Restorative Approach Champion Training

Some children in Year 5 have been trained to be RA Champs in school. They have been trained to help others solves problems when they fall out with their friends on the playground. The children thought really carefully about how people feel when they fall out and how to solve problems without making judgements of others and their behaviours. 

Science at Work

We had an amazing visitor to Year 5/6 this Friday! As part of our topic on the reproductive cycle of humans and animals, we were thrilled to have a visit from a Clinical Embryologist (who also just happens to be one of our many fabulous parents here at Ludworth). We enjoyed a fascinating tour of human development from cell formation to birth and then learnt more about her work at St. Mary’s hospital in Manchester.

From Lego Robotix last Friday to Embryology this Friday, we are well on our way to becoming super scientists of the future!

”It was amazing to learn how we develop and about the job of an Embryologist. I was amazed to learn how they grow embryos outside the human body to help people who are struggling to have a baby.” (Sadie, Year 6)

“We watched a video of how cells develop into an embryo, listened to a baby’s heart beat and saw 3D scans. At the beginning, babies have webbed feet and hands and start out life with tails!” (Imogen and Ella, Year 6)

”I learnt how cells separate to form twins.” (Matthew, Year 6)

”Some people might think it’s weird but I find it amazing how cells separate and form an embryo and then how the human body looks after it to make the baby. It’s fascinating!” (James, Year 5)

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Building Engineers of the Future - Block By Block

Today our year 5/6 children had a visitor. A very special visitor. This visitor was from Junior STEM Robotics with the aid of Lego. There were three electrical/Bluetooth powered pieces these were: a motor, a sensor and a  special Bluetooth device that was used to connect our imaginative creations to the WeDo app. With the aid of scratch style coding, we made algorithms to make the motor do a variety of different things, including: making our builds move, repeat recordings and play music.

Different commands did different things and many children said, “ It was interesting to explore and play around with the app.” It was a great privilege and honour to be in the presence of a Lego engineer.We could: make it go faster and slower; change the colour of the light; make it go forwards and backwards ; stop at our command and when it senses movement in-front of it. After a quick play around getting used to the app and it’s controls and parts, then we followed instructions on how to make a Lego car. After making the frame,we could design it to our heart’s desire. We coded it so it would move for as long or as short as we wanted. 

“ I never knew Lego could be so much fun as I’m usually not interested in it!” says Maggie

 “ It was a real eye opener as I had heard of Lego robotics but I didn’t think it would do so much,” says Joe

By the authors: Joe McG and Maggie R,

Today we had our first taste of Boccia Ball! This is a game like boules or bowls but played sitting down. It is intriguing because once you’ve played it you want to play again to see if you can get better. It is competitive and fun and anyone can play! It’s more about technique than strength. We also learnt to referee each other’s games so we can be leaders across school and show others how to play. It was awesome!

by Hamish, Alex and Edward

Wonderful World Book Day!

A host of famous characters visited school today. Can you guess who?

Year 5 and 6 went on an exploration to Manchester Museum where we discovered many fascinating creatures, delved deeper into our understanding of their life cycle and used our artistic talents to produce eye witness sketches of our discoveries.

The Land of NeverBelieve by Norman Messenger 

Year 5 are using the text ‘The Land of NeverBelieve’ as the stimulus for their writing this term. The children have created their own islands taking inspiration from this book. They created imaginary islands in the hall using a technique called ‘defining the space’ and then wrote Non Chronological reports about their island. Their writing has been superb, please take a look below. 

Dodgeball

This week Year 5 and 6 began their Dodgeball unit in PE. They started by looking at a range of different passes and throwing skills and the effectiveness of each one.  Children then took part in a game where they had to try and use an over arm pass for distance and bounce pass for shorter distance to get one of the opposing team members out. 

Field Work in Marple Bridge 

On Wednesday afternoon Year 5 and 6 took to the streets of Marple Bridge, armed with a clipboard, maps and sketch books. The focus of this walk was to identify human and physical geographical features, why they are there and how these features have changed over time. The children used OS maps to find and locate features we saw along the way and chose a physical and human feature in their sketch books. 

Examining Plants 

Today Year 5 and 6 have been learning about the reproduction of plants. We worked as very careful scientists to dissect a flower, looking closely at the male and female organs. We found the stamen stores the pollen ; male part. We found the stigma stores the ovary  female part.

The Land of Never Believe 

Children in Y5 have been exploring the text, The Land of NeverBelieve by Norman Messenger. They read the introduction and realised they had lots of questions to ask him. Luckily, he visited our classroom much to the children's surprise; he may have looked a little like Miss Vose!

Norman left the children a report about the island but it had all been mixed up. They have worked with great intensity to find out the secrets to this magical island .

Learning about Lindisfarne

This afternoon Brazil class learnt about Lindisfarne, where it is, what is it and why this is significant. We completed a before and activity post it note activity so we could track how much we had learnt in ONE afternoon. 

The children  re-enacted the Viking raids on the monastery on the island and the horrendous violence shown towards the monks. The children then wrote letters from the point of view of either an Anglo Saxon Monk or a Viking Raider. 

Brazil Class Assembly 

Wow! This morning Brazil Class took us on an action packed ride from Anglo Saxon times to Modern Day Brazil. It was a good job Dr Who was there to help! 

Anglo Saxon Honey Shortbread

Our school smells amazing because this afternoon Year 5 and 6 have started making Anglo Saxon Honey Shortbread to sell at the Christmas Fair. We discussed how the Anglo Saxons would have got ingredients such as butter, flour and honey from and how they would have cooked their biscuits without an oven. 

Some children will then look at some mathematical problem solving linked to this cooking activity. 

Square Number Investigation 

Today Year 5 have been exploring what a square number is using counters. We started the lesson looking at factors and factor pairs. We looked at the number 36 and discussed why it had an odd number of factors. We then explored why a square number is called a square number, other examples of square numbers and much more. Check out our learning below.

“Fair is foul and foul is fair...” Year 6 have been using the wooded area as a stimulus to write spooky settings in the style of Macbeth. They have done a spine-tingling job!

Wonderful Weaving 

Over the last few weeks you will recall us asking for sticks, sticks and more sticks. Well we can now reveal what we have been doing.

Inspired by the Anglo Saxons our Design and Technology topic has revolved around Weaving. The children have created a loom and have woven man made and natural materials to create a piece of weaving. 

This week in Science we have been exploring how day and night is created and why we experience different weather during the seasons. The children were given play dough and kebab sticks and asked to show the size and shape of the Earth, Sun and Moon. They then tried to demonstrate the rotation and orbit of the Earth around the Sun. 

Spectacular Spaceport 

Year 5 and 6 have travelled past Earth as we know it and entered the the system beyond our own planet at Liverpool Spaceport. On arrival, the children launched their explorations with a space shuttle simulator travelling through space, nearly colliding with falling asteroids. 

They then entered the Spacedome and explored the theory of life and and the potential of there being microbes on Mars. 

After lunch the children were given the opportunity to lead their learning as they tackled the numerous exhibitions on show.

Before leaving we couldn’t resist the chance to view some of the Star Wars memorabilia. The children were impeccably behaved and thoroughly enjoyed their day.

An Awesome Action Packed Start! 

Since the new Year 5 and 6 children touched down in The Americas, they have been struck with an array of exciting, stimulating, memorable and fun learning experiences. 

We began our Anglo Saxon topic by invading each other’s classrooms ( we called them settlements) stealing whatever we could. We discussed how this would actually have felt to either be an ‘invader’ or ‘invaded’. The children poignantly discussed the emotions connected to loosing a home and possessions. 

After time travelling back back to the modern world we started our Earth and Space topic outside on the school field. Once we knew the order of the planets in our solar system we explored the size and distance of them using fruit and spices. 

On Friday we jetted to Africa and were enthralled and entertained by the Zulu dancers who visited our school.