What is gravity and how does it work?

11th October 2024Laura Hamill

This week, we kick started Case Study 2, physics, by looking at the force of gravity. We discussed what a force was and identified that most of the crew already knew that gravity was the reason why we ‘stick to the floor’ and do not float. We then built up our background knowledge by watching a few videos that provided more information on gravity. Each time we watched a new video, we added extra information to our chotting sheet, changing colour each time. We then read a text on Isaac Newton, the scientist that discovered gravity when an apple fell down from a tree, and added even more information.

Once we had our background knowledge secure, we looked at Newton Metres which are used to measure the effect of gravity on an object. We had a go at measuring objects from around the classroom which we really enjoyed. We then worked in mini crews to use what we knew about gravity to create marble runs! We knew that gravity would bring the marble down to the floor so came up with some creative ways of making the marble move.

Irregular Verbs

11th October 2024Laura Hamill

Once we were secure in our knowledge of regular verbs and regular verb phrases, we moved on to looking at irregular verbs. These are verbs in which the root word changes when you turn them into past tense. For example, run -> ran. We activated our learning by playing a game of stand up, sit down. We were shown a number of verbs and had to stand up if we believed they were an irregular verb or stay sat down if we believed they were a regular verb. Following this, we looked at a selection of verbs and had to identify the odd one out. We worked in mini crews and were able to identify that 3 out of 4 of our verbs were regular and the odd one out was an irregular verb. We then had a go at turning irregular verbs into past tense – fly -> flew, throw -> threw etc. We ended the lesson by completing an exit ticket to consolidate our learning, showing that we could write irregular verbs in past, present and future tense.

Regular Verb Phrases

11th October 2024Laura Hamill

We continued our PVPG journey this week by starting with regular verb phrases. We activated our learning with a consolidation of our to be and to have verbs, organising them into two groups. We then had a quick recap of modal verbs and had a go at writing some simple sentences that included these. Once we had done this, we looked again at verb phrases, refreshing our memory from the previous lesson. We then identified regular verb phrases within sentences and completed our exit ticket to consolidate our learning.

Thrive/Team building

8th October 2024Tracy Haddock

Crew Hamill worked really well today. They supported each other when working together to complete the challenge. They did the amazing shrinking blanket, bucket challenge, getting the ball from one end of the hall to the other using their crew mates but without no hands! Then we used our skills to remember what action the person infront did and then passed it down the line to the last person.. But we didnt alway manage this and this is something we need to work on.

Regular Verbs – Doubling the Consonant

4th October 2024Laura Hamill

To activate our learning today, we looked at a picture of ‘Where’s Wally?’ Our job wasn’t to find Wally though! We had to see what was happening in the picture and identify as many verbs as we could – swim, laugh, sunbathe, burn, throw, sail, float etc. Then, we continued looking at regular verbs and discussed turning them into past tense verbs by adding the -ed suffix. However, we soon noticed that we couldn’t just add -ed on the end to all regular verbs, some of them required you to double the end consonant before you did. For example, the word march can be turned into past tense by simply adding -ed -> marched. However, the word wrap would need the final consonant (the p) doubling before we added -ed -> wrapped. We identified that any regular verb that has a short vowel sound (a, e, i, o or u) followed by a single consonant would need the final consonant doubling. However, regular verbs with a longer vowel sounds (ay, ee, ie etc.) would just need -ed adding to the end.

Rounding to the nearest 1000

4th October 2024Laura Hamill

Crew Hamill have worked really hard this week to round numbers to the nearest 10, 100 and then 1000. We began by identifying the multiple of 10, 100 or 1000 that was before and after our number. For example, if our number was 1235, the thousand before would be 1000 and the thousand after would be 2000. We then had to decide, using a number line to support, which multiple it was closest to and therefore which number we would round it to. We then learned a rounding rhyme to help us solve this more easily:

  • Find the place (which place you are rounding to)
  • Look next door (look at the column to the right)
  • 5 or bigger? +1 more
  • 4 or less? Let it rest

Regular Verbs and Verb Phrases

4th October 2024Laura Hamill

Crew Hamill continued their grammar lessons by deepening their understanding on regular verbs, focusing on how the suffix that is added to them changes their tense (e.g. if you ad -ed, it becomes past tense – walk, walked and if you ad -ing, it is present tense – walk, walking). We then spent some time working in mini crews to write down as many regular verbs as we could think of. Following this, we linked our new knowledge of regular verbs with our previous learning of ‘to be’ and ‘to have’ verbs and began to identify verb phrases which are made up of two verbs together (e.g. are swimming).

Case Study 1 Reflection

3rd October 2024Laura Hamill

Yesterday, Crew Hamill completed a Padlet in which each child added their own statements to each section, detailing the information they could remember from everything we have learned during our first science case study. Miss Hamill was impressed with just how much we’d remembered!

Crew Building – Time to Thrive!

1st October 2024Laura Hamill

Today, Crew Hamill were extremely lucky as they got to spend some time with Ms Haddock and take part in a few crew building activities. For our first activity, we played ‘spiders web’ in which we had to work as a mini crew to get ourselves through the gaps of the spiders web without touching the chains. We started off easy by going through the middle hole but then it was made more difficult when we had to get lower down to go through the bottom hole and somehow get higher up to get through the top hole. This is where we really needed our crew mates! In the second activity, we had to get from one side of the room to the other without touching the ‘water’. We could only stand on ‘land’ (within the hoops). We had to figure out the best way to get everyone safely from one side of the room to the other without anyone landing in the water.