Peregrines had a great start to their final week of the year with a fun Forest School session with Mr. Meadows. Peregrines investigated what made the rocket fire the furthest: more water? More air? Peregrines took it in turns to hold the launching pipe as the upturned bottle was pumped full of air, while the rest of the group counted down to blast off!
In Science this term Peregrines having been learning about minibeast creatures that live in garden habitats. This week Miss Turberville took the class outside to the pond area to design and build a hotel for minibeast. Children took turns to bring sticks, hay, soil, flowers and leaves to the bug hotel, and talked about which creatures might come to stay there.
In Computing lessons this term, Peregrines have been learning to program sequences of instructions to make their beebot follow a chosen route. They used a map with roads, before designing their own street layout to guide the beebot through.
On Thursday morning, Peregrines set out across Gastrells playing field headed uphill for Rodborough Common. We wound our way up to Winstones Ice Cream, where we settled down for a class picnic lunch together, followed by an ice cream treat. On the way back we stopped by a big ‘dippy’ to play games and hunt for fossils, before we trudged back down to school.
Peregrines had an exciting day out this week at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust. Pupils started the day with a pond dipping investigation to see the large variety of creatures that made the pond environment their habitat: beetles, snails, fish, tadpoles, larvae, skaters and lots of others were fished from the pond with nets. After that we set off to meet and feed the different birds. After lunch we made our way to Welly Boot Land for splashy playtime fun!
In their Science lesson with Miss Turberville this week, Peregrines went out around the school grounds investigating habitats for small creatures and insects. We found woodlice, beetles, bees, worms and many other bugs making their homes in different places.
Peregrines had a wonderful day out in the woods at Copsegrove Farm today. We searched for animal skulls and animals with awesome powers. We made tree trolls from clay and dens for our cuddly friends, as well as tasty wraps and marshmallows toastedon the campfire. Thankyou to Kate at Copsegrove for all the really interesting and fun activities.
What are the best materials for constructing a house?
This was the question that Peregrines investigated with Miss Turberville, in the final session of their current Science topic about materials. Children were presented with different materials with which to build a house: paper straws; duplo bricks; wooden blocks; sheets of paper; playdo. Each material had different properties and presented different problems for building. The children came up with some inventive ideas and ways of constructing.
For our time capsule project this week, Peregrines have been imagining what life will be like in the year 2050, when the current children will all be in their mid-thirties, with their own families and careers. We discussed how family groups can be very different and varied, before children each drew a picture of what they think their own family group of the future might look like in the year 2050.
Following on from our art lessons on the work of Vincent Van Gogh, Peregrines this week have been studying landscape paintings, and looking at the way that Van Gogh created textures and movement in his landscapes. We looked at the swirly sky in ‘Starry Night’, and chose a Van Gogh composition of a moonlit hayfield to recreate in our lesson. We started with a gentle sketch, before getting splodgy with dollops and dots of stippled paint. Children were shown how to use two different colours on their brush, and to paint with short strokes in one direction, to create an impressionist effect in their finished work.
