Autumn 2021

Welcome back

Welcome back everyone. I hope you have had a very lovely summer. Like you all, I have my fingers crossed that this year will be a good one. 

Autumn 1 - Shackleton and Antarctica

This half term, our topic revolves around Shackleton and his expedition to Antarctica. Below is our topic web which contains information about the curriculum we plan to cover in Autumn 1.

Trust games

In RE, we are learning how religious people demonstrate trust and humlity in their lives. As a starter task, we played some trust games. Thank goodness I have a large selection of scarves to complete such an activity! These girls did a fantastic job - each girl felt safe in the other's hands as they navigated the classroom.

 

Observational shoe drawings

In class, we have been completing the first stage of our observation drawings of shoes for the display boards in the hall: contour drawings. Here is one of my favourite ones that shows Ellis' fantastic artistic ability. 

Next week, we will be adding shading to help give the shoe more form. 

Here is Liam's shaded shoe for the display - what a talented artist he is!

 

French

In French, we are revisiting French numbers. Most of the class could recall the numbers 1-30 quite well. This pair were super-speedy and finished first. During this term, we will continue to revise the numbers and we will also take part in conversations with 4 or more exchanges. 

Fast forward four weeks and we have progressed to numbers to 100. Lots of children are now automatically able to work out the translation of the French number without counting up. We played a game of Lotto (or as we call it Bingo) today and some of us were able to play without referring to help sheets. The children were not allowed to win unless they could repeat the numbers back to me in French and I'm pleased to say we had quite a few winners! Perhaps, we need goodies next time. 

 

Researching the crew of Endurance

In pairs, we have been collecting information about the crew of Endurance. We also learnt how to create a table in Word and used it to share our research effectively. Kayla and Hallie were fantastic at the task and enjoyed the challenge too.  At the bottom of this page, there is a link which will take you to a PDF version of their work.

 

Ernest Shackleton Powerpoints

We made PowerPoints about Shackleton. If you click the link below, you will be able to see Isaac's PowerPoint that he created while he was recuperating at home. 

 

Roman Numerals

For the last week, we have been practising reading and writing Roman Numerals. We completed fluency activities and extended our learning with reasoning tasks and tarsia puzzles. As an extension task, some children were asked to create their own 'crosswords' that needed to be filled with Roman Numerals to 1000 and beyond. Can you see the cogs turning? It turned out to be more challenging than they initially imagined but it must have been fun as they have tried to finish them whenever they could find an extra few minutes. 

 

RE - God welcomes our humble children

In RE, we have looked at this quote and discussed it. We created a collage of photographs to accompany this quote to display in our classroom. 

Picture removed - to be replaced

 

Investigating the effect of salt on ice

In Science this week, we observed what happened when we added salt to ice ballons. To make it easier to see the flow patterns, we added food colouring and made conclusions based on our observations. Leading on from that, we investigated the effect of table salt and rock salt on ice cubes. We drew scientific diagrams and recorded our results in a table.

 

Autumn 2 - The Roman Impact on Britain

Please see this half term's topic web.

Hall display board - Thadingyut

This half term's hall board theme is Festivals of Light. Tear 5 and 6 were tasked with creating one for Thadingyut. With Miss Bingham, the children created watercolour washes to replicate the lanterns that are released to celebrate the Buddhist festival of Thadingyut. A Buddhist monk meditates as they are released. 

 

Diwali

Mrs Batey asked us to learn a little more about Diwali this week. We revisited the story of Rama and Sita. After that, we learnt more about how Hindus might celebrate the festivals. Emma wrote a lovely letter as if it were from a penpal that explains what happens. 

 

Physical timeline

We created a physical timeline to help the children understand where the Romans are placed among some other eras or events in world history. Each event was given an action. We all looked pretty daft at times but we had a giggle. In the second photo, we are all being fighter pilots in World War II. 

 

Picture removed - to be replaced.

 

Roman invasion and occupation of Britain

We have looked at the key events surrounding the Roman invasion and occupation of Britain. Although the children are very good at ordering events, we needed to practice placing the events on the timeline that uses centuries accurately so that the reader has a better perception of the time between each event. This pair finished their work first and so their timeline made it onto the display board. Well done, girls. 

 

Separating solids

The children needed to separate the Coco Pops from the sugar I 'accidentally' spilt in the bowls. They were not allowed to use their fingers and became very inventive with the tools they used.

Eventually, the children realised that sieves were hiding in the cupboards. After that, they applied their knowledge of using sieves for separation to hypothetical mixtures. Here the children are after the sieves were 'released'.

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Electrical conductor or insulator?

As part of our work on properties of materials, we have looked at and classified materials stating whether they are soluble or not, magnetic or electrical conductors or insulators. Even witthout looking at the circuit created, I have a suspicion that this group located another electrical conductor. Such joy for Science!!

 

The Roman impact on Britain

Before researching the impact that the Romans had on Britain, each pair had to decide which innovations and developmemts were important or not in their opinion. After researching them, we created a diamond diagram of nine changes that each pair chose and we added these to our books. Each group was able to name some key developments during the Roman's occupation of Britain and were explain which one they personally felt to be the most important. We also discussed how many of those positive changes were obliterated during the Dark Ages. 

 

DT - Roman engineering and architecture

For the last week, we have looked at Roman feats in architecture and engineering.We have tested the strength of different shaped columns as well as apply our Maths to this as we calculate the mean mass held to ensure our results were fair. We looked at some ways to attach paper and card to reinforce structures and create strength.

                                               

As we approach Christmas, we are working up to creating an aqueduct in groups where we will need to independently apply all the skills and learning we have acquired. Keep an eye out for the photos. 

 

End of term

So the end of term has arrived and despite two mini-outbreaks of Covid, I am so proud of the learning that has taken place in our classroom.We have worked hard to plug our gaps and improve our stamina in writing. It has almost felt as if we are getting back to normal and I am looking forward to seeing how we can progress as we move into the new term. I hope you all have a safe and happy Christmas and I cannot wait to see everyone back in the New Year!