Living and Learning: I use the 8 Rs to help me learn
We have had a very exciting time making our own tree houses, inspired by our class novel, The 13 Storey Tree House. For the first part of the design process, we followed design criteria and made annotated sketches to design our tree houses.
Once that was completed we had to cut up pieces of wood to the lengths in our specification. We had to do this carefully so as not to chop our fingers off! Thankfully, Mr Atkins was on hand to help.
This week we will begin making our product. We will need to use all our 8 Rs with this activity: being resilient if we find gluing the tree houses tricky; being responsive; taking safe risks when we used saws to cut the pieces of wood; and being responsible when we were using the tools to make our product.
Build a Lego house
As part of our DT focused topic on the Thirteen Storey Treehouse, we are investigating products and how they are designed and made. This week, we were looking at criteria and specifications.
We discussed what the basic specifications for a house would be before simply just building it. We decided our Lego houses needed to have: at least 4 walls; be 7 bricks high; have one door and two window frames; and at least two internal rooms.
Identifying and classifying
A great start has been had by all in 3/4. We have begun reading our class novel ‘The Thirteen Storey Treehouse‘, which will inspire most our topic work this term.
Before getting into the business of designing and making treehouses we thought we had look at different types of trees and their leaves. We played a matching game to match leaves to their threes and seeds.
Following this we ventured into the school grounds to identify the trees we had close by and collect some of their leaves to verify our observations.
We were amazed by how many types of trees were just in our playground.
Sounds of Summer Concert
We took part in an Artforms performance. Year 1 and 2 were superb singers while year 3 and 4 were part of an orchestra. Other schools joined us for this great opportunity.
Sports Day
Well done to all the children for showing resilience and determination in their races!
Volcano!
Last week, we were set a piece of creative homework that followed up on our work in class or recognising the features of volcanoes and how they erupt.
All the class produced stunning pieces of work at home with your support. We had: posters, poems, quizzes, rock displays and of course model volcanoes.
Of course, it wouldn’t be an accurate model if it didn’t erupt. Thanks to some extensive research, some children had found out which substances to mix to make the models erupt.
But don’t worry. No children or classrooms were harmed in the making!
Living and Learning: I recognise the importance of money.
This week, the class explored what it would have been like before money when trades people traded their goods with each other. They became a trades people and used their bargaining and persuasion skills to make trades with each other. We discussed how some things – such as a cow – were worth more than others. For instance, a bag of wheat. The children identified problems with this method and recognised how having money makes buying what you need both simpler and fairer.
Living and Learning: I know and can use ways to calm down.
This week in Living and Learning, the class worked together to list lots of ways we can calm down down when feeling upset, angry or anxious. They created a long list of strategies including: breathing techniques, counting to 10, talking to a friend, relaxing in your bedroom and exercising. Everyone then created their own poster with their favourite calming down strategies. There were some great ones!
Have a go at using some of these when you feel angry, upset, frustrated or anxious. They definitely work.
Living and Learning: I know the difference between being proud and showing off
This week, the children thought about what they are proud of and why. We talked about how it can be difficult to say what we are proud of sometimes and how it takes confidence. Everyone has lots to be proud of! During circle time, the class took turns to say what they were proud of and also what they think other children in the class are good at so giving each other a boost! The class then wrote thought bubbles to share what they are proud of. Comments on these thought bubbles included: “I’m proud of my football skills because it makes me unique” and, “I am proud of my dancing because I practise a lot and even though I’m not the best and dancing, I am still proud of what I can do so far”. Some really thoughtful and reflective comments from Year 3 and 4. Well done – you have lots to be proud of!
Arrays and factor pairs
Today, we had a very hands on practical lesson learning about factor pairs. A factor pair is two numbers that when multiplied together give a particular product. For example, the number 24 has factor pairs of: 2 and 12; 1 and 24; 3 and 8; and 4 and 6.
We used multilink cubes to make arrays that allowed us to spot the factor pairs for numbers we were given.
‘Using multilink helped me see the numbers easily’
‘I always like using apparatus to help me’