Book talk in MI

7th May 2024Stacey McClare

Our entry ticket allowed us to recap the story verbally then we ordered different statements to assess our understanding of this. From here we looked at a further question where we had to empathise with one of the characters in the story, thinking about what we would do in a certain situation.

We then unpicked the language that we would come across when reading the next part of the text. We took part in a chorus read, partner read and an independent read. We thought about our expression when reading then moved onto our reasons to read.

Our exit ticket allowed us to think about what the characters would say next in the story. We are looking at direct speech in our writing lessons at the minute so this was a great activity for us to consolidate our knowledge.

Challenge Crew

7th May 2024Laura Hamill

Today, Crew Hamill took part in one of their favourite crew challenges – Leaning Tower of Feetza! We had to work in mini crews to see which team could build the tallest, free-standing tower with their shoes. We had to make sure our tower remained standing for at least 30 seconds once we let go. We had two rounds and each managed to score a point!

Christian Prayer

3rd May 2024Ruth Shields

We have really enjoyed our RE lesson today as we were able to have some great discussions and challenge our own views.

We looked at a range of Christian prayers and discussed what we thought they meant. We learned that Christians don’t have any set practices for when they pray and compared this to Islam prayers.

As a crew we discussed our beliefs about God and how important it is to follow our beliefs and respect the beliefs of others.

During discussions, it became that some children were unfamiliar with well known bible stories so we have decided we will end some lessons with a bible story to further develop our knowledge.

Writing experience day

3rd May 2024Ruth Shields

In preparation for our next plot point, we were delighted to spend a lesson tasting different types of sweets. These sweets would trigger different taste buds on our tongue and allow us to create a bank of vocabulary that will support our writing. Lots of funny faces pulled especially with the sour and fizzy sweets.

Mayan Hierarchy

3rd May 2024Ruth Shields

As with our society, the Mayans had a hierarchy that consisted of The King or High Priest followed by the council (priesthood). Next there were the nobles who were the wealthiest and most powerful. This was followed by the merchants and Artisans who were known as commoners but they didn’t have as hard a life and had better jobs. Finally there were the commoners who were the lowest class and had no rights. They were also referred to as slaves.

We compared this with the hierarchy that we have in the country, our homes and even in school.

As with our previous lesson, we were able to do some additional reading because we had to get our information to help us understand each social class.

What were the Mayans known for?

3rd May 2024Ruth Shields

This week we have been exploring the Mayans and learning about what they were known for. This was a perfect opportunity to do some additional reading as we had lots of information to read so we could highlight the key information.

Once we had collected our information, we started to create posters that shared these facts.

We were surprised to learn that the Mayans had an 18 month calendar and they had various gods who were responsible for a range of things such as war, sun and rain.

Book Talk and Fluency

3rd May 2024Ruth Shields

In our book talk session, we’ve been focusing heavily on how to answer inference questions and thinking about the skills we’ll be using to help us do this. As part of the lesson, we have are able to see a guided question and see the model of what an answer should look like before working alongside our peers to answer a different question.

In addition, we have been focusing on our fluency and the importance how being fluent helps us to understand the text and therefore answer the questions. We have been working on our pausing, pace and accuracy which is something we’ll continue with in th coming weeks.

Rounders Skills

3rd May 2024Laura Hamill

Today, Crew Hamill explored the skills required to play a game of rounders. We watched a video on what rounders actually is and chotted down the main rules of the game. We then looked at our focus for the lesson – throwing and catching. We watched demonstrations of an overarm throw and an underarm throw and discussed the need for each of these during a game of rounders. We identified that an overarm throw would be required when throwing over a long distance and an underarm throw would be better if the person we were throwing to was closer to us. Following this, we went into the hall and began our warm up activities in which we practiced bouncing a ball and catching it and throwing a ball above our heads and catching it. We were challenged to make this even trickier by clapping whilst the ball was in the air, before we caught it. After this, we got into pairs and had a practise of our overarm and underarm throwing. Once we were more confident in this, we got into mini crews of 4 and practise passing the ball around the square whilst one of us ran around the posts, like a batter would. We then made this even tricker by placing a hoop in the middle of the square. One person stood in the hoop and threw out a number of tennis balls for the rest of our crew (fielders) to collect whilst we tried to run around all 4 posts to get a rounder. We can’t wait to develop our skills further and put them into practise with a full rounders game later in the term!