The children are continuing to work hard on their soft toys for their buddies. They have been using a whole range of DT skills including using pattern pieces to help them cut the pieces of fabric out accurately, working iteratively (changing their designs as they find things don't work or look as they expected) and using a range of materials and tools.
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We started our science today with a virtual visit from Jennifer. who is a design engineer for a lighting company. She talked about how she designs lighting, including the circuits, for lots of different places including hospitals, museums and street lights. The children were really interested in her work and were keen to ask her some questions to find out more about what she does. They have begun to work in pairs to make a small factfile on some of the things they learnt about Jennifer from the visit - 2 examples of these are included below. Following the visit, we began to investigate the affect of increasing the number of bulbs in a circuit. We established that we would need to make sure we carried out a fair test to do this and looked at all the variables in such a test and then made sure that only 1 thing (adding the bulbs) was actually changed in the circuit each time. Then we drew a line graph to present our findings and discussed the conclusion we had come to. g00d use of these learning gems:Today we were able to put together our finished patchwork quilt, made up of a variety of dip dyed fabric squares, with a design produced with permanent fabric markers and enhanced with stitching detail. GOOD USE OF THESE LEARNING GEMS:Today we revised square and cube numbers. First we discussed what they actually were and why they had been named that way. Then we had some time on a game on the tablets to practise our square and cube numbers. Following this we looked at how to find the area of triangles. We linked it to finding the area of a square and how that related to finding square numbers. Some of us also looked at how to find the area of a parallelogram. good use of this learning gem:We had a busy, active science lesson today. We started by practising drawing circuit diagrams that matched the circuits we had made in our groups. This was followed by creating a 'human circuit' to show how components in a circuit work once they have had a 'push' from a battery or cell. We ended up with a bulb, motor and buzzer in our circuit and, although it was quite as continuous as an electric circuit is, the children worked well to demonstrate how electrons move in a circuit. After this, we then looked at some circuit diagrams and had to decide if they would work or not. If we weren't sure, then we actually made the circuit to check. During the lesson, we also thought of some questions that we would like answers to during our Electricity topic. Great use of these learning gems:We joined in with Protect our Planet day this year by watching a live talk from Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh. The presenter was joined by a coral ecologist - who talked all about coral reefs and how important they are to the world - and a polar scientist, who was speaking all the way from Antarctica. The children did a small activity during the talk to help them understand how the pressure of the water makes some animals change size as they go further up or down in the ocean. Good use of this learning gem:This week we were looking at common factors and common multiples. The children were easily able to identify factors and multiples and, using this knowledge, were able to find common factors and multiples of numbers. We then talked about why it is useful to be able to find common factors and multiples when looking at fractions and they then used them to help simplify fractions and make equivalent fractions, so two fractions had the same denominator. Great use of these learning gems:In English we have been developing our persuasive writing skills. We were then asked to write a speech persuading people to join the ANC and we created our Writer's Toolkit. Firstly we worked in groups to brainstorm ideas for reasons people should join the ANC.Luckily we have lots of knowledge from our History lessons to draw upon! This really helped us when writing our speeches. Then we wrote up our first draft of our speeches and then edited our work. Once we were happy with our finished speeches we typed them up.
Finally we performed our speeches. Would you be persuaded to join the ANC?
Good use of these Learning Gems:In French today we were practising spelling the vocabulary from a French song we had been learning. To do this, we played a game called running dictation. The children had to take it in turns with a partner to go and look at the lines from the song, run back to their partner and tell them as much as they could remember for them write down. The winners were the first pair who managed to write the song without any mistakes! Good use of this learning gem:Over the last 2 weeks we have been working on actually making our soft toys. First we planned the order in which to make our toy and then looked at how to use newspaper to make pattern pieces so our pieces of fabric were cut to the correct size. We are having to problem solve as we go - changing the order of the making process as we work out what things need to be done before other things. The children are working super hard on their soft toys and they are already starting to look fantastic - we can't wait to see what they look like when they're finished! Great use of these learning gems: |
AuthorsWritten by Mrs Matthews & Mrs Hayter (proud class teachers) and their brilliant pupils (Mandela class). Archives
June 2024
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