Sapphire (Year 3 and 4)

Last term we looked at what it meant to be a scientist in our Working Scientifically unit. We started off by revisiting some of the words we had learnt in the previous year to make sure we could still remember what they meant; luckily, we could! Our first experiment was based around making parachutes to see which ones feel in the quickest time. We knew we had to make a fair test, so we chose to change one variable (the type of material) and kept everything else the same. We made predictions and then got to see whether we were correct in our thinking or not. We were surprised to see some of the parachutes take much longer than we had predicted.

For the rest of the term, we set up an experiment to see which substance would preserve an apple most effectively. We had 5 jars – a control jar, brown sugar, washing powder, cooking salt and bath salts. In each jar we placed ½ an apple and then monitored the effects the substances had. During our observations, we could tell that some of the substances were not very good at all at preserving the apple. The most effective substance was salt. It withdrew most of the moisture from the apple and kept it fresh looking. The worst substance was washing powder as it did not stop the apple from rotting.

We used a book called Marcy and the Riddle of the Sphinx by Joe Todd Stanton last term. It was a graphic novel about a young girl who has lots of fears so she doesn’t really go on many adventures. Her dad loves adventures and wants her to overcome her fears so he sets off to find something to help her. Unfortunately, he gets into trouble and the only one who can rescue him is Marcy! We had lots of fun reading the book and we did a lot of writing too! We wrote letters, diaries, information texts about mummification and the Egyptian gods and goddesses and lots of description work about the adventures Marcy had. We enjoyed the book so much that we asked Miss Tonner to get the others in the series so we could see what the other members of the Brownstone family go up to!

In history, we are learning about the Egyptians. There are many more secrets to discover, but what we know already is extraordinary. The Egyptians have many, many unique features to their way of life. There are over 2000 gods, all of them worshipped across the land. One of the most unique pieces of culture is their burial ritual. Firstly, the body is washed with Egyptian wine. Then they dry the body under about 3 tonnes of natron (a very powerful salt) and then lay the body on a table. Next, they place a long hook inside the nostril and pierce it right up into the brain and whisk it until it spills out in a pink sludge! After that, they remove four organs (lungs, liver, intestines and stomach), but leave the heart in for Anubis to weigh it against a feather in a special ceremony. Finally, the body is wrapped in linen and put in a coffin. In 1922, Howard Carter (an archaeologist) was digging for the famous pharaoh Tutankhamun. He had spent nearly 10 years on this quest as was about to give up when he found the steps leading to most famous tomb in history. Soon after, he found the antechamber which led onto other rooms including the burial chamber. Every item that was discovered had to be numbered and logged by a member of his team. Now, each artefact sits in a museum for everyone to see. This was definitely the greatest discovery in history and we’re really enjoying learning about it.

Last term we were learning about NPC (Non-Player Control Character) and PC (Player Control Character). We were tasked with creating a maths game (and algorithms) based on the Egyptians! The aim of the game is to beat the NPC and to get to the end of the screen before the mummy does. How to play: first, you need to answer the maths questions that are given to you correctly and if you do, you move forward 48 steps. If you don’t answer correctly, you are moved back 28 steps. Next, you continue to answer each question until all are completed. Finally, if you beat the mummy, you are told that you’ve won the game. If you have lost the game, you have to carry on playing the NPC until you can win. You get to play as many times as you want and it is fun! We used Scratch to create this game on our Chromebooks.