Across the last few weeks, 4RM have been busy designing and writing about their own inventions for Wallace and Gromit. Wallace had written to them, asking if they could help him to design an invention that would be of use to everyone, no matter what age they were. The children produced a range of spectacular ideas from ‘Tidy4000s’ to ‘Robopets’! They are now busy collating their ideas to form informative booklets to share with Wallace. |
In Religious Education we have been learning about the importance of Muhammed to Islam. The children had great fun linking facts with actions to aid their memory. Feel free to ask them if they can think of any interesting facts from this lesson.
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In Computing this half term we have a focus on Coding. To the average human being, this can seem a little overwhelming, however algorithms are something that we use every day. Key Stage 1 recently discovered that something as simple as making a jam sandwich or eating breakfast cereal can involve a whole host of instructions, some of which have unintended outcomes if they are not clear enough. Eventually the children progress through using "block code". If you have ever seen the Computing curriculum in the news then you have probably seen these peculiar blobs of colour being moved across the screen by eager looking children as they attempt to get some object to do something. One popular app for this is ScratchJnr or its more capable desktop app scratch.mit.edu. By the end of Key Stage 2 the children are using code to create their own apps. However, to develop a foundational understanding of code, it helps to experience its practical value. Enter some very well used toys: BeeBots. These plastic toys have 7 buttons: forward, back, left, right, stop, go and clear. The children learn how to move these over floor mats, around objects and there are even videos on YouTube of them starring in their own music dance videos.
However, it needs a name, what should we call it?
Over the past week, Year Six have been working extremely hard. During English, we have been looking at newspaper reports; some of you might have noticed the Year Six classrooms being decorated as though we had been a victim of a German bombing run during WWII. Here is an extract of a newspaper report about the fictitious bombing on our school during 1941, by John-Joe in 6CP.
On Thursday 29th October 1941, the German Luftwaffe (Air Force) launched an unprecedented attack on a primary school located on the South-East coast of England. East Tilbury Primary School (Thurrock) was subject to a merciless bombing run by the Nazis; it was an attack which caused vast damage across the expansive land... Last Wednesday, we completed our first SPAG test under strict test conditions (as though it were the real SATs). In maths we have been revisiting both long and short multiplication and division and mastering our skills here, as well as studying the lives of children during WWII. Key Stage Two pupils have been busy building on their French knowledge from the last academic year. During this first half term, the children in Key Stage 2 have been covering various areas of our French curriculum.
In 3JM we have been exploring different forests around the world and thinking about why they are so useful to our planet. Did you know they are home to many different animals, and also provide a lot of the oxygen we breathe, as well as lots of medicines? However, we recently found out that forests are being cut down for wood and paper, and to make room for people to live. So we decided to see what we could do to reduce the number of trees that are cut down. We thought we use quite a lot of paper here at school, so decided to recycle it to make our own. We brought in lots of waste paper, cut it into tiny pieces, added water and then shaped it, before adding a pinch of glitterOver the past two weeks STEM Club for girls have taken part in two exciting experiments. In the first week we became detectives and investigated finger prints. We used magnifying glasses to look at our own and used play dough and cello tape to make a record of our finger prints. We discussed the different shapes we could see and how everyone’s finger prints are different. Last week we joined up with Art Club and investigated monomers and polymers by making our own play dough. We discussed that when we made play dough lots of small molecules join together to make longer chains, resulting in play dough. We followed two different recipes and discussed how they were different or the same.
There are still spaces for KS1 if you would like to join. This half term, Year 2’s PE sessions have been Gymnastics and Dance. Having been inspired at the start of term by watching a clip of Britain’s Got Talent act ‘Diversity’, the children have embraced the opportunity to sequence actions and balances in their lessons.
Through the last two weeks our lessons have utilised a Just Dance video on YouTube. The children have been very keen to bust their moves to a backing track from the Black Eyed Peas. Indeed anyone passing through the small hall, adult or child, has been first amused and then impressed before being encouraged to join in. After a few practices in each lesson, the children have videoed themselves. This enables them to watch back their performances in class and reflect, self-evaluate and improve upon their learning, thus demonstrating one of the school’s co-operative values, self-responsibility. In other news, next week’s Computing lesson will be getting hands on with coding practical toys, including the school’s brand new Code-a-Pillar. Let’s see how long it takes for us to create an algorithm for the BeeBots to dance! In English, we have been practising using capital letters and full stops in our sentences. We have also been identifying adjectives and nouns within our sentences and are beginning to understand that proper nouns need capital letters too!
We had a very fun Computing less this week! We had to give Miss Hamilton instructions on how to make a jam sandwich. When we told her to put the jam on the bread, she put the jar of jam onto the bread! We realised that we needed to have very clear instructions, just like we would when giving computers instructions. These are called algorithms! In PE, we have been developing our dance skills by using the story ‘Giraffe’s Can’t Dance’ as a stimulus. We have enjoyed representing different animals and how they are feeling through different movements. With the children back at school we want them enthused to read. Not all children find this easy so here are a few tips to support your child at home:
In Year 4 this week, the children have been consolidating their understanding of place value in maths, and using prepositional phrases, adjectives and adverbial phrases to engage readers with their stories. In science the children have been conducting various experiments to establish how sound travels. Watch this space for some photographs and observations.
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