Polar Explorer Day in Y6
The whole school took on the role of polar explorers today to kick off our new eight-week Big Topic: Life Forces. We began the day with Terry Kirk, our school’s polar ambassador, learning all about the RHS Sir David Attenborough (a new research vessel for the British Antarctic Survey).
Year 6 then discussed how animals are adapted to survive in the cold conditions of the Arctic and Antarctic. Most of us already knew about blubber – a thick layer of fat underneath the skin – but we got to feel just how effective it can be by creating our very own blubber gloves.
We then imagined that we were explorers of the Arctic and wrote a diary entry of our adventures – there were some really great pieces of writing in the room.
In the afternoon, we learnt all about how animals are adapted to survive in winter and summer and across different habitats. We took notes of what we were learning all over the tables.
Then, we used all of the knowledge we gained throughout the afternoon to create our own creature. We were told whether they were a predator or prey and where they lived. It was important to consider this when thinking about how our animal would be adapted.
A great day was had by all – especially me!
12th January 2018
This week the homework is creative. We’re starting a new topic next week all about life. Within the topic, we’ll be learning about different animals. The children’s task is to make a fact file about their favourite animal.
Please return homework books by next Thursday.
Offline Computing
Recently, in our computing sessions, we’ve been learning all about the skills of computing without using a computer (offline). To learn about algorithms (ask your child what an algorithm is) and repetition (again, ask your child to explain this term to you) we played a simple game.
We had to create an algorithm that would get us from ‘start’ to ‘finish’. Then, as an added challenge, we had to find the quickest route. Some of us even took it a step further and added more obstacles to the grid to make the algorithm more tricky. When we shared our algorithms, some of us realised that we’d made a mistake so we had to use our de-_____ skills (can your child fill in the blank?).
To learn more about computing, visit Barefoot Computing. It’s a great resource to help teachers, parents and children understand some of the terminology associated with computing.
Author visit!
This morning, we had a visit from an author, Clare Luther, who talked to us about her books and answered some of our questions. It was great fun!
Living and Learning
- Drug, alcohol and tobacco education (DATE)
- Keeping safe and managing risk
Here are the weekly Living and Learning statements, for this half term, to support this learning.
- I don’t interrupt (with my mouth or my hand).
- I can make things better.
- I know what a drug is.
- I am aware of risks.
- I make safe choices.
- I stay safe online.
Happy holidays!
What a start to the year we’ve had! It’s been a pleasure to teach such hard-working and enthusiastic children who enjoy their learning and have a little fun along the way!
We hope you all enjoy a well-deserved break and come back to school ready and fresh to learn on 02 January.
Thank you for all the lovely cards and gifts.
Happy holidays from all the Year 4 staff!
Cultural Creative Homework
Here are just a few of our creative homeworks from this week. It is great to see how proud the children are of their religions and cultural experiences. One homework, in particular, really had us engrossed and we were keen to learn more. One child came into school loaded with two very special cakes which are a part of a celebration held yearly in France.
Kings Day is also known as the Epiphany and takes place on January 6th. It’s the day the Three Kings are said to have presented their gifts to Jesus.
On this day, the three Wise Men arrived from the East, guided by the Star of Bethlehem, bearing gifts for the divine infant. In France, it is on 6 January that the Wise Men figurines in the nativity scene are placed around baby Jesus; in the lead up to this date, they were either hidden or being gradually moved closer and closer to the stable. French people also celebrate the Epiphany by eating the “galette des rois” (Kings’ cake) ceremoniously!
The cake is eaten most traditionally in northern France and is a flat round cake with an almond/butter filling called frangipane. The tradition is to bake a trinket or bean inside the cake. It’s called la fève in French, which means broad bean. That’s because originally they always baked a real broad bean inside the cake. Now the trinket is also called la fève.
Whoever gets the slice with la fève is King or Queen for the day. They’re given a golden cardboard crown to wear all day long. Their duty as king or queen is to buy or make the next galette des rois!
Other homeworks included:
- a Scratch project
- a cultural game
- places of worship
- rules for religions
.
We Are Mindful Superheroes!
Today, we learnt a new superpower: mindfulness! This new skill can help calm us down in stressful situations and can help us talk about our emotions and understand them.
To demonstrate how mindfulness works, we were shown a bottle of water. We named emotions and assigned them to colours of glitter, which were poured into the bottle one by one. If the emotions were shaken up and not dealt with, it was hard to see through the water clearly. We practised some breathing techniques…
… to calm and relax us. As we did so, the glittery emotions in the bottle settled and the water (symbolising our thinking) was now clear!
In the wise words of Master Oogway: “Your mind is like the water. When it becomes agitated, it becomes difficult to see. But if you allow it to settle, the answer becomes clear.”
Creative Homeworks
Here are favourite homeworks from last week’s creative description of a new land.
Topic Review With Year 2
Written by Thomas Pace…
On Thursday, half of the class went to Year 2 and half stayed here where Year 2 to come to join us. We reflected on our topic (Explorers) by looking through our topic books (Year 5 used our writing books as well because we did our reports in them). The reports were about the Arctic and Year 2 were certainly impressed. In there we all compared Machu Pichu .We used a sheet of paper that said all the skills we have used in our topic. With Year 2, we found evidence of the skills we’d used over the course of the topic. It was great to share our learning with another class!
