UKS2 – Newsletter – 01.03.24

It has been a fantastic week in UKS2.

On Monday, UKS2 enjoyed their first cross curricular day of the half term. They revisited their previous sessions, where they designed their own Amazonian weapons, and began the making process. They used a range of tools, including bow saw and whittling knives, focusing on safety and accuracy when using the tools. As well as this, the children used their  weaving and braiding skills to decorate their weapons. We will continue to create these in future sessions too. 

On Tuesday, UKS2 joined the rest of the school in celebrating the lunar new year. In a day filled with fun, food and festivities, the children joined in with a broad range of entertaining activities. First, the children were challenged to draw their own dragon, focusing on their menacing teeth and extravagant whiskers. Then, the children had a go at writing the word dragon, using mandarin characters. Afterwards, the children learned how to use chopsticks, and competed in a variety of competitions to test their newfound skills. Finally, the children got to try a range of Chinese food that they had created, including spring rolls, dumplings and noodles. 

On Wednesday, Year 5 used Now>Press>Play to facilitate their writing experience. Stepping into the wild of the Amazon rainforest to save the medicinal ‘hope plant’, the children explored the dangers of deforestation and the impact of this on the wider ecosystems of the rainforest. 

On Thursday, UKS2 hosted their South America parent event in the hall. Children and parents were invited to take part in three exciting activities to demonstrate their knowledge on a variety of South American  topics. First, the children took part in a Kahoot, answering a variety of questions about South America. They competed against one another to answer the questions accurately and as quickly as possible. In the second challenge, the children were tasked with labelling a variety of countries, capital cities, flags and geographical features on a blank map. They used atlases, globes and our fantastic wall map to help place these features. Finally, the children displayed their understanding of Darwin’s theory of evolution and adaptation by completing the ‘Finches’ experiment. Using a variety of pincers to represent beaks, the children assessed how effective each one was at picking up a variety of different foods. They recorded their findings and discussed which beak they found the most effective. Thank you to all the parents who attended this afternoon, the children were thrilled to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of our current topic.