St. George's Class 2013-14

Cuba


This half term we will be learning about Cuba. Below you will find some of our work that shows what we have learned about Cuba and our Cuban class book, 'The Girl Who Spun Gold'.

Cuba


Today we started learning about Cuba. We learnt about where in the world Cuba is, discussed how we might get there and found out what the capital city was. Can you remember its name?



Can you find Cuba on the map below?
Try to zoom in or out and look at Cuba, or add 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

Today we played one of Miss Benn's favourite games; 'Map from Memory'. Each team took turns to send a player up to look at Miss Benn's detailed map of Cuba for 10 seconds, then had to remember some details and add them to the blank map on their table.

Here are the two winning maps from our competition:
(Remember you can click on the pictures to make them bigger)




Here is a super website that you can use at home to learn more about Cuba: http://kids.nationalgeographic.co.uk/kids/places/find/cuba/

 

Cuba Fact Files


Today in ICT we used our computer skills to find out more about Cuba. We used a search engine to find information and pictures to complete our fact files, then copied and pasted the information that we needed.

Here are two fantastic examples of Cuba Fact Files- well done Aimee and Roderick!
Remember you can click on the pictures to make them bigger and easier to read.



By Aimee



By Roderick
After completing our fact files, we all took part in a quiz about Cuba. We each logged in to Socrative on our laptops and answered the questions that Miss Benn had set- we could watch our results come up live on the screen of the interactive whiteboard in class!

Planning a Wedding for Big King and Quashiba

This week we started our new book, 'The Girl Who Spun Gold'.


Today we found out that Big King and Quashiba get married! So, this afternoon we planned their wedding. Each team had to write a formal invitation, plan a menu of Cuban foods, design the clothes that the bride and groom would wear and write a list of gifts that the King might ask for as wedding presents.

Here are a selection of the best of each task:

A formal invitation to the royal wedding, by Table 2:




The clothes for the bride and groom, by Table 1:




The wedding list of gifts, by Table 3:





A menu for the wedding dinner, by Table 4:


Well done everyone! You planned a wedding fit for a king!

Anger Poem

Today we read some more of our class story; The Girl Who Spun Gold. At the end of the section we read today, Quashiba was very angry. We discussed why she might be angry and thought about exactly how she might be feeling. Each child then drew what they thought might be happening in Quashiba's mind; what is she thinking about?

Here are some great examples:



By Agatha

 By Sonny



By Nathan


We then thought about anger itself and how it makes us feel. Where do you feel anger? What would anger sound like? Taste like? Smell like?

We decided to write a poem with each line starting, 'Anger is'. We worked together to write 10 lines of poetry, then blutacked them to the board and moved them around (a lot!) until we found an order that we liked. Then, we discussed splitting the poem into verses.

Next, we chose a title from a number of suggestions. We decided that 'Anger' was the best choice. We then went through and added the capital letters and punctuation that we thought were necessary.

Here is our poem:

Anger

Anger is like being shot in the foot,
Anger is like getting stung by a jellyfish,
Anger is when someone hits you.
Anger is a crimson crackling fire,
Anger is fizzing and boiling like a pot on the stove,
Anger is salt at the back of your throat,
Anger is the taste of spicy Doritos.
Anger is a roaring lion,
Anger is the smell of hot sweat,
Anger is a volcano erupting with steam.
By St. George's Class

Using Voki for Animation 

Yesterday we had a really fun ICT lesson, using a website called 'Voki' to create animations. Each group produced animations of three characters from our class story, 'The Girl Who Spun Gold': Lit'mahn, Quashiba and Big King.

I am so impressed with these animations- you clearly thought very carefully about the appearance, clothing, background and voice of each character, as well as planning what you wanted them to say.

Here are the characters made by Table 3:

Lit'mahn



Click the links below to see their other characters:


Here are the fantastic character animations by table 4:


Click the links below:




These are Table 2's fantastic character animations:

Click the links below:


Here are the last of the super animations made by the children in St. George's Class yesterday. They created talking characters from our Cuban class story, 'The Girl Who Spun Gold'. Each group thought carefully about how the character should look, what they should wear, where they should be and what they should say.

These are Table 1's character animations:



Cha Cha Cha!

Yesterday we were lucky enough to have a special dance lesson with Sander Blommaert from the Royal Ballet.

Source: Royal Ballet


We told him that we were learning all about Cuba, so he taught us a Cuban dance called the Cha-Cha. It is a very famous dance from Cuba and it was lots of fun to learn. After our warm up, Sander taught us the basic steps for a Cha-Cha, then the children split up into groups and used those steps to make some routines of their own. After performing their fabulous dance routines to the rest of the class, we did a fun cool down to finish.



Next week we will learn some more steps and we might even try dancing in pairs!

Cubana



Today we had a fantastic day out! We went to Cubana Restaurant and tried lots of new food. Cubana is a Cuban restaurant and is full of interesting things to look at. We saw some flags, posters and photographs from Cuba and the restaurant was very colourful and interesting.



We met a lovely lady called Louise, who taught us about where the restaurant found their recipes and why they chose certain ingredients. Then we met the chef, who talked to us about 3 special dishes, which we then got to taste!



Today we tried: Chorizo croquettes, Cuban falafel and sesame chicken.
Which was your favourite?
Can you remember how they were made?



The chef showed us how they shaped the croquettes and falafel, so we all tried to make the correct shapes with the ingredients. It was quite tricky!



After our yummy Cuban food, we each had a special Cuban tropical smoothie. These special smoothies are made with EIGHT fruits! They were made from; strawberries, mango, banana, pineapple, passion fruit, orange, coconut and watermelon.



I was very impressed with how sensible you all were today. Everyone tasted everything and you were all incredibly polite. You asked some interesting and well considered questions and all the staff at the restaurant were very pleased to meet you. It was a great day!

A Class Painting

For the last few weeks, we have been planning and designing a large piece of artwork as a class. We have been learning about the 'Mother of the Notting Hill Carnival'; Claudia Jones. She was an incredible woman who fought for equal rights for women and for people of all races. We have learnt about her amazing work in the USA and in London.



We decided to create a portrait of Claudia Jones in the style of the illustrations of our Cuban class book, 'The Girl Who Spun Gold'. We looked closely at the patterns and colours used by the illustrators Leo and Diane Dillon, then tried to include them in our designs.

Source: Leo and Diane Dillon, Blue Sky Press

Last week we divided the portrait into sections and each group drew the patterns onto their part of the picture.






Yesterday, each group mixed their paint to create the colours they needed, then we started to paint the portrait.

Next week, we will add the finishing touches!



Our Completed Masterpiece!


We have completed our class painting of Claudia Jones! We enjoyed learning about her life and her work and wanted to celebrate her in a special portrait. We used colours and patterns inspired by the artwork in our Cuban book, 'The Girl Who Spun Gold', by the illustrators Leo and Diane Dillon.



Some wonderful details:



Our Powerpoint Stories


Today we finished our class story! In ICT today we used Powerpoint to retell the story of 'The Girl Who Spun Gold'. We focussed particularly on using moving animations in Powerpoint. The presentations are below- although the animations might not work on the blog.

After ICT, we planned and wrote our own endings to the story. Some of them will feature here over the weekend, so keep your eyes peeled!











A Special Email

Today I received an email for you! It made me smile and I thought I would share it with you:



Dear Miss Benn

I just wanted to email to say thank you to all of your pupils for their lovely letters and cards, which we are making into a framed collage to put on our wall.

It was great for us to have them at Cubana and they would all be welcome back any time.

Best wishes

Phillip Oppenheim
MD Cubana

Cubana on 'The One Show'

Did you see Cubana on BBC1 on Tuesday night? The One Show visited the restaurant, tried some food and drink and even tried some Cuban dancing!

One Show, BBC

Click the link below to watch the clip of Cubana on the show. Remember to check with an adult first- perhaps you could watch this clip together?

Cuban Dancers

Last week we looked at some beautiful postcards of Cuban dancers. The bodies were 2D drawings and the women's skirts were 3D and made of fabric. Last week we designed our dancers and today did the sewing to create their skirts. Take a look at the fantastic final results:




Torticas De Moron- Cuban Cookies

Photo by Shelleychez- food.com

Yesterday we made some marvellous Cuban biscuits. We worked through the recipe together and used our weighing skills to measure the ingredients accurately. It gave us a good opportunity to practise our subtraction skills too- working out how much more sugar or flour we would need to add to reach the amount we needed.

It was a fun way to end our Cuba topic and the biscuits were delicious!


We followed this recipe (click the link to view it):


The English conversions for the ingredients are:

225g sugar
225g vegetable shortening (or margarine)
600g flour
1 1/2 teaspoons of lime peel, grated
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder

Remember to work with an adult if you are cooking at home- you must be careful with hot or sharp items in the kitchen. Also remember to wash your hands before and after cooking!

These tropical lime-flavoured cookies smelled wonderful as we made them. They came out really well and looked and tasted beautiful!

Did you enjoy making the cookies? Did you enjoy eating them?!

Amelie C's Fantastic Hurricane Book!

We have been learning about hurricanes, particularly in Cuba, for the last fortnight.
This week, Amelie C. went home and made this fantastic information book all about hurricanes. It's always fabulous when someone makes something special at home for us, so thank you Amelie!

Click on the pictures to make them larger and easier to read:





Great work, Amelie! Well done!

 

Doctor Who


This week we started our exciting new topic... Doctor Who!

We started off by meeting the three main characters we will be encountering; The Doctor, Amy and Rory.
Source: BBC

 Source: BBC

We also watched a fantastic short script written by some children in a primary school in Basingstoke in 2011, which won a competition and was actually filmed! We took this as a challenge to make sure that by the end of this unit, we will be writing adventures for the Doctor that are just as good- or perhaps even better!


Source: BBC and the children of Oakley Junior School

A Super Start to the Topic!


Last week, St. George's Class started our exciting new Doctor Who project. Here are some fantastic examples of some of the work we did in our first week of the adventure! Click on the pictures to make them bigger and easier to read.

Front covers for our new project folders:



A super description of Amy, by Alice:


A great description of the Doctor, by Roderick:


We also found out that something in the TARDIS had been wiping Rory's memory. We decided to help him out by writing diary entries for him, to remind him of the adventures he'd been on and the people he had met.

Here are three excellent examples of the adventures we thought Rory had been on in the TARDIS:

By Joseph:



By Ella:


By Amelie S.:


Well done everyone! There are plenty more adventures to come this week....

New Planets

This week we were challenged to create a new planet for the Doctor to visit in the TARDIS. We had to think about the landscape, the creatures, the food, the sky, the weather... all aspects of a new planet!

We wrote some fantastic descriptions of the new planets (I will put some on the blog over the weekend). Then we worked in groups to create these spectacular maps of our planets on large pieces of paper, to show the Doctor what was there and where to go.

We used inks to make these beautiful maps:






The Day of the Doctor


Source: bbc.co.uk


The day has arrived! Today is the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who being on television. It's perfect timing for us, in the middle of our Doctor Who topic!

Take a look at this exciting trailer- are there any aliens you recognise?


Source: bbc.co.uk

Aliens and New Planets

We have been creating some fantastic work during our Doctor Who topic. Below you will see some super writing- we have been creating new worlds for the Doctor to visit in his TARDIS and some terrifying new aliens!

We learnt all about the Ood, the Judoon, the Weeping Angels and the Cybermen. We can tell you all about them- ask a child in St. George's Class! We can also move and walk like each of these monsters- the children might even show you in the playground if you ask them nicely!

Remember to click the pictures to make them bigger and easier to read:

By Michael

Here are some great examples of the scary and gruesome monsters that we have created this week:

By Harry

By Aisling

By Luke

Here are some marvellous examples of maps of new planets for the Doctor to visit:

By Abel

By Evelyn

Cosmic Collider

To celebrate the 'Day of the Doctor' 50th Anniversary, have a try at this fantastic new Doctor Who game. I think it's brilliant!

Click the picture to go to the game. Remember to always check with an adult before playing any other game or going to other websites.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006q2x0/features/cosmic-collider

Source: bbc.co.uk

Our TARDIS

Today we made our TARDIS! More photos to follow tomorrow...



Dragon's Den

Source: bbc.co.uk

Last week, we thought up some new inventions for the Doctor to have in his TARDIS. After looking closely at the inside of the TARDIS and labelling what we thought the buttons and levers on the console were for, we thought about what else the Doctor might need in his battle against evil. Each child designed a new invention for the TARDIS, then drew it, explained what it was for and persuaded me- a tricky Dragon to please- to choose their invention for the TARDIS. There were some fabulous ideas and some very persuasive sales people!

Take a look at these excellent ideas:

By Sonny


By Leo


By Evelyn


 By Luke

BREAKING NEWS! TARDIS LANDS IN PLAYGROUND!


On Thursday, something rather peculiar happened in St. Anthony's Primary School. The TARDIS landed in the playground!




The children of St. George's Class went out into the playground and each had an important job. We had journalists, radio interviewers, photographers and galactic security. We interviewed the surprised eye-witnesses and got official statements from the school. There were some interesting theories about why the Doctor had landed in our school- some children even claimed to have glimpsed the Doctor himself!

We used all of our interview notes, recordings and photographs that afternoon to put together some drafts for newspaper articles about this bizarre event!

Here are two great examples of drafts for the front page. The newspaper will be completed next week.

By Antonio

By Theadora

CLUE!


ON THIS DAY, JESUS WAS BORN,
ON THIS DAY, WRAPPING PAPER IS TORN.
A BLOG POST FOR A SPECIAL DAY,
FIND THE MERRY POST AND FIND THE WAY!




I Need Your Help!


A message for St. George's Class from Amy.
St. George's Class, it's me, Amy! I had to use Voki to encrypt this message so that the Dream Lord would not be able to find it- this is TOP SECRET!
Scroll down to find your message...

Alien Cooking

Yesterday we made some alien dishes as part of our Doctor Who topic. We made alien-head biscuits and Ood jelly!





Today, after tasting our delicious (but creepy) cooking- we used the photos to inspire some gruesome recipes. We thought about what revolting things we might want to put into our imaginary recipes and what method we would need to cook them. Take a look through the slides below and read our disgusting, revolting and gruesome recipes... Yuck!!

You can scroll down to see the whole slide for each recipe:



Angry Birds


Welcome to our Angry Birds page!

Angry Birds Verbs


 Source: digitaleyesmedia

This week we started our new topic- Angry Birds! It is a fun game with an interesting back story- we will be investigating the characters and why they might behave as they do.

If you want to play the game at home (with the permission of an adult) click the link below:

http://chrome.angrybirds.com/

Yesterday we revised verbs. Once we had played some games about verbs, to remember that they are doing words, we thought of many verbs to show what some of the Angry Birds characters do. Take a look at some of our Angry Birds verbs:







Making 3D Birds


In the afternoon, we used 3D shape nets to make our own Angry Birds. Each child chose a net and assembled the shape, before designing and making the eyes, eyebrows, feathers and beaks to make them look angry!






Here are some furious looking examples!




Our Angry Birds Videos





When we started our topic, we needed to know why the birds were so angry with the pigs. We watched a short animation to find out their history. We liked the video, but it didn't have any words!

To solve the problem, we worked in groups to draft, rehearse and perfect a playscript for the animation.

At the end of the week, we recorded our playscripts over the animation. Here are the fantastic finished films:

 Table 1

Table 2

Middle Table

 Table 3

Table 4

Source: fluffyfeathers.blogspot


Our Class Poem



The Angriest Birds

The ping of the slingshot as painful as a papercut between the fingers,
As angry as a crazy crocodile,
Accelerating like Usain Bolt's trainers,
Whizzing through the air like a red hot tomato,
Flying like a tiny grenade,
Screaming like a skidding bus.

Explosive eggs dropping for destruction,
Sacrificing their lives for hope for the future.

Treacherous towers to pulverise the pigs,
Smashing like a crashing plane,
Exploding so dramatically,
TNT demolishing toppling towers.

By St. George's Class



Which is your favourite line? Why?

Can you spot a simile?

Can you spot some alliteration?

Can you spot an internal rhyme?

Tagxedo Angry Birds Verbs


Last week, we used a fun website called Tagxedo to make word clouds with our Angry Birds verbs. Here are some excellent examples:

 By Aimee

 Aisling


Alice

 Luke


 Leo


Abel


Here are some other experiments we made- just for fun!

 Molly


 Nathan


 Roderick


 Sonny


 Ellis


 Joseph


 Harry



If you want to make some fun word clouds and text shapes of your own, try it here:

Information Books


Last week we learned how to research and write information books. We have added to our book corner with 5 excellent books about the Ancient Greeks and 5 fascinating guides to the Angry Birds.

We used our ICT skills to create the front and back covers for the books. You can see these below, for the full books you'll have to visit our classroom and come to see the Angry Birds display...


Well done teams!

Angry Bird-Proof Shelters

This week we have been investigating the war between the birds and the pigs. We wrote letters of complaint to the council from King Pig- he was fed up of having his neighbourhood destroyed by the birds! Following this, we held a court case to decide who was at fault in this long-standing conflict. The court report will be on the blog soon!

Today we decided to help the pigs by being architects and designing Angry Bird-proof shelters for them. Take a look through the slides below to see how we thought we could protect the pigs from attack.




A New Level for Angry Birds


Joseph designed this fantastic and very complicated new level for Angry Birds. Can you design your own level? If you do, we'll share it on the blog too!
Well done, Joseph!


CSI St. George




Yesterday, a terrible crime occurred at St. Anthony's School; right in the middle of our classroom! While we were out at play, one of the Angry Birds was MURDERED in our classroom!


Luckily, there were 24 of the country's finest detectives on hand to investigate the crimescene. We used magnifying glasses to look closely at all of the evidence, then interviewed a number of eye witnesses around the school. Fortunately, they were able to provide us with some very useful evidence, which helped with our examination of the case. We gathered our evidence and considered who our main suspects were.



We decided that the evidence pointed towards the pigs being responsible for the evil murder of Jay the blue bird. Each Police Detective then wrote a formal report about the crime and their evidence, suggesting what to do next and where we might find the key suspect.


Some examples of these reports will be up on the blog at the weekend, after the forensic investigations are completed.

Angry Birds 3D!




We have had a very exciting week! Yesterday we split into teams and each team designed and made two Angry Birds. We learnt about air resistance and the shapes that would fly furthest and fastest. We used our new knowledge to help us design and build aerodynamic birds! We had to prepare to compete in two challenges today- firstly distance and then destruction. We had to design one bird that would fly a long way and another bird that would cause maximum destruction in our 3D real-life Angry Bird level!

Here are the finished Angry Birds. Can you tell which are designed to fly a long distance and which are for destruction?






There will be some more pictures and perhaps even a video of the challenges on the blog very soon!

Tomorrow we will be interpreting the results, using our data handling skills. Well done teams!

Angry Birds 3D- Part 2


Here are a few more photos of our Angry Birds in action! It took good teamwork skills and some careful aerodynamic designs, but we managed to make our birds fly... and cause destruction!

Did you enjoy this challenge?







22 comments:

Michael said...

Miss benn I enjoyed doing the front cover

Roderick said...

where do you find the clip that we watched today

Antonio said...

I really enjoy lerning about Doctor Who

sonny said...

I love these maps!!!

aisling said...

Making the maps was so fun,I enjoyed using ink and for the first time.

aimee said...

I think they are brilliant

roderick said...

Hi miss Benn i have foud a website for doctor who is www.doctorwho.com

rodeick said...

Miss Benn please may we have a new game on our blog please?.

Rhiannon said...

your topic sounds fun I'd like to do it!

Molly said...

I love Doctor Who its so cool!!!

Ella said...

I wish we could learn more about dr who.

roderick said...

me too

roderick said...

I wish we learnt about the 21th doctor

roderick said...

I want to eat some more of the blood bisciuts

plamedi said...

I totally enjoyed all the topics and lessons about doctor who it was really fun

roderick said...

blood bisciuts is the best

roderick said...

they were tasty

dexter said...

cool...

by daniella said...

learning doctor who sooo exciting this is a great idea mrs parrott is so good

jack.G said...

it all looks amazing

Molly said...

I remember learning about Angry Birds it was so fun

Alice said...

I can not believe this blog is still here I miss St Anthonys so much

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