We began our next unit of music ‘Nautilus’ by learning all about the composer Anna Meredith. She composed the piece of music ‘Nautilus’ and her music covers lots of different styles. We listened to the music with our eyes closed whilst thinking of the following questions:
Whilst continuing to listen to the music, we explored feeling the beat using our bodies to move in time with the music. We listened carefully for any changes in the music and considered how we would use our bodies to show that change. We worked as a crew to follow a listening map that matched the music as it changed throughout.
To continue with our unit on ‘Down there under the sea’, we recapped our physical warm up from the previous lesson. We then reminded ourselves of the lyrics to our song and used picture prompts to help us think about the content of each verse.
We then listened to the sounds of the sea being made using percussion instruments and thought about how we could use the instruments in our classroom to create similar sounds.
We represented seagulls, crabs and waves using different percussion instruments and performed as a class to create a seaside soundscape.
We finished the lesson by looking at the notes C-D-E on the glockenspiel. We worked hard to keep in time with our partner to play each note.
We began work on our new unit of work called ‘Down there under the sea’ by first of all warming our bodies up, thinking about making big movements with our arms and legs to represent different activities you would do at the beach – swimming, surfing, making sandcastles, and jumping over waves.
We discussed lots of different sounds that you might hear at the beach, and thought about how we could represent or make similar noises using our voices. We talked about the noise of the waves, seagulls, a rain storm out at sea, as well as a foghorn blaring to help keep ships safe! We worked together as a crew to create short soundscapes for each of the sounds.
We then listened to and responded to a piece of music that represented being underwater. It was accompanied by a video that showed lots of different sea creatures and how they moved in the water. We responded by moving our bodies to the music in different ways and at different speeds.
We finished the lesson by listening to and beginning to learn our new song ‘Down there under the sea’. We listened carefully to the words and started to try singing along at the same time as the song, thinking about how we moved our voice up and down to sing different notes.
Today we kickstarted our mental week off exploring what our mental health is and how we can support it. Oliver had some fantastic ideas and said a good diet, good sleep and exercise would help keep our minds healthy. We thought about things we grateful for that help us feel happy. – Lily-Ann said her sister and family made her her safe and happy. – Thomas said his dad made him fell happy when he plays with him. – Charlie said he feels better when he’s goes on his exercise bike! – Eileen-Ann said she feels happy when she does yoga. We enjoyed some mindful yoga to wake up our minds after a busy weekend.
On Thursday afternoon, we had some time after lunch doing some litter picking. Even better that we got some additional time in the sunshine. Crew Shields did a great job picking up rubbish as we know it’s everyone’s responsibility to keep our environment clean, tidy and safe.
This morning in XP Outdoors, we planted our sunflowers outside in bigger pots to that they could grow big and strong in the bright sunshine! We carefully took our plants out of their small plant pots, made a small hole in the compost and patted our sunflowers firmly into their new pot. After that, we watered them to make sure they had had a good drink, and now we will keep our fingers crossed that they carry on growing!
Wow! Mick really put us to the test today as we completed several different challenges. We had to work as a team to complete the variety of strength and fitness activities. We worked super hard to complete each activity but found carrying the tyre above our heads quite tricky.
Today, we were able to have a chat with an expert about our current expedition. A mental health nurse came to talk to us about mental health and their role in looking after people’s mental health. We learnt more about what our mental health is and why it is important to look after it. This linked to our expedition because if we have a healthy lifestyle, it is easier to enjoy stronger mental health. We looked at how connecting with others, being present in the moment, keeping active, helping others and keeping our minds learning new things are all strategies that we can do to avoid negative mental health concerns. Our expert told us about the network we have around us that we can turn to if we need and pointed out that a lot of what can affect our mental health is often beyond our circle of control. We even got chance to ask some of our own questions about mental health and the type of work that he has seen.
Ultimately, the best way that we can keep mentally healthy is by understanding our own mental health and not being afraid to talk to someone if things start to feel too much for us – it’s normal for people to need help!
In Re, we learned about the prayer practice of Islam. These are Wudu, facing Makkah, preparing the mind, praying solo or with others and finally recording set words. We discussed each practice and why this was important for prayer. It was great to see the children asking questions to help their understanding. We used the Islamic prayer to highlight words that described Allah. We linked this to our British Values and how we should show respect and tolerance to others with different religious beliefs to our own.
