We are Scientists – Series Circuits

In expedition we have continued to be scientist by starting to learn about electricity. Children were given some equipment in small groups and they had to problem solve together to create a working circuit. This was a chance for children to demonstrate their resilience as they’d only been given the equipment and no further instructions. It was great hearing the children talk through what they’d done already and what they could try next. The majority of the groups managed to construct a working circuit and either make the bulb light up or the buzzer work.

Silent Line up

This morning in Crew we were set a challenge to line up with a predetermined characteristic but we weren’t allowed to speak. We had to order ourselves in height, shoe size and hair length. We worked in 2 groups which worked very differently. One group had 2 children who took a lead and directed the rest of the children with hand signals or guiding them to where they needed to be. The other group figured it out between them and didn’t have anyone that appeared to be leading the rest of them, however, both groups were successful.

Reading Prosody

In reading yesterday, we focused on our reading fluency and reading with expression. Miss Shields did an echo read to model how to read with expression then the children worked in small groups to work on a small section together. They had some time to practice before performing to the rest of the class. I was very impressed with how quickly they picked it up.

RE – What is a soul and does everyone have one?

This was a lovely session as it was great to hear the children discussing their views on a soul and what they think it is responsible for. One child was a little shy about sharing how they believe God is responsible for our soul but we encouraged them to be proud of their beliefs. Children then drew what they thought a soul looked like which was really interesting.

Subordinate Conjunctions

In writing on Friday, we learned about subordinate conjunctions and how they add further information to the main clause. We learned I SAW A WABUB to help us remember the subordinate conjunctions. Then we worked in pairs to experiment with the position of the subordinate clause. We realised that the subordinate clause can either be at the start or end of the sentence. However, if it is at the start of the sentence, we must remember to use a comma to separate the main clause and the subordinate clause.

Bob Marley is 80!

On Friday, we celebrated the birthday of Bob Marley by singing a melody of his songs. What a wonderful way to start the day. It was lovely to see the children singing along and some of them starting to move with the music.

Be the teacher

In reading this week, the children had the opportunity to be the teacher. They were provided with some inference questions that had been answered. They worked in pairs to evaluate which questions or questions they thought had been answered well. Children were able to start pulling out that they preferred a particular answer because it give an explanation that linked to the question. They could see that in other answers it either didn’t provide enough information or it was a lot of writing but didn’t actually answer the question.

Building Shelters

Survival 10! In Scotties, children learned what they’d need to do if they ever needed to survive in the wilderness. Children worked in groups to build themselves a shelter. They had to find a suitable place to pitch their shelter and worked together to get it up and find some seating for inside. Great team effort from all.

Crew Challenge

There is nothing like a good crew challenge to start the day. Children worked in groups of 3 or 4 and they had to hold as many pieces of paper as they could. However, the piece of paper couldn’t touch another piece and they had to hold it between different body parts such as knees, head or hands. One group managed to hold 5 pieces.