We have been having fun creating 3D symmetrical creations. We worked in small teams to use any bits and pieces from our classroom to create patterns and models that had one or two lines of symmetry. We looked carefully at as many of the details as we could – writing and patterns on things made it really tricky but we made it as symmetrical as we could!
Skiddaw class have been learning all about rocks in Science recently. There is nothing better than chocolate to show the ways of making different types of rocks! The Rock Cycle goes round and round and rocks are changed into other types over millions of years. We started with layers of grated milk and white chocolate to represent the sedimentary rocks like limestone and chalk. We pressed these little bits down just like the sea presses the layers down to make these rocks.
We then applied a bit of heat from our hands and twisted the chocolate sediment to form metamorphic rocks like marble and slate.
Then we put some of the chocolate into a cup of hot water and melted it and cooled it, like the igneous rocks that are formed underground and then erupted out of a volcano like granite and basalt. We know that rocks are weathered and eroded into little bits that flow into rivers and into the sea and the whole cycle starts again!
Of course, we stopped and ate our chocolate which tasted pretty good even though we had changed it to much!
The benefits of learning to play a musical instrument are very well researched and understood. So with this in mind, Year 2 have been ‘adding a new string to their bow’ and learning to play the violin with the wonderful Mrs Hurley, kindly supported by a bequest from Guy and Maggie Paton, local residents, in memory of their son Jamie.
As a showcase for their new skills they performed a concert to the rest of Skiddaw class and our VIP guest Mrs Coker. They demonstrated how to hold the violin in rest position, how to position it to play, pluck the strings and use the bow. So much thinking and fine movement is involved; it is a bit like patting your head and rubbing your tummy at the same time! Superb listening, following of instructions and great enjoyment from everyone.
Well done to all Year 2 pupils, and Mrs Matheson who learnt too, saying learning this new skill was a highlight of her week! Each week, Mrs Hurley played great solo tunes to the group on her violin, while they tidied away, and Year 3 and 4 often stopped to listen too – a real treat for the ears! We are looking forward to continuing violin lessons again for those in Year 2 who wish to carry on in September. Please see the letter that has come home for more details.
This morning, both Scafell and Skiddaw enjoyed a fantastic morning of sport and team-building games on the playing fields. Thanks to everyone who took part, joined in with all the games and cheered their team onwards to victory. It was really lovely to get to spend time together, and great to see everyone being supportive of one another.
Our morning started with a series of team games – wriggling through hoops, running a relay with cups of water and a lacrosse challenge. And who could forget what seemed to be a fan-favourite; the dressing-up relay! Imagine, if you will, a relay with a top hat and rather fetching scarf instead of the more traditional baton. Giggles all around for that one! After the team games everyone also took part in a more traditional flat race. Our brand new track was on fire with the blindingly fast lap times being posted!
Lastly, was the hotly-anticipated Year 6 Race – something of a Levens Tradition. Our year 6 performed marvellously, handling almost every sport we could think of. Football, hockey, hurdles – everything was included! Oh, and of course the famous Olympic “rescue the Jelly Baby from a pile of icing sugar” – a true classic!
A great day was had by all – thank you and well done to all involved!!
You might have already heard about Skiddaw’s amazing work building structures from spaghetti and marshmallows. Well, today they’ve taken it to the next level, using a range of engineering techniques to create our very own truss bridges!
We started by looking at simple paper bridges, and saw that just by changing the shape of the paper we could make our bridges much more rigid. Next, we looked for inspiration in buildings across the world. We examined the shapes that crop up again and again in tall, strong buildings and found that triangles are used very often because they are such a strong shape!
Using what we had learned, we had a go at building our very own truss bridges. Check out the results below!
It was sooo wonderful to be out and about again, starting our half term off in style at Lakeside YMCA today. We had the best weather – warm but not too blisteringly hot and not to windy either. Each child challenged themselves with the low ropes course, a high ladder challenge and a fantastically wet watery team challenge. You’ll see from the pictures that, for once, lunch wasn’t just the most popular part of our day. We certainly built up an appetite and the chocolate muffins, homemade that morning by Helen our wonderful cook, were wolfed down with great speed by anyone having a school packed lunch!
Thank you to Jack and Georgia, who looked after us brilliantly.
Our science work on fair testing and materials over the last two weeks has been linked to the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears! Which spoon would be best for Father Bear to stir the hot porridge with so he didn’t burn his hand?
In the first week, Mrs Wadey demonstrated it all wrong and didn’t make it a fair test at all – she had different sized pots, different sized spoons and put the spoons in all at different times. We were challenged to do better!
We had to choose our equipment from a vast selection to carry out a fair test to see which spoon conducted heat the least and would keep Father Bear’s hand cool whilst he stirred and made the porridge for breakfast – wood, plastic or metal?
Many of Y3 and Y4 devised ways of recording their own results and others worked together to create a table. Most children found out, concluded, that metal would get warm quite quickly and so wouldn’t be a good choice for Father Bear. Our discussion about why metal spoons were OK for eating but NOT good for cooking were interesting too and included thinking about how long the spoon was in contact with the hot food! Great scientific thinking and recording on this by all.
Year 2 are currently learning to play the violin with Mrs Hurley on Tuesday mornings. This year the lessons are being funded with special thanks to a kind bequest from Guy and Maggie Paton, local residents, in memory of their son Jamie. They are on lesson 7 of 10 and are enjoying learning how to hold the instrument comfortably, pluck and play the strings and use the bow too. This is involving lots of multitasking but the pupils are doing brilliantly following instructions and having lots of success!
Here they are in action…
To understand about how mountains are made, how volcanoes erupt or what earthquakes are, we first need to know that the earth has different layers inside. We have been having great fun creating playdough earth models! The middle layer of red is the core, the orange is the mantle and the brown the crust. Land and sea have been added too. We know that the mantle and outer core are made from rock that is so hot that it is liquid and so it really would be impossible to dig a very deep hole and pop out on the other side of the world! We decided to slice our earths in half instead to reveal the hidden layers. Here we are making our playdough worlds…
Skiddaw class are learning all about materials in science. We watched a live BBC lesson all about the problems of plastics in our oceans. This inspired us to make posters to help others understand what they can do to help. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle is a clear and easy way for everyone to make a difference.
Here are some of our designs.
