Feature Finding

Today, Crew Hamill had their second experience lesson in which they were identifying the features of a non-chronological report. We worked as a crew to look at an example report, sharing ideas about what we noticed – the title, paragraphs and pictures etc. We then looked at a ‘non-chronological report checklist’ and used this to identify further features such as subheadings and an introduction. Once we were comfortable that we understood the features, we worked in pairs to organise a non-chronological report that had been jumbled up. We had to work out which subheading matched which paragraph, identify the title, introduction and conclusion, and then figure out which order we would put the information in before deciding where the pictures would go. Once we had done this, we labelled each of the features and explained why they were important. To consolidate our learning, we played ‘checklist challenge’ in which we had 3 minutes to write down as many features as we could remember before seeing who had remembered the most!

Early Conditions in the Mine

During today’s lesson, Crew Hamill had the opportunity to experience a mining tunnel for themselves. Using tables and dark material, we recreated what a tunnel might look like. We turned out the lights to make things darker and played a coal mine soundscape to mimic the sounds of the mine. One at a time, we made our way through the tunnel, experiencing the dark, cramped and noisy conditions. We then had a small debrief explaining how we felt – lots of us were claustrophobic! Following this, we played true or false and moved to the side of the room that we felt was appropriate when presented with different facts about mining. If we agreed and thought they were true we went to one side, if we disagreed and thought they were false then we went to the other. To further demonstrate our learning, we read some fact sheets about life in the mine and created chotting sheets in mini crews that detailed the early conditions. 

Changes in the Mining Industry

Crew Hamill have delved deeper into the mining industry and had a look at some of the main changes that have occurred since mining began. We worked in pairs to match the important events to a picture that illustrated them. Once we’d done this, we worked together to order them in chronological order. We discussed whether these changes were social, technological or political and discussed why these events were so important. For example, in the 1980s, lots of miners went on strike to fight for better pay.

Interview Prep

As part of their expedition, Crew Hamill will be interviewing an ex miner in order to find out a little bit more about the experiences they had when working in the mines. In preparation for this, we worked in mini crews to chot some ideas for the questions we’d like to ask. We then worked as a crew to put our ideas together and generate a final list of questions which we will be asking on Friday.

Strike, strike, strike!!

Crew Hamill and Crew Wilkinson had so much fun causing a little mischief on the streets of Carcroft whilst taking part in our very own strike. We showed a united front whilst fighting for what we believe in – a school with no uniform and a 4 day school week (no Fridays!!).

Thank you to everyone who cheered us on when they saw us and to those who gave us a beep of their horn!

Let’s STRIKE!

To hook us into our learning, we are going on STRIKE! Today, we have learnt all about the coal mine strikes and the reasonings as to why these took place. We were shocked to find out that 142,000 people actually went on strike when Margaret Thatcher tried to close 20 mines in 1984. Did you know that people who didn’t go on strike were called scabs?! Inspired by what we have learnt, we are planning our own strike! We have decided that the school week should always be a 4 day week and that we shouldn’t have to come to school on Fridays. This afternoon, we have designed and created placards which we are going to use when we go on strike later in the week. Keep your eyes peeled – we may just march past your house!

Poetry Experience Day

To kick start our new writing unit on poetry, Crew Hamill have looked at lots of different examples of poetry, including a video of poet Micheal Rosen reciting his famous poem ‘Chocolate Cake’ (this made us all laugh a lot!) and a video of some Roald Dahl poems that have been turned into songs. We then worked in pairs to identify as many different features of poetry as we could, include rhyme, rhythm, line breaks, stanzas and personification.

Investigating Shadows

Crew Hamill spent time today exploring how shadows are formed. Once we’d worked out that shadows are formed by opaque objects blocking a light source, we experimented to see how we could change these shadows. We identified that when an object was closer to the light source, the shadow was larger as more of it was blocked and when the object was further away, the shadow was smaller as there was less of it being blocked.