Science


Today we began our science unit.  We discussed the fact that scientists do not always know the outcome of their experiment so they predict and infer what may happen.  Each child was given a small amount of water in a cup and several tiny water crystals.  They made observations and predicted what may happen when they were submerged in water.

This is a photo of the water crystals before they were wet.  You can see how tiny they are compared to the pencil.

I predict tomorrow the clear one might not grow.  By Claudia
When the grow they will be the size of a marble and when you squeeze them they
 break.  By Hannah L
Tomorrow I think our water crystals might absorb all the water.  By Geordan
When we put the crystal in the water it started to look hairy.  It might feel hairy if you picked it up.
 By Maya
I think tomorrow they will get bigger and bigger.  By Mikayla
My favourite ball is red.  By Theo
I think the red one might grow first because I put it in the water first.  By Luka
I think the orange or the red one will absorb the water first because they went in first.  By Abby
I think tomorrow when we come back they will be all fluffy.  By Hannah B
I think they will be a bit bigger and fatter tomorrow.  By Imogen
I think that when the absorb the water, and the water is bright, they might get brighter.  By Nicholas
I think the clear one will absorb the least amount of water because it went in last.  By Niamh
I predict that when they are fully grown they will feel like pom poms.  By Hannah S

After ten minutes of observing, some comments were;

After ten minutes they have got blurry and their colour is starting to come off.  By Conner
After ten minutes it looks like they are a DNA sample.  By Joseph
After ten minutes I can't see the white one.  By Zoe
When they start, they look like they are soft and fluffy but when they are fully grown they will be really soft. By Abby

After one hour the crystals look like this;

This is a tub full that will be very nice to feel when all the water is absorbed.

I wonder what will happen to them if we just leave them for a few days or even a week.

Homework


Your child's homework folder should have come home today.  Homework across the school will be different this term.  Mrs Thomas tells us the research has proven pages and pages of homework has little or no benefit for children.  However, spelling, reading and sight words are most useful.  Our reduced homework load allows children more time at home for family activities, playing and extra curricular activities.  Those families and children who are unhappy with the load are directed to Study Ladder tasks and our class blog links. They could also write sentences with their spelling words.


The children worked very hard today to give 8 samples of ways that their spelling words can be learnt. These can be found in their homework book.  It is an expectation that the whole list for each week is written out 4 different ways per week.  There are some more examples of interesting ways to write out the words in the tab up the top - Sight Words. Children are welcome to experiment with these if they choose.  If you read the tab up the top, named spelling, it will inform you of your child's spelling level.  They have performed a diagnostic spelling assessment twice this year so far to analyse their spelling errors and inform their needs.  There are five different levels in our class and each child will be working on their own level, doing word sorting and other activities during our literacy rotations.  


There are no more extra literacy or maths sheets attached to the homework grid. There will only be one homework grid given out this term.  The spelling sheet contains words for the whole term.  Please send the homework book back every fortnight, as per normal, so I can check they are writing out their words.


Spelling tests will be every Friday.  The test book will be sent home on Friday afternoon and needs to be returned on Monday morning ready for the next week. This is good guide for you to see how they are progressing.


Please come and see me if you do not understand the new procedure.
Here are two proud students' work.

Get Set Go Sport 


Sport lessons began last week.  The class are learning soccer skills.  They learnt how to dribble the ball, gain control of it, kick it with the side of their foot and stop it from moving.