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Week 5 and 6
We have been busy with our learning in Maserati – here are some highlights.
In English we have continued with our English unit ‘Blue John’ and have been building up our vocabulary skills looking at verbs, expanded noun phrases, similes and grouping ideas into short chapters. Everyone has planned their own gemstone story including the Queen of Darkness.
In Maths we are all learning about time. A recap of reading Roman Numerals around clock faces, looking at hours and minutes, reading time to 5minute intervals, reading time to the nearest minute and looked at am and pm. This week our focus has been looking at days, months and years and reading calendars, and finally reading and converting times on analogue and digital clocks. Everyone in Maserati has been working very hard to read and learn more about time.
In Science we have completed more experiments to do with magnets, looking at how magnets attract and repel, worked out which materials are magnetic and not and found out how many paperclips a magnet can hold. We have finished the unit with a showcase of learning through double-page spread. Fantastic science work!
In Topic we have been looking and learning about Volcanoes and how they are formed, we created technical labelled drawings of volcanoes, researched some famous volcanoes and found out some are active, dormant or extinct. There are hundreds of volcanoes and earthquakes in the Ring of Fire within the Pacific Ocean.
In Art we have been looking at LS Lowry and looked at the significance of the urban landscapes drawn and painted by LS Lowry, discussed how artists have represented urban landscapes. Maserati children had to think about a local urban landscape close to their heart and answer questions, for example, ‘How would you describe the character of our city centre? What do people do in our local town? What buildings and features would you see in our local urban environment?’ once the image was created this is now the work of a mixed media collage.
Week 3 and 4
Congratulations Maserati for all working very hard with your learning across the curriculum.
In English the children completed their Newspaper Reports using the film clip of ‘The Three Little Pigs’ and had to write their reports retelling the events. After carefully introducing the report using the 5 W’s, the children then had to add to a headline and quotes and concluding paragraph. After carful editing the reports were published and pictures were added. Fantastic work everyone. This week we have started our new English unit ‘Blue John’ about a little boy who was made from gemstones to bring light to the Queen of Darkness. Each of the chapters in the short book is all about opposites and told us Blue John’s story of wanted to be like every other child, sadly curiosity for friendship and the outside world turned him into a gemstone. The children have mapped out the story carefully using words and phrases and images from the story and created a thesaurus of colour. Over the next few weeks everyone will be working on writing their own gem story.
We have been very with daily time tables and lots of children are practicing at home and working through school’s time tables challenges. Year 3’s finished their second fraction unit and have a good knowledge of fractions and how to add and subtract fractions with the same denominator. Everyone is now looking at money and recognises pounds and pence, can convert between pounds and pence, add and subtract money denominations and solve word problems.
In Science we have been completing some experiments using forces using Newton metres. Last week the Newton metres were used to push or pull everyday classroom items and this week we conducted an experiment on shoes. In small groups Maserati selected a shoe and tested the force on different surfaces (tiles, carpet, table, wooden plank and a bumpy lid). After a short introduction, everyone predicted which surface would have the smallest and biggest force using the Newton metre. Then the shoe was tested on the surfaces and the results table completed before learning how to draw a bar chart. Everyone worked together and had great fun!
Last week in Geography we were learning about Mary Anning and wrote a guide about her life. In Geography, this week we have re-looked at the tectonic plates and how Earth used to be one continent but over millions of years the plates have moved to make new continents. Then we have read information and researched the ring of fire and Year 3 have recorded countries that lie within the ring of fire and Year 4 found the names of some famous volcanoes.
One of our PE sessions this half term is with Mr Woolgar and we have been playing Quick Cricket. It’s and early start on a Tuesday morning. During the sessions we have been throwing and catching under and overarm, fielding, batting and competing in mini games. We are working on scoring runs and not running out our friends! In our other session we are preparing for Sports Day and looking at Olympic events, so far, we have improved our running stamina, egg and spoon, throwing distance balls, discuss, shot put and javelin to name a few. Maserati have shared some great warm up and cool down stretches.
A few pictures to celebrate the ‘Month of the Military child’.
Week 1 and 2
Well done Marvellous Maserati what a wonderful start to the term.
In English we have been focusing on Newspaper Reports and using a film clip of ‘The Three Little Pigs’ to help to the understand the key features, headline, orientation, formal and standard English, quotes and concluding paragraphs and a televised version. We have had great fun creating these and working together.
We have started working hard in Math’s. For the Year 3’s they are in the middle of the second unit of fractions and have been adding and subtracting with the same denominator, solving word problems and finding unit and non-unit fractions of amounts. Fantastic Year 3! In Year 4 they have been working with decimals and looking carefully at tenths and hundredths, partitioning, comparing, rounding to the nearest whole number and finishing with halves and quarters.
In Science our new topic is ‘Forces and Magnets’ where we have been identifying ‘push and pulls’ in everyday items and this week we have tested different types of surfaces and looked at friction and how you need a push going in one direction and friction goes in the opposite direction. Some great result were recorded in hand drawn tables.
Our topic for this term is ‘Rock, Relics and Rumbles’ where we have launched the topic looking back at the structure and characteristics of the Earth’s layers, using poster and information sheet. We have worked as geologists, testing samples of rock to find out if they are sedimentary, igneous or metamorphic and now know more about rocks and different places where they are found. After watching a video about fossils, I have asked the children to recall and describe each step of fossil formation. Then the children completed some work about Mary Anning and how she became a famous palaeologist.
Our Art this half term is looking at figure drawing and the human form in art. The children have started to explore the significant artist, LS Lowry and his unique style of figure drawing. We have studied LS Lowry’s figures in more detail by selecting a figure or groups of figures from the ‘Going to Work’ and drawing them in their sketchbooks. Everyone has drawn the shape, forms and figures and n used similar colours dark shades scheme to colour them.