Welcome to Riordan Class

Our first Activity Week of Spring Term was all about Space and had a focus on the subjects of art, design technology, music and history.

Spring Activity Week Plan - Space

Trip to National Space Centre

Music - David Bowie themed music, Star Man, Life on Mars, Space Oddity.

Art - in groups make their own planet out of Papier mache -looking at accurate proportionate sizes, and then a presentation from each group on their planet.

Origami stars, space poster artist or marbling

Peter Thorpe Space Abstract Art.

Maths: large numbers in space, powers of 10. Scale and proportion.

DT - build a lunar rover/space craft - include the levers, pulleys etc mechanisms from science / stem challenge .

Space food, balanced nutrition.

Writing a recount about our trip and discoveries and Niel Armstrong's Diary.

Visit to the National Space centre.

We had a fantastic day in Leicester visiting the following areas: Rocket Tower, Into Space, Sir Patrick Moore Planetarium, Space Oddities, Orbiting Earth, Our Solar System, The Universe and Tranquillity Base.

MUSIC

The children learn how to play Space Oddity on the Ukulele.

SPACE FOOD

We looked at health, food and nutrition and thought about what would be a balanced diet for an astronaut.

Collaborative Writing

Their mission: to persuade Tim Peake to take their team on a school trip into space. They had 15 minutes to convince him - as well as include imperative verbs, modal verbs and the subjunctive form! Some great writing followed.

Space Station and Mars rover models.

Knex models with pulleys, levers and gears.

ART

Abstract space art in the style of Peter Thorpe.

The Earth from Space

We looked at satellite images of the Earth from space and created an artistic impression to capture an extra-terrestrial view of ourselves!

IMPACT

The children learnt about different views of the origin of the universe and how ideology has changed historically and across the world. They learnt about the ‘space race’ and technological and cultural similarities and difference between different parts of the world at different times in history.

We explored how our Earth’s extremes affect people, communities and landscapes around the world.

We analysed the damaging effects of human activity on the planet by learning about climate change and its effects here and abroad, and our rights and responsibilities as global citizens.

The children were not shielded from the problems they will grow to inherit as adults, but they were not left feeling anxious and helpless about them, they learnt about and developed straightforward, practical actions that they can take both now, and as young adults. These ideas will help them to make a real difference, to have a positive impact, improving the lives of others around the world and to protect the planet, too.