Week beginning 11.03.19

This week it has been all about hypothesising, testing and observing as we have been enjoying joining in with the national celebration of British Science Week. Our Theme has been 'Journeys' Here is an over view of what we have been up to.

Day 1- Make it fly

We were given three designs of paper flying machines (planes, helicopters and gliders) and we had to improve our models to make them fly higher, faster or longer. Ask us what we changed to make the more successful models.

Day 2 - Matilda's floating feet

This experiment really got us thinking! How do you get a tissue paper newt to float using only a balloon? Static electricity is the answer! We explored the power of static electricity by creating a charge on a balloon and a variety of objects such as: plastic bag loops, feathers and polystyrene balls to create floating or jumping objects. Also, giving ourselves fantastic new hair dos in the process!

Day 3-  Trajectories

One of our favourite experiments! We made catapults using lolly sticks, elastic bands and pom-poms (as our projectiles). We experimented how to increase the trajectory of the pop- pom, by changing different variables. The most successful included: creating a larger stack of lolly sticks, changing the position on the pivot and changing the pressure when flicked.

Day 4- The journey of a water droplet

We learnt about the water cycle and were set a challenge that we initially thought was not even possible. Miss Palmer gave us a cup of extremely muddy water and lots of different tools and materials. We were given the task to make the water as clear as possible. We ended up with some pretty impressive results. Ask us how we managed it!

Day 5 - Changing states

We looked at different substances and discussed what defined a solid, a liquid or a gas. We then had some fun making a Non-Newtonian liquid. A liquid that acts like a solid when under pressure. 

And finally...

The celebration was topped of by an exciting visit from BAE Systems (British Aeronautics and Engineering), presenting practical demonstrations from the science of night vision goggles to iPad controlled Sphero Bolts. 

Week beginning 4.03.19

Where is the time going? Half-way through the year and the Seahorses are charging into some new units and topics.

We have loved learning all about the ancient Egyptians, but we are moving forward in time with our 'Ancient Times' theme this term, as we start to learn all about the ancient Greeks.

ICT

We started off our topic by thinking about what we would like to learn over the next few weeks during our time spent studying ancient Greece. We turned these thoughts into research questions and created our own cyberhunt. We found websites that would provide the answers to our questions and created a quiz using Microsoft Word embedding hyperlinks to help find the answers.

English

We are very excited about our new unit 'Myths and Legends' and have already enjoyed being introduced to some of the gods and heroes in Greek mythology such as: Icarus and Daedalus, Theseus and the Minotaur, Pandora's Box and we are even tackling Homer's 'The Odyssey'. With lots of role play and acting, we know we are going to enjoy learning about all these characters and their adventures.

The highlight of this week was definitely World Book Day where we took advantage of our 'Drop and Read' challenge to spend some extra time enjoying and sharing our favourite books. We listened out for the bell and whenever it rang we found ourselves a comfortable spot, we dropped and we read!

Week beginning 4.02.19

Maths 

In maths this week we have completed this terms visit to the unit of measures, by reading different scales and estimating capacity. We were set the challenge by Miss Spidy of creating a vessel that held exactly 1 litre. 

We also used our new knowledge to measure the capacity of a variety of containers using various measuring equipment.

We have now moved on to our new unit of fractions. We have been been finding fractions of a shape and an amount, adding and subtracting fractions and finding pairs of fractions that make a whole. Next week we will be looking at equivalent fractions and using our new knowledge to solve problems.  

History

During our history lesson this week, we learnt all about the food available to the ancient Egyptians and conducted a taste test appraisal with mixed results! We love the oatcakes sweetened with honey but we were not too sure about the dried fruit dates or the goats cheese! 

Also..

I would like to give a massive thank-you to Reverend Thorpe and all at Necton All Saints church for allowing us to have the whole church to ourselves for a Seahorse class visit. We explored all the areas of the church and used the beautiful environment to help us identify different shapes and even took some times to create some lovely artistic rubbings. 

Week Beginning 21.01.19

What A fantastic day we had on Wednesday at the Norwich Castle Ancient Egyptian day! We got to go behind the scenes in the castle and learn from the experts whilst taking part in four different hands-on activities. We learnt about handling artefacts as an archaeologist, the mummification process, every day life in ancient Egypt and ancient Egyptian jewellery.

Here are a few of the highlights...

Meeting our hosts

Travelling back in time!

Learning about our day 

The men harvesting the wheat.

The women washing the clothes in the Nile. Watch out for the hippos!

Procession for the Pharaoh.
 

Making Egyptian collar necklaces. 

Meeting the real life mummy!

Making a mummy! It was all a bit squeamish! 

Removing the brain!

Covering the body in Natron salt.

Handling 3000 year old artefacts with the Victorian archaeologist thinking about what would learn from them and should we really take them? 

Once again, it was a proud day to be a member of the Seahorse class as we received lots of compliments for our respectful and polite behaviour, insightful questions and positive attitudes. Go Seahorses!