A Fun Mexico Game for Half Term!

To get us ready to learn about Mexico after half term, I have found this super game! It is very tricky so you will have to concentrate. You need to fit each piece of the map into the correct place- make sure you play in PRACTICE mode- it is almost impossible otherwise!

It is lots of fun, but a little addictive! You have been warned!

Source: http://www.coolmath-games.com/0-geography-map-snap-usa/map-snap-Mexico.html

Mexico!

Next half term we will be learning all about Mexico!

Source:wikipedia

Can you find Mexico on the map below?
What is the capital city of Mexico?

Try to zoom in or out and look at Mexico, or look at photos or other information by clicking the box on the top right. You can drag the map to look at different areas by clicking on it with your mouse and holding down while you move the cursor around.


View Larger Map

Click the link below to go to a super page all about Mexico:

http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/explore/countries/mexico.html

Mexico!

Today we began to prepare our classroom for our ONE WORLD half term, after the holidays. During this time, the children from other classes will visit our classroom and we will visit theirs, to learn about the countries they are studying.

We will be turning our classroom into a Mexican museum, to teach our visitors all about Mexico. Today we put up our flags, welcome signs and a display of key facts with some fabulous pictures and souvenirs that Sonny brought back from his recent Mexican holiday.

Once the classroom was ready, we put on our Mexican music CD and decided to get ourselves prepared! We began making some fabulous ponchos, which we will wear when we welcome our guests after half term.

Here are the ponchos in progress!

   

Southwark Recycling Discovery Centre

Yesterday we went on a fantastic trip to the Southwark Recycling Discovery Centre. Sharon, Julie and Ian taught us all about recycling in Southwark and we played some fun games. We found out what we could bring to the centre to be recycled and what happens to it when we do.

We enjoyed the discovery centre's activities, such as the 'Smurf'- a miniature sorting machine and learned how the real machines sort the mixed recycling into plastic, paper, cardboard, steel and contaminants.

We played some exciting games that tested what we had learned about recycling. Our top score was 200 points! Well done Michael and Leo!

The most exciting part of the day was the tour of the MRF (Materials Recovery Facility). We went into the HUGE building which was filled with fast-moving machines and we met some of the staff who work so hard to sort our recycling. We saw recycling in action; as the machines sorted most of the paper, plastic or metal, then the staff sorted what remained by hand. Everything was fascinating- it was very hot, fast and smelly but good fun!

Source: letsrecycle.com

Source: letsrecycle.com

Source: letsrecycle.com

We enjoyed wearing high-vis jackets, hard hats, earphones and goggles too!

Flood Alleviation Workshop

We have been learning about 'Improving the Environment', so you had a special visitor today! You were lucky to have a workshop to learn about flooding and how it can be prevented.

Here are some super photographs (thank you Mrs Cook!) of your workshop:

The introduction talk

Model of Dulwich Park before the rainfall

 Model of Dulwich Park after the "rainfall"!

With flood alleviation in place (thanks to engineers Evelyn and Agatha)

 

  Model of houses

The effect of flash flooding on the sewer system

What was the most interesting thing you learned from the workshop today?

Some Great Green Screen Examples!

This half term, we have been working on a green screen project in St. George's Class. We have made lots of films and we are proud of them all. We used an app called Do Ink on our iPad to combine our actors with some unusual backgrounds. We covered a whole corner of our classroom (walls and floor) with green backing paper and used it as our green screen. The Do Ink app allowed us to film in front of the green screen, then remove the green background and replace it with another image or film, just like they do in Hollywood!

Here are some super examples:

Well done everybody! The children filmed, performed and edited the videos. We might put some more up on the blog next week.

Congratulations!

Well done St. George's Class for another fantastic assembly! It was our last assembly as a class and I think it was wonderful- you all performed so well. All the adults at school were very impressed with your acting, recycled fashion and super ICT work. Very well done!

Here is the video that we showed during the assembly today. We made this video as part of our work on green screen filming. The children recorded, acted and chose the backgrounds- they are all iPad film making experts now!

I'll add some more of our green screen movies this weekend, keep your eyes peeled...

When Will Small Arrive?

We have been enjoying Levi Pinfold's 'Black Dog' this half term and we're nearly at the end of the book! Today we wrote a fabulous poem about  the Hope family waiting for Small to return, after she ignored their advice and went outside after the enormous black dog.

Firstly, we considered what the members of the Hope family might be thinking:

Then, we used these ideas to write a poem together. We used our favourite ladder technique; lots of children offered ideas for lines and we worked together to refine them, making them even better. Once we had enough lines, we blutacked them all over the board and looked at them all closely.

Next, we organised the lines into an order we were all happy with, before splitting them into verses and changing the punctuation where necessary.

Finally, we came up with a super title for the poem.

Here is the fantastic final poem:

When Will Small Arrive?

A huge black terror arrived at the door,

The world stops.

A minute of silence,

Waiting for Small's bones to return.

Behind the battered barricade,

Uneven blankets drooping from the ceiling,

Worry lingers in the atmosphere.

At the crack of dawn, the Hopes wait quietly,

Spines tingling from the unwanted winter,

The hungry horror circles like a vulture looking for prey,

Small for starters, Maurice for main and Adeline for afters.

A cold chill numbs the family,

The black figure arrived as silently as winter came.

Tick tock goes the clock, when will Small arrive?

By St. George's Class

Bottle Cap Art

Our bottle cap art project is developing at a super rate- here is the mosaic so far. Today we completed the layout and used glue guns (carefully!) to attach the bottle tops to the rug. We need a few more bottle caps to fill the gaps and we need to tidy up the edges of some of the sections, but it's coming along very well. It's looking fabulous!

Marvellous Magnets!

We've been learning lots about magnets and magnetic materials in the last few weeks.

Try out this fantastic new game, to test how much you can remember! It's quite a tricky game, but it's lots of fun!

Source: bbcbitesize

Banned Words Challenge!

There is a Class Dojo point up for grabs for the winner of this Banned Words Challenge!

Good luck!


Describe the object below...

Source: babble.com

...without using the words:

• Bed
• Sleep
• Lie
• Pillow

Brilliant Bridges!

Today, Mrs MacDonald set you a fantastic challenge! I am very jealous that I missed this exciting lesson- aren't you lucky?!

She gave you this brief and asked you to build a bridge, with a budget of only £100. Points were awarded by the judges for safety, balance, strength, being under budget and design.

3 of the 5 groups scored 5 points! Well done!

Here are the fantastic bridges:

They look marvellous- some look very sturdy indeed. Well done!

St. Thomas' Class Blog!

We have another blog at our school! Take a look at the fantastic blog from St. Thomas' Class, leave them a comment!

Bottle Cap Art

At last we can reveal why you have all been collecting bottle caps for us! Thank you to everyone who saved bottle caps for us.

Yesterday we began our recycled art project. Using an old rug and lots of bottle caps, we're hoping to make a beautiful piece of art. We designed our mosaic and started to place the bottle caps into each section. Here are some pictures of the work in progress- super teamwork!

Next week, we will fill the gaps and carefully use glue guns to attach the bottle caps to the rug securely. We can't wait to show it off at the Summer Art Exhibition on 6th June!