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Welcome to Cocoon Class
Teacher: Mrs Pridmore TA: Mrs Lynch
PE: Monday and Thursday afternoons
Please see the Home Learning page for information on how to support your child at home.
|
Event |
Date |
| PE - Cricket begins | Tuesday 23rd April |
| Year 4 Multiplication Check 2 week window | Monday 3rd - 14th June |
| Walk to school week | W/C 17th June |
| Class photos | Monday 17th June |
| Sports week | W/C 25th June |
| Transition morning | Monday 1st July 9:30-10:45 |
| Transition morning | Thursday 4th July 9:30-10:45 |
Life Skills (PSHE)
As part of the Safety and the Changing Body unit, Cocoons learnt about triggers, signs and symptoms of Asthma and what to do if someone they were with was having an asthma attack. They made lungs as part of exploring why asthma attacks happen.
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Terms 5 & 6 - Myths and Legends... Here be Dragons!!
During the summer terms we will be exploring the invaders, raiders, traders and sometime settlers...The Anglo-Saxons and Vikings, who once made Britain their home. We might also find dragons peeking around the learning corner in Term 6. I can't wait!
History - Bignor Roman Villa
Cocoons had a wonderful trip to Bignor Roman Villa. They saw orignal Roman artefacts, mosaics, dressed up as citizens from the villa, saw a hypocaust and took part in Roman activities such as writing on wax tablets, using a quern stone, creating mosaics, playing Roman games and matching Roman numerals.
History
Having made their shields brilliantly, it was only fair that the children got a chance to use them so we re-enacted Boudicca’s rebellion and The Battle of Watling Street as well as practising some of the Roman army formations that contributed to the success of the army.
History
Today, Cocoons looked at ancient designs for Roman shields and learnt about the symbols and their meanings. After that, they designed and made their own. We will use these to reenact Roman Army battle formations to understand why the Roman Army were so successful and recreate the Battle of Wattling Street between the Romans and Boudicca's army.
RE
To understand how prayer and worship show what is important to Muslims, Cocoons invited Mrs Tayad to speak to the class about her experiences as a Muslim. She showed us many objects linked to her prayer and worship, such as prayer beads, prayer mat and hijab, that helped the class to understand what is iimportant to her to follow Islam. She also talked about Ramadan and the 5 pillars that are the foundation of her belief. We are so grateful to Mrs Tayad for sharing her experiences with the class.
World Book Week
Cocoons were very excited to welcome the author of our class story, The Land of Roar, Jenny McLachlan, to school this week. She inspired us all to believe in ourselves as writers and to find inspiration for ideas through our play. Not only that, she hatched a dragon and took us all on a draw-along for her book STINK. World Book Day followed with some fantastic dressing up, story sharing, visits to the library and creating our own maps for an imaginary world to base a story on inspired by the maps in a variety of children's books. We watched a video by author Cressida Cowell, who shared her inspiration for her setting for The Wizards of Once. Lastly, but certainly not least, they had a session with local author, Ed Boxall who fired our imaginations even on a Friday to write fabulous poems about curious objects. We then shared these with KS2 in a large performance!
DT
The children have been learning about designing and making stable, strong and stiff frame structures to create pavilions. To link it to our Stone Age topic, the children designed their cladding for a Stone Age girl, "Om" from Stone Age Boy, with a modern twist! They have done a fantastic job! Well done, Cocoons. :-)
Science/PSHE
To link with our science learning we looked at top tips for keeping our teeth healthy as part of our PSHE curriculum. The children watched "The Singing Dentist" and made their own songs or poems to help engage others in keeping teeth healthy! They finished looking at the results from their egg experiment and evaluated the damage acid causes to teeth. After that, some children had a go with disclosing tablets to check how well they were brushing their teeth!
Science
After learning about the different parts of a tooth and tooth decay, the children set up an experiment in order to observe the effects of different liquids on teeth. To ensure they set up a fair test, the children thought about controlled variables such as the amount of time, the eggs were exposed to the liquids, the amount of liquid and placement of the experiment. They also thought it would be interesting to find out if covering the egg with toothpaste would make a difference.
Science
Following our learning about the digestive system, Cocoons are looking in more detail at the start of the digestive system: the teeth. Using mirrors to investigate our own teeth, we built a model of a gum and ordered the teeth. After we had learnt more about the function of each tooth and the order in the mouth, we self-assessed our models to check if they were right!
PE
In rugby, we have been learning how to hold the ball with 2 V hands and that we must keep two hands on the ball. We have also been practising the roles of defender and attacker, the offside and passing rules.
Science
To consolidate our understanding of the digestive system, we conducted a slightly disgusting but fun experiment after playing a matching and ordering game.
English / History - Stone Age trip recount
To prepare for writing our recount using the 5Ws, the children discussed their learning from the trip by looking at the photos and then drawing a visual recount in the style of Stone Age cave art. We even had a fire going (on the IWB!)
History - Stone Age trip to Ashdown Forest
What a fantastic day! The sun shone, the snow was played in and lots of Stone Age learning happened. The children found out how their Stone Age ancestors roamed the local area and used their environment to survive. They examined artefacts and learnt how they would be used, played hunting games, made wooden hunting tools by sharpening sticks on sandstone, tried out heather beds and built shelters in the style of the prehistoric nomadic people. Thank you so much to our fantastic parent volunteers who drove and helped with the day, and to Lisa at Ashdown Forest who is always so knowledgeable and engaging. :-)
History - Stone Age timelines
Despite the cold, the children ventured out onto the playground to make a timeline from now all the way back to 1 million years ago. Each cube represented 2000 years! We added some key points to our timeline as well.
Reverse Advent Calendar
Thank you so much for getting in the giving spirit of Christmas! Cocoons, I am so proud of your amazing efforts at raising donations for the local foodbank. I know they will be very grateful.
Class Christmas Party
Party games a plenty this afternoon - some old favourites as well as a quiz!
We also had a special visitor!
Karate Taster Session
On Monday, Cocoons took part in a Karate taster session as a new club is starting in January. They learnt some Japanese and some great moves! Sign up quickly as I think places are going to be popular!
Christmas Lunch and hat making
The children enjoyed a wonderful lunch as a whole school today, dressed in their very own designer hats! I was so proud of the genuine care and support for each other as they were making their hats. They shared their decorations so freely and helped each other with trickier parts. Well done, Cocoons!
RE
To support the children with their understanding of the Trinity, in particular, The Holy Spirit, Father Pete kindly talked to Cocoons today in our beautiful church. He spoke using everyday examples that the children could relate to and answered their 'burning' questions so brilliantly. Thank you Father Pete.
PSHE
As part of their learning on Families and Relationships, the children discussed effective communication in the form of verbal language and sign language as well as body language. They practised acting out good listening and poor listening to demonstrate the effects on the listener and the speaker. In addition to this, they learnt how to use "I" statements to be assertive and keep them in the green zone rather than giving in and feeling low in the blue zone or deregulating and moving into the yellow and red zones.
Science
To begin their learning about conservation, Cocoons made a food web to illustrate the biodiversity of an ecosystem and how living things are interconnected and dependent on one another.
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English/Science
Today, the children made a Padlet of facts and information about the extraordinary achievements of Mary Anning after learning about biographies. They loved adding to this interactive biography and even stayed in when it was playtime to keep adding to it! Well done, Cocoons! See their Padlet here.
Geography/Science
Today, the children had a unique experience to wrap up their geography and science topics about rocks and volcanos. We were lucky enough to have a true expert in to visit, geophysisist, Andy Billings. Andy was able to share his experience of studying rocks throughout his career and taught the children a great deal. We started off by mapping rocks in our environment and Andy was able to classify, identify and date many of these for us. He led the children in a permeability experiment to see which rocks allowed water to travel through them most quickly and how porous they were by testing the amount of water absorbed by each type of rock. Finally, he shared exciting information about the rocks in our local area and the dinosaurs that walked here. What an afternoon! Thank you so much to Andy for sharing his time and expertise.
Community Tea
Wow, what a fantastic day! Thank you to all our visitors that popped into Cocoon Class today to find out about the children's learning and interact with the activities they had prepared based on the term's lessons. They enjoyed sharing what they had learnt and their enthusiasm and engagement in the topics really shone through in their confidence. Well done everyone, and thank you for your kind and complimentary feedback.
Please take a look at our class blog by Maisie and Fern. They did a great job reporting on all the fun!
Science
Finally, I wasn't the only fossil in the class! Today, the children learnt about how fossils are formed and drew their own story map of the sequence. After that, they learnt about the different types of fossils palaeontologists dig up to learn about the history of animals and plants. Using clay (rock), dinosaurs, sand and glue (minerals), the children then made their own versions of a trace, mould, cast and true form fossil.
Art
It was wonderful to watch the children be free with their artwork today. They experimented with charcoal using chiaroscuro, showing light and dark tonal areas, with a variety of mark making tools. We moved into the hall to do some larger scale pieces based on the shells they had brought in. Fab work, Cocoons!
Computing
Today the children learnt how to verify information on a website by checking others, finding reputable websites and search effectively. They created their own webpage using Purple Mash, making sure that facts they added were verified to ensure they were correct.
English
After lessons on understanding characters through what they 'say' and 'do', the children had a good comprehension of Chulak and Lila. They have also been learning about parallel stories and today collaborated as a class to build and plan ideas for writing their own part of a parallel story.
Science
Working scientifically, the children explored the properties of different rocks. They investigated the density, permeability and durability of each rock through a variety of experiments.
Science Rocks!
The children used sweets to recreate the rock cycle! They cut up sediments, compacted them into sedimentary rocks, added heat and pressure to form metamorphic rocks and finally, we upped the heat to create igneous rocks. They also spent some time exploring the 3 types of rocks.
First Day Back - Messy Geography!
Today, Cocoons learnt about how the Earth is constructed and built their own playdoh models!
Extreme Earth - Terms 1 & 2
Welcome to Term 1 of our new school year!
For the next two terms we will be exploring Earth at its extremes: the volatile effects of fiery hot volcanoes and the vast jigsaw of polar ice that is the continent of Antarctica. Complemented by the science topic of rocks and alongside compelling and inspiring texts in English lessons that are linked to the journey, children will build their geographical knowledge and understanding of the planet we call home.
Welcome to our Extreme Earth, Cocoons!
