In our science lesson this week year four were investigating the melting point of butter, chocolate and cheese. We used hot water and foil cake cases to do this safely, making careful observations over time. We then used these observations to help us draw a conclusion.
Today year 4 were excited to have a visit from polar explorer Adrian Hall. He spoke to us about his expeditions, showed us all the equipment he packed in his rucksack and shared lots of photos at the start of the day. After this, he worked outside with every class, teaching them about map reading and compass skills before they completed a treasure hunt around the school grounds. We had a great day and now feel we know a lot more about the life of an arctic explorer.
Our pupils had an amazing time at Bookbugs and Dragontales Bookshop this week! They had the opportunity to choose new books for our school libraries and even meet the author and illustrator, Ben Rothery, who was working on a window display at the shop.
We can’t wait to see the books we selected in the Book Nook at school!
Year 4 finished the term by designing and building Iron Man faces with electronic glow in the dark eyes. They had to wire up the LED bulbs with batteries and switches using all of their knowledge about electrical circuits taught this term. We were very impressed with the final outcomes.
Year 4 were delighted to welcome the NHS Cambridgeshire Community Service Trust today to run a 1 hour big worries and anxiety workshop with each of our classes. It was pleasing to see the children coming away with so many new strategies to help them manage their emotions and feelings.
We have spent a number of weeks building up to our final Iron Man illustrations. The children have enjoyed studying the work of other artists, practised new water colour techniques and experimented with using a range of different drawing media. Our final pieces are now complete and ready to be displayed in the classrooms and on the year 4 corridor display.
This week, year one and year four pupils buddied up for an afternoon session of African animal research on the iPads. It was wonderful to see such polite and caring partnerships between our older and younger students. Our year ones went away with lots of interesting and useful facts about meerkats, lions and giraffes which they will use to help them with their writing next week. We look forward to them sharing this work with their older buddies at the end of term.
This week in year four, we have been learning to code and write algorithms using repeated instructions. Using the free Turtle Academy software, the children were able to create different patterns and shapes, exploring the effect of changing line length, angle and the number of repetitions. They were very excited to see their images appear on the screen as you can see below.
Year four are studying the science of electricity this half term. We began by looking at and comparing appliances that use mains power and batteries. This week we built simple series circuits in order to test whether different materials were conductors or insulators. By the end of term we hope to have designed, built and wired up a light up, interactive Iron Man inspired by the Ted Hughes book we have been studying in English.
This year the school council decided to run the Christmas bauble project again. The plastic baubles were very kindly bought by the Friends and each year group chose their own designs and have been busy over the last few weeks creating them.
In Reception they decorated wooden baubles with paint, glitter and sequins.
In Year 1 they used tissue paper to collage the inside of their baubles.
In Year 2 the children measured their height and filled their bauble with ribbon that is the same height as them in 2024.
In Year 3 they filled their baubles with cotton wool ‘snow’ and decorated the outside with Christmas patterns.
In Year 4 the children decorated their baubles with glitter.
In Year 5 they used tissue paper to create bright and colourful baubles that have been hanging on their class Christmas trees.
In Year 6 they chose glitter for the insides and drew Christmas patterns and messages on the outside.
We think they all look amazing! A great big thank you to the School Council for organising this for everyone and an even bigger thank you to the Friends for supplying us with the baubles.