The children enjoyed watching ‘The Lighthouse’, an animated short movie from The Literacy Shed – https://www.literacyshed.com/the-lighthouse.html
This was used as our stimulus for the new theme this half term. Everyone contributed lots of lovely suggestions for what they would like to know and do.
Here are some of the lovely things we’ve been getting up to:
Making Circuits
Everyone had a great time making circuits and lighting their bulbs! They particularly enjoyed changing them and adding items like switches, extra batteries and extra bulbs. It generated lots of discussions and everyone demonstrated great perseverance and problem-solving skills.
Electricity Research
Lots of independent research has been going on, using books and the internet, to find out more about electricity; how it is made; what do we use it for; what is a light bulb; what are insulators and conductors; etc. Following the research, we are looking forward to everyone’s presentations during the last week of term.
Welsh history – Small’s Lighthouse
What a fascinating true story we learnt about this Welsh lighthouse! Situated approximately 20 miles west of Ramsey Island, this lighthouse brought about a change in lighthouse policy in 1801 after a gruesome episode!
We have recently been learning about the features of newspaper writing, so will be using the story of Small’s Lighthouse to write our own newspaper reports.
Where in Wales?
Lots of enthusiasm for the task of locating lighthouses around the coast of Wales. They practised using the Index in an Atlas to find places and developed their understanding of grid referencing. We are planning on more grid referencing work during our outdoor sessions.
Light and Sight
After watching a video about ‘Light’, the children were keen to find out more about it and were keen to experiment how it would feel if they were not able to see. Blindfolded in the forest and putting their trust in a friend, they followed instructions to move around. It was also a great opportunity to develop instructional language e.g. quarter/full/half turns; 90 degrees/180 degrees/360 degrees; clockwise/anticlockwise;
The Shadow Puppet activity was also lots of fun! After making their own puppets, they used them to retell stories for their friends. We learnt that light travels from a light source until it meets an object.
Building Lighthouse Towers
Great teamwork and perseverance shown during this session in the forest. It was also a great opportunity to use measuring skills! The children measured their towers and then used the information to create their own bar graphs and interpret the data.
World Religion Day
As part of ‘World Religion Day’, the children used books and watched short videos to develop their understanding of six different religions: Christianity; Judaism, Sikhism; Buddhism; Islam; Hinduism. They considered the similarities that the religions share and focused on ‘Love’ being a constant throughout all the religions.
Through their research and discussions, they were able to understand the importance of this day, where people around the World, take part in activities to promote inter-faith understanding and harmony. As part of the four purposes we also understand the importance of becoming ethical, informed citizens who respect the needs and rights of others as members of a diverse society.
Dydd Santes Dwynwen
The children enjoyed listening to the story of St. Dwynwen, the Welsh Patron Saint of lovers. As one of our Values this term is ‘Love’, we had a class discussion about the importance of how our actions show that we love someone. They also enjoyed learning about Welsh love spoons and their symbols. They designed their own ‘Dydd Santes Dwynwen’ cards too.
They really challenged themselves with new Welsh vocabulary too! We read the story of Santes Dwynwen in Welsh as part of one of our Guided Reading sessions.
And, we learnt a new song!
Fe gwrddais i a merch fach bert,
Lawr ar lan y mor (3)
Fe gwrddais i a merch fach bert,
Lawr ar lan y mor. (2)
O, rwy’n dy garu di (2)
Yr eneth ar lan y mor,
O, rwy’n dy garu di (2)
Yr eneth ar lan y mor.
Other things!
We’ve had fun learning how to play hockey! We’ve written a story inspired by a Pobble image of our choice, peer and self-assessed our work, made improvements and typed up new drafts. We’ve also explored the 11 and 12 times tables through partitioning and created arrays as a way of exploring factor pairs. We look forward to Mondays when we attend Inter-generational Group and PC Dan came to visit us and helped us to be more aware of ‘stranger danger’. What a busy and fun January.