Spring Term

In Computing we have learnt how to write, make and edit our own podcasts using the app GarageBand. We included details about what we have learnt over the past half term. We also added music for our intros and exits to make our podcast more interesting. Watch this space for next half terms's sticky learning podcast...

In Art, we have been responding to the art work of Thomas J Price and Yinka Shonibare. For each artist, we thought about the words it made us think of, the way it made us feel and the messages we thought the artists were trying to portray. Our study opened up a discussion about modern art and traditional art and how both of these artists actively try and move away from what might be 'traditional or normal' sculpture. Some children linked this idea to the way they displayed their responses to the artists and included slang, pattern and calligraphy in their finished work. 

We have been improving our vocabulary skills today! As a class, we thought about how we can use vocabulary in the best way and make our writing fluent, precise and relevant. We learnt that some vocabulary (even if it's brilliant) isn't the best for our writing and some words that we usually think are 'simple' are the best for our writing!

We have started our new unit of work called 'the Art of Display'. We thought about how the way that art is displayed can change the message or that the viewer takes away. Today, we created sculptures using wire and displayed them on different backgrounds and thought about how the different backgrounds could completely change the meaning of our sculpture. 

For World Book Day we have studied the poem ‘Don’t’ By Michael Rosen. We investigated the different rhymes and the different patterns within the poem. We recorded our initial reading of the original poem and then we had a go at writing our own silly lines and creating our own version of the poem. After practising adding expression and pace, we performed our own final version for the rest of the school. Which version do you prefer?

In Computing, we used all the programming skills we have learned in our 'Repetition in Games' unit to create our own 'catching' game. We used event blocks, infinite loops, motion and sound blocks as well as choosing our own sprites and backdrops. We also used our 'debugging' skills when our game didn't act in the way we had designed

Today we recorded our first draft of 'Lean on Me' as a class. We are going to continue learning the lyrics, singing in groups and adding solos and will continue to re-draft our performance. 

Today our key question was: How does information we have about the Vikings impact our opinion of them and their reputation? To explore our question, we looked at a range of sources that gave us information about the Vikings. Our investigation showed us that sources that liked the Vikings (like the Vikings themselves) would show us positive information and sources that didn't like the Vikings (like Anglo-Saxon monks) would often give us negative information. We found out that this unfair opinion is called bias.

In our groups, we looked at four different photographs of the real village of Mousehole. We worked together to create a HUGE list of vocabulary, expanded noun phrases, complex sentences and figurative language that we can use in our own version of The Mousehole Cat.

In DT and Science, we have been learning about electrical circuits. To test our new learning and circuit building skills, we are creating a game like operation that includes a circuit interrupter. Today, we planned our games by thinking about the insulators and conductors that our game would contain, the materials we need to make our game and the target audience for our game. 

Some of us were ready to make our game and got it working! We had to work very hard, using lots of trial and error, to get our circuits to work.

In Computing, we have been exploring count-controlled and infinite loops. We used scratch to create a programme that would animate our initials to do different things. We could make our initials spin around, pulse or move and we could decide whether they would continue to repeat their programming or if we wanted them to stop at a certain point. 

Our key question today was "What was life like for the Vikings?" to answer this question, we thought about jobs in Viking Britain, Viking settlements and the inside of Viking longhouses. After exploring lots of different Viking lifestyles, we created a plan for what our own Viking longhouse might have looked like.

In English today, we sequenced the story of 'The Mousehole Cat' so far and then created story maps to help us remember each event. We will use our maps to help us write our own version of the Mousehole Cat, changing some key elements. 

We had an excellent first tennis lesson today!

In Computing, we have been learning about programming! Firstly, we thought about what snippets of code would do and practised following code in the classroom before trying it on Scratch. Then we used different codes to programme our Sprite to create different shapes. After that, we looked at infinite and count-controlled loops and how it can impact how we programme something and how our finished programme would look and work. 

We have started our new topic of Vikings in History. Today, we created miniature Viking shields to hold up every time we came across some key learning. Our introduction to the Vikings taught us where they came from, when they invaded Britain and why they decided to invade.

In English we have started our new book of the Mousehole Cat. In pairs, we explored the opening of the story and thought about the things that it made us think, feel, see and hear. We paired it with our learning in grammar and created some fantastic expanded noun phrases using our senses. 

In Science, we have started our new topic of Electricity. Today, we have been learning about battery power and power from the mains. We learnt that battery power is portable and mains is wired and created lists of the things that use electricity around us. After that, we worked together and created our own simple circuits using batteries and buzzers or light bulbs. 

This week we have been learning about neural pathways and how they get stronger each time we do something. Our journaling and thinking task today was to think about something that we can do now that must mean our neural pathways are stronger than they were before. 

We thought about things like tying our shoelaces, completing tricky maths calculations and swimming. 

In The Mousehole Cat, the author tells the reader all about the different things Mowzer eats through the week. Each day, Mowzer's food is described using some brilliant expanded noun phrases that made some of us very hungry! After spotting them in the text, we had a go at creating our own delicious sounding menus using expanded noun phrases. 

After finishing our poems, we published them using Google Docs and practised using the skills we had learnt in computing to format our document to make it look good. We also illustrated our poems using watercolours to express the meaning of our haikus without using words.

After 5 weeks of practise, we have recorded our final version of 'Stop!' To perform it, we split into three groups for each verse and then all came together for the chorus. Can you notice the difference between our first try and our final one?

In English, we have written our own haikus about rain. We explored the vocabulary that came to our minds when we experienced, heard or saw light rainfall and heavy rainfall. After that, we illustrated our poems in our sketchbooks and explored how colour can help us to show the meaning of our poems in the same way our vocabulary can. Here are just a few of our poems:

Bang, boom rain falls down

Electric droplets crackle

The rain says splash splash 

- Iris

The thunder rumbled

the rumbling storm boomed loudly

The gloomy dark night

- Nathan

Bolting and crashing

Monstrous and booming rain

Do not go outside

- Ava

Rain hits the floor

Children jumping in puddles

Happy children playing

- Nikita

Helpless and fearful

Thunder is so dangerous

Now it's dark and loud

- Tilly

In PE this week, we have been exploring different jumps and rolls. We thought about the skills that you need to achieve good rolls and jumps and practised lots of different types. Can you spot our pencil roll and tuck jump?

In RE, we have been thinking about what prayer is all about and the different ways that we can pray. We thought about prayers that help us to praise, repent, ask or yield. After discussing our ideas we have created our own prayers and have displayed them on hearts. 

In English, we have been exploring Haikus. We learnt about the 5-7-5 structure of poems and responded to some different poetry to find out that haikus usually express feelings about different elements of nature. We are starting to develop ideas for our own poem all about water and the rain. 

How can teeth tell us what an animal eats? In Science, we investigated different animal teeth and thought about how their teeth tells us what their diet is like. We know that carnivores have less molars but lots of canine and incisor teeth. We know that herbivores have more molars to help them crush their leafy diets. 

We have continued our work on still life by experimenting with drawing to recreate different fruit. We talked about how difficult it can be to create still life art because traditionally, it has to look exactly the same as the thing you are drawing, painting or sculpting. 

After our drawings, we used view spotters (which are like mini photo frames) to select a part of our drawing to recreate as a clay tile. 

In Science, we have been learning about teeth. Today, we had a class debate about which part of the mouth was the most important for digestion. We planned our of ideas and then built on or challenged each other to explain our point of view. 

"Saliva is the most important part of the digestive process because it dissolves food so you don't choke. Babies eat without their teeth so we would be able to survive without teeth by eating soft food." 

"I think the teeth are most important because if you didn't have them your food wouldn't be small enough for you to swallow and you could choke." 

"I think the tongue is the most important because teeth chew but the tongue sends food to where it needs to be in the mouth by throwing it to the back of the throat. Some foods don't need to be chewed but if we didn't have a tongue we couldn't get our food to digest."

In Art, we have been exploring still life. We started the unit by looking at two different artists: Paul Cezanne and Nicole Dyer. We thought about what we liked about their art work, the skills that they used to create the art and the differences between the styles. After that, we created our own still life paintings in the style of one of the artists.

In Science, we have been learning about the functions of different teeth. We learnt some actions to help us remember! 

Today we started our myHappymind journey! We have been learning about our brain and mind. We learnt that our brain has 3 parts: the Hippocampus, the amygdala and the Prefrontal Cortex. They each work together to help us remember, learn and stay safe. 

In Geography, we have been learning about the stages of the water cycle. Click HERE to hear the song we have been learning to help us remember the 3 main stages! 

Today, we explored the question 'How does pollution impact the water cycle?' after discovering the different impacts it can have we designed a knowledge map to help us remember what we had learnt. 

In RE we have been thinking about the question: What is prayer? 

For our first lesson, we explored some different prayer books and shared some feedback on them. We thought about prayers we liked, who might use the books, why people might use them and when they could be used. 

We have been exploring different balances in our new topic of Gymnastics. We discussed what a good balance would look like and then tested out the different ones we knew. After that, we thought about the different balances that we can do whilst imagining we are an animal. Can you spot the different animal poses in our pictures?

We have been learning all about ourselves today! For our first activity, we created a '1 page profile' that explored all of our favourite ways to learn, make ourselves feel good and skills we wanted to improve. This afternoon, we thought about 'Me, Myself and I' and wrote down lots of things that make us special and unique. 

Today in Music we have started our new unit of Rap. We listened to a new song called 'Stop!' which was all about bullying and how important it is to be friends, no matter our differences. We had a go at singing the whole song and found out how hard it is to keep up with rapping!