Welcome back to a new term!

In English this week we have used a new text, The Man on the Moon. First, we looked at a picture of Bob and worked as detectives to draw out information about the character. In groups, the children listed everything they could see in the illustration to use as clues. They then wrote predictive sentences about the mystery character, using a subordinating conjunction (if, when, because) to explain their predictions.

This work was followed by a character description of Bob where children wrote their own paragraph. The children were given challenges for their writing based on their individual next steps, for example using a possessive apostrophe, using conjunctions and using expanded noun phases.

Next, we thought about similarities and differences between the fiction character Bob and the real astronaut Tim Peake. The children then wrote a formal letter to the European Space Agency applying to be an astronaut.

We had a wonderful time on our trip the We the Curious!  We went to an exciting work shop all about blasting off to the International Space Station. First, in teams, the children built rockets to blast into space (and fired them across the lab). Next, we thought about the difficulties of eating and drinking in zero-gravity conditions.  Children worked together to keep a ball floating above an air blower. They had to take great care to keep the ball steady and not let it shoot away. The next job was to pick out suitable materials for a space suit to go on a space walk to fix a solar panel.

The children had a brilliant time exploring the many interactive exhibits in the science centre. Powering to water pumps with the giant ‘hamster’ wheel was a big hit as was building with the giant blocks.

Another highlight of the trip was the planetarium show. The show took us all around the world and around the solar system looking for Ursa the giant bear. We eventually found her hidden in the stars along with many other shapes and animals. Please do take any opportunities for star gazing at home!     

Thank you to everyone who attended our open morning. It is such a valuable opportunity to share and celebrate all of the children’s hard work so far this year. We look forward to seeing you at Parents’ Evenings next week to discuss your child’s progress.