Another term over already!

It's difficult to believe that Spring Term is already done and dusted. We spent the term looking at geography, studying the equator, the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, and the Arctic and Antarctic Circles. We then focussed in on the European countries of Italy and Russia, and played the role of travel agent to convince the rest of the class to visit one or the other.


In English we spent the first part of the term reading performing and writing plays. Our last part of that topic was to write a short play about a familiar story and then perform it to the rest of the class. We have a good group of actors in our midst. After that, we spent a few weeks exploring story settings and how to write them effectively. We looked at fantastical settings from Harry Potter as well as calming, scary, dangerous and idyllic ones. After that we put on our best ad agent's cap and looked at persuasive writing, a unit we crossed over with Geography to help us research and compare/contrast two cities in Russia or Italy and persuade tourists to visit. Our last unit has been looking at narrative poetry, including a poem about the story in the famous willow patterned china plate and writing a nursery rhyme from another character's point of view.


We continued to learn new things in maths and reinforce what we already know. Among the new things we've learned in the last term: Roman numerals, 24 hour clock, and the symmetry of regular and irregular shapes.


In science we explored all sorts of ideas about the natural world. We looked at the human digestive system and how it works, and then explored what other animals eat. That led us on to food chains, habitats and finally how we classify so many types of plants, animals and other life forms. Along the way we did an investigation into what types of ordinary rubbish might be a good home for a mini-beast, and that took us outside into wilds of the school grounds.


We spent a term on gymnastics and tennis in PE this term, practising our hand-eye coordination and our balancing skills. The children came a long way in being able to, for instance, balance on one leg, dribble a tennis ball across the courtyard without losing control of it, and learning to climb ropes to the ceiling.


We are learning different types of programming in computer science and studying the colour wheel in art, among other things! The whole school took part in an exploration of Monet, the French Impressionist, and Class 4 had a go at one of his famous landscapes. The pictures were then framed and put on display in the Hall. I was very proud of my artistic class!


A few weeks ago we had a very busy week indeed! It was National Science Week, and we did our part by spending Monday and Tuesday on eight different science experiments that could be done in any normal kitchen. The children found out how a microwave works, made gooey candy and explored how static electricity affects puffy cereal. Perhaps most interesting was the experiment into what happens when you don't wash your hands. We put our fingers into a petri dish full of gelatine and waited several days to see what would happen.

The children boiled red cabbage to learn about bases and acids.

 

Experimenting with different types of soaps to find out which is better at killing germs.

All in all, it's been a busy term! Next term we'll be looking at the world through an Ancient Egyptian lens. It should be very exciting.