Year 3 children took part in an Ancient Egyptian workshop with That History Bloke. We found out about the role of a pharaoh and what the Egyptians believed about the afterlife. We enjoyed writing our own names in hieroglyphics using ink and played an Ancient Egyptian game. We had a great time!
Year 3 visited the Laing art gallery in Newcastle. We spent some time looking at the art work and following a trail to discover some exciting features. We also took part in a watercolour workshop where we used pens to draw pictures which were inspired by art work around the gallery and we then used watercolours to paint them.
As part of Science Week the whole school took part in a competition that centred on this year’s theme ‘Time’. Children could be creative in their presentation of this poster with some choosing life cycles over time or how over time, the planet is being destroyed as their focus. There were winners chosen from each class who were presented with an award and congratulated for the excellent efforts. Winning entries were also sent to the British Science Week 24 and we await to hear if we have any winners in early summer.
In our session with Katie from Science Buddies, we made predictions and investigated how shadows can be changed. First, we investigated whether we could make shadows smaller or larger then we investigated whether we could change the shape and colour of a shadow.
We found that a shadow can be made smaller when the object is further away from the light source and the shadow is larger when it is closer to the light source.
We found that the shape and colour of the shadow could not be changed.
Katie from Science Buddies came in to work with us on activities linked to time. First of all she showed us how to operate a stop watch. We then measured some alkali powder into a beaker, measured 10ml of acid (white vinegar) in a syringe and added this to the powder. We timed how long it took to dissolve. We then stretched a balloon with a balloon pump and used a funnel to put more powder inside the balloon. Katie helped us to use a funnel to pour more of the vinegar into a plastic bottle. The balloon was placed over the top of the bottle and lifted up. We observed the balloon inflate in 1 minute.
Wow! How fantastic! Nolan and his parent completed the child-parent challenge during our school Science week that everyone was sent home with the option to do. He was so proud to come and show me the fabulous science he had been getting up to at home and said that the lemonade he made was the most glorious and delicious lemonade he had ever tasted! Perhaps he could be a lemonade entrepreneur of the future! It is wonderful when children and parents work together to take science outside of the classroom!
What a super star junior scientist!
This year’s World Book Day was focused on how children are more likely to enjoy reading when their choices are championed and we make reading fun.
Children and staff were encouraged to wear a costume relating to a book character.
For the full day lessons were focused around WBD. As part of this pupils were given the opportunity to take part in a school competition where they had to create a blurb and a front cover for a book that they would like to read. Additionally, they could enter another competition for which their entries will be sent away, this involved them design a national book token.
As part of World Book Day an author called Paula Fowler visited our school to tell us what inspired her to start to write books. She lives locally and is a self-published author of Wizard Beano and Pals.
We had great fun finding out about the two books she has written so far and finding out about the characters in her stories and how she created them. The themes of the stories are friendship, adventure, helping save the planet and looking after our wellbeing. We also found out a little bit about the book she is currently writing.
School and Science Council have been teaming up to help create an improved and cleaner environment around out school. Using litter pickers and black bags so far years 5 and 6 have joined forces to collect discarded litter. We were certainly surprised by how much litter was caught in bushes and hedges and found all sorts ranging from crisp packets, to cigarette boxes, plastic bags to pop cans. Next week years 3 and 4 will help the anti-litter campaign around the school premises.
On Friday 2nd February, we enjoyed Number Day! We got to play with loads of games but used our maths skills such as counting, logic and problem solving. We also did maths puzzles and investigations involving numbers!
Year 5 did activities including creating a mathematical clock where we had to create calculations with at least 2 operations in them to create the numbers 1 to 12. Another investigation was to count the frequency of different letters in an extract from The Lion the Witch and the wardrobe. We tallied the numbers and then created a bar chart, thinking carefully about what the scale had to go in up the side. Number day was rounded off with a number related quiz!
