Westdale Newsletter

Together Autumn 2015 Issue no. 3

Together Autumn / Issue no. 3

Welcome to the Autumn issue of Westdale Junior’s Together magazine.

In this, our third issue, you will find contributions from each class, sharing some of the exciting things they have got up to in the autumn term.

Expect to find out about and be mystified by forensic science goings-on in Year 5, crime and punishment in Year 6, why the Year 3s have been walking like Egyptians and the Year 4s endeavouring to make their own water cycles!

Similar to the summer issue, we also have Together Extra in which you can find out about our successful Macmillan coffee morning in October as well as what goes on in Miss Newbold’s new and popular Craft Club on Thursday afternoons.

If there are any parents / carers that would like to make a contribution to our magazine then please don’t hesitate to get in contact with Mr Ring in Year 4.

Happy reading!

Autumn / Issue no. 3

Together

Contents page

Class 3J Science in 3J (Exploring forces and magnets) Page 1 Class 3LT The Ancient Egyptians

Page 2

Class 4B Greek food tasting

Page 3

Class 4R Water Cycle investigation Page 4 Class 5W Science, archery and going potty!

Page 5

Class 5J Forensic science in 5J

Page 6

Year 6

Page 7

Crime and Punishment

+ Our Macmillan coffee morning (16th Oct 2015) Miss Newbold’s Craft Club Christmas disco (15th Dec 2015)

Exploring forces and magnets Testing magnets: will they still work through the table? Through bubble wrap?

Making our own compass We started our investigation by stroking a magnet along a paperclip at least 80 times!

We tested the magnets by

After that, we attached our paperclips to a

trying to pick up paperclips

piece of cork and tried to float it in a tray of

but with a barrier between

water.

the magnet and the paperclip.

We even tried burying a paperclip in sand and dropping it into water. We found out that the magnetic force worked through all of the materials we tested.

Some of our compasses worked and the paperclip swung to point the same way.

When we checked the direction with a normal compass we found that they were pointing North.

We found out that the Earth acts like a giant magnet and its magnetic field means a compass point should always point North.

Unfortunately, not all of our homemade compasses worked. We talked about the reasons why this may have happened—why not try again at home and see if it works for you!

This was a fair test.

What is a fair test?

Science groups in 3J

You just change

In 3J we work in Science groups. Each group member is given a role to perform

one thing and

so the team work well together. The roles are:

keep everything

Resource Manager

else the same.

Administration Officer

(Freya and Alfie)

Communications Officer Personnel

Manager

Class 3LT

Egyptian Tales This term we have read, ‘The Magic and the Mummy’ by Terry Deary and used this tale to inspire a variety of writing.

Listed below are some further Egyptian tales by Terry Deary, which are great reads and really complement the topic.

GREAT Ancient Egyptian TALES By Terry Deary

The Gold in the Grave

The Plot on the Pyramid

The Phantom and the Fisherman

The Ancient Egyptians

by Mrs LeGood & Mrs Tupholme

Ancient Egyptian Day Year 3 have been enjoying learning about the Ancient Egyptians. As part of the topic, the children took part in an Ancient Egyptian day.

The Partake Theatre Company visited to help us step back in time and experience what life may have been like. Our investigative noses explored an array of spices and made us think about how they were used over 3000 years ago. The children also looked at many artefacts such as the shabti given to a Pharaoh for his after -life. Later in the morning, one of the girls from Year 3 was made into an Egyptian princess.

During the afternoon, the children enjoyed a drama session, involving an Ancient Egyptian burial ceremony.

The children loved the drama and looked fantastic in their Egyptian costumes. Many thanks to parents for helping with this.

At the end of the day, all the children agreed it had been a brilliant time-travelling experience.

4B Greek Food Tasting a variety of traditional Greek foods In Geography the children in Year 4 have been learning all about Greece, its location in Europe, its many islands, the rivers, mountains and major cities in mainland Greece as well as family and religious beliefs.

To fully experience Greek life we gave the children the opportunity to taste traditional Greek dishes; some being more enthusiastic than others!

The tasting and results The children were asked to at least try all the items during the tasting session, even if it was the smallest nibble!

The overwhelming favourite turned out to be the pitta bread, as most children had tried it before. However excluding that option here are the results: Feta cheese: 31

Olives: 6

Figs: 11

Greek yoghurt: 3

“I liked the Greek food tasting because I

Hummus: 6

None: 3

got to try some new food,” Amelia.

All of the children left the lesson either having tried something new, liking something they'd never eaten before or realising it wasn't as bad as they thought it was going to be (so a success!)

“I would eat figs, pitta bread and hummus again,” Charlie.

“I hated everything but the pitta,” Molly.

“I enjoy trying new things,” Anya.

Together, Issue 3

Science Day on 5th November 2015

The Water Cycle Class 4R investigates the water cycle on Science Day As part of our States

Pictures (from top to

of Matter topic we

bottom):

investigated the

1.

warm water about to

water cycle.

Our end of topic assessment revealed

be placed in bowls.

2.

cubes wrapped in

a bit more work on

cotton wool positioned

the water cycle! lot of fun creating

on top of cling film (to act as cold clouds).

3.

But how?

Waiting for exciting things to happen

their very own mini water cycles!

Cling film placed over top of bowl and ice-

that we needed to do

The children had a

Plasticine hills and

(hopefully).

4.

Water from the bottom of the bowl has evaporated (turned into water vapour), condensed on the underside of the cold cling film and then once enough water had collected, fallen down again as rain (precipitation) and then it starts all over again...

5W’s Newsletter Issue no.3

Autumn 2015

Written by and for 5W

Air resistance - just an excuse to throw things!

Subject Updates!

This half term we have enjoyed

creating

enjoyed writing short

experiments

in

stories and looking at

looking at forces and how

instruction texts—

they

 In English we have

especially the yummy recipes!  In science we are learning about forces and how they affect us on earth. We enjoyed

science

affect us here on

Earth. Our air resistance experiments

have

particularly

been

enjoyable

because we got to throw things around the room to

learning about Earth

see what affects them

and Space and made

falling!

some excellent solar systems to go on the

Testing larger materials

ceiling!

outside

 In geography we have been learning about Llandudno in North

was

a

challenging—the

bit wind

certainly helped push us along the playground!

Wales which is a very

Going potty….

This half term we have been looking at the work of cerami-

different location.

cist Bodil Manz. The children have enjoyed studying her work and emulating her style in their own designs. She uses simple primary colours and straight lines to create intricate designs. Here are some of our own versions...

Becoming Robin Hood...

All of the children

loved it! We

in school were

clearly have some

fortunate enough to

budding Robin

enjoy some taster

Hoods among our

archery sessions

number and were

this half term and

enjoying striking our

the children in 5W

best poses….

Forensic Science in 5J A crime had been committed...

(Allegedly!)

Who had committed the crime?

Could science help find the culprit?

An unidentified white powder had been discovered at the scene of the crime as had a scrap of paper torn from the corner of a note written by the perpetrator of the evil deed.

The powder and the black ink with which the note had been written were being investigated by scientists at a police laboratory… and the police already had some suspects. Visits to the suspects’ homes had resulted in the police confiscating any white powders and black pens that they could find. These pieces of evidence had been sent to the scientists in Lab 5J for analysis.

Our groups of forensic scientists investigated the six different powders that had been found, in different combinations, at the suspects’ homes by studying their physical characteristics, observing and recording their reactions in water, noting the pH of their solutions and also observing and recording the reactions of the materials in acid.

Analysis of the different inks from the pens was done by using colour chromatography.

By knowing which combinations of powders and pens were discovered at the different suspects’ homes and comparing our results with the results of the powder and pen tested by the police lab, every group of our scientists was able to identify the suspect most likely to have committed the crime and sent the police the name of the suspect that they should arrest.

This, then, was Science Day in 5J. It was great fun and there was lots of careful testing, observation work and recording to be seen.

Year 6

The Galleries of Justice Our topic started at the Galleries of Justice where we experienced how Victorian criminals were treated. We also learnt how a court is run and who attends a court case. We all decided we wouldn’t like to live in this period.

Crime and Punishment We have learnt about the different crimes committed and punishments given from the Romans to present day.

We have also written stories based on the topic and diaries as a child prisoner, set in Victorian times. Finally, we have created newspaper articles based on a crime committed in history.

Macmillan coffee morning

Coffee morning On Friday 16th October we held a Macmillan coffee morning in order to raise funds for this wonderful and much needed charity.

Thanks to the super support of our parents/carers and community we succeeded in raising a whopping ÂŁ224.

Parental Involvement At this event, we also discussed a number of exciting ideas for the year ahead, e.g. a Christmas disco, beetle drive and even a parent-run uniform shop.

Watch this space!

The Year 3 and 4 children that attend Miss Newbold’s and Mrs Richardson’s ‘Craft Club’ have been very busy in the run-up to Christmas.

It has been a very exciting half term!

The children have had a go at decorating jars to make beautiful autumnal tea light holders, and have even made their own ‘sock snowmen’.

The snowmen week was a particular favourite for the children. They filled white socks with rice and then used felt, buttons and googly eyes to make the adorable snowmen come to

life. Will you make your own snowman at home?

Miss Newbold and Mrs Richardson look forward to next term where a new set of craft activities will be organised for the children to enjoy.

“I really love Craft Club and the things we make are amazing!”

- Katie McCoy, 4R

Our

Christmas Disco On Tuesday 15th December we had our Christmas disco!

We had a brilliant time, including our parent helpers and can’t wait for the next one!

A special Thank You needs to go out to all those parents that helped make our disco such a resounding success.