Castell Henllys

On Thursday 24th October our class visited Castell Henllys, an Iron Age Hill Fort in Pembrokeshire. It took us a long time to get there, but it was well worth it when we did.

We found out lots about the everyday life of the Celts in Wales. We went inside a ‘roundhouse’ to discover how Celtic people cooked, made bread and made clothes. We made our own bracelets out of ‘willow’ and we were able to try weaving a basket.

We also found out about the different materials used to make Celtic roundhouses. We had a go of using ‘wattle and daub’ ourselves and it was very messy indeed!!

Before we left we all had our faces painted to make us look like Celtic warriors.

We would like to thank all the parents and grandparents who came along to help us.

A good time was had by all! 

 

Our Visit to Pontypridd Museum

On Monday we visited Pontypridd Museum to take part in a workshop based on medieval machines. Mr Brian Davies welcomed us and we were divided into five groups. We were allowed to handle all of the equipment and have a go at all of the tasks. This included making patterns with tiles, building bridges, printing our names with real ink and even riding a wooden horse. One of the trickiest tasks was to weave wool using an old fashioned loom. Some of us dressed up in chain mail. We thought it was really heavy! A good time was had by all! 

 

Outdoor Games

During this half term we are having outdoor games every Friday afternoon. We have been very lucky with the weather so far! We are developing our ball skills with a focus on passing, catching, dodging and use of space. We are also learning to work well together as a team. 

 

Autumn Term 2013

Our Pottery Animals

Each Friday afternoon for this half term, Miss Croft our pottery teacher is working with groups of children from our class. She is helping us design and create models on the theme of animals. We are having lots of fun sculpting and creating all different kinds of animals such as snakes, hedgehogs, owls, penguins, bears and many more. We can’t wait for them to be finished!

Our Visit to West Midlands Safari Park

On Monday 24th June we visited West Midlands Safari Park.

On our tour of the park we saw lots of different animals including white tigers, elephants, zebras and lions. One giraffe came right up to the bus and looked through the window!

After lunch we saw a sea lion show and watched the penguins having fun. Some of us were brave enough to enter the bat cave, even though we had to hold our noses because the smell was so strong.

We enjoyed ourselves on the rides. Some of our favourites were ‘Log Flume’, ‘Pirate ship’, ‘Water Rapids’ and ‘Twister’. Some children were very wet indeed after going on the water rides.

A lovely time was had by all.

Our Visit to Cog Moors Environmental Education Centre

On Thursday 27th June we visited Cog Moors Environmental Education centre at Dinas Powys. The trip was part of our ‘Environment’ topic and we certainly learned a lot!

We found out that on average, one person uses 150 litres of water per day. That is a lot of water!!

We were set different exciting challenges throughout the day. You can see some of these in the photographs we took.

Mari, the instructor, used lots of environmental vocabulary. Some of the words we talked about were biodegradable, non-biodegradable, drought and water efficiency. We also used the saying ‘Reuse, Reduce, Recycle’.

We carried out our own investigation to find out approximately how much water is wasted each year from a dripping tap. During the experiment Alfie displayed excellent mathematical skills using the calculator, to total all the results. We found out that one tap left dripping for a year, was the equivalent to 131 baths full of water!

We all agreed it was a very enjoyable and educational day. However, we don’t miss the ‘smell’ (when we toured the treatment works) at all!!

Our Environment

Our Environment

Our topic for this half term involves studying ‘our environment’. We have started by looking at features within our school environment.

Due to the lovely weather we have had recently we decided to go outside to look at different features in the yard. We observed them closely and began to sketch them, trying to include as much detail as possible in our sketch books.

Some of the things we drew included parts of the school building, plants, tyres and even the lovely bright creatures on the walls of the yard. Mrs King took some photographs of us and our drawings. When we were back in the class she put them on the white board for us to look at. Our drawings were so good we were able to guess what the pictures were! I wonder if you can?

Our next task is to find ‘good’ and ‘bad’ features in and around the school. We will then be thinking about how we can try to improve the bad features and turn them into positive aspects of our school. 

 

Visit to St John’s Church

On Friday 17th May Mrs Cogbills Class and Mrs Kings Class visited St. John’s Church on the Graig. This visit was linked to our R.E. work on the ‘Church and Community’.

Father Michael greeted us and spoke to us about his role in the church and the wider community. He then went on to explain all about the different internal features of the church. Pupils in both classes answered questions sensibly and asked their own questions too.

We were then allowed to wander around the church to look more closely at its features. We particularly enjoyed playing the organ and ringing the church bell!

We all agreed that St John’s is a beautiful church.

The visit has really helped us with our learning and we are looking forward to doing follow up lessons with Mrs Jones and Mrs Jones when we are back in class. We took lots of photographs to help us with our future work in our R.E. lessons.

Many thanks to ‘All at St. John’s’ and to Mrs Jones and Mrs Jones for arranging our visit. 

 

Our New iPad!

Our New iPad

This week our class received a brand new Apple iPad. It has caused much excitement!! We will be using it to improve our I.T. skills and to help us develop our skills across a variety of subjects.

We have all been learning how to use the iMovie App. Pupils in Year 6 have been helping us to create our own film trailers, on a variety of themes such as ‘Expedition’, ‘Fairy Tale’, ‘Scary’ and ‘Superhero’.

We have also been using the Maths Evolve App to help us with our Maths skills. We have particularly enjoyed the multiplication games. Mrs King is really hoping it will improve our times tables!!!

Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown

For Literacy week the class were reading Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown.  The class really enjoyed reading the book. Pupils have all written a letter to a 'famous person' asking them to have their photograph taken with the Flat Stanleys they have made.
When we googled Flat Stanley, we found out that Barack Obama and Clint Eastwood have had their photos taken with Flat Stanley.
We have used our measuring skills to make an accurately sized model of Stanley.  Our lovely work has been put on display in the class writing corner and in the hall.

Science Week

Investigation - To find out which material makes the best spinner.

We made a spinner out of paper and tested it to see if it would spin effectively.

Each group chose a different material for their spinner - card, foil, kitchen roll, J-cloth and tissue paper.

We made predictions as a group, we understood that we could only change 1 variable and we tested them. We used stopwatches to time our spinners. The slowest spinner was made from tissue paper but we were all surprised how well the foil and J-cloth spinners spun.  We all made a lovely paper spinner to take home and have fun with.