October blog
Numeracy - The Adders
We have been learning about 3D objects. We know cubes, cuboids, cones, pyramids, spheres and triangular prisms.
We went on a hunt around the school to find 3D objects. We found spheres like a football, a basketball and bean bags. We found cubes like the marker box, chairs and dice. We found cuboids like school bags and tables. We found cylinders like the poles in the corridor, airup bottles and the railings on the balcony. We thought about 3D objects we see outside of school like a Lego brick is a cuboid and an ice cream cone is a cone.
By Ailsa and Leo
Numeracy - The Subtractors
In Maths we have been doing BODMAS which is the order of calculations. We have been multiplying and dividing in them too. We liked BODMAS because we got to add all the calculations up. We found the dividing ones quite tricky. We made posters about BODMAS to share our learning with the rest of the class. They are on the wall!
We have been doing length for the last two weeks and we are pros at it now. We learned how to use a ruler properly. You always have to put your ruler at the start of the thing and go from 0. We got to measure things in the classroom and outside. We know that a metre is 100cm and a cm is 10mm. We had to measure lines and draw lines using a ruler and we found this easy.
By Sophia and Mariam
Numeracy - The Dividers
We have been learning about weight and how to read weight on a scale. You need to look at where the arrow is pointing and work out what it shows. The scales where the arrow is on a number are easier than the ones where it is in the middle.
For one of our activities we had to get things from the classroom to weigh. First we had to estimate how heavy it was then we got the scales and put the item in and used little weights to measure how much it was. Sometimes our guesses were close but other times they were very far away!
On the first day lots of people weren't sure about weight, but now people are confident. We played a fun game that involved weight where we had to help the postman weigh the parcels and letters.
By Sophie and Cameron
Numeracy - The Multipliers
In class we have been learning about time durations. Time duration is where you work out from one time to another using a special method where you separate the minutes and hours and chunk them to make it easier. We looked at timetables for trains, buses, cinemas and races.
We have also been learning about bar charts. They are charts where they tell you about the number of something that has been done or used. We found them quite easy to read and could answer questions about the highest or lowest or add different bars together to make a total.
Line graphs are graphs that tells you how stuff or businesses are doing using a line. We found line graphs a bit harder to read because we haven't done them as often as we have the other graphs. Also the points are smaller which makes it harder. We could look at line graphs and talk about the patterns like why the traffic is busier at 8-9am than it is at 1-2pm or why more ice creams are sold in the summer months.
Misleading data is where someone makes a graph to advertise something but the graphs are false. An example would be if someone is trying to sell you a car and they say that their car is the most safe car, but they only show you a tiny bit of the graph. They zoom in so that the difference between their car and the next best looks bigger than it actually is. Politicians use this during their campaigns to get votes!
By Stanley and Mokshal
Numeracy - Problem Solving
In problem solving we did a problem called Clint's Cactus. He was given a new cactus for his farm that grew in a special way. Every year each pad grows another 2 pads on top. We had to find out how many pads there would be after four years. At the end, we kept clicking on the cactus pads to see how many we could make. It went on forever and we had lots of fun!
In The Pin Game we had to work out how many different ways the ball could go from the top to the bottom. We started with a simple version of 3 cups then moved to 4 and 5 cups. We were all debating how many ways there were because we couldn't agree! But once we knew the pattern we could do any number of cups!
In The Magic Tree the wizard was given a magic tree that grew by 1cm on day 1, 2cm on day 2, 4cm on day 3 and went on in that pattern. We had to work out how tall it would be after 7 days and say if the tree would be taller or smaller than the wizard. We got it right!
For all of these problems we had to use the strategies try a simpler case, look for a pattern, make an organised list or table.
They were quite hard at the start but once we talked about it with our partner and with Miss Itcovitz we knew what to do and it was easy.
By Amy and Emily
Literacy - The Weasleys
We were reading The Gargling Gorilla. The story was about a boy called Tim who was very brave. He looked after his neighbour's animals while she was out but she gave him so many instructions on how to look after them like how to feed them and where everything was. But the one thing he was afraid of was gorillas and one of the animals was a gorilla! Or that's what he thought. He fed the animals by doing anything to avoid the gorilla that he thought was in the cupboard. He used poles and brushes to stay far away. When he got to the gorilla he realised it was not real but actually a sink making a funny noise!
We also made brochures about countries we had chosen. We did ones such as Portugal, Pakistan, Greece and even the Faroe Islands! It was so much fun! A brochure is a folded piece of paper with 6 rectangles that are filled with facts or pictures. We had to include facts about our country, bright colours, pictures, subheadings and make it eye-catching so that people want to read it.
(See the IDL section to read them!)
By Ben and Callum
Literacy - The Wimpy Kids
We have been learning a lot about fiction and non fiction books. Our favourite was Snow White and Rose Red
It was about twin sisters called Snow White and Rose Red. They didn't look alike and were very different but they made a perfect team together. One day a bear came to their door shivering and wanted to come in and tell them a story. He told about a little dwarf who was evil and had tricked him. The girls decided to help the bear and it was a happy ending.
Our favourite part was when the girls helped the bear catch the dwarf.
For our tasks we had to compare the two sisters because they are very different how they look and what they're like inside. We made posters of our favourite characters with labels.
By Fay and Jessica
Literacy - The Fantastic Foxes
We read the book Buzz and Bingo in the Starry Sky and our favourite bit of the book is where XY5 eats the cup and where he makes an evil face.
Now we'll tell you about the book. We all liked it and it's about an alien trying to get back to his planet but he can't because his spaceship had crashed on to Earth. A boy called Buzz and a dog called Bingo were helping him.
By Hamza and Rishi
IDL - Our Local Area
We have been learning about the history of Maidenhill. We have been taking notes about the area and the evolution about it and watching videos about it and what is used to make the houses and shops and schools.
When you are taking notes you need to remember bullet points, only write down the key information, write down dates, and always use your own words and not write the full sentences.
We then thought about comparing Maidenhill to another place. We got to choose a country we wanted to find out more about and we had to research it with a partner using the Chromebooks. We thought about what food they eat, interesting facts, their famous places and landmarks, wildlife, tourist attractions and celebrations that they have that are different to ours. We collected all our information into notes using subheadings. Then we used our notes to make tourist brochures to advertise our countries to other people.
We liked making them bright and colourful with bold titles. We found getting the information quite tricky because there so much to look at and when we made our brochures we found it hard to fill all the sections with information and not just pictures.
They turned out amazing and we can't wait to put them on the wall so you can read them too!
By Bilal and Mustafa
P.S. if you'd like to read more yourself you can check out this website:
https://www.maidenhill.scot/the-journey/
You might even spot some familiar faces...!
PE - Basketball
In PE we have been learning all about basketball.
First we learned about dribbling. You have to remember to move with the ball and you have to dribble with your fingertips.
Then we learned about passing. A chest pass helps you quickly move the ball and a bounce pass helps you move the ball under an opponent's arm.
We also played some matches. We need to remember to pass to our teammates and not just do everything ourselves.
By Jasmine and Mohit
French
We learned that in France, they don't have all the places in one big supermarket like we do. There are different shops that only has one thing like the bakery shop has only types of bread and the pastry shop has different types of cakes.
We learned the names of lots of places like le parc (the park), la banque (the bank), le supermarché (supermarket), le cinéma (the cinema) and l'école (the school). A lot of them sound a bit like the English but with an accent!
We drew maps of our own town and labelled the places in French!
By Laith and Reece
Science - The Human Body
In Science with Mr Keir we have been learning about the human body, mainly the heart.
In the first week we learned about the different parts of the heart and how they work. We coloured in the different chambers, veins and arteries to show how blood moves around the body.
Miss Itcovitz taught us a trick to remember - veins visit the heart and arteries go away!
On the second week we saw fake blood in a tube but it was actually juice. We tested how it moved between different bottles.
On the third week we made a poster about what's bad for your heart and how to keep it healthy. You need to exercise, don't take drugs, eat healthy like fish and beans and broccoli, and don't smoke.
By James, Jessica G and Uzair
Science - Heart Dissection
In our fourth and final week Mr Keir brought a real sheep's heart into school and all we have to say is it was disgusting! But other people thought it was amazing!
We all got to hold it if we wanted to and we thought it felt:
"like cold jelly"
"the fat was kind of hard but the rest was like jelly"
"slimy and slippery and rubbery because of the gloves"
"weird and wet when I put my finger through it"
Most people had a go at holding it or at least poking it.
We saw the arteries and the heartstrings!
We loved it because it was so fun and disgusting!
By James, Jessica G and Uzair
Art - One Perspective Roads
We made streets with shops on one side and trees on the other side and a road in the middle.
We followed a video to help us and did it step by step.
First we made a little dot in the middle of the page then made a big cross. We had to draw the shops in between the two lines of the cross to help us get the shops at the front big and the ones at the back small. This is so our picture had perspective.
Next we drew the trees. We could make them normal trees, palm trees or any style we wanted.
Then our favourite we decorated the shops with all things that we love like animals or clothes or even Prime!
Finally we coloured it in and outlined using black pens.
It was so fun!
By Saamia and Fatima
Art - Autumn Hills and Sunflowers
We made sunflowers with a background of mountains and a sun that has shiny rays.
The sunflowers were right on the bottom of the page. We had to try and make the petals look the same as each other.
The mountains were on top of the sunflowers and the sun was on top of the mountains.
We used Autumn colours for it like red, orange, yellow and brown so that it looked like Autumn.
We put designs and patterns on the mountains and the shine of the sun and dots on the sunflowers.
By Saamia and Fatima
What did you find easy or hard?
Did you like how the pictures turned out?