Year 3 - Scientists

The Year 3 children have been scientists this week as they continue to explore forces. They have been exploring magnets and building cars propelled by balloons. During the lesson on magnets the children have been reflective. George said "Look this magnet is so strong it can pick up the pencil pot!" and Jacob said "You need two different ends of the magnet for them to attract".

In every magnet there is a magnetic field. This magnetic field is invisible and it is the force that you can feel when magnets in your hands attract or repel. The ends of the magnet are called the north and south poles.

In Hazel Class, pupils worked in teams to build a car propelled by balloon power! Taking the friction of the floor into account, students used skewers, straws, cds and tape to construct their models...

There were some fantastic results and certainly a lot of resilience during this task!

Both Hazel and Sequoia have had some great experiences in science recently and we hope they have been telling you all about them!

Have a fun half-term, and we'll see you when you get back. If there's one thing you do over the break, start a new book and who knows? You might even finish it in a week!

Remember to sign your reading records too.

Miss Taylor, Mr Nicol, Mrs Marchant, and Mrs Bradley :)

Year 3 Awards - Sequoia 15.02.19

Katlyn, Maisie, Kanishka, Molly and Klaidi received a certificate for their learning challenge.
Kaley and Kanishka received a presentation award.

Year 4 Certificates 15.2.19

Presentation: Roxy

Reciprocity: Polina

Resourceful: Sophia, Alice

Resilience: Hayden

Teacher Happy: Kara

Rock Legend: Hollie

Rock Star: Sabeer, Kara, Isabelle, Nina

Blue house are super builders in Birch!

Wow. Wow. Wow!! The boys in Blue house in Birch have seriously blown the socks off of year 4. Each week, students get one morning of self-led time where they get to use K'Nex to build machines following a set of instructions. Bobby, Riley, George, Rashid and Joe are always up for the challenge, and use their reciprocity skills to work together, and their resourcefulness skills to ensure they follow the correct steps - finding the right pieces and connecting them just right - to create a master piece at the end! They made an exercise bike that actually rotates with a handle! Year 4 have been so impressed, and they got to show their machine to Mrs Stanley and Mrs Nichols. Well done boys, we can't wait to see what you make next!

Balloon Cars? Newton meters? Science fun in year 4

What a fun week of science experiments in year 4 as children continue to learn about different forces.  This week we learned all about friction and how different surfaces create more or less friction between objects. We then used a Newton Meter to measure the level of friction on a range of surfaces.

“For a fidget spinner you would want less friction so that you can spin it around easily” - Summer

“For bike brakes friction would be an advantage because you need to tyres to stop when you want” - Joshua

“The friction between the chair and the grass was 8 Newton Meters”- Alex

Then children were really pushed to the test as they were given the challenge of making a race car that could go the farthest. Students were only equipped with straws, wheels, kebab sticks, a balloon and some tape and boy did they rise to the challenge! They used their reciprocity and resilience skills to work in pairs, discussing alterations that might make it go longer and quicker. Students had to consider how friction, driving force and air resistance could affect their design and were delighted to see their race cars zoom, whether it was short and fast or slow and far or..not so far.

 

In Birch the fastest 3 cars were made by Joe and Riley, Joshua and Alex, and Summer, Ella and Hollie. Congratulations!

Year 4 Rockstar Timetable Progress

The children in Year 4 have been thrashing through their times tables recently. They are all working on improving their heatmaps and rock speed with the hope to earn themselves rock star status!

Naz & Ruben - Rock Legends!

James & Amandeep - Rock Stars!

Using the online rock star platform, the children are able to analyse their data to see what they are doing well and identify next steps. Each child has their own graph and heatmap which shows their progress throughout the year. The children know that their line should be on a steady incline to indicate improvements.

Some children reflected on their efforts and realised that they need to always try their best due to a fluctuating line...

"Mine goes up and down a bit -I need to make sure it doesn't go down again"

Maisy was pleased to see her line climbing higher as she becomes more confident in her timetables.

Below is our class heatmap from September. The colours reflect the speed and accuracy in which the children are answering question. The greener they are, the better! 

Below is our current heatmap... As you can see, it is populating with green and the darkest red spots are beginning to fade! 

Our mission is to get the whole heatmap green by the end of Year 4! 

Keep going children! You are doing brilliantly! 

Year 4 Spellings 11.02.19