Year 6  have been in the Art Studio. They were challenged to answer the following questions…

• How can you represent a continent using clay?

• Using clay, can you represent physical features, such as a forest or a mountain range?

• How will clay react with water?

• How can you make your model unique?

In Year 6, we have been doing some amazing learning. In writing, the children recently planned and wrote their own narratives based on the short film ‘Alma’. These narratives were then edited by the children, and published into their Extended Writing books. It was an opportunity for the children to develop their descriptive writing by using ‘show not tell’, anaphora, and foreshadowing.

Separately, in Geography lessons, the children have been learning about biomes, climate zones and vegetation belts. We have been looking at the fauna (animals) and flora (plants) in different biomes, as the activity below shows.

In Nursery we have been learning all about Bonfire Night. To try and experience our own firework themed snack, we had a go at making our own Marshmallow Rockets!

Once we washed our hands, we carefully looked through the instructions on how to make our own Marshmallow Rockets. Sufyan was very excited as he looked through the different steps.

First we dipped our marshmallows into warm, melted chocolate. Using our fingers, we spun the marshmallow to coat it fully. Mahveen and Anayah both preferred using the spoon to spread the chocolate on their marshmallows.

Once our marshmallows were covered in the chocolate, we poured some sprinkles on top. They were a little tricky as they were so small, but Ismail and Khalisa concentrated very hard and persevered.

Kaisan and Ayyub were both very proud of their marshmallow rockets. Once they had finished, they let the treat cool down so that it could be ready to take home with them!

We have been looking at maps in geography this week. We learnt about the different ways people use maps to draw places and routes. As a class we drew a map of Little Red Riding Hood's journey through the woods. We used our phonics to label our map and added a key.

This term has started with a bang! Year 2 has been incredibly ambitious from the very beginning, especially with all the hard work we’ve put into practising our songs for not one, but two exciting trips. Our first visit was to the Barbican Centre, where we had the amazing opportunity to listen to — and even sing along with — the London Symphony Orchestra. The children were mesmerised by the music and sang beautifully with such confidence and joy.

Our second trip took us to the VOCES8 Centre, where we performed for parents and school adults. The children shone on stage, singing their hearts out and making everyone feel extremely proud.

With three school trips this term, Year 2 has embraced every challenge with enthusiasm, collaboration and a wonderful love of learning. We can’t wait to see what the rest of the term brings! Stay tuned to hear more about our trip to the Tower of London.

This term, our Year 3 Oak artists have begun an exciting new Art topic all about modelling. We explored the work of artist Todd McLellan, who carefully disassembles pieces of technology and arranges the components in striking layouts before photographing them. We discovered that he comes from Saskatchewan, Canada, and that he was inspired by his parents—one a carpenter (skilled in cutting and shaping wood) and the other an IT technician.

Using clay, we worked through three stages. First, we created an interesting form. Next, we added details. We learnt that an impression is the physical mark an object leaves when pressed onto a surface. With this in mind, we experimented by pressing objects into the clay. We used parts of old technology to make patterns and textures in our 3D clay tiles. We also used a fingertip dipped in water to smooth the surface, which helps prevent small cracks from worsening as the clay dries. At the end of the lesson, we store any excess clay safely in an airtight container so it can be reused in future sessions.

We worked responsibly and left the studio even cleaner than we found it. We are extremely proud of our finished 3D clay pieces, and with the support of our 3 Oak curators, each session ends with our artwork displayed beautifully and safely in the studio.

Last Friday, six schools took part in Round 1 of the Stepney Chess League. At the end of three matches, Stepney Park won the round - a huge achievement for our Year 5 and 6 children! The chess tutors were also very impressed by their positive attitude, particularly their resilience if a result didn't go their way.

In 4 Oak, we have been excellent at cooking vegetable soup. In our DT lessons, we have been collaborating in groups to follow a recipe. We have been trying new things, we have learnt rules about hygiene and how to cut safely when cooking. We know how to use a bridge grip for cutting large round vegetables, the claw grip for slicing and dicing celery and have learnt how to use a peeler and garlic crush.

After making our soups, we tasted them and discussed how different each soup was depending on the ingredients added. We talked about the flavours we liked best and which seasoning we preferred more or less. Overall, we have thoroughly enjoyed cooking and have learnt how to be safe and responsible in the kitchen.

This week 5 Oak have shown excellent focus and hard work in Science and Art. In Art, we have finished our self portraits, which took a lot of concentration and effort, whilst in Science we have been investigating electrical conductors and insulators.

Have a look at our fantastic Art evaluations and the interesting Science investigation where we added different materials such as rubber, plastic rulers, paperclips and even a silver ring to a simple circuit to investigate whether these materials were good electrical conductors or not!

Great job everyone!

Reception Oak went on a trip to Stepney City Farm. We were so responsible when we walked there. We made sure we listened to the grown ups and stopped, looked and listened when we crossed the roads. We were curious when we were walking around the farm. We saw lots of different animals and talked about what they looked like and sounded like. ‘I saw a big pig’ said Rudie. ‘The goats had horns,’ said Madiha. When we got back to school, we talked about the different animals we had seen and had a go at drawing a map of the farm.