Walliams Class
Mrs Spiers
What we've been up to...
Brake's Kids Walk
We went on a walk around the village to help promote walking to school and to help us think about road safety. We learnt about how to keep each other safe, how to keep ourselves safe and discussed why walking to school is such a good thing!
Finding a prickly pal
Some of the children noticed a hedgehog in our school grounds! We went to investigate it quietly, so we didn't disturb it. We discussed how the hedgehog was asleep as it is a nocturnal animal and it was during the day. We also thought about how we can be respectful of the wildlife on our school grounds. Isn't he cute?!
Fantastic Frogs
Every year the frogs in our pond lay their frogspawn. We love to watch it develop. Unfortunately, not much of this frogspawn manages to turn into tadpoles and then frogs as the other wildlife, such as the dragonfly nymphs, end up munching on these and we don’t get chance to watch them develop. Each year, Mrs Topping takes a small amount of frogspawn from the pond and we raise it together to watch the changes and give the frogs chance to thrive. We release the frogs back into the pond once they have reached maturity.
DT Designers
During our DT drop down day we learnt how to programme an electrical system. We were given a design brief, which was to create a light that could be added on to a vehicle that children in reception would enjoy playing with. We used the computer programme 'crumble' to complete the programming and then downloaded it. We also had to make a circuit so that the electricity from the battery could power the light on the sparkle. We programmed the lights to flash all sorts of colours and patterns, for some very colourful vehicles!
Wonderful Water Cycle
In science, we have continued to develop our understanding of states of matter by looking at the water cycle. We spotted where the water evaporates and condenses, changing from liquid to gas and then back again! We had to use our Geography vocabulary to help us too, as precipitation is part of the water cycle. Check out one of our amazing explanations of what happens to a water droplet...
Tasty Science
In our chemistry lessons we are focusing on states of matter. We have learnt about how the particles can move in solids, liquids and gases. Moving onto changes of state, we enjoyed observing over time, as we observed liquid chocolate freeze to solid on cold strawberries and ice cubes melting to water. After writing up our observations like scientists, we then investigated the taste too...
Musicians in the making
During Summer Term, we are enjoying applying our musicals skills to particular instruments. Our year 3 children are learning the recorder, while the year 4 children are learning the cornet. We have already made such wonderful progress and can't wait to show off at the end of the summer term!
More Marvellous Map Work!
We enjoyed having the atlases out again in Geography! This time we have focused on counties and describing where they are. We enjoyed completing a County Challenge, using clues to find out which county they were describing. Have a go at the challenge below...
I am a large county in the North East of England. I border County Durham. I am north of County Durham and my county town is Morpeth.
Skipping Day
We have enjoyed a skipping session in school today. We were taught different skills to have a go at on the playground or at home. These fun ideas will help us to have fun while keeping fit and active!
Paired Maths
In Autumn Term we were helped in our maths lesson by the year 6 children. This term, our year 4 children enjoyed being the experts and helping our year 1 children! We worked in small groups to help the children complete reasoning problems about measurement. They impressed us with their knowledge and we enjoyed helping them out!
Art Day - working with clay
We enjoyed using clay to make 3D structures! We looked at some of Antony Gormley's work first, then used our English text to inspire our own designs. First we made pinch pots, then had a go at making patterns, before we made our own model of Boggis, Bunce or Bean. We made sure to use our skills of impressing, pinching, free modelling and even using slip to add extra parts on!
Debating: Should Mr Fox be stealing food from the farmers?
In English, we have been reading Fantastic Mr Fox. He has been stealing food from the farmers! We have had a debate in class about whether he should be doing this or not. We played rock, paper, scissors reasoning games to help justify our answers, then we went outside to have our debate. We had lots of good reasons for and against and we explained our reasons using the text to help us.
Get set, glow!
We enjoyed taking part in our GoWell event, where we completed lots of active activities while enjoying neon lights and colours! In teams, we played noughts and crosses, as well as a version of capture the flag. We finished with a colourful dance too. It was very exciting!
Dog's Trust Safety Workshop
We enjoyed our visit from The Dog's Trust, where we learnt about dogs, their different personalities and how we can make sure both us and dogs are safe! We talked about how to respond in different situations, especially around dogs we don't know. We can all show you the safe positions if ever we are unsure about how a dog might behave!
Minimalism Music - our performance
Over Spring Term we have been working hard to create our own piece of minimalist music. First, we learnt about Steve Reich and his pieces. Then, we learnt about all the different parts; ostinatos, floating notes, keeping a steady beat. After writing our own ostinatos and developing them, we put it all together and performed our final piece for our friends in Morpurgo Class. Have a listen below and see if you can spot any Science links...
Creating light bulbs
We enjoyed learning about how scientists working for a charity have made a clever light bulb - using just a plastic bottle and water! This has meant that people who don't have electricity in their homes can have access to more light, as the sun shines on the bottle and lights up the house. It also means recycling plastic bottles - double win!
Check out the pictures of when we had a go, using torches to represent the sun.
Jelly Boots Smelly Boots
We have loved studying poetry by Michael Rosen! Check out our very own Walliams Class version of his poem, Imagine. We also wrote our own verses of his poem 'Down Behind the Dustbin'... Watch the video to hear who we met down behind the dustbin!
World Book Day
We've had an amazing World Book Day in Walliams Class! We have completed challenges, joined in with a Live Lesson from the BBC, listened to stories in French, enjoyed MC Grammar's rap and written our own performance raps. During the afternoon, we paired up with Rosen Class to share a story time. We loved sharing stories with the younger children! See if you can spot the different activities below...
We did all of that looking absolutely AMAZING! Check out our fantastic outfits.
Shadow Science
This half term we have been learning about light. We enjoyed some cross curricular fun, where we combined our DT skills, science skills and English skills. After designing and creating our own shadow puppets, we used them to perform poems about shadows! They looked amazing.
Mastering Maps
We are becoming better and better at using maps and finding four figure grid references! We really enjoyed finding landmarks in the UK, looking at their grid reference and then sticking them onto a map. We love Geography!
Getting Active
We have spent some time with our sports coach, learning new games for us to play on the playground. We have been thinking about how we can play games that everyone can join in. We loved learning the game 'Fruit Salad'!
Number Day
We have enjoyed a day full of maths activities and dancing along to songs with numbers in. The children enjoyed wearing costumes and outfits with digits on and some even dressed up as calculators! We enjoyed putting our mathematical skills to the test through a range of challenges.
Musical maestros
In our music lessons we are exploring minimalism this half term, focusing on music by Steve Reich. We have been enjoying creating our own ostinatos (repeating patterns.) It is such fun practising them on the glockenspiels!
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!
Buddy the elf has made a return to school and is with us in Walliams Class this year. Each day he is getting up to something different and usually causing chaos!
We also had a wonderful time at our Christmas party! We enjoyed games in the hall with Morpurgo then Rowling, and eating treats together in the classroom.
See if you can spot us enjoying our Christmas dinners too...
Super science: The digestive system
We had a go at recreating the digestive system to find out what happens when we eat our food! We made a mouth, oesophagus, stomach, intestines and rectum. It was very messy!
Paired Maths
The children in Walliams maths class have really enjoyed their paired maths session! We worked in small groups to solve problems, paired with year 6 children from Shakespeare class. There was lots of super team work happening and the year 6 children were fantastic mini teachers. Well done everyone!
Quidditch
We loved our quidditch taster session! Each team worked together to earn points for their Hogwarts house: Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff or Slytherin. We played quidditch, dodgeball and even tried flying around on brooms! At the end of the session, the points for Walliams Class went to.... Gryffindor!
Harvest Festival
In Walliams Class, we have had a wonderful time celebrating Harvest Festival. Many children generously brought in donations to the foodbank and we enjoyed writing and performing our own Harvest poems. Have a look at our lovely Harvest poems below and don't forget to watch our video over on the Harvest page!
Whole school maths challenge
Miss Marsden has set us all a 'magic square' challenge to complete. It was very tricky! However, the children persevered and, using some excellent team work and fantastic maths skills, we managed to find a solution! Well done team Walliams.
Adam Bushnell Visit
Adam Bushnell, one of our favourite authors, has been into school! We spent some time with him thinking about Ancient Egypt, linking into our history and DT topics. Adam inspired us to design our own temple guardians, create a riddle that they would ask and then design what traps would await anyone who made it past the guardian! There were some fantastic designs and we all enjoyed the challenge of answering some fantastic riddles.
Active Maths
In Walliams Class we love to use our maths skills outside! The children have been completing number line relay races, place value hoops and rounding with giant number lines. We also enjoyed a game of guess my number, where the children had to use their maths skills to discover what number was on their back!
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