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Computer whizzes!

Our Year 3/4 children have become computer programmers! They have been writing algorithms to control their own smart home lighting system. "Alexa, can you turn the lights on please?". Meanwhile, Year 1/2 have been exercising their maths brains with Mathletics, Year R have been studying autumn and Year 5/6 have been learning about the concept of creation in their RE lessons.

Year R - Awesome Autumn

Year R have had a brilliant week investigating Autumn and finding out all about the changes which happen during this season. Conker rolling, shaping plasticine to make pumpkins and discovering what’s inside a pepper were some of our best bits!

The children have been really interested in hedgehogs and so we spent time discovering what makes them special and unique. These are some of our favourite facts: Hedgehogs shouldn’t drink milk, they hibernate in the winter and their babies are called hoglets.

We also had a brilliant time exploring musical instruments and performing our own songs and dances accompanied by our very own percussion playing!

Great learning, Year R!

Year 1/2 - Loving Mathletics

Year 1/2 have been really enjoying using our new Mathletics subscription in their Independent Learning Time and during some maths sessions. 

‘I like that I can play games on Mathletics because you can go against people.’ Eloise

‘Mathletics helps me with maths and it’s really fun.’ Pippa

‘I like practising my numbers on Mathletics because it’s fun.’ Ava

‘Mathletics helps me with my maths because it gives you maths questions that you can figure out.’ Yusuf 

‘Mathletics is cool because it has loads of games and you can see who is winning in your class.’ Alex

Year 3/4 - Computing Whizzes!

During our English project on the books of Anthony Browne, year 3/4 made nightlights for gorillas!  In the book, Gorilla, there is a moment when some gorillas appear to be unable to sleep which got us thinking about what makes us sleep better at night.  Looking at computer or phone screens is of course not a great idea as our minds become too stimulated so the other idea was to create a night light that gently soothed the gorillas to sleep.

The children used the LearnPad tablets, Sam Space computing app and the SamLabs blocks to make the light.  Each team wrote a short sequence or algorithm that had inputs, behaviours and outputs on the LearnPad first to test that the system worked.  The lights were able to change colour at a preset time interval and move when connected to a small motor.  The children then used Bluetooth to link the real blocks to the LearnPad so that they could switch the nightlight on and change the settings via the app.  Each group then had a paper cone with holes poked through to make a pattern.  The devices were tested in the hall to make sure they worked.  

Here are some pictures, sorry for the fuzziness but the hall was quite dark and the lights were moving so the camera found it hard to know what light settings to use.  We all really enjoyed the experienced and learnt lots about programming and computer science.

Year 5/6 - Considering Creation

In the final week before the half term break, Years 5 and 6 finished their work on Rooftoppers by considering what the next chapter was. The children planned and wrote their own chapters, applying the grammar skills that they have been learning: conjunctions, adverbs, and semi-colons and colons.

The children’s R.E. learning for this half term was based on the concept of creation. They considered what makes out world wonderful and drew and labelled pictures of something they think is wonderful. The children learnt the Christian creation story, retold it, and thought about why this story is a particularly important one for Christians. They explored different Christian interpretations of the creation story and considered whether a Christian could believe in the Big Bang and evolution.

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