In science, we have continued our learning about electricity by exploring conductors and insulators.
We discovered that conductors allow electricity to flow through them but conductors stops electricity from flowing through. Children explored materials in the class and recorded their findings. In our next 2 lessons, we will write our findings in a scientific report.
In crew, we’ve been learning about bullying and the impact it has on the children that have to endure it . We discussed the different types of bullying such as physical, emotional or cyber. It was great to hear the discussion between the children and their understanding of the fact bullying is something that happens over time and not just a one off.
Today, Crew Hamill continued Case Study 2 by finishing off our emojis, this time using acrylic paint. We then discussed the differences between each medium and decided which paint we preferred to work with. This will help us to complete our final piece by selecting the medium that works best for us. Once we had done this, we began our first sketches of an influential person. We followed videos, using gridlines and step by step instructions to complete drawings of Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks and Marcus Rashford. Miss Hamill was VERY impressed with our first drafts and cannot wait to see our second drafts which we will turn into our final paintings.
Crew Hamill have focused on a newspaper article about the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in our reading lessons this week. We have had lots of opportunities to practice our fluency using various strategies including chunk, chunk, scoop and chorus reading. This has allowed us to work on our words per minute and we have also discussed our intonation when reading, ensuring we do not sound monotonous and boring! We have also practiced our automaticity words each day. We enjoyed today’s activity in which we created our own spinners using a pencil and paper clip! Following this, we have worked in pairs to solve reason to read questions and demonstration comprehension questions.
In Crew this morning, Crew Hamill looked at the importance of self-care to support with mental health. We discussed the little things we can do each day to look after ourselves in order to make ourselves feel happier and healthier. We then began creating posters for our own self-care activities that we like to do at home.
Today in Art, we explored and completed a colour wheel. We discovered how colours mix, contrast and evoke emotions. Then we painted two Emoji boards: one with water colours and one with acrylic paint. This helped us to begin to associated colours with emotions and to see how colour effects the mood and storytelling in art.
To continue our second case study, we have looked at the different skills we need in order to complete a portrait image of an influential person. We began by recapping on the different sketching skills we need and then using these to illustrate shadow as this is something we will need to recreate in our final piece. We used torches and different shapes to experiment with shadow and used our sketching skills to demonstrate the shadows. Following this, we began looking at two different types of paints – water colour and acrylic. We recapped our knowledge of the colour wheel and have then used this knowledge to mix colours that represent different emotions. We completed our water colours and will now move on to do the same with acrylic so that we can explore the different medium a little bit more.
Crew Hamill have begun their next unit of writing this week which we’re extremely excited about as it is going to be supporting us with our final product. This unit is all about monologues (speeches). We began this unit by watching a few video examples of monologues to generate ideas on what they are and how they are performed, making notes in our mini crews on things that we noticed.
Once we had completed this, we then had a class discussion on the things that we liked and disliked about Doncaster as a city. This is because our speech is going to be focused on our dreams for Doncaster. On our second day of this lesson, we then worked in mini crews to organise given cards into two sections – things that Doncaster already has that are good and things that would make Doncaster a better place. Following this, we looked at some quotes from a recent Doncaster Free Press article of other people sharing their wishes for Doncaster in order to further develop our ideas. Once we had done this, we generated our own ideas and shared these with a crew.
To demonstrate our learning, we then created mind maps of ideas that we would like to include in our own speeches, illustrating our own dreams for Doncaster.
To consolidate our learning, we had a class vote on whether or not we would recommend Doncaster as a place to move to. We then had to justify our decision with reasons. Some of us believed it was a good place to come to as we have lots of shops, good schools and plenty of green spaces to play. Others believed it wasn’t the best place to move to as we would like it to have more employment opportunities and kinder, more respectful members of the community.
In expedition today, we looked at how we use switches every day and the different types of switches. The different types of switches we found out about are push button switch, slide switch, toggle switch, key switches and pull cord switches. We found out that switches open or close a circuit and therefore impacts the flow of electricity. When on, a switch will create a complete circuit. When a switch is off, it ‘breaks’ the circuit and the circuit will no longer work as the flow of electricity has been stopped. We then built our own switches following instructions and then placed it within a electrical circuit to see if it worked.
