Larch Class

2022-2023

Flat Stan First Aid

This morning, the class enjoyed participating in the Flat Stan First Aid course.  We learned all about first aid basics from choking, nose bleeds, burns and basic CPR.  We learned about the acronym DR. ABC to help with when doing first aid: Danger, Responsive, Airways, Breathing, Circulation.

This week we continued our look at microorganisms and investigating the effects of mould.  The mouldest bread so far has been the bread rubbed in the dirt.  We had a few pieces that were starting to display a small amount of mould.  However, we still have several pieces that still looked normal.  The children enjoyed looking at the mouldy bread under a microscope and seeing the details of the mouldy bread.

Today we started our investigation on microorganisms.  We are trying to find out which conditions will make mould grow the quickest on our slice of bread.  We talked through about how we make it a fair test by keeping all variables the same except one.  We are going to monitor our bread over the coming week to see what happens. Watch this space...

Computing

Our first topic of the term is coding using microbits. The children familiarised themselves with the device itself and the programming environment, before creating their own program. 

The first tuck shop treat was flapjack. 
The children in Larch Class make, advertise, sell and work out the accounts for tuck shop every week. All children in Key stage 2 have the opportunity to buy tuck on a Friday break time. 

Introduction to Classification

This week in Science, we learned about the process of classification.  We had fun learning about this by classifying sweets based on similar characteristics. 

Today we looked through our adventure activity book, 'Help, our planet's in peril!', that children could complete during the summer holidays. We completed Challenge 4 in class where we covered and discussed renewable and non-renewable energy sources.  We had fun seeing the power of wind in action by creating our own wind-powered racer.

2021-22

Summer Term

Year 5 & 6 thoroughly enjoyed watching a performance of ‘The Lies We Tell’, part of the ‘Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds Doorstop Theatre festival’.

Green screen

The children enjoyed another afternoon with Nick Templeton from Suffolk Computing Hub. They learnt to create videos, using picture on picture, video on picture and video on video. 

Larch Class had a great introduction to CoSpaces with Nick Templeton from Suffolk Computing Hub. There was much excitement using the VR headsets to explore the virtual environments which the children had created.

Congratulations to the eight year 5 and 6s that represented the school at KES in a Foot Golf competition. They were fantastic and came 2nd out of 6 schools. 

Platinum Jubilee - Queen's Portrait

As a school, each child making their own portrait of Queen Elizabeth II.  This afternoon we sketched, drew, coloured and painted our portrait.  Check out some of our portraits below:

Four girls took part in a soft archery event at King Edwards. They started with being taught how to play and ended with a competition. The girls did exceptionally well and finished second place. Well done Zia, Holly, Isabelle and Freya. 

For PE this week Larch and Willow classes joined together and had a fun lesson of Foot golf. It was a great way to end SATS week. 

Blogging in Computing

In our new topic, the children will be designing and creating their own blog. Today, we discuss the key features and what makes a good blog along with the style of writing used.

Using a live collaborative document, the children typed their own thoughts to what our class success criteria could be, whilst being able to see what others were typing. Afterwards, these were discussed as a class and the final success criteria was agreed.

The class can’t wait to get started on their own blogs next week 💻

Science - The Circulatory System 

This half term we are studying the circulatory system and learning the different parts and functions of the circulatory system and how it enables our bodies to function. 

Today we learned about the heart: its different parts and how it functions.  To further our learning, we got to physically see, hold and explore a pig's heart which is similar to a human heart.  Well done to those children who put themselves outside their comfort zone and gave something new a try. 

Spring term

We ended this terms PE unit of Tag Rugby with a mini tournament. 

Congratulations Jess on winning Larch class Easter egg competition. 

We had a wonderful afternoon at the Theatre Royal watching playscripts written by children from 13 local primary schools.  It was such a great experience to see these plays come to life.  Congratulations to Harry for having his play 'Anti-Gravity' chosen from our school!  

Well done to all of Larch Class for receiving your swimming certificates. 

School Heritage Project

On Tuesday, 10 children from Year 5 and 6, who had been selected to be ambassadors for the school, attended the School Heritage Project along with children from other local schools. 

The children had a tour around Abbey Gardens where they learned about the history of the Abbey.  They then moved on to Moyses Hall where they heard  the story of the local Red Barn Murder, with all of its gory details, before moving on to smell a variety of disgusting smells!

After lunch at the Cathedral, the group went to the Guildhall where they were able to go into the actual war room which was used during the Second World War. Following that, they attended two mock trials where they were asked for their opinions on the verdicts for the two people on trial!

Finally, they returned to the Cathedral where they were given a tour which included lying on the floor of the altar to look up at the new tower as well as hearing many very interesting facts.

These children will be sharing their experience with the rest of the school and using it to devise a performance piece in drama club, this will then be included in a celebratory event on 29th June in Abbey Gardens.

Science

This week we learned the different electrical symbols that are commonly used.  We then had to check a series of diagrams with these symbols to make sure they made a complete circuit and test them out.

Science

Today, we continued our learning of simple circuits by introducing a switch. We used a switch to operate our lights, buzzers and motors.  We even had a go at creating our own switch in class.

Humanities 

We have moved on to the Bronze Age in our humanities. Today the children learnt lots of facts about Stonehenge and thoroughly enjoyed re-creating it in clay. 

Danger! Low Voltage

This half-term we are developing our understanding of electrical circuits including using correct electrical symbols and making our circuit more complex. Today, we had fun making simple circuits and understanding the science of what is happening when we do. 

We have been busy today typing up, editing and revising our play scripts! 

World Book Day

The children really enjoyed sharing their puppets based on a character from one of their favourite books. 
Our class winners are Daniel and Polly. Well done both of you!

Today we had the Theatre Royal in to help us develop our ideas for our upcoming play scripts.  

Friday morning practise

Year 5 and 6 enjoyed their first session together withMr Whitman, our music tutor. They sang, played and ate “Crazy Day” snacks. 

PE

As well as swimming this half term, Larch class have been focusing on gymnastics. They have worked on various different types of rolls, balances, vaulting, cartwheels and bridges. 

​​​​​​​Art

Art has been linked to our Humanities topic of “The Stone Age”. In order to really appreciate the caves, the children laid under the tables, on their backs and drew creatures from that time. Using chalks and pastels on crumpled paper, we were able to create our very own cave within school. 

Homemade pizza by group 2

The children made their own pizza dough. They learnt to kneed the dough, cut the toppings with a sharp knife using a bridge and claw method.
They tasted delicious 😋 

Cooking club

Group one made apple crumble on their final week. They learnt to peel, core, cut using a bridge and claw, weighing and rubbing method.

The children evaluated their work which included tasting an apple crumble Mrs Utting had made. The overall rating was 9 out of 10. 

Computing

Our new topic is spreadsheets and we’ll be learning how to use Excel. This week, we explored the different features including cell references, how to enter data as well as being able to understand new vocabulary. 

Science - Reflecting light

In science, we talked about how light travels and reflects off mirrors.  We used torches and mirrors to learn about incident rays and reflection rays.  We then made our own periscopes and had fun spying on our friends with them. 

Exploring screen time in Computer online safety

Larch class were asked to complete a screen time record card every day for a week. Each child entered their information into database fields, allowing us to produce various graphs and charts to show the whole class results.
 

Autumn Term

Technical planning and problem solving in OAA