Space - the final frontier

Last week, the children in Y4/5 were imagining what it would be like to travel in space. Like all good Captains, using information obtained through their research, they wrote their captain's logs. Are there some astronauts of the future living in Fishponds? I have been very impressed with what I read. Here are some snippets from a couple of excellent pieces of writing:

Captain’s Log Dean

Stardate-627.4

We have landed on Mars. One of my crew members has suffered from space sickness, however he is recovering. At 0800 hours we will be going out to collect rock samples with the Mars Rover 2.0, it’s basically the Moon Rover but made for Mars’ terrain. Yesterday we had one of the insects escape from the greenhouse. Luckily it wasn’t that important because we had hundreds of other insects just like it.
........

Stardate-631.4
Phew, mission accomplished.
We’re back at base now, packing up to go back to Earth. We’ve spent four or five long days on Mars now, but it was fun.
Speaking of fun, I actually caught that bug escapee last night; it was hiding under the Mars Rover.
Soon tourists will be able to land on Mars because of our mission.

Captain’s log Belinda

Stardate: 04102000.412

It’s the fourth day on Mars, the red planet. We’re searching for other life-forms. We saw some plants and little creatures; it could be insects and think there might be life on Mars. It could be the next planet for humans to live on but the only problem is that we live on oxygen and we still don’t know. Earlier this day Hannah, one of the crew members injured herself on a Martian rock. Then I and Rachel (the other crew member) took Hannah in the space shuttle to give her first aid.

Later we checked the rock because it looked different from the others. When looked closer we saw that it was a fossil.

But why would a fossil be on Mars?! And it’s a bit confusing because no one’s been on Mars before we came and surely I bet no alien came to Earth to take a fossil. So this seems to be very interesting. Wonder what will happen next?

Day 6 Today is our last day on the beautiful but boiling red planet, Mars. We might visit Mars again in 2020 or 21 and now we hope that we get back to Earth safely, taking all the pictures and the stuff we collected. Mission Accomplished!

Thrilling Writers!

My class has been exploring what makes a good story. We have been experimenting with writing the openings and build-ups to create suspense and draw the reader in. I have discovered some budding thriller writers among the children. Here are a few to give a flavour:

Amy was walking from the club house. It was dark and a fox was running across the road. She heard a footstep behind her. She started running, running faster. The footstep started to run faster too. Amy was worried, she seriously wanted to go home. She was shivering. The cold wind was going into her face. She could see her house light…. Something was staring out!
by Rungkan


Crystal was slowly walking down the old, rusty steps. Were they safe? She was shaking with fear. Someone, or something, was behind her. But what? She continued but this time she ran. She got to the bottom and heard birds whistling. She was right at the edge of the deep wide river. Crystal was terrified she would fall in, when a bike shot past. She knew that this was her grave!
by Evie


Kameron was walking from the club. He heard footsteps. He thought it was him but the footsteps were faster. Every second Kameron was shivering. He stopped walking and turned around cautiously. There was a shadow camouflaged into the dark side of the wall. The wind started to blow harder and harder. Kameron turned back around but the thing was in front of him. Suddenly it pulled out a black bag, put it over Kameron and he was gone!...
by Kamal


Sophie was melting from the head in her room. She went to open her window but as soon as she pulled the curtain, a big bang, as loud as thunder, shot from side to side.
by Erin

Little Chick Diary

It was Class Y3/4J's turn this afternoon to have the newly hatched chicks. Everyone was very excited and decided to write or draw descriptions about them in their science books. Abigayle wrote a diary entry. I think it's fabulous!:

My Chick Diary

Wednesday 12th May: it is my first day alive. I am loving life!
Thursday morning: I had a late night because I was cracking lots of
shells with my beak. Lots of children saw me.
Friday: I heard lots of people singing.
Saturday, Sunday: We were lonely.
Monday, Tuesday: I got flight feathers
Wednesday, Thursday: Went into classes; was curious
Friday: going to leave St Joe's

Well done, Abby.

Chainstory - histoire a deux voix

Y3/4J have been taking part in an exciting project with their partner class in Carle Vernet school in Bordeaux. Each class is writing a chapter in a story (with the other class illustrating) to create a chainstory. We started the story before Easter and on Friday we received the next chapter, in French. I didn't need to translate the story very much at all as they were able to follow the story through finding all the words they know already and those that are similar to both languages. Just look at part of it and see for yourselves:

"L'anniversaire de la princesse Lillian s'annonçait aussi extraordinaire
que l'an passé.
Princesse Lillian avait beaucoup d'amis et elle décida d'inviter...350
enfants!!!Elle proposa à ses parents une liste de gourmandises à préparer
pour le grand jour:
• différents gâteaux au chocolat, à la fraise, au praliné et au caramel• d'autres desserts comme des crèmes à la vanille ainsi que des crêpes!
Bien sûr, un orchestre jouerait de la musique durant la fête et un grand
bal serait organisé."


I was really proud of my class of language learners. Bravo les enfants!

Dragon's Den

Over the last two terms, teams of inventors in the Middle Years have been designing, making and improving their 'Wheely Good Inventions'. Their inventions are aimed at fulfilling the needs of cyclists in some way.

Today, the teams, with their prototypes in hand, gave a sales pitch to a panel of three dragons in the hope of getting some 'investment'. The dragons wanted to make as much profit as possible and turned away teams that said they would lose money by selling their invention. After a fiery time in the den four teams managed to secure 'investment'! Two dragons were particularly impressed with an invention designed at keeping pizzas warm when cycling home from pizza shop.

Well done to ALL the children for all your tremendous effort! And thank you to Mr Terry, Bike it Ben and Mr Condon playing your role as dragons so well.

Photos coming soon!

Enterprise Workshops

On Tuesday, Mr Terry, our volunteer from HSBC Bank, came to work with the Year 3 & 4 children on our projects. He helped us think about why we were making our products and what we would need to say to the Dragons next week in the Den! We had to think of how to convince the 'Dragons' to invest in our products: their features and benefits. Thank you, Mr Terry, and we look forward to seeing you next week.