LKS2 – Newsletter – 27.1.20

This week has been very hands on for year 3 and 4!

Forest school on Monday allowed us to show off our mapping skills. We used a map of the school grounds to plot co-ordinates on whilst locating clues. These clues were written in hieroglyphics and pupils had to decode them using the Ancient Egyptian alphabet.  These then led them to new co-ordinates and children used a variety of tools to find a range of artefacts. Once they had found all 14 items, groups sorted them using different criteria such as modern day or ancient items, colour and what material they are made from. Inside, pupils learnt about Howard Carter’s search for Tutankhamun’s tomb and the ‘curse of the mummy’. Groups debated about who was most responsible for the damage to tombs and pyramids and wrote a balanced argument outlining their opinions and reasons.

In maths, Miss Boyd’s class have been learning a new topic. We have been focusing on drawing 2D shapes and their reflective symmetry using mirrors and also being able to spot and draw the reflective lines in various 2D shapes. We used a carousel of activities to help us understand this new topic and even challenged ourselves to find the symmetry lines of abstract shapes such as lettering and items from around the classroom.

In science this week, LKS2 have been investigating the question ‘Which material would make the darkest shadow?’ Pupils tested a range of opaque, translucent and transparent objects as part of their investigation and compared their results and conclusions to the predictions they made at the start of the lesson. As a challenge, some of the children explored how they could change and control the size of the shadow and the effect of turning off all the lights then turning them on again on the size of the pupils in their eyes.

This week in computing, year 3 and 4 looked at using Bee Bots to learn the meaning of an algorithm. This is a continuation from last week, however, we also looked at what happens when our algorithm doesn’t go to plan. We linked the lesson to our topic, Ancient Egyptians, and acted as raiders and explorers. The explorers had to make an algorithm on a map as a guide to get to hidden treasure. The raiders then had to use this algorithm to help them find the treasure. If the explorer’s algorithm didn’t lead them to the treasure, we had to look closely at where it went wrong and how to fix it.