St Joe's Blog: February 2015

Friday 13 February 2015

Year 5 Space Week

This week, year five have been learning all about space.

In Science, we discovered that rocks are formed in layers over time and that scientists can look at rock samples from other planets to learn all about them. We took part in an experiment where we examined the layers in a mysterious 'rock' sample from Mars. Here you can see the layers inside.

After the experiment, we were allowed to eat the chocolate, which was really Yummy.

In art, we studied the abstract artist Peter Thorpe, who creates lots of brightly coloured paintings of science fiction scenes. We created our own abstract rocket pictures in response, using oil pastels and bold colours. Here are some of our works of art. Aren't they fantastic?

Alisha's artwork used bold colours and blending.

Irene's metallic rocket contrasted with the neon planet behind.

In Literacy and Numeracy, we also had a space focus, working on space problem solving in Maths and writing about an alien planet in Literacy. After learning about the fictitious moon Pandora, we wrote non-chronological reports about the moon and the animals that live there. We learnt how to use technical language and how to write in a formal voice. Below are some examples of our work.

Caitlin added lots of detail to her writing.

Piper worked hard to use varied sentence starters.

Overall we have had a fantastic week. We have loved learning about space. If you want to see more of our learning, keep an eye out for our workaround the school.

Year 5.

Year 3 Bridge Investigation!

Year 3 spent today studying different types of famous bridges. In the morning they did careful observations of all of the different types of bridges and evaluated what parts they felt were most effective in all of the different bridges.

They then had the challenge of working collaboratively as a group to design their own bridges, drawing on ideas that they had seen in the famous bridges during the morning.

In the afternoon we visited the DT room and the children began the construction stage of making their bridges. Have a look at the photos below to see how they got on...