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Examples of our work in Redwood

Space STEM

We spent a morning working with two people from York University. We revisited our Earth and Space topic by experiencing a trip through our solar system using VR and then explored the use of robots.

Time Zones

In science, we learnt about how the Earth's rotation results in day and night. In geography, we then linked this to understanding time zones. We enjoyed investigating the answers to a wide range of time zone challenges.

Meeting an astronaut

We took part in an online meeting with Helen Sharman, the first British astronaut! She told us lots of interesting facts about the training involved and her experience of being in space. Apparently, space food isn't great!

The Solar System

We learnt about the movement of the Earth and the other planets around the Sun and learnt that our solar system is heliocentric.

We studied the relative sizes of the planets and discovered that, if the Earth was 5cm away from the Sun, we needed a piece of paper over 1.5m long to draw the solar system.

Geography: River Mapwork

We used Ordnance Survey maps to learn more about the upper, middle and lower courses of the River Thames.

We also used atlases to locate UK rivers.

Online Images

During Safer Internet Day, we considered whether we should believe everything that we see online. We looked at some images from a social media site and fact-checked them. We learnt about some of the signs that might indicate that an image or information is not real.

Gymnastics: Balances

We learnt about counter tension and counter balances. We then developed sequences that included partner and individual balances.

Holocaust Memorial Day

We studied some of the laws that made life increasingly difficult for German Jews in the 1930s.

Sir Alec Shelbrooke

The MP for our school, Sir Alec Shelbrook, visited our class to discuss environmental issues. He answered our questions about being a member of parliament and about how the government works.

PSHE: First Aid Training

We learnt how to put someone in the recovery position, how to perform CPR and how to dress wounds to stop bleeding in a special medical workshop. We particularly enjoyed playing the role of a casualty with pretend cuts!

Science: Gears

We explored the ways that gears can change the direction of rotation and how different size gears complete rotations in different times.

Science: Forces Experiment

We worked together to investigate whether the height at which a toy car was released affected the distance that it travelled.

Slow Writing Challenge

We enjoyed creating some short pieces of writing where we had to meet a different challenge with each sentence. Here are some examples of the work that we produced.

examples6.pdf

Music: glockenspiels

We learnt to play Hedwig's Theme (the Harry Potter theme tune) on the Glockenspiel.

Fairtrade Fortnight

During Fairtrade Fortnight, we investigated where fairtrade products are produced using atlases and online resources.

Children's Mental Health Week

As part of Children's Mental Health Week, Redwood researched ways in which we can help to look after our mental health. We learnt that, a little like eating 5 portions of fruit and vegetables each day helps to maintain our physical health, doing 5 key things each day can help to keep our minds healthy. We made posters to show what we had discovered.

Gymnastics

In gymnastics, we worked with a partner to create paired routines that included contrasting and unison moves at different heights.

Copy of IMG_0176.MOV

Copy of IMG_0170.MOV

History: Anglo-Saxons

We used digital mapping and Anglo-Saxon place names to investigate where they lived. Did they live in our area? ... Yes! We discovered that there are many places near us with Anglo-Saxon origins: Fulford, Osbaldwick, Huntington, Hambleton, Newton-on-Ouse, Tollerton and Linton-on-Ouse!

NSPCC Numbers Day

As part of our day of mathematics, Redwood looked at the Fibonacci sequence. We drew Fibonacci squares, added spirals and then created works of art from them.

Art: Bansky

As part of our topic on Powerful Parliament, we looked at art as a form of political comment in a study of Banksy. We focused on examples of his work and then we investigated stencilling and developed their own stencils.

Ancient Mayan Stela

We looked at examples of stela as part of our ancient Maya topic. We made our own (scaled-down) versions of them and used them as the basis for our story writing.

UK Parliament Week Election

As part of UK Parliament Week, we held an election! The pupils in Redwood created four political parties and then each party chose policies to become their manifesto. We elected parliamentary candidates and created campaign speeches and posters to explain our ideas. We held a hustings meeting with the rest of the school to present our policies. We then opened our polling station; gave each voter a ballot paper to mark and add to the ballot box; counted the votes; and listened as our returning officer declared the winning candidate.

DT: Bridges

After researching different types of bridges, we worked in small groups to create miniature truss bridges. Once we had built them, we tested them and they were able to support 4kg!

Science investigation: Thermal Insulators

We learnt about different materials' properties and how they influence the choice of materials for specific purposes. We carried out an investigation to see which material would be most effective as a thermal insulator to prevent a snowman from melting. We had to consider how to ensure that our test was fair and make accurate readings of temperature with thermometers.

DT: Cottage Pie

As part of our focus on British Food Fortnight, we developed a recipe for a healthy, British dish in our DT lessons. We added carrots and peas to a traditional cottage pie recipe and ensured that the ingredients were produced in Britain.

Mrs Kirby came into school (thank you, Mrs Kirby!) to help us cook a standard beef cottage pie and a vegetarian, Quorn-based pie. Our favourite part was tasting them; nothing was left!

We compared our cottage pies with commercially available alternatives and discovered that ours were cheaper and lower in salt and fat.

Science investigation: Levers

We carried out an investigation to see whether the length of a lever affected the weight that it could lift. We discovered that the longer the lever, the more weight could be lifted.

Astro Pi Project

As part of Science week, we completed a KS2 Astro Pi project. We worked in groups with members of Willow class to design an image to be sent to the ISS (International Space Station). We researched where the countries involved in the ISS were in atlases, learnt how to code different colours using RGB, designed nature themed images on a bitmap and then used code to create the image to be displayed on an Astro Pi. These images will be sent to the astronauts on the ISS!

Remembrance Poetry

We studied a poem called Growing Pains by Sylvia Kantaris. It was based on a portrait of a young girl and the poet had written as if she was the subject of the painting; she had really captured her possible feelings. We began our work in the same way: studying portraits of WW1 soldiers and considering how we thought they were feeling and what they might have been thinking. We used historical sources to learn more about what life might have been like in the trenches and then finally wrote our own poems, using the structure from Growing Pains.

Cooking: American Adventure

As part of our American Adventure topic, we developed a recipe inspired by a popular dish in Mexico. Mrs Kirby came into school to help us prepare and then cook chicken and vegetables and we served them in tortilla wraps. Sabrosa!

Frida Kahlo Inspired Artwork

Frida Kahlo was a Mexican artist famous for her self-portraits. She often placed herself in fantasy backgrounds. We created our own self-portraits, considering our expressions and placing ourselves in a fantasy background that reflects the things that make us who we are.

The Wizarding World

We looked at the book, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and then created our own wizarding world beast and created a new page for the book, complete with illustrations.

Eye Artwork

We studied eyes as part of our artwork. We looked at eyes by famous artists and produced our own using a range of media: acrylic paint, sketching pencils, pastels and clay.

History: The Vikings and Anglo-Saxons

We read the story of Beowulf's fight against Grendel during our study of Vikings and Anglo-Saxons. We imagined what it would have been like to witness the battle and wrote newspaper reports about it.

Here are a few examples of our finished writing.

The Lost Words

We used the book, The Lost Words by Robert MacFarlane and Jackie Morris as inspiration for our own poetry and art. We sent some examples of our work to the author and the illustrator and received replies from them both!

The author told us that our writing 'put a broad smile' on his face and that they were 'beautiful things; combining imagination and observation'.

The illustrator described our art as 'very beautiful'.

Carbon Zero Project

As members of the Green Schools Carbon Zero project, we learnt about the impact that our choices can have on the planet and considering ways in which we could have a positive effect. We attempted to illustrate this in a piece of artwork.

Design Technology: Christmas Decorations

We investigated Christmas decorations and then designed our own before creating them from felt, and decorating them with a variety of stitches and embellishments.

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