“Bringing Learning to Life”
Big Bang!
For our Big Bang we started in the present day as archaeologists. In pairs, we carefully excavated artefacts from the past. We then discussed what we thought we had found - our finds included arrow heads, spear heads and hand axes.
Next, we went back in time to create our own spears from sticks. Finally, we went on a hunt for a woolly mammoth on the field!
English
Our first English unit was instructions based on the text "How to Wash a Woolly Mammoth." We started by reading the book, looking at instructions and the generating useful vocabulary, including imperative verbs. Then, we planned, wrote, edited and published our instructions.
Science
In science, we started the year by learning about rocks, fossils and soil. We began by looking for examples of naturally occurring rocks and man-made rocks. We used Venn diagrams to sort rocks according to their characteristics. Then, we created an experiment to test whether rocks were permeable.
Next, we moved onto soil. We investigated different soil samples from around the school and organised them according to particle size, colour and moisture levels.
Finally, we used all of our knowledge gained from the previous weeks to help us to understand how fossils are formed.
Art
In art, we looked at shape, geometry and shading. We started by looking at a British artist named Chris Ofili. Some of his work involved sketching geometric patterns. He visited different places in the UK and sketched according to what he saw and felt while there.
Then we looked at a famous architect named Ken Shuttleworth. We learned about some of the famous places he designed, such as the Gherkin in London and the arch on Wembley stadium.
After that, we practised drawing shape and shading with different pencils. Finally, we collaborated as a class on a final piece of artwork which is now proudly on display in the school hall.