In Sapphire Class, it has been a busy few weeks.
Science
We have been looking at parts of a plant and how bees are vital to the pollination process.
We also set up an experiment to see how water travels through the stem. We set up beakers with water and different food colourings, expecting for the petals of the flowers to turn those colours. Strangely, none of the petals changed colour! We left them in the coloured water over the weekend and they still haven’t changed colour! We started to think that maybe the ingredients of the food colouring had an effect on whether or not the petals would turn blue or red. Do you think that’s what happened? We are going to set up another experiment with different make of food colouring and see if that is the case.
DT
We finally got to cook our lovely lunches inspired by different countries. We had a whole day to prepare and cook our meals. We spent the morning prepping our ingredients and tools so that we were ready to cook. Some groups had to leave certain ingredients to soak in sauces or leave the bread/dough to prove before it could be shaped and baked. Mexico was a popular choice. One group made veggie tacos and beef burritos. Another group made their own tortillas for their pork tacos. We had a group who were influenced by Italy; they made Easter bread to go with their chicken and chorizo pasta. Our two remaining groups were keen to cook their Chinese recipes. We had sweet and sour chicken with veggie spring rolls and then sticky chicken with veggie stir fry. We were able to eat everything we made! We were super impressed with our cooking and loved the whole day. Mr Moss also enjoyed it as he received quite a few meals throughout the day!
English
We have spent the past 2 weeks writing our own version of Where The Wild Things Are. We had to choose a character who was a bit naughty, like Max, who then goes on an adventure to a whole new world and learns a few lessons along the way. Our main character for the class story is called Dolly who spends all of her time wrecking her house! She is sent to her room as punishment and that room transforms into a new world where crazy creatures live. She becomes the leader of the wild things and is having a fabulous time until they get out of control (just her at the start of the story) so she sends them off as a punishment. Dolly soon realises that things aren’t too bad at home and so she wishes to return back to her home and family. We have written different versions of these; creating our own characters, wild things and fantasy worlds. We have worked our socks off on these stories and are really proud of what we have written.
Maths
We are learning about money this week after spending a few weeks on decimals. We have had to convert between £ and p as well as add money to find the cost of shopping bills to work out the change we would be given. We have also had to look at how different coins can make the same total. At the start, some of us didn’t know all of the different coins and thought you could have a coin for any amount! Now we know that there are specific coins to be used with each one having a different value. We have done a pretty good job of understanding this unit and are pleased with how much we have done! When we converted money from p to £, Miss Tonner set a few traps for us, but we were too good and didn’t fall into them!
History
We have been learning about The Romans this term. So far we have looked at the invasion of the Roman army across most of Europe, parts of North Africa and parts of Asia. We have learnt the dates of when Rome was founded, became a republic and finally an empire. Miss Tonner tests us throughout the week on these dates and facts so we can make sure they stick in our heads. This week we have looked at how the army was so successful. There are 5 main reasons – 1. They had top training – building camps, attack and defence strategies, swimming across rivers, marching for miles and following exact orders. Did you know that if they didn’t follow exact orders, the soldier would be put to death!
2. The army would only accept the strongest men and they had to be of a certain height. If you didn’t meet those requirements, you were not allowed in.
3. Roman soldiers were equipped with the best armour and weapons. Their shield was also a weapon!
4. Their fighting formations were pretty much impenetrable. Their most famous formation is the tortoise: soldiers used their shields to form a ‘shell’ that would protect them from all angles.
5. Finally, the Roman soldiers never accepted defeat; failure was not an option. The soldiers saw themselves as fighting machines with only one aim – to win!
Did you know that the Roman army was arranged into certain groups. The largest group was a legion (roughly 5000 soldiers) which was led by a legate. That legion was split into 10 cohorts. The first cohort was 800 soldiers while the remaining 9 cohorts were made up of 480 soldiers. A cohort was split into a century led by a centurion. A Roman century is not 100 but actually worth 80! Finally, the century was split into a contubernium of 8 soldiers. These 8 soldiers would share a tent in camp. There was also a cavalry of 120 who rode on horseback. These were known as Eques Legionis.
Mindfulness
Every couple of weeks, Mrs Saeed visits our class to teach us mindfulness. We have had to learn about the brain and how we need to train it. We have been working on our breathing techniques too to help us calm down if we feel upset/angry or to help us reset after a busy day. Mrs Saeed asks us to count our breaths and then we talk about how the exercise felt. Some of us find it really tricky to stay focused on our breaths, while others in the class are so relaxed doing it that they almost fall asleep! We are looking forward to more sessions with Mrs Saeed over the next few weeks!
