Science: conducting a fair experiment
We’re chemists!
In science, we’re learning all about the states of matter – solid, liquid and gas. We’ve also been exploring how temperature can change a material’s state. Today, we conducted a fair experiment to answer our enquiry:
Does the temperature of water affect the time it takes for ice to melt in it?
In order for this to be a fair experiment, we had to consider the variables in the experiment.
- independent variable (what we’re changing): the temperature of the water
- dependent variable (what we’re measuring): the time it takes for the ice to melt
- controlled variables (what we’re keeping the same): the volume of water and the size of the ice cube
Your children demonstrated some great scientific skills such as reading thermometers, using a stopwatch, measuring accurately and recording results.
Our conclusion: the hotter the water, the less time it takes for ice to melt in it.
Help at home: try this experiment again at home. Get your child to talk you through the independent, dependent and controlled variables.
We are chefs!
This week, Year 5 made mushroom and chickpea curry! We worked in small groups to prepare the ingredients and then cook them. We made sure that we washed our hands and wore our aprons for hygiene reasons.
We used the bridge cutting method and the claw cutting method to cut up our ingredients. These methods are the safest way to cut food as they help us from hurting ourselves!
Once we had cooked the curry, the children ate it with naan bread. LOTS of the children really enjoyed the recipe.
Autumn2: Week3
Maths
Our focus this week has been looking at parts and the whole of objects. We have been using a variety of objects to do this. For example, wheels are parts of a car that helps to make the whole. Our arms and legs are parts of our body that makes up us (the whole).
We have also been completing jigsaws this week and discussing how the pieces are the parts and the completed jigsaw is the whole.
Help at home: by looking at objects and discussing the parts and the whole.
This foundation then helps the children when partitioning numbers. For example, 5 is the whole and it is made up of parts 1 and 4, 2 and 3, 5 and 0.
Literacy led learning
This week we have been reading the book Night Monkey Day Monkey by Julia Donaldson. We have discussed that she has written lots of other books that we have read and that they often have rhyming words in them.
In the book, the monkeys discuss their shadows. This inspired the children to make different shadows and draw around them.
The book has a strong link with our word of the week- nocturnal. We have been discussing what that word means and what we normally do at different times of the day. For example, having breakfast in the morning and going to bed at nighttime.
The children have enjoyed making animal shelters for nocturnal animals in our creative area.
They also enjoyed making their own shelter using the parachute.
Help at home: by practicing reading the tricky words we have learnt so far:
is, I, the, as, and, has, his, her, go, no
Remember: to send the children to school with hats and gloves, as it is getting colder.
Living and Learning: online safety
This week, our Living and Learning focus has been about online safety and in particular spotting adverts online.
First of all, we thought about what an advert is and what a pop up is.
Adverts can be everywhere online and they can often be misleading.
They can pop-up on our screens, ask us to input personal information and even say things that are too good to be true!
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If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is! They’re businesses that are trying to make money.
We came up with a list of top tips to use when thinking about adverts online:
- Don’t click on adverts or pop-ups.
- Keep your personal information safe.
- Talk to a trusted adult if you see something inappropriate or you’re unsure what to do.
Help at home: Talk about what you would do if this popped up on your screen?
Living and Learning: online safety
This week, our Living and Learning focus has been about online safety and in particular spotting adverts online.
First of all, we thought about what an advert is and what a pop up is.
Then, we read a story about Smartie who had a dilemma with a pop up while he was online.
Pop ups, including online adverts, if clicked on, may take us away from the page we’re looking at so we learnt this key message to help keep us safe online.
Help at home: reinforce this key message of telling an adult if an advert pops up on screen.
Observational Drawing
In very exciting news, Y6 got to choose their own leaf from The Green today to become the subject of an observational drawing! The sheer joy was palpable as we made our way outside to carefully select The One.
We used lines to create the leaf’s shape, texture and colour.
Help at home by giving this same activity a go! Narrate what you’re doing and why.
Check out some of the finished articles below.
Living and Learning – online safety
This week’s Living and Learning lesson was about online safety.
We learnt how apps and online games are businesses and their mission is to persuade people to stay online for as long as possible. They way they achieve this is a number of clever ways, such as making the game customisable, offering enticing rewards and competitive leaderboards / other social features.
We created posters to inform others about how to make healthy online choices….
…and we were very proud of them!
Assembly stars
Well done to all the children who performed so well in our class assembly. The children have worked hard to rehearse and they have enjoyed being able to share their learning with you.
Assemblies give the children a chance to practice their oracy skills in particular to project their voice and we hope you’d agree they did that well.
Thank you for your support to help the children to learn their lines and for coming to watch on day. We hope you enjoyed it.
We are artists!
This half-term, Year 5 are becoming artists! We will be looking at two famous artists: William Morris and Orla Kiely.
Art learning is usually categorised into two strands of learning:
– learning about art (history of art)
– learning practical skills to help us become better artists.
Each week, we will have a lesson about the history of art and then a practical skills lesson. In our first practical skills lesson, the children drew an observational drawing of a leaf. In our second lesson, Year 5 created a monoprint. Take a look at their brilliant prints:
Help at home: Use the key vocabulary in a sentence. Can you define them all?
Living & Learning: Money and Online Safety
Yesterday, Year 4 learnt all about online adverts and pop-ups as part of our L&L theme: money and online safety.
We discussed what an advert is and where we can find them. Your children came up with lots of brilliant suggestions:
- before YouTube videos
- on Roblox
- while watching TV
- when you google something
- at the cinema
Importantly, the children learnt that if an advert sounds too good to be true, it probably is and we shouldn’t click on it.
Some top tips for prevent online adverts and pop-ups:
- You can also download add-ons or adblockers to stop pop-up adverts on the sites you visit.
- Before downloading a new app, always check out the reviews in the app store. They’ll often tell you if an app has too much advertising or displays adverts that are inappropriate.
- Don’t click on the adverts or purchase anything on apps/games without talking to a trusted adult first.
- Always speak to a trusted adult about any adverts or pop-ups that you see or are unsure about.
The children then created some posters all about spotting and preventing online adverts and pop-ups – they were brilliant!
Help at home: watch this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRDy-2JkBtc and discuss, with your children, how they can spot and avoid online adverts and pop-ups.
