This week, in science, the children were given a Christmas challenge. Santa sent us a letter asking for help as Rudolf was sick and Santa was unsure of how many reindeer he would need to pull his sleigh. The children had to test how much force was needed to pull a ‘sleigh’ along different surfaces using a Newton Meter. They spent time filling their ‘sleigh’ with 3d presents that they crafted from multilink and stationary then experimenting with wood, rubber, carpet, bubble wrap and smooth surfaces to see which created the least friction.

Over the past couple of weeks, the children have also been looking at 2d shapes, lines of symmetry, reflections and remembering shape names. Recently the children were given the task of cutting out a number of ‘muddled’ shapes in order to create a hidden Christmas picture. Using ovals, trapeziums, hearts, circles, rectangles and parallelograms they eventually found that the image hiding in the shapes was in fact Santa clause!

 We have also begun to learn about using time. Today the children became BBC TV programmers, and had to work out a listing for Christmas day of all the programmes and films they would like to see but remember to include the Queen’s speech and this year’s special, ‘The Highway Rat’, both at specific times. Using mathematical knowledge, they had to calculate the start times, durations and finishing times of each programme without any ‘dead air’- because we all know that the BBC has no adverts.   

In R.E. we have been developing our understanding of Christianity through the use of ‘The Big Frieze’. Panel 5: Incarnation, tells us of the purpose of the coming of Jesus- to show us, through his actions, how to live. In an interesting twist we linked this to ‘The Lion, The Witch ad the Wardrobe’ (TLTWAW) and how we can show God and Jesus in different and more accessible ways. After seeing the theatre production at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, watching the film and reading part of the book we challenged the children to find similarities to the Christian Bible. We discussed the possibility of Alsan being a representation of Christ and the Pevensie children encountering the seven deadly sins including gluttony and pride. This also linked back to previous discussions at the beginning of November about ‘forgiveness’ and how important it was for Aslan and the siblings to forgive Edmund. In both the Bible and TLTWAW we see how to live a happy and fulfilling life.    

The Mysterious Case of the Fronted Adverbial

This week in Gascoigne class, as the title suggests, we have been developing our understanding and ability to use fronted adverbials in written work. The children have been absolutely fantastic doing this and have produced some excellent work which I would like to celebrate below.

For this task in particular, they were given a simple sentence which they had to re-write with a fronted adverbial of their own.

Donny - In the arms of her frail old grandmother, she began to cry.

Will R - Whilst exploring, she saw the trees were covered with a fine dusting of snow.

Jack S - At the bitter break of dawn, the trees were covered with a fine dusting of snow.

Sadie - Painfully, the parachutist landed with a bump.

Evie - Falling uncontrollably, the parachutist landed with a bump.


After that, the children were asked to create a complete sentence, including a fronted adverbial, about either themselves or the teachers.

Leo - Bravely, Leo wrestled the mighty python.

Sadie - In her sparkly dress, Sadie danced across the room.

Millie WH - Desperately, Mr Riley piled the chocolate cake into his mouth.

I'm sure you'll agree there are some excellent suggestions here, well done to all the children.