‘To have’ Verbs

1st October 2024Laura Hamill

Continuing in our mission to learn all there is to know about verbs, Crew Hamill began investigating ‘to have’ verbs. We learned that the ‘to have’ verb shows when you own something or hold something. We played a game of Left Side/Middle/Right Side in which we had to run to the part of the room that had the correct verb. We then worked in mini crews to identify some verbs within sentences before completing our exit tickets independently.

We learned that:

Has is used when talking about 1 noun.
Have is used for more than one as well as with you and I.
Had is used to show the past tense.

Past or Present? To Be Verbs

1st October 2024Laura Hamill

In grammar, Crew Hamill have continued to learn about the ‘to be’ verb and understanding past and present. We had the Carcroft Time Machine to help us decide if given sentences were in the past tense or the present tense. We then used our knowledge to organise sentences into past and present tense.

The Phases of The Moon

1st October 2024Laura Hamill

To continue Case Study 1, we have looked in more detail at the Moon and how it orbits Earth. We learned that the Moon is 239,000 miles away from Earth and that it takes just over 27 days to orbit the Earth. Did you know that we only ever see one side of the Moon? Amazingly, we learned that the Moon doesn’t actual have it’s own light and that we only see it because the light from the Sun reflects off the surface of the Moon. As the Earth orbits our planet, the amount of the Moon we can see differs and this splits into eight phases – New Moon, Waning Gibbous, Waning Quarter, Waning Crescent, Full Moon, Waxing Gibbous, Waxing Quarter and Waxing Crescent. We learned that when the Moon is in the ‘Waxing’ phase, the amount of the Moon we see gets bigger and when it is in its ‘Waning’ phase, we see less of the Moon. We then worked in mini crews to recreate the phases of the Moon using Oreos! We even got to eat them afterwards!

The Movement of The Earth

1st October 2024Laura Hamill

To kick start Case Study 1, we looked at the movement of Earth in relation to the Sun and Moon. We did a lot of research by watching and interactive video that gave us quiz questions throughout, testing that we were paying attention and taking in all of the facts. We then came together as a crew to make a video that detailed everything we learned. Our main facts were:

  • The Earth moves in two different ways: 1. It rotates on its axis. 2. It orbits around the Sun.
  • It takes the Earth 24 hours (1 day) to rotate fully on its axis.
  • It takes the Earth 365 and a quarter days (1 year) to orbit the Sun. 
  • When we are facing towards the sun, we get day time.
  • When we are facing away from the sun, we get night time. 
  • The Sun appears to move across the sky but it doesn’t. 
  • The Sun stays where it is and Earth’s rotation makes it disappear.

You can see our video by scanning this QR code:

Ordering numbers to 10,000

26th September 2024Laura Hamill

To consolidate our learning on ordering numbers to 10,000, we each became a 4-digit number! To begin with, we were able to choose any 4-digit number we liked but then we were given specific criteria for our numbers. For example, each digit had to have a different value. We then had to order ourselves from smallest to biggest or biggest to smallest, depending on the instruction we were given. We worked really hard to make sure that the value of the person to one side of us was bigger than us and the value of the person to the other side was smaller. We used our maths vocabulary to have a conversation about why we should be in a certain position. For example, “My tens column has a higher value so I have to bie bigger.” Shoutout to Jenson who was able to become the teacher during this lesson and instruct people where they should be going and why! To end our lesson, we were given four 4-digit numbers that we had to order from smallest to biggest on a whiteboard. Miss was very excited when we all managed to complete this independently!

Building Background Knowledge – Movement of the Planets

24th September 2024Laura Hamill

Today, we began building our background knowledge on our solar system and how the planet within it orbit (move around) the Sun. We worked in mini crews to make notes as we watched videos that detailed each of the 8 planets and how they each orbit the Sun. Every time we watched something new, we changed the colour of our pen to build upon the knowledge we had already gained from the previous video. We are going to use this knowledge to write a paragraph of what we now know about how the planets move in our next expedition lesson.

Ordering 4 digit numbers

24th September 2024Laura Hamill

Today, Crew Hamill used their place value knowledge to begin ordering 4 digit numbers to 10,000. We used our place value arrow cards to build our numbers so that we could visually see the numbers we were working with. We then began following the steps needed to decide which order they should go in, whether they be in ascending order (smallest to biggest) or descending order (biggest to smallest). We started by looking at the column with the highest value (our thousands) and then working down the columns until we found the digit that would help us decide whether the numbers were bigger or smaller. We were then able to apply this knowledge to some fluency questions in our books.

Dodgeball

24th September 2024Laura Hamill

Crew Hamill have been developing their dodgeball skills over the last few weeks, focusing on the basic skills needed in order to successfully play a game of dodgeball in two teams. Today, we developed our skills further by working on our deflection – using one dodgeball to block a second that is being thrown towards us. We began by working in 3s with one person throwing the ball to a second person who was to deflect it towards the third person. We then put these skills to the test during some mini games. One person in each team had a ‘golden ball’ which they were not allowed to drop. Their role was to deflect any balls that came towards them. BUT, they had to be really careful because if they dropped their golden ball, they were OUT! We cannot wait to develop these skills further in our next PE session!