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.

Chocolate

Everyone in Gascoigne class had a fantastic day last Friday when we were visited by Chocolatologist Carl Turner from the Ministry of Chocolate.

The children were challenged to use and apply a range of science, history, maths and DT skills throughout the morning as they were set tasks which would enable them to become chocolate experts themselves.

There were some great practical activities including tasting, smelling and even LISTENING to chocolate, as well as lots of information about FairTrade and the origins of chocolate. I think if Carl ever requires an assistant he will have at least 28 applications from our class. 

In other news, the year 5's visited Queen Ethelburga's school on Wednesday to complete this years Bebras computing test. Although we had a slight technical glitch regarding the test, the children still had an excellent day and made the most of seeing a different school environment.

Weekly Update

Hi all,
Another week has flown by in Gascoigne class with lots of varied work and activities taking place.

Attached are some photos from last Tuesday when the children took part in a Pro-ride cycling event with former UK coach Phil Bateman. The children's bike skills and handling were tested in a range of races and obstacle challenges and we only managed to get a few scraped knees. Well done everyone who took part.

This week we have even more going on in class, with a visit from Garforth Fire Station on Tuesday for a fire safety talk followed by the Minister of Chocolate, Carl Turner, working with Gascoigne and Lotherton classes on Friday.

In among that excitement we are making our own short stories in class, based around existing children's books but with a Scrumdiddlyumptious twist.

We have also had some excellent in depth discussions about God, Christianity and varied beliefs around the world, during which the children have been very sensible and thoughtful and made some excellent observations.

It'll soon be Christmas.

Mr Riley

PIZZA

As part of our Scrumdiddlyumptious topic we have been discussing the difference between healthy and unhealthy foods and trying to demonstrate how some of our favourite treats can be made a little less damaging to our health and waistbands.

This week the children designed and made their own 'HEALTHY' pizzas in class.

Before the fun of making and eating, we looked at the nutritional value of different ingredients and each group of children was then allowed to choose 3 ingredients to top their pizza.

Choices included peppers, pineapple, sweetcorn, chicken and tuna. Attached are pictures of some of the creations that were devoured on Tuesday afternoon.

As an added bonus, I did promise the class that next week we could try an unhealthy food, as a comparison. 

Have a great weekend and try not to eat too much pizza. 

Food (Glorious????) Food

Another week has passed so quickly in Gascoigne class.

This week the children have worked really hard, recapping negative numbers. They have challenged not only  themselves but also myself and Miss Wadlow, by applying their knowledge and skills to a range of tricky maths problems!!

In literacy we have concluded our Instructions unit with a 'Hot Write' set of instructions describing how to get dressed for school. These will then be reviewed before the children are given one final chance to edit next week.

Finally, we have had more Learning Log offerings this week, hence the post title.
This included, Leo making some delicious biscuit sandwiches, Millie provided us with banana, Nutella & strawberry sandwiches and Dexter tested our taste buds with an assortment of chocolate flavourings. It's safe to say white choc with raisins went down a little better than chocolate with a hint of ketchup! Thanks Dex.

Apologies for the lack of photos, hopefully our class iPad will come out of hiding next week ready for our cooking classes and science investigation.

Have a great weekend.

Instructions and BOSSY VERBS

This week in Gascoigne class the children have started writing their own instructions and looking at some of the key features of this writing style.
In particular they enjoyed learning about bossy / imperative verbs and the boys were a little obsessed with the Imperative Verb song.

In maths we have tackled problem solving linked to the different elements of place value covered so far this year. This is quite a tricky concept for some children but the class have worked really hard trying to improve their understanding.

We have also continued with our Scrumdiddlyumptious topic and the children have been planning some INTERESTING recipes to create a healthy menu and an unhealthy menu.
It is then the intention to make SOME of these in class for everyone to sample and hopefully have some interesting photos for our Blog.

Have a great weekend.