News

We have been working in our country groups in preparation for Sports Day this week. With an Asian theme we have learned about China, Japan, India, Nepal, Singapore and Malaysia as well as preparing flags and other decorations for the big day.  
Sports Day itself was a huge success with great sportsmanship and fair play shown by all the children. The carousel was great fun and enabled all the children to accumulate points for their countries before the individual races in the afternoon.
It was lovely to see so many parents able to join us for the traditional picnic on the field and then lend their voices to the cheering to create the great atmosphere during the races.
A big well done to all the children!

History

This week we have been focussing on the transition from the Stone Age to the Bronze and Iron Ages. We learned about the Beaker people and the discovery of the Amesbury Archer at Stonehenge; it's amazing to think his DNA shows he came from the Swiss Alps originally. We were also fascinated by the construction of Stonehenge, particularly the way in which hundreds of people had to work as a team to drag the heavy Bluestones all the way from Wales and the even bigger Sarsen Stones from Marlborough Downs over 60km away! 

Useful websites:

http://celts.mrdonn.org/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/celts/
http://resources.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/Homework/celts/index.html
http://www.primaryhomeworkhelp.co.uk/celts.html

Science

All three classes have continued their work on electrical circuits this week. We have learned about using symbols in circuit diagrams to make them clearer and the importance of creating a complete circuit.  Lime and Poplar have also thought about the effect of adding more than one bulb or buzzer to their circuit with only one cell or using more than one cell to make a battery in their circuit. 

Week beginning 06.07.15

News

We all thoroughly enjoyed watching UKS2's performance of Seussical on Tuesday afternoon, the singing, props and staging was fantastic!

On Thursday it was our class swap day. We all spent an hour in our new classrooms with our new teachers and we're very excited about the challenges and exciting topics planned for us next year!

Literacy

We have been continuing to publish our chapter stories with their illustrations. We are really proud of the hard work we have put in to these extended stories and are looking forward to sharing them once they are finished.

They are looking very professional, including a front cover, blurb and some illustrations.

Homework:

Grammar sheet about comparative and superlative adjectives and plurals.

Mathematics

In Mrs Prowle’s group, we have been learning how to draw and interpret line graphs.  These often 'tell a story' so we started by drawing approximated graphs to show events such as a dog walk, before developing our accuracy by plotting points and drawing graphs to show temperature changes throughout the day in different global locations.

We had to think carefully about the scale on the x and y axes as well as plotting each point accurately with a sharp pencil.

Homework: Line graph to show the number of visitors to a supermarket throughout the day.

Mrs Williams and Mrs Gilder’s group  have been practising division using a number line.  Ask the children to show you how to do it. 
Homework: Revisit some of the work set online.

History

We have jumped forward in time this week to approximately 5000 years ago when the hunter gatherers began to learn about farming.  We learned about the ancient settlement of Skara Brae on the Orkney Islands using the iPads used our research skills to find lots of information that we then used to write about it.

Useful websites: http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/learning/primary/skarabrae/

                             http://www.orkneyjar.com/history/skarabrae/

PE

Maple and Poplar Classes enjoyed practising their Kwik Cricket skills this week with Mr Mardle from St Albans City FC. We worked in small groups to hone our bowling, batting and fielding in readiness for some proper games next week.

ART

To link with our history topic we learned about stone age cave painting.  We started by watching a video about the famous cave paintings at Lascaux's famous prehistoric caves in the Dordogne and created our own versions using charcoal and chalk pastels on sugar paper. Here are some of the results.

Interesting websites:http://www.lascaux.culture.fr/?lng=en

                                    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnSq0c7jM-A&safe=active

                                    http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/lascaux/

SCIENCE

Poplar and Lime class have started looking at electricity.  We were impressed with what the children remember about electrical circuits. The children had time to make their own electrical circuits to light a bulb.