Kingfishers in action!
Autumn 2020 Topic – Inventioneers
Look at what we have been up to …
Week 6
We made our inventions, using the designs we had planned last week and making adjustments and improvements along the way. On Wednesday, Professor Madcap came back to class and was very impressed with all our hard work. She asked if she could use our plans to inspire her inventions, so we evaluated our contraptions and sent the plans and evaluations to her.
On Thursday, we arrived at school to find all our desks had disappeared and there was an enormous den in their place. We spent the day creating story plots and characters and even did Guided Reading inside the den.
On Friday, we spent the morning having a maths marathon with lots of activities about fractions. This one was a pizza cafe, using quarters and halves.
In the afternoon, we received three challenges from Professor Madcap:
- Light up a bulb
- Float some plasticene
- Transport a toy car from one side of the room to another without touching the car or the car touching the floor.
Week 5
We started this week by preparing for our Harvest festival. We all made a leaf in Autumn colours. Some of us used paint, some used felt tips and pencils, some cut out fabrics and some collected real autumn leaves. Once finished, we cut them out and assembled them into an Autumn wreath to present at church.
On Wednesday, we had a special visitor in class. Professor Madcap came to ask for our help to invent something useful – her recent attempts have not been very successful. She left us with a large box of bits and bobs which the children enjoyed sorting, categorising and then using to inspire ideas for inventions.
Throughout the week, we have been counting on in tens from any number, counting in fives to 50, representing addition using a part whole model and thinking about the commutative nature of addition – the ability to add numbers in any order without altering the answer e.g. 7 + 3 = 10 and 3 + 7 = 10. We even tried putting the equal sign before the sum, like this ~ 10 = 3 + 7 and 10 = 7 + 3.
Our week ended with a reward for 100% attendance for a whole week. The children came to school in pyjamas and onesies and worked hard through the morning. In the afternoon the classroom transformed into a cinema and the children voted to watch Robots. They enjoyed the film while munching on popcorn and Haribo sweets.
Weeks 3 and 4
In our collective worship this week, we have been thinking about patience. We experimented with patience by drawing the tiniest house we could and putting in as much detail as possible. Some of the children then cut them out to make our very own Tiny Town
We have continued to find out about aeroplanes, this week reading about the Wright brothers and their journey toward the first flight
We have made paper aeroplanes and tested them for amount of time afloat and distance travelled forwards from the starting point
Our science is continuing to learn about the food animals eat including constructing simple food chains
In maths we are learning about tens and ones in two-digit numbers in all sorts of ways
We have also started using the greater than and less than signs when comparing objects
We have been finding out about light, reflections and shadows
Week 2
We have been counting in 1s, 2s and 5s
We have also been matching quantities, adding one more and finding one less than numbers to 30
In English, we are learning about the apostrophe of possession.
Week 1
In science, we are finding out about seasonal changes and what better way than to go outside and get our hands dirty – don’t worry, we washed them afterwards!
