This week, Crew McLoughlin have used story maps to plan their independent writing. They came up with lots of amazing different endings of how The Lorax might end. Using their story maps, they organised their ideas and thought carefully about how to bring the story to a happy ending. At the end of the lesson, a few brave volunteers stood in front of the class to share their wacky and wonderful alternative endings.
Today, Crew McLoughlin had a fantastic expedition science lesson learning about the different parts of plants and their roles. The class explored real plants kindly shared from Miss Newman’s mum’s garden, which made the lesson extra special!
Students carefully examined roots, stems, leaves, and flowers, discussing how each part helps the plant grow and stay healthy. They loved getting hands-on with the plants and spotting the unique features of each one.
This week, Crew McLoughlin became young scientists as they learned how to classify different plants. They looked closely at leaves, stems, and flowers – they even got to touch and feel many of the plants to notice their textures and features (but not the cactus, of course)! The crew loved comparing what they found and talking about how scientists group plants based on their characteristics.
Today Crew McLoughlin have been working extra hard on their text marking in reading. While using their highlighters and pencils, they identified key ideas, annotated tricky words and added extra detail to show their understanding. Everyone showed great focus and teamwork, discussing their ideas and supporting one another. Well done, Crew McLoughlin – your reading skills are getting stronger every day!
This afternoon for our science lesson, Crew McLoughlin let their imaginations run wild and became inventors to dream up their very own crazy inventions, inspired by Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. From zipable chocolate bars to unlimited sweet machines, the ideas were as magical as a Roald Dahl story itself.
Crew McLoughlin worked in mini crews to sketch, design, and name their inventions. Each group was challenged to think not only about what their creation would do, but also why we needed it.
Once the inventions were designed, in true Dragon’s Den style, we presented our designs to the rest of the crew. With confidence and plenty of imagination, the children sold their ideas as if they were about to launch them in the real world. We were all blown away by the originality and enthusiasm of every team, making our decision a very tough one indeed.
At the end, the crew voted for their favourite sales pitch. The winning teams walked away with the sweetest prize of all—chocolate, of course!
Today was Experience Day in our writing lesson, Crew McLoughlin practised their roleplaying skills through recreating scenes from The Lorax. Working in mini crews, everyone planned, rehearsed, and then performed their scenes for the class. There was plenty of creativity, teamwork and communication! Our crew particularly enjoyed guessing which scene each group was performing! This was a great way kick start our new writing unit.
Today, Upper Key Stage 2 received a visit from an officer with South Yorkshire Police to learn all about online safety. Lots of us were surprised to find out that a lot of the apps we use each day (Snapchat, Whatsapp, Facebook etc.) actually have an age limit of 13 years old!! This means that we shouldn’t actually be using them yet. We also learned all about the ways in which we can stay safe online – not sharing passwords or personal information, never talking to people we don’t know and sharing any concerns we have with trusted adults.
Today, Crew McLoughlin took on a fun and creative crew challenge! Each table was tasked with drawing a house – but there was a twist. The pen was tied to several pieces of string, and the only way to guide it was by working together, holding and pulling the strings. No one was allowed to touch the pen directly!
The challenge sparked plenty of laughter, teamwork, and problem-solving as everyone figured out how to control the pen and bring their house drawings to life.
Year 5/6 have been learning about the different denominations that have evolved from Christianity over the years. Although, they have the same Jewish core beliefs, they worship God in slightly different ways based on their leaders interpretations of the bible.
At the end of the lesson, we revisited the story of Creation and about Adam and Eve as children were unfamiliar with this bible story and how Christian’s believe the world was created.
This term, we have been focusing on becoming more independent and reflective learners and one way we’re doing that is by making our own learning pledges!
Each child has made a personal pledge to help them remember to refer to their tables during lessons in reading, writing and maths. we make pledges to help us take ownership of our learning.
A pledge is a promise we make to ourselves. It’s a way of setting a goal and saying, “This is something I’m going to try my best to do.”
By making pledges, we learn to:
The children voiced that pledges help you to be the best version of yourself and like LTs they are something for us to achieve towards. We discussed they remind us that learning doesn’t just happen – it takes effort, reflection and the confidence to keep improving. When we stick to our pledges, we feel proud because we’re doing something that helps us become better learners!
