As usual we are all working hard in Maths Booster. This week we had a mixed Maths quiz and used graffiti maths to help us quickly work out a range of different calculations. Tati was the winner and even helped others when she had finished!
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Our Science topic this half term is 'Staying Alive'. Today we measured our lung capacity: using a 5 litre water bottle and pipe, we filled our lungs full of air and blew out, using water displacement to work out in cm3 how much air we could hold in our lungs. It was fun, but very wet!! We discovered that Luke had the largest lung capacity - 18cm3 and Blake, Harvey and Katelyn had the smallest - 8cm3. The average lung capacity was 10.5cm3.
Today we had an Art Day as the rest of week will be taken up with Assessments (boo hiss!) and we love Art in Mandela Class! Today we designed and made our own clay Viking amulets after researching different examples of amulets historians have discovered. We also explored the work of famous sculpturer and painter Alberto Giacometti, comparing his unique style with that of Henry Moore (we looked at his work last week). We then made our own Giacometti style sculptures using garden wire and modroc. Later on this week we will be painting both the amulets and sculptures so watch this space for the finished results! The MakingThe Results So Far....This half term our topic is Staying Alive and we are learning all about the life processes that are internal to the body, including all about the circulatory system.
The circulatory system is made up of the heart, the lungs, blood and the vessels it travels through. Its function is to transport nutrients, gases and wastes between the cells of the body and the digestive system, respiratory system and excretory system. It also carries hormones for internal communication and co-ordination, and white blood cells for fighting disease, as well as assisting in maintaining body temperature. Today we were learning about the heart. The heart is a huge muscle that never appears to rest. In fact it does rest – between each heart beat! It beats rhythmically, contracting two sets of chambers to act as a double pump to move blood around the body. It is about the size of a closed fist, and is protected by the ribs. The right side of the heart pumps deoxygenated (‘used’) blood through the pulmonary circuit to the lungs, where it picks up oxygen and where carbon dioxide is released. The blood is then returned to the left side of the heart, which is sufficiently muscular and powerful to pump the blood through the systemic circuit to all tissues of the body, including the kidneys for waste removal, and the liver for blood sugar regulation. Mrs Matthews brought in a pig's heart for us to examine and try and identify the main parts. It was a really interesting lesson! Very good use of the help desk this morning! It really helps to talk through any tricky calculations with someone who is willing to help.
Today we started our Art unit on 3D artwork. We looked at the work of Henry Moore, a sculpture and painter, who has produced to brilliant semi-abstract sculptures of people, including the 'Reclining Man' and 'Mother and Child'. We responded to his work by creating our own clay reclining figure sculptures.
Watch this space to see our finished sculptures! In Literacy we are working on our own Viking Sagas - telling stories of the Gods. Before we began the writing process we listened to and read a range of Viking Sagas. Then we planned our sagas, creating story maps to help us plan and orally retell our stories. We then collected ideas and considered the literary techniques we could use in our stories like: different sentence starters, a range of sentence types (complex, compound and short dramatic), sentences of 3, imagery (smilies, metaphors and personification), selective word choices (powerful verbs and precise adjectives) and paragraphs. We read our first drafts to the rest of the class or in small groups, sitting around the 'fire' as the Vikings would have done, telling or sagas to the rest of our clan. We now need to edit our work in response to Mrs Matthews' and our talking partners comments and write up our stories in full. Then we will all be able to share our stories around the 'fire' in our 'longhouse' we are going to create on our Viking Day later in the term.
This afternoon we invited our parents in to take part in a Maths Afternoon where we demonstrated how to carry out the 4 different calculation methods we use in Year 6. We discussed how we use them when solving both arithmetic problems (just basic calculations to solved) or reasoning problems (word problems). Here are the methods we use: We then worked alongside our parents to complete calculations in our books:
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AuthorsWritten by Mrs Matthews & Mrs Hayter (proud class teachers) and their brilliant pupils (Mandela class). Archives
June 2024
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