Welcome to Birch Class!
Latest News!!!!
In Birch class recently, the children have been working hard to develop their computing skills. They have been able to utilise these in our geography topic in order to create tally charts and questionnaires. The children have also been using Scratch to create music.
This week, we have carried out the Oil Spill Challenge. The children created a replica ocean habitat using feathers to represent the birds and pom-poms to represent seals. We then poured vegetable oil into the water and observed what would happen. We noticed that the oil did not mix with the water but that it coated the feathers and the pop-poms. The children were then given a range of materials to attempt to clean the oil from the water. We found this quite difficult but, working as team and using a combination of cleaning materials, we were successful in removing most of the oil from the water and cleaning the 'feathers' and 'fur' of our marine life. The children then carried out research, in groups, into other hazards faced by marine life. These included ship strikes, ocean noise pollution, ocean debris and entanglement in fishing nets. As part of their research, the children identified what the hazard was, how marine life was affected and what could be done to reduce or prevent this hazard.
Birch class welcome booklet 2022-2023
Autumn term 2022 - Revolution class newsletter
Our topic this term, is Revolution! Take a look at our newsletter, for more information about our learning this term.
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Spring 1 term 2023 - Newsletter- What does the census tell us about our local area?
Spring 2 term 2023 - Newsletter- Why do oceans matter?
Here you will find lots of information about what we have been learning.
Autumn Learning
Clay workshops
On Thursday the 23rd of September, we had a visitor in school, who was an expert potter. He ran a clay workshop in the hall which we were all excited about. Before the workshop, we had to design the slab post boxes and consider the tools we would need to make it. We will be evaluating the post boxes we made. We thoroughly enjoyed the workshop and we look forward to displaying our finished products in school.
Below are some photos of the workshop.
PE
In outdoor P.E, the focus is orienteering. We worked our way around the obstacle course (trim trail) using our bodies to stretch, balance and swing. Then we took it in turns to be blindfolded and our partner guided us around the trim trail. We needed to listen carefully to our partners and to trust them. Our partner had to explain clearly and concisely what we needed to do. We played a ball game and introduced one rule at a time to make the game safer and fairer. We worked on our teamwork skills by using the parachutes to control the balls. We were then able to work as a team to use the maps of our school grounds to find given points.
Science
In science, we are learning about electricity. This week, we made circuits using a range of components and then drew the circuits using symbols, to show the components. We are looking forward to carrying out a range of different investigations in science and welcoming parents to our science open morning, which will be full of exciting investigations.
We have continued to build on our understanding of electricity by carrying out scientific investigations. We planned and carried out an investigation to find out whether a higher voltage meant brighter bulbs.
Visit to the National Coal Mining Museum
On Wednesday the 28th of September, all the children in Year 5 went to the National Coal Mining Museum for their enrichment visit. The children are learning about the mines and mining, as part of our topic. The children had a really enjoyable day and were very well behaved. As well as visiting the museum, they got the opportunity to go down the mine.
Violins
Every Tuesday in Birch class, we are extremely lucky to have a music teacher in school, who teaches the children the children how to play the violin. The children are really enjoying the weekly lessons, as you can see from our photos.
Science Open Morning
The science open morning in Birch class was a huge success! We really enjoyed having parents and carers in our classroom, to join in with our practical science investigations. The investigations were:
Does the length of a wire affect the brightness of a bulb?
Does the number of bulbs affect the brightness of the bulbs?
Spring Learning
This half term, Birch has enjoyed taking part in Forest Schools. We have practised using a compass to identify which direction North is. We also carried out an experiment to find out what happened to our shadows over the course of the afternoon. The children were fascinated to see that our shadows changed direction as well as length. They were able to say that this is because the Earth is rotating.
Computing/Literacy
The children acted as newspaper reporters and wrote newspaper reports about the incidents that took place on World Book Day. They then used the laptops to type up their work. The children used a newspaper template and copied and pasted an appropriate image into it. They were able to alter the text font and style so that their headlines stood out. Check out their work below!
Summer Learning
We have made the most of the weather this term by taking our learning outside.
