Living and Learning: I respect myself and others.
Our Living and Learning theme this week was all about Respect. When we hear the word what does it mean to us? We began by filling pieces of paper on the things we already know. By the end of the session we filled in the ‘gaps’ with the things we had learnt.
After our ‘silent statement’ circle activity, we discussed some of the things that arose.
How do we show ourselves Respect?
“By looking after our body, doing things that keep us healthy”. Emily
Would you ever respect someone who is unkind to others?.
“No because that would mean their behaviour is ok. People should treat other people how they wanted to be treated”. Lily
Should we only show respect to living things?
“No. We should respect our things, things at school and the environment”. Hannah
As usual, another mature and sensible session. Well done 3/4!
Our smells poems
Here are is a selection of some of the wonderful poetry work we have composed this week based on the poem ‘Smells’.
We all started the poem in exactly the same way as the poet and then added our own ideas from then onwards.
Why is it that the poet tells
So little of the sense of smell?
These are the odours I love so well
The smell of oranges freshly ripe – Erin
Apples sunset red and juicy – Oliver
The fragrance or a rich chocolate cake – Hannah
Melon mouthwatering and sweet – Jessica
Smells and tastes
After finishing our work on diaries based on our class novel ‘Friend or Foe’, we’ve been enjoying a poem called ‘Smells’ by Christopher Morley. In it, he talks about all of the smells which he loves, freshly ground coffee and campfire embers to name just two.
So we could write our own version, we sampled lots of different fruits with distinctive smells: apples, oranges and melons. We recorded a huge amount of vocabulary that could be made into expanded noun phrases and then played around with the words to fit into the style of poem we were writing.
And of course we got to eat the fruit afterwards!
Living and Learning: I know who I am.
Our Living and Learning theme this week is ‘I know who I am’.
To begin, we spent time thinking about all the things that make us who we are. We discussed how we are all special and unique. By using talk partners, we found out the similarities we have with our classmates and the things that make us different, be it our beliefs, skills or preferences.
Leading on from our previous sessions, lots of us were quick to point out how important it is to respect other people’s views and opinions. We designed our own ‘I am special stars’, with designs and words to reflect our personalities. We were surprised by how challenging it can sometimes be to say positive things about ourselves and the things we are proud of!
Power
Our new mini- topic named ‘Power’ has begun this week. During this topic we will be learning mainly about forces and magnetism. So we began by looking at friction.
We choose different surfaces to test out: hessian, plastic, sandpaper. Then, we rolled a small car down a slope across the surfaces and measured how far the car rolled.
We then graphed our results to find out which surface produced the most friction. It was really important that we measured accurately and kept all the other variables such as the length of the slope the same.
Stay tuned for more investigations!
Digging up the past
This week, we became archaeologists for the day and excavated some interesting artefacts. We spoke about how we know a lot about the past from objects that have been found and they can tell us a lot about how people lived and what their daily lives were like.
So that we didn’t break or damage the artefacts, we had to use brushes to delicately unearth the objects. We also used a co-ordinate grid system to record where each artefact was found. The artefacts were a little strange, so we had to use our detective skills to figure out what they were what they were possibly used for.
Living and Learning: I know how to STOP bullying.
During the week we have reflected on the many issues surrounding bullying. The theme of this years Anti Bullying week is ‘Choose respect’
What does this actually mean and how do we show respect to our friends?
RESPECT ‘have due regard for (someone’s feelings, wishes, or rights)’
In our Living and Learning session we thought how being bullied makes a person feel. We talked about all the emotions involved such as being scared, terrified, worried, heart broken.
Some people were honest enough to say you may feel so frustrated if you are bullied that you might feel like you want to ‘do the same to them’.
After a very grown up circle time, we agreed the best way to stand up to a bully and STOP bullying is to tell someone. Always.
A very special visitor
Earlier this week, we welcomed a very special guest into our classroom – none other than Mrs Richardson’s dad! He came in to talk to us about rationing and evacuation, which links into our topic work on food throughout time – as well as our current class novel ‘Friend or Foe’.
We all found it fascinating hearing about what life was like growing up in the war and what kinds of foods he ate – some of them sounded quite weird!
We’d like to say a big thank you to Mrs Richardson’s dad for giving up his time and giving us such a memorable experience.
Odd socks for anti-bullying
On Monday, to kick off anti-bullying week, we joined in by wearing odd socks with many other children in the school and around the country.
The idea was to celebrate the fact that everybody is different, everybody is unique and we should celebrate our differences. We had a circle where we reminded ourselves what bullying is and what we can do to prevent it.
Our school message is: STOP
Several Times On Purpose
We then reminded ourselves that we should:
Start Telling Other People
Living and Learning: I can show perseverance
Our Christian value this half term is perseverance. This week it was the focus of our Living and Learning session. We looked closely at the words in this definition: ‘Persistence in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success’.
Everyone closed their eyes and said the first thing that came into their heads related to the word ‘persevere’:
“To try and try again.”– Jessica
“Challenge yourself, don’t give up”. – Lily
“Be resilient, like one of the 8 Rs.” – Hannah
“When I persevere towards a goal I feel happy because I know I’m challenging myself.”-Emily
I posed the phrase ‘practice makes perfect’, but was very astutely corrected by Oliver: “No, practice makes progress, not perfect.”
Finally we watched an animated clip about one animal’s perseverance to overcome all the obstacles in his way. He didn’t give up and remained focused on his goal.
We left the session with a small task for next week:
Think of an achievable goal or target you are going to work towards.
You’ll need to demonstrate how you showed perseverance to accomplish your target.
We’ve all got until Christmas to work on our chosen goal.