We decided that the rucksack belonged to an explorer. We wrote a diary entry as if we were explorers in Antarctica. On our expedition we met an emperor penguin who needed our help to build him an igloo. We all helped to make an igloo out of ice cubes but we had more fun making them out of marshmallows. We worked in teams- one person was the engineer, one was the builder and one was was the architect- it was difficult getting the marshmallows stacked and working out what shape the roof needed to be. The slope on the marshmallows helped us to keep the roof in place. We talked about how penguins keep warm compared to how humans keep warm and decided to write instructions- How to make hot chocolate whilst on an expedition? We had to remember we have no electricity. At the end of our expedition we made hot chocolate and ate our marshmallow igloos. We are very excited to start our new topic.
We have also been finding out who lives in Antarctica, what the weather is like and what countries and oceans we need to cross to get there. We have written our own non-fiction booklets about the animals that live in Antarctica- they are full of facts and have fantastic illustrations in them.
Learning about The Titanic has been very interesting especially finding out how an iceberg caused the unsinkable ship to sink. We have found out about the class system, how the ship was designed and what it would have been like to sail on the ship. We have taken part in lots of different activites to help us to develop our thinking using the hats to help us to find out facts, talk about how we feel, explore possibilities and develop our ideas and think if and why something will or won't work and why. We have sketched pictures of the Titanic, make 3D models and created a whole class picture using different media.
We also had a challenge to answer this question- How could we save the lives of 500 more passengers who sailed on the Titanic? We spent a full day on this enquiry. We use the sharing method to work out. We did lots of problem solving- If 800 people fit in 16 lifeboats how many lifeboats would you need for 500 people? Children showed their working out in different ways with lots of children choosing to use the sharing method. We have decided to make our own model life boats and have design four different ones. Everyone will now choose the life boat they would like to make.
In science we have been looking at change. We had to find a solution to the question- How can you get polar bears out of the ice quickly? (We also found out that polar bears do not live in Antarctica) We found out lots of information sharing ideas from each other as well as looking on the internet. We used the TASC wheel to help us to plan our own investigation staring with what we already know and moving onto predicting and testing out our ideas. We have found out that we would use heat to melt the ice the quickest. This started a good discussion about how we would get heat to Antarctica. We then thought that salt would be easier to get there and this did help the ice to melt quickly.
Harrison has made Antarctica with his dad. Look at the detail he has used and the labels about all the animals that live there.
Holly and Elva showed us their penguin dance and we all joined in. Some boys came to ask if they could do a street dance for homework instead of a penguin dance. It was very cool and they had some fantastic moves- watch out Diversity!
Isabel Fahy has built her own Titanic ship out of lego. She has worked very hard to choose the correct size and shaped pieces of lego to create the curves and edges of the ship. She has also made her own iceberg.
Adam has built his Titanic ship out of card. He has worked very hard to create the shape, adding extra boxes for levels and tubes for funnels . He has painted to add colour.
Holly Hopwood's grandma has been very busy making Holly a fantastic costume so she can pretend to be a First class lady on board the Titanic. She had a beautiful dress, scarf, flowers for her hair, a bag with a mirror in it and a fan. She looked amazing. Holly also researched what life was like for First class passengers on board the ship.
Mrs Andrew has worked on a fantastic art project over the last half term with the children. The class was split into small groups and each group created a section of the Titanic picture using different medium- pastels, paint, collage, charcoal etc It looks brilliant in the cloakroom of our classroom.
We have written some fantastic newspaper report about the disaster and we have displayed them in our classroom on our Titanic display. We have also drawn some super sketches of the Titanic, they look amazing.
We are enjoying our philosophy sessions and are really following the rules to enable us all to feel a part of the discussion, respecting each others ideas even though they may be different than our own and also learning that our ideas may change as we listen to different peoples explanations.
We have had some good debates about- What love is? and- Whose fault was it that the Titanic sank?
We have put our ideas about what love is on our thinking tree.
