Beech Tree Class Blog 2023-2024
Beech Tree Blog
Weekly Update-13/5/22
Mr Kyriacou (n.kyriacou) on: Beech Tree Blog
Hello everyone,
This week, as part of our writing and topic work, we have been focusing on Howard Carter and his discovery of Tutankhamun. The children have been so engaged and so eager to find out more about him. We have also been looking at the features of a diary entry and focusing on developing a range of vocabulary, which relates to the emotions of Howard Carter when he first made the discovery. We will be using this vocabulary to construct sentences, that will be written from Howard Carter's perspective at the time of the discovery.
In maths, we have continued our work on money, focusing on adding and subtracting money mentally and using the column method for larger amounts of money. We have also started to look at different word problems that involve using one or more of the four maths operations in order to answer the question. This has been challenging for some children, however, the children have been giving it their absolute best and we will continue to work with them to build up their confidence in order to tackle these trickier word problems.
In science, we have continued our work on magnets and forces. This week, we have been focusing on magnetic and non-magnetic materials. The children had a range of items to choose from and had to investigate whether the items were magnetic or not. We had some absolutely fantastic discussions beforehand about why the class thought some items would or would not be magnetic and then they had to prove it by conducting an investigation. Some items surprised the children and we discussed why those items were/weren't magnetic.
We also had a lovely trip to Yeadon Library, where the children learnt all about what a library does. They were then put into small groups and given the task of choosing a book that they liked and then trying to persuade the class why they should pick their books. There were some great arguments made and a really nice variety of books chosen. Here are the five books that were chosen by Beech Tree.
Take care,
Mr Kyriacou :)
Weekly Update 6/5/22
Mr Kyriacou (n.kyriacou) on: Beech Tree Blog
Hello everyone,
This week, we have been continuing our work on ancient Egypt, and have been looking at the different stages of the mummification process. We have been focusing on using sequencing adverbs to write the mummification process from the beginning to the end.
In maths, we have been continuing our work on decimals, focusing on comparing and rounding decimals. The children have really impressed me with their continuous hard work and great attitude to learning.
The children also got to have their first lesson using our new Google Chromebooks, which they absolutely loved. It was amazing to see the computing knowledge that the children have developed this year and how they applied it to navigating their way in and out of different programs on these new devices. We also used the Chromebooks to do some individual research on the ancient Egyptians.
I'd also just like to share a few lovely pictures from Chess club. The children have really been eager to learn all the rules of the game and they've been really enjoying it. It's great to see the development of their chess knowledge and how they strategically apply it to their games.
That's all for now :)
Mr Kyriacou
Weekly Update-29/4/22
Mr Kyriacou (n.kyriacou) on: Beech Tree Blog
Hello everyone,
We've had another excellent week. This week we have continued our new science topic called Forces and Magnets. We have been focusing on friction, what it is, how it occurs, where it occurs and how it can be really useful. We conducted an investigation to find out how much friction would occur between car tyres and the different materials that it was driving along. For this we used toy cars, a launching ramp, five different types of surfaces for the car to move along and we also used rulers to accurately measure the distance that the car had moved along each different surface. The children understood that if the car went further, that is because there was less friction being created and they also knew that the less distance the car travelled, that meant that more friction was being created between the tyres and the material it is moving along. We discussed how we would make sure it was a fair in order to produce accurate results. The children absolutely loved the practical investigation and it was fantastic to see that all the groups achieved incredibly similar results, which shows how accurately they conducted the investigation. We then discussed the features of those surfaces and how that contributed towards creating less or more friction. Here are some images of the children conducting their investigation.
We have also been continuing our work with decimals, focusing on dividing by 10 and 100 and converting decimals into fractions and vice versa. They've all been working extremely hard and we have done a lot of practise on place value grids to really help them understand which way the digits are moving, by how many places and most importantly, what those digits are now worth after they have moved.. It's been so lovely to see children becoming increasingly confident with this method and using it independently for their work. Here we have a member of the class doing 529 divided by 100 and showing the movement of the digits accurately.
We have continued our writing work around The Story of Tutankhamun by Patricia Cleveland-Peck. The children are absolutely loving it and it's great to see such enthusiasm, which then translates into some super written work, such as the non-chronological reports that we have been working on this week. We also had a lesson, which revolved around distinguishing between facts and opinions and the final part of the lesson revolved around the class deciding whether they thought Tutankhamun died due to illness, by accident or through murder. Once they decided which category they wanted to be a part of, they had to discuss why they thought that and argue their case to the rest of the class. It was an excellent discussion, and they shared some super opinions with each other. Nobody thought it was an accident, they thought it was either murder or illness.
That's all for now :)
Mr Kyriacou :)