STEM week – Thursday
It’s been a busy day! We started the day by battling with our bookmarks again and attempting to have thirty which had flashing lights. We perhaps achieved half of this target but demonstrated immense patience and resilience in the process. Once again, Mrs Raseta and I were far too busy for pictures but (hopefully) we’ll have some finished products to show you tomorrow.
Following this, we had a fab visit from M&S who talked to us about the history of the company, moving on to focus on their most popular product: the Melt in the Middle Pudding. We learnt the science behind how the pudding is preserved using emulsifiers and explored the ingredients involved in this perfect pudding.
Finally, the moment we’d all be waiting for, we did a (very scientific) taste testing – all in the name of Science of course.
Skittle Toy
This week, our STEM project has been to make our own version of a Victorian skittle game. The children were shown a big version at the start of the week and then had to design and make their own table top version. They have measured, sawn and drilled, solved problems, worked cooperatively to finish their toys. They have also written sets of instructions to tell others how to play the game.
Unfortunately, we didn’t have the time to make a toy for every person so the children worked in pairs. If your child doesn’t bring the toy home, they’ll take home some of the left over materials so that they can make their own at home.
Trapped in the ice!
In this science experiment, children had to consider how they could help some goblins escape from the ice. They had to think scientifically: justifying their predictions, deciding how they’d make it a fair test and how they’d measure their results accurately.
Trapped in the ice!
In a Science lesson this week, we investigated how we could release some people who were trapped in ice!
Children had to think about how they could release the people. There were lost of suggestions: smashing the ice, melting it by using hot water, the sun, a radiator, using salt, using the warmth from our hands.
We tested some of these and measured how quickly the ice was melting by measuring how much water had melted and how much they had melted by observing them carefully.
James Mayhew Homework
Thanks for all the letters and emails to James Mayhew. We’ve even had a response from the author to Will’s email!
Below are some of our favourite homeworks. A special mention to Albie’s letter and Harris’ email which were also chosen as favourites.
25 November 2016
The homework this week is a whole school creative homework. Because of the open afternoon next week, the homework is due in on Wednesday not Thursday.
I can show what I have learned in STEM week.
This week, all our learning has been STEM (Science, Engineering, Technology and Maths) focussed.
For this homework, we’d like children to reflect on their learning across the week and show off what they have learned. Your child could:
- give an overview of the STEM subjects
- do their own mini STEM project
- be a scientist and conduct a science investigation
- continue some of their favourite STEM week learning at home
Day 4 of STEM week
Our brilliant STEM week continued today as we were visited by a representative from Marks and Spencer’s. We learnt about one of their biggest sellers: ‘Melt in the Middle Chocolate Pudding’. After learning about the history of the organisation, we learnt all about the chocolate desserts.
For example, did you know emulsifiers are used to ensure the cake lasts longer? They help the natural oils and waters remain mixed so you don’t get an oily pudding. After a bit more theory we were lucky enough to do a taste test. We sampled the pudding and gave it scores out of 5 – full marks from me!
After that, we reflected on some learning from Monday afternoon about staying safe online. We made iMovies to inform others of the dangers around online hackers.
A collage of our learning.
STEM week
It’s been a busy week so far in Year 4.
At the beginning of the week, we set the children a challenge relating to our themed week: Can you design and make a doorbell for dogs?
The children started off by learning about electrical circuits and how they work. We looked at the symbols used for this and were able to sketch a basic circuit. Using the correct scientific vocabulary, we were able to explain how the circuit worked. Following this, we went on to build our own circuits and successfully light up a bulb.
Then came the tricky part!
How do we create a switch for a dog to press to alert the owner that the it needs to be let out into the garden?
How would the dog press the switch?
After lots of discussion, the children decided that cardboard with aluminium foil would work.
Ask your child why we used aluminium foil.
Through resilience and lots of patience, the classroom erupted with the sound of buzzers.
Lots of fun was had and the switches worked!
Here’s a selection of pictures for you to browse through
.
25 November 2016
As usual, children will have two homeworks this week. One of these is Mathletics.
Score 100 points on Mathletics.
Children can choose to score these points on ‘Live Mathletics’ or by completing activities (top tip: it’s quicker to score points on activities). I have asked children what they think is a reasonable amount of points to get and we all agreed that 1000 points was realistic, would improve learning and wouldn’t take too long.
Children should have completed their Mathletics activities by Thursday 01 December.
25 November 2016
Words I commonly spell incorrectly
This week, we investigated the spelling mistakes children have made so far this year. Children found words they have spelled incorrectly, found out how it should be spelled, made a list of the mistakes they’ve made and identified the spelling patterns/rules they commonly make errors with.
I will not give them a word list this week. Instead, they should practise the words they identified as ones they commonly misspell and learn these. A partner will test them on these words on Friday 02 November.
Children should use this page to show which strategies they used to practise – we’ll look at even more strategies in our spelling lessons this week.