why?
- Would you recommend this book to ______? Why / why not?
As always, when you’re having this conversation, don’t forget to talk in full sentences – this really helps with our oracy (speaking and listening) skills.