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Curious collaborators!

Great learning across the school

Year 1

In Year 1 we have been hard at work in class. Over the last few weeks, we’ve been learning about Christianity and the creation story. First, we listened to the story and then created our own story map of what happened on each day. It has been really interesting to discuss a new religion and we have asked lots of questions to show our curiosity.

 

We have also been learning more about our bodies and what they can do. In Science, we have been learning about the five different senses and how we use them to understand the world around us. Our favourite lesson so far was definitely discovering more about our taste buds. We had to guess different flavours of crisps without seeing the packaging, we were very good at it!

Year 6

Curiosity in Art

Year 6 have been in the Art Studio. They have been learning about self portraiture and how to create them using acrylic and watercolour paints. As a background, they had to make a thin, acrylic wash covering the whole surface. Later they will add details using thicker layers of acrylic paint. The portrait is made of a light toned watercolour wash for the skin’s surface and the features and all their details are drawn on top using pencils of varying tones. The children have looked at self portraits by Rembrandt and Joy Gregory for inspiration and the understanding that self portraits have been created throughout history and that there are similarities and differences between them all. 

        

Year 2

In year 2 we’ve been learning about money and the different values of coins and notes. We’ve been using this knowledge to learn how to make amounts of money to pay for items and give change. We practised these skills by setting up the classroom as a supermarket and working in a role as a shopkeeper or a customer. You can support your child in their learning by asking these questions:

  • How much does this cost?

  • What coins and notes will I need to pay?

 

Year 2 also enjoyed our visit from the police recently. The children were very enthusiastic to find out more about the role of a police officer and had lots of questions! It was great to hear children talking about their ambitions of becoming a police officer and wanting to help others!

Each class has also recently visited the Soanes centre as part of our learning on ‘materials’ in science. We loved doing experiments at the centre and lighting a fire to change the properties of materials to make charcoal.

We really enjoyed the trip and used our charcoal to draw some pictures of the day!

Year 4

Year 4 has been learning to be meteorologists. We have been learning the weather can depend on the types of clouds formed in the sky. To get a better understanding of each of the cloud forms, we used cotton wool to make our own stratus, cumulus and cirrus clouds.

Interestingly, we have been studying different types of weather maps and satellite images to create weather predictions of our own based on our knowledge of the weather produced by different clouds.

Year 3

In Art this term, we have been looking at Botanical art. We have been focussing on using our observational drawing skills to draw and then paint using watercolour runner bean seeds as well as a pea. The children have thoroughly enjoyed their lessons and have gained great knowledge in understanding about shading with different types of pencils and blending colours using paint. 

Take a look at some of the fantastic artwork below:

  

In our English lessons, we have been reading the book Stone Girl, Bone Girl. The book is about the life of Mary Anning - the greatest fossil hunter ever! We learnt so much about writing diary entries and have even learnt to use new subordinating conjunctions such as ‘until’ and ‘if’. Have a read of some of our fantastic diary entries.

 

Year 5

This week, Year 5 students experimented with sieving and filtering. They had to separate different mixtures using a range of materials, including rice, sugar, salt, baking powder, sand, water, beans, and soil.

The children had to choose whether to use a sieve or a piece of filter paper with mixtures. They found that sieving was perfect for separating smaller and larger solids from each other, such as rice and salt or soil and baking powder. However, using a sieve for some mixtures didn’t work.  A filter was used to allow water to pass, but the remaining solid to stay above the filter.  Examples of this are with sand and water, and tea leaves and water.

Some students discovered that if two materials were too thin, both would go through the sieve.  In future, different sized sieves may be more suitable for separating these mixtures. The experiment helped students understand that different materials require different separation techniques.

This hands-on activity gave Year 5 valuable insight into how mixtures behave and how sieving and filtering are used in everyday life. Well done, young scientists!