23 Week Beginning 20th March
As much as we had lots of fun and enjoyment from perfecting our play, it has been wonderful to be back in class and having a full days of lessons.
As a result we have done loads of learning this week. In Maths we have finished our learning all about perimeter and area and have learnt how to distinguish between the two and been learning about the relationship between these two forms of measurement.
In English we have been writing about the different contributing causes to climate change and learning how to persuade others to take our view. We have been focussing on different verb tenses and the significance of questions in helping to persuade. On Wednesday we did the class heats for the Poetry Plate finals. Mrs Thornton and I were blown away by the quality of the poems written by the children, they were of such high quality. We were extremely proud of all the children who read their poems beautifully, with performances enhanced by their new confidence since the play. We voted for our top 4 performers to go through to the final. They all performed with confidence in front of the audience and we were proud all over again of our Oak Class representatives: Oscar, Harry, Phoebe and Charlotte. We were delighted that Oscar won and will have his name engraved onto the poetry plate and that Harry was a runner up too. Congratulations both!
In computing we are learning about data and data logging. We used the data loggers we have in school to gather temperature, noise levels, light levels, and the amount of Carbon Dioxide which is in the air. We also gathered data by asking each other questions and next week we will be presenting the data into graphs using Excel.
In Science we have continued to develop our understanding of life cycles with a focus on reproduction in plants and animals. We dissected daffodils in order to identify the male and female parts of the plant and learnt all the technical terms for each part. We looked at the similarities and differences between reproduction in frogs, butterflies and elephants and experienced the awe and wonder of metamorphosis as we watched a time lapse video of an egg turning into a caterpillar and then into a pupa and finally a butterfly. The children were amazed by this process.
On Friday we had an eco afternoon where we looked at the important role of healthy soil. We spent time looking at the soil in our school grounds and identified some of the organisms that soil supports. The mini beasts we found included; centipedes, millipedes, earthworms, woodlice, ants and one leather jacket larvae which will turn into a daddy long legs! These were all indicators of excellent quality soil.
We also got involved in the weirdest science experiment ever. People are being asked by the Country Trust to join in by burying their underwear underground for two months as part of a scientific study. It's called Plant Your Pants, and the experts behind the project say it could tell you a lot about the millions of organisms in soil near you. Once you dig up the pants you can find out if your soil is healthy because the creepy crawlies will slowly eat away at your undies! We buried 2 pairs of pants, one made of paper the other made of cotton and will dig them up in two months time to see what has happened!! How bizarre!! Our predictions included; they would become holey, they might go mouldy, they'd become wet, wrinkly and the colour would fade. The children thought the paper pants would disintegrate or go all mushy. We will have to wait and see!
The Spring Term is whizzing by only one week left after this, don't forget our Easter celebration at St. Barbara's church next Friday instead of family assembly.
