We’ve had loads of fun today by exploring gears. We’ve looked at how the rotating gears work in opposite directions and how the relative sizes of the cogs affects the gears’ speeds. Practical exploration is key to ensuring the children can observe and learn. Again, this group activity allowed children to learn the skills needed to work together.
We might not won the Poscars this year, but the children gave a superb performance and did William Wordsworth proud with our spring-themed daffodil poem. Congratulations to the winning classes. But, having seen all the performances, everyone was a winner!
Wow! Our watercress cuttings have flourished over the past few days. The children have been looking after them well and they have been drawing them at intervals, observing the changes that have been occurring. We have learnt new vocabulary, including node and internode. The children observed that almost all the new roots emerged from the nodes. This has been a great way to learn about asexual reproduction in plants and to produce new plants for free! It’s so much fun that we’ve made the activity one of out ‘50 things to do’.
We’ve been working on ways to move objects with a smaller force than might be expected. Today, we’ve experimented with the position of our fulcrums, where the lever pivots. The children designed their own way to text this and then record their findings. Who knew that we could learn so much from a ruler, blue tack and a couple of glue sticks!
We’ve been having lots of fun this week, looking in depth at a range of poems. So far we’ve explored theme, mood and imagery. Each poem has interesting features to understand, so we’ve needed our detective heads on! We have even discovered that song lyrics are actually poems! Who knew that Iron Maiden were poets!
We’ll done to 5BS for winning the weekly attendance award, including the maltesers for the third consecutive week. 99.7% was near-perfect so keep it up!
We have been looking at speech-writing, including the incorporation of carefully placed persuasive devices. This week, our extended writing required all these skills to bring the audience round to our point of view. We are now reading our speeches, making sure the power of speech is used as we read. Emphasis, emotive language and carefully-placed punctuation can really make a difference as we read. Mind you, we could have released a beast! The children of Evesham are now armed with the skills they need to get whatever they want from their … parents. My apologies to the parents of year five!
We’ve been learning about vegetative reproduction in plants today; watercress cuttings were made by removing the lower leaves from the plant and putting them in water. Over the coming days, we’ll be looking out for roots emerging from the nodes to make new plants. Maybe, with care, we’ll have enough to make a watercress sandwich!
What a difference a week makes! We’ve been working on our experimental method and other write-up features. Last time, most children missed crucial points and information, but this time they ‘nailed it’. It is wonderful to see them make giant leaps in their learning. They have loved working together on this series of experiments and it has helped so much with their scientific enquiry.
We have kicked off Mental Health week with a host of activities, covering many of the mental health areas. We started the day with Mr. Jones’ assembly, which introduced the areas of Mental Health activities as well as the Bucketful story. Then we took part in the Morning Mile. I wonder whether we’ll find it easier as the week progresses. Then we practised some breathing and meditation, followed by crystallising our special, happy place from our imaginations. What a super start to the week!
We have been perfecting our contemporary dance compilations over the past few weeks; learning the moves and injecting a bit of ‘sass’ has been a great deal of fun. As well as learning the moves, we’ve had a great deal of fun working together. Nice shades … 😎
