P4C

 Source: YouTube, Edward Monkton

This week, our P4C session was definitely our best discussion yet. We watched a fantastic video; 'The Pig of Happiness' as our stimulus and had a very grown up discussion. We talked about what happiness is and whether you would miss it if you had never had it. We wondered whether, in a world without happiness, you could feel sadness. Different children explained their ideas using images of scales, or comparisons to light and dark. Without having seen the light, would you know if it was dark? Without ever being happy, could you be sad? Do you need to have experienced the opposite to be able to understand it? Some children have even started to make links between previous P4C sessions, drawing on ideas from past discussions we have had. Wow!

Here are the questions we came up with this week:

1. Can everyone have happiness in their lives?
2. What would the world be like without happiness?
3. Can happiness mentally disturb you? (This group explained that they were wondering whether too much happiness can be bad for you.)
4. How and why does happiness spread?

The question we voted to discuss was: 'What would the world be like without happiness?'

At the end of our discussion this week, everyone in the class offered an interesting and insightful final thought. Well done everyone!

Mystery Skype!

On Thursday, we had our first Mystery Skype lesson. It was so much fun! Lots of us thought it was one of our favourite lessons of the year!

We arranged to speak to a 'mystery' class of children from somewhere else in the world, at 2pm (our time) on Thursday. The challenge was for each class to work out the location of the other class.

Each class had been split into groups with children doing certain jobs. In our class we had; greeters, sharers, mappers, recorders and group leaders.

Each class took a turn to ask a Yes or No question to the other class. We had to use the information they gave us, along with atlases and Google maps, to narrow down where they might be. For example, we asked questions such as 'Are you in the northern hemisphere?' and 'Is your country currently playing in the football World Cup?' We listened carefully to their answers, as they helped us to rule out areas of the world. Each group had a blank map to cross off areas that we had ruled out.

After a few questions, we had discovered that the other class were in the USA. Next we had to find their state. We asked some questions such as, 'Is your state land-locked?' and 'Is your state south of Colorado?'

We soon discovered that they were in Missouri.

Source: New World Encyclopedia

Then it got trickier! We were trying to find their town, but their teacher, Mr. White, told us that their town was very small with a population of less than 700! They generously gave us a couple of clues, by answering our questions with a little more information than 'Yes' or 'No'. We found a town called Monett, which seemed to be near where they lived. They told us that their town was south east of Monett.

Finally we found that they were in Wheaton, Missouri!

Once we had found their town and they had found ours, we had a chat. We asked them about their town and school and they asked about ours.

They were not impressed that we only had 6 weeks summer holiday- we were very jealous that they have 2.5 months! We discussed our school uniform, which sports we like to play and how our weather is very different to the weather in Missouri. It was fantastic to meet some children from another country! The lesson was brilliant for practising our geography skills, our listening skills and for finding out about life in another country. It was a wonderful lesson!

Thank you Wheaton Elementary School, Mr White and Mrs Harmon!

The Winter Olypmics in Sochi

Source: http://www.sochi2014.com/en

The Winter Olympics are here! Have you seen any of the exciting sports on the television?

Take a look at these fantastic websites to find out about the Winter Olympics, then answer the quiz below:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/winter-olympics/2014

 http://www.timeforkids.com/minisite/2014-sochi-olympics

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/26067349

1. In which country is Sochi located?

2. Which country currently has the most medals?

3. How many medals do team GB have?

4. Which of the Winter Olympic sports would you most like to try? Why?

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!

Circle Time

We had a very entertaining Circle Time session this afternoon! I posed some tricky questions to the class. Each child had to vote for an option, then explain their choice. There were some outstanding ideas and some very interesting discussions! Some ideas were very sensible and some were very funny.

Here are some of the questions we discussed today. Perhaps you could ask your families and friends- and see whether they make the same choice as you. Remember, the most important part of the game is the reason WHY you made that choice.


Would it be a good idea for everyone to look the same? WHY?

Would you rather have to wear one outfit for the rest of your life, or change your clothes every five minutes? WHY?

Would you rather it was daytime all the time, or night time all the time? WHY?

Here are some new questions for you to think about. You can leave your ideas as a comment below (remember we practised making comments in ICT this week, if you have forgotten how- click here for instructions) or tell me what you think next week.

Would you rather only be able to whisper or only be able to shout? WHY?

Would you rather have no sense of smell or no sense of taste? WHY?

A New School Year

I hope you are all enjoying your last week of the summer holidays! I'm looking forward to hearing all about what you have been up to.

Source: Sinergia La Esquinita

As we get closer to the start of the new school year, it is time to start thinking about getting ready. You might have already got new school shoes or perhaps a new pencil case, but it's also time to think about what else you can do to be ready.


Have a think about these questions:

What are you looking forward to this year?

Is there anything you are worried about? What could you do to feel less worried?

What do you hope to achieve this year? How will you achieve it?

What might you need to improve on this year? Have you got a target you would like to meet? Perhaps learning all of your times tables, getting full marks in every spelling test, joining a new club or learning to swim a length of the pool?

Source: Your therapy source

These are all great things to think about before coming back to school next week. Perhaps you could talk about these questions with an adult or older brother or sister. Could they help you to achieve your goals this year?