Author: Mr Roundtree

To review the learning that we did in our recent big topic, ‘Time Travel’, we mixed up the classes. We mixed classes with Year 3 and talked with them about the great learning that was in our books and in theirs. We then fed back about pieces of learning that we particularly liked.

Our new mini topic is Forces.

Rather than explain what air resistance is, we got the Year 6s to feel air resistance today. Running with a parachute tailing you is significantly more difficult that running without. It even adds seconds on to how long it takes you to run 100m!

Three children ran the same distance without anything attached to them:

We timed how long that took and recorded it.

Each person in the class had a different job and we all took our roles very seriously.

Then, we attached the parachute…

It reduced our running time by an average of 3 seconds!

We’re going to continue to investigate this over the next couple of weeks. This will make our data more reliable (and will mean we all get a go with the parachute).

We’re also going to use this information to investigate air resistance in relation to parachutes. We started this off with a simple experiment around a flat piece of paper and a balled up piece of paper and watching them fall. Try this at home and see whether you can complete the missing labels on the diagram below:

 

We had a great time on our school trip to Herd Farm. Year One were time travellers for the day. We travelled back in time to see how people in the Stone Age and Iron Age lived. We even got to build teepees just like people in the Stone Age. The children loved visiting the roundhouses in the Iron Age village and sitting peacefully around a fire sketching. A fantastic day!

We’ve been working on writing descriptively this half term and this week’s  main aim was to get our readers feeling tense. Here are three great pieces of writing.

Lewis

I was having a calm, relaxing flight until a baby started to cry – classic. The scream engulfed my ears in noise. I didn’t think much of it for five minutes or so… Suddenly, my food started to shake vigorously – very vigorously. Then, the air-con slowed down and the seatbelt sign began to flicker. Then, uncharacteristically, the air stewards looked rather nervous. I started to panic as we had hit some turbulence. Were my eyes deceiving me? The TV stuttered and then went blank – my heart sank. Anxiously, I waited until large bang reverberated around the cabin. It was a suitcase falling out of the overhead lockers… I could feel the tension around me. The air masks dropped over my head as wisps of smoke filled the fuselage. The plane leaned to the right. We were going down.

Humairah

…

As I started to eat, the air-com – loud and noisy – began to slow down every  minute until it finally turned off. I, and most people, thought it broke and ignored it. The lights began to flicker same as the seatbelt sign. Getting quicker every minute, the food and trays – loud and shaking – were moving side to side. The shake of the seats reverberated through my body. I still stayed calm. I decided to look through my window and I saw tiny cracks in the wings. Just then, my TV screen began to get fuzzy – probably a glitch – and then turn off completely. That happened to everybody else’s. Some people began to panic – but not me. Then, when I tried to relax and keep calm, the hum of the engine began to get louder and louder as if it were a swarm of bees collecting pollen from flowers in a meadow.

…

Grace

Beginning to doze off in the cool breeze of the air-con, I noticed the breeze slowed. This didn’t concern me. Until… it stopped. I tried everything: pressing the buttons, opening and closing the air-con flaps and trying to tell and air steward or stewardess. They wouldn’t listen. No matter how hard I tried, it didn’t work. So relaxing!

A short minute later, I heard a baby’s shriek from several seats behind me. It was reverberating around my head. I tried getting the thickest cushion I had. Reaching down to get my pillow, I noticed the food on my steel-grey tray was shaking. The crying had now suddenly stopped. I looked around the plane – new and comfortable – and noticed the window cover was shaking. I looked to see if anything else was shaking, It was – everything was shaking.

At home, have a look at this writing together. You could discuss:

• what they’ve done well
• what we were writing about
• how you feel as a reader
• what your child’s writing was like

Year 6 have enjoyed taking over today and I’ve enjoyed putting my feet up!

• Dylan started the day by welcoming the class from the playground and saying good morning as they came in the door.
• Sachpreet took the register and noted down everybody’s choices for lunch.
• Martha took charge of answering any phone calls to our building throughout the day.
• Isabella and Albert did a great job leading our topic review lesson with the Year 4s visiting.
• Ethan led our spelling test and Isaac gave us out times table test, coming up with questions (and answers) himself.
• Grace and Rohan joined Mrs Weekes on a learning walk of the school – which they really enjoyed.
• Josh kept a record of any warnings the class received through the day.
• Ben and Noorpreet were on duty at break, giving out cool class tokens for good choices.
• Isaiah and Sachpreet joined Mrs Small on the gate at the end of the day.
• Ripley and Nicky gave out Living and Learning certificates in assembly.
• Pia and Lewis gave out Learning certificates during assembly.
• Humairah and Haniah revealed who had won the cool class cup during assembly.
• Rohan chose the winners of our golden ticket prizes at the end of the day.
• Filip and Noorpreet gave out cool class tokens during assembly.
• Kai gave out homework and made sure everybody knew what they needed to do for it.

Everybody who wanted a job took over part of the day and enjoyed every minute of it.

Here’s our assembly take over

We enjoyed looking at this week’s Creative homework all about the STOP message.

We began by looking around the room as each other’s before sharing some that had stood out to us. Then, we looked some more so that we could see those that had been mentioned and any we hadn’t had chance to look at yet.

Well done to those people who had their homework to show. There were some really fantastic pieces to enjoy. Unfortunately, a third of our class didn’t have either their homework, their spelling or both this week. Your child should be completing homework independently but help at home by making sure it is completed and brought in on the correct day.