We have been finding out about submarines. We learned that the first submarine was invented by a man called Cornelis Drebbel. We investigated how submarines work. We played with pretend submarines in bottles of water. When you squeeze the bottle, the water forces the submarine to sink. When you let go of the bottle, the air in the submarine makes it float back to the top. We also enjoyed exploring objects that float and sink in the water tray.
Do big things always sink?
We have explored floating and sinking and wanted to find out if big things always sink. We predicted whether different sized balls would float. We tested them to see what happened. The smallest, heaviest ball sank. The biggest, lightest ball floated.
Can you change the shape of something to make it float?
We also explored how the shape of things help them to float. We rolled plasticine into balls but they sank. We made different shapes with the plasticine but they also sank. When we made boat shapes and tested those, they floated!
Where The Wild Things Are
We put lots of effort into learning the lines for our class assembly and it was a hit! We feel very proud of ourselves. We acted out the story of ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ by Maurice Sendak. Here are some questions we’ve been wondering…
Was Max dreaming?
Are dreams real?
How do you know if something is real?
Our Construction Site
We love pretending to be builders in our role play ‘construction site’. You are only allowed in if you are wearing the right things to keep you safe: a hard hat to protect your head, a high-vis jacket so that people can see you and special builder’s boots to protect your feet.
Our Local Area
We went for a walk to explore our local area. Along the way, we took turns to take pictures and discuss what we could see. We saw different types of shops including a pharmacy and a newsagents. We saw different types of homes including a semi-detached house and a flat. We also spotted lots of signs that told us what to look out for, for example, roadworks. We saw a real building site and even met some people whose job it is to fix broken water pipes under the ground!
Chinese New Year
This week, we have been celebrating the beginning of Chinese New Year. We wore red to school because this is a lucky colour in Chinese culture. In assembly, we listened to the story of “The Great Race”. This is the story of how each year in the Chinese zodiac was named after a different animal. This year is the year of the monkey.
We watched a dragon dance and made our own Chinese dragon heads in class. In Chinese culture, dragons are kind and friendly. We learned a Chinese New Year song and even learned to count to 10 in Mandarin.
For lunch, we celebrated with Chinese food. It was delicious! At the end of the day we performed a dragon dance with our Chinese dragons.
Science Investigation – Testing Materials
Miss Williamson showed us an old broken umbrella which belonged to Toothless the Dragon. To help him make a new umbrella we have been investigating materials to find out which materials would protect him from the rain. We needed to find a waterproof material to make a new umbrella. We tested paper and fabric – these were not waterproof. We also tested plastic and metal – these materials were waterproof!
Our First School Trip
We went on our very first school trip to help us learn more about our ‘Toys’ topic. We visited Build- a Bear Workshop where we made our very own class dragon. We named him Toothless the Dragon! We found out about the materials we needed to make Toothless and played lots of fun games with him. We couldn’t wait to take him back to school!
Later, we went to MK Gallery where we enjoyed lots of exciting creative activities. We made a giant climbing frame using wool, created toy pictures that we could put onto a projector, used sound equipment to explore the sounds that toys make and recorded our own toy sounds. We also made toy drawings from moving images on a projector!
This week we have been learning about the Hindu festival of light, Diwali. Mrs Das visited us to help us celebrate. She told us the story of Rama and Sita and we had a go at acting this out on stage in our own role play theatre.
We also made diva lamps, created symmetrical Rangoli patterns and wrote Diwali cards. We learned about light and dark and have been testing which materials would make the darkest cave. We found the best materials were dark colours, were not see through and did not have any holes in them!
Autumn at School
This week we have been exploring what changes in the autumn. We went on an autumn walk around our school field. We discovered that many leaves were changing colour and falling from the trees. We noticed that some leaves did not change colour. We learned that the leaves of some trees and bushes stay green all year round!
We made a collection of autumn leaves and used this to create leaf picture and leaf crowns.
We have also been reading information books about autumn. We learned that some animals gather food in the autumn to get ready for the cold weather and some animals get ready to go to sleep in winter. They only wake up when it is spring! We have also learned that we can plant bulbs so that they will begin to grow in the spring.
People Who Help Us: Police Officers
This week we have been learning all about the people who help us, especially police officers.
We started the week with a visit from a real police officer. He told us all the things police officers do to help keep us safe. We tried on some of his uniform and we even listened to his walkie talkie. He also showed us his police van; the siren was very loud!
We have enjoyed dressing up as police officers and helping our friends to stay safe on the playground. We even had to investigate a real crime: ‘Who stole the cookies from the cookie jar?’ We dusted for fingerprints and then enjoyed looking at our own finger prints as we enlarged them on balloons.
We made our own police cars and finished the week by performing a song called ‘Five Fast Police Cars’ in our first ever ‘No Pens’ Day' assembly.
Science Investigation: “Magic Milk”
We have been learning lots of new Science words including ‘experiment’. We carried out an experiment to find out what would happen if we added washing up liquid to milk and food dye. We used pipettes to add food dye to milk and then dipped a cotton bud in washing up liquid. We added this to the milk. We spoke about how the colours in the milk changed as we added washing up liquid. The colours swirled outwards when we dipped the cotton bud in, almost like magic!
Healthy Eating: “Handa’s Surprise”
This week, we have been learning about the foods that keep our body healthy. We read the story ‘Handa’s Surprise’ and listened to some music from Africa, where Handa comes from. In the kitchen, we learned the importance of washing our hands before we touch food and we also learned how to chop fruit safely.
We also had a surprise of our own as Handa left a basket of fruit for us to taste! We came up with some good words to describe how the fruit looked, smelled and tasted.
We have really enjoyed our first couple of weeks in our new school. We have been busy exploring lots of different activities, getting to know our teachers and making new friends. We are settling in really well!