A marvellous week of learning in Dolphin Class!
Our English learning this week has seen us finish one writing genre and begin another. We started the week by completing our extended writes in relation to our third person narrative retell. We investigated how to use commas to clarify meaning, before then applying all our skills so far into this work. The finished pieces were fabulous, the use of imagery and emotion was great! We then continued the week by beginning our new genre, first person diary entry. We started, as we always do by magpieing the features needed, before then finishing the week by planning our work.
Our maths learning this week has seen us investigate fractions. We began the week by investigating the skill of finding fractions of amounts. We learnt that our multiplication tables knowledge can help us, as we simply need to identify how many times the amount goes into the denominate to find the unit fraction - then multiplying as necessary. For example - 2/3 of 21 - 3 goes into 21 seven times, so the unit fraction is 7, but to show 2/3, we need to double it, therefore 2/3 of 21 is 14. We continued our fractions work by investigating and converting improper fractions into mixed numbers. This is when we take a fraction, such as 5/4, and convert it into its integer and remaining fraction - in this case, 1 1/4. We then used this knowledge to problem solve, including ordering and comparing. It has been a tricky week, but as always, we've sown great resilience and determination.
Our Science learning this week saw us investigate why we have night and day. We learnt that the Earth has an invisible line running through its centre vertically called the axis. We learnt that the Earth spins on this axis once every 24 hours, causing night and day to occur. When facing the Sun, we have day and when not facing it, we have night. We learnt that the Earth is actually on a slight angle of roughly 24 degrees on the axis, which is why we have longer daylight hours in Summer than Winter. When orbiting the Sun, the Northern Hemisphere is exposed to more sunlight in Summer, therefore causing longer Summer days.
Our History learning this week saw us continue our learning relating to the building of the ancient city of Baghdad. We completed some cross-curricular learning, discussing the possible pull factors an up and coming city, such as Baghdad could have. We reminded ourselves that pull factors are reasons why people would want to live in a specific area. We discussed that factors such as job security ( it took many people to build the huge city), wages (they were very well paid) and religious reasons (Al-Mansur built and preached in a magnificent Mosque attached to his central palace there) were all contributory factors to the success of the city.
Our Geography learning this week has seen us continue our work relating to the Amazon rainforest. We investigated the path of the Amazon river, learning that its source is in Peru and it ends in the Atlantic Ocean. We tracked the path of the river, through South America, using compass points to help us. We also looked at the actual features of the river, using vocabulary such as meander, tributary and erosion. It was fascinating to see how the path of the river changes and varies so much, due to geographical changes.
Have a lovely week,
Love from Dolphin Class. xx
Dolphins Week beginning 21/11/22
