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Our teacher is Mrs Harris

J4 School Council Members

Links with France

Mrs Harris has recently returned from a trip to Bordeaux where she visited two French schools and even taught lots of lessons in French!  Back in the classroom at Coryton,  we all researched about the city of Bordeaux. It will help us understand how the children live and what they see day to day when we email our new friends at Carle Vernet and Ferdinand Buisson Ecole.

Cycling Proficiency 

This year’s cycling proficiency really hit the heights! We all started the day together on the school yard learning how to stop and start correctly; more difficult than it sounds! What with looking over your right shoulder and putting your feet at 2 o’clock to start,there was a lot to remember! 

We divided into 3 groups and each took turns to cycle on the road, do some bike maintenance and complete a work book on road safety. 

Our thanks to Mr. Reed and Mr. Sullivan for an informative and interesting day! 

A day as energy scientists!

We spent the whole morning with science engineer Rob Farr at Cardiff Oil Terminal in the Docks. We were very luc as members of the public are not normally allowed into the terminal for safety reasons. We learnt how Fossil Fuels evolved, in a fun and exciting way. It was amazing to think how much we use and need oil not just for transport.

We all donned hard hats, protective glasses and hi- vis jackets and were shown around the terminal site. We saw enormous tanks containing oil, huge petrol pumps and filtering pools.  

In the afternoon, Rob joined us back at school and posed the question “What energy will be available when the oil runs out in 50 years time?”

We investigated wind turbines and solar panels and recorded the voltage both gave out.

Rob Farr was very inspiring and we thoroughly enjoyed the day, learning so much about oil and also renewable energy. 

Thanks Rob. Here is his web site in case you way to know more....

www.theenergymc.com

FACE VALUE - Context for Learning for the Spring Term 2010

 People and Faces

Mother Teresa http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Teresa

Picasso http://www.miracerros.com/artwork/g_picasso_0.htm

Andy Warhol    http://www.canvasfunk.co.uk/                               

Famous Welsh/ French faces

Portraits of Tudor faces, http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/nettsch/time/tlife.html

Collages of photographed faces

 Jesus

Making faces

Making Pizza faces (visit to Pizza Hut) http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://insitemag.net/images/food_faces.jpg http://motiveart.org/PaintingsETC/modern%20art%20manf.jpg

Gingerbread men, Miniature clay faces, http://www.polyclay.com/facepulls.jpg

Mask making

Facing up to it

Facing up to a challenge-friendships, hopes, fears, self expression, peer pressure. Keeping fit and healthy.   

I.T. skills to include: Graphics, Email, Web page, Word Processing, Internet/CD Roms, Search Engine research, Leaflets, PowerPoints, Data bases, Spreadsheets

Faces of the World

Les Visages de France http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/mfl/mfl_french.htm / Landscapes and habitats on the face of the world

Welsh- Pontio ( Bridge to High School)

Being a European citizen http://www.newburypark.redbridge.sch.uk/langofmonth/index.html

Music to express landscapes of the world http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mvh4zEKG2zs

PESS Gymnastics/ Hockey, Netball 

AND THE BIG SUBJECTS……..

Science- Living Things, Health and Well being http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/science/science.htm

Maths-Using and Applying, Multiplication, Fractions, Decimals, Percentages, Ratio and Proportion, Handling Data, 3DShape and Space, Measure http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/maths/maths.htm

English- Text Level –persuasive writing, writing for a purpose

Sentence level- Complex sentences, advanced punctuation, wider vocabulary

 Word Level-Spelling-Key words, polysyllabic words

Jenny Sullivan workshop http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/english/english.htm

 AS A REMINDER

Classroom organisation

Group reading is at 1pm together with a rota including back up work, handwriting, spelling, spelling games, non-fiction books, author research and own choice reading. The children have a library time where they are free to choose a book from the library to read in school OR they can bring in a book from home. I monitor this by asking them to write the book they are reading in their Reading Record books which I take in and sign each Thursday. They learn the week’s spelling in school which I spot check.

P.E. Monday,

Games Friday

WHS p.m.– Thursday includes French, German, Science, Music, Drama,D.T.,  Dance and Library on a rota basis. 

***Homework is set every Tuesday to be returned the following Monday***

Please note that this term Mr. Barker will take J4 on a Monday afternoon for Welsh and P.E. The pupils will need kit that afternoon.

Crucial Crew

J4 visited the Police resource of Crucial Crew. Here we learnt about the dangers in our society and about law and order. We visited a pet shop, a corner shop that sold everything that we could possibly want OR not want, a police station AND a pub!

The dangers of fire.

In the pub!

What are YOU allowed to buy?

Football Match against a local school

We are very proud of our Welsh culture and worked hard to achieve points for our houses in the Eisteddfod. One of our class targets is to be a good role model around the school. We certainly tried our best to achieve this on March 1st.

In music lessons, we have been exploring the different musical elements through composition about the faces of the natural world.

Science workshop - investigating the body

Welsh Interviews

We have been discovering what each other likes, where they visit and who are their favourite celebrities - and all in WELSH!

Aim high is the motto in J4!

During the Winter Olympics, we thought about what it would be like to be a Downhill skier. Some of us were really hands on and dressed in full kit, whilst others tried animation, designing a new catsuit and leaflets to advert the event.

ICT

We had great fun studying Andy Warhol then using photo editor and Fresco to adapt our own portraits into his style. Luke and Luke tutored the class in this topic!

Sometimes we work alone, sometimes we help our friends.

GEOGRAPHY

During our Face Value context for learning, we have been looking at different faces of Europe and also learning where countries and cities are in relationship to each other. Look at our Welsh and French famous faces- what a great variety!

ART

This year’s annual trip to G.E. Healthcare was as fantastic as usual. Thanks to Julie Allcock and the Maynard Centre for putting on a “Yeast Show” for us.

Do you know that carbon dioxide is formed when sugar is added to a yeast solution? Well, we certainly do and what’s more the whole process is speeded up if the solution is put into a warm environment!

Researching

Making posters

Discussion is always important.

Emily's poster at GE Healthcare

Getting into the swing of the lab

Happy scientists!

Adding yeast...

mixing carefully...

pouring into test tubes

Thinking about thinking.

We read “The Improving Mirror” which is a fairy tale with a wicked twist. We thought about character traits and the changing emotions of each of the characters as the story progressed. We used diamond ranking and a living graph to help us focus our thinking.

Dance & Music at Whitchurch High School

We have now come to the end of our first term in the transition project with WHS. We have had some excellent lessons and have been learning from specialist subject teachers. Have a look at our latest lessons of dance and music!

Context for Learning for the Autumn Term 2009 

LET’S CELEBRATE!

Here are some websites that could support the children in their learning...

Anti-bullying week

www.dfes.gov.uk/bullying

www.childline.org.uk/

www.nspcc.org.uk/

www.kidscape.org.uk/

www.bullying.co.uk/

Enterprise week

www.careerswales.com/

www.youngco-operatives.coop/

Listening workshops

http://www.classicfm.co.uk/on-air/ways-of-listening/

Science- electricity

www.andythelwell.com/blobz/guide.html

Maths

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths/index.html

English

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/interactive/literacy.html

Both of the above are great for educational games. Find the right level

Synagogue Visit

We visited the Synagogue in Adamsdown on the day before the festival of Hannukah started. The lady there very kindly told us all about her faith and the history of the Jewish people. We learnt about every festival and the traditions of the Shabbat. Do you know that Jewish boys and girls have a present every evening in the 8 days of Hannukah?

Our Gardening Gang, headed up by Hollie Ballintine, whose idea it was to set up the team, has gratefully received donations from parents and friends of 14 bulbs, some seeds for summer plants and many child friendly trowels and spades. Big thank you for these!!

Here are some pictures of us in Music Time.

Birds of Prey 

We all enjoyed the visit of the Birds of Prey who had flown in from West Wales. We learnt a lot about each bird and two of us were lucky enough to have a hold! After this, we had to research our favourite bird of prey for homework and present our findings to the class the following week!

We had great time learning about all the other birds and presented our work in different ways!

Classic FM

Year 5 and 6 are taking apart in a project with just 6 other primary schools in Cardiff called “Hear Here”. It is to improve the listening skills of the pupils and for them simply to enjoy listening to music with more understanding.

ClassicFM in conjunction with RWCMD and RSO society are presenting the project. The pupils will experience the elements of music through listening. The piece they will be studying is “Pulcinella Suite by Stravinsky which is an orchestral piece written in 1922 in the classical style. 

The workshops are presented in a fun, child-friendly way so there is a lot of laughter and activity along with the music. There is always a “still” part of the hour where the children are trained to listen with a purpose. 

The whole project culminates with a visit to a live concert where the Pulcinella Suite will be played by the students of RWCMD.

RE 

In our R.E. lessons, we have been looking at traditions in churches. One of our parent governors, Mrs Church, very kindly came to school to talk to us about the traditions of the Catholic Church. She brought in lots of things for us to see and touch, some things were very precious to her.

She also arranged a visit for us to her church, St. Teilo’s where she explained its history and the traditions inside the church itself. We now know at first hand about the traditions of the Catholic Church.

Tudor Ships 

Our context for learning this term is the world of work but it was definitely SHIP AHOY for many weeks. We designed our own ships on the computer, made models of the Mary Rose and sketched it for homework.

We then found out what it would be like to work on the ship and the sort of jobs the sailors did. In music, we have been singing Sea Shanties, learning the action of pulling up a rigging and the history of the songs. We also visited the Waterfront Museum in Swansea and in particular their Ship section. A very kind gentleman (a member of the public) told us all about the different parts of a ship as he was a retired sailor. He said we had made an Ancient Mariner very happy! Finally, we had a fantastic time getting materials and building Tall Ships of our own.

Electricity

J4 have been investigating electrical circuits.  The pupils have been considering questions about length of wire, thickness of wire and voltage. The more complicated the circuit the better!!

Teaching and Learning 

Year 6 have been doing some cross key stage teaching and learning! In groups, the pupils discussed how best to engage your audience when teaching and what would keep their interest.

Over one morning, the pupils visited year 2 and present 3 bible stories in a variety of ways and the younger children were given some follow on activities. 

Year 6 pupils did a peer assessment on their classmates to encourage them  and also to give them the next steps to deliver an even better lesson!

Singing in the Community

The school choir walked down to Whitchurch Village, sang songs and displayed our new banner. We took our harvest treats to the community! These are some of the quotes from passers-by.

 “What a treat for the shoppers!”

“They are doing a marvellous job.”

“Lovely!”

“Music to our ears!”

“Well done kids.”

“Isn’t that nice.”

“They’re good aren’t they?”

Enterprise Week 

We had a fabulous time working with J3 in our Enterprise Week. On Day One, Doug Corp, from Careers Wales, introduced us to the world of business with a day’s workshop. As a team building exercise, we had to make a tall tower of spaghetti. This certainly started us thinking of talking to each other and cooperating. During that afternoon, we had a think about what skills we could all bring to the team and decided on roles for the week. We had production managers, accountants, quality control and even managing directors.

Days 2 to 4 was really hard work but great fun. We had a tight budget and had to be thrifty with materials and resources but made a great variety of goods as you can see from our photos.

On Day 3, three groups had a willow workshop with 2 specialist teachers. The natural material of willow and redwood was lovely to work with and we made some unusual gifts! Thanks to Mrs. Evans for organising this for us.

Day 5 was the busiest of all-frantically finishing off our products, setting up for our Trade Fair in the hall and finally waiting for the crowds to sell, sell, sell! There were many happy customers! 

We experienced so many different skills during this week and, from our evaluations, all learnt a little bit more about ourselves.