Class Elm: February 2013

Sunday, 24 February 2013

Science

Science lessons we enjoyed:

When looking at circuits we enjoyed making an alarm system. We read Horrid Henry and the Secret Club and found that Horrid Henry had a problem, Moody Margaret kept sneaking into his club. Using plastic coated wire, a battery, some cardboard with aluminium foil, and a buzzer we created an alarm system. When somebody stepped on the cardboard the alarm buzzed.

When looking at materials we wanted to know which materials would float. We began by watching a clip from Alice in Wonderland, the pool of tears. We imagined that the classroom was flooded by a pool of tears and began to find out which objects would float. We then designed and made a curious creature, that might appear in Alice and Wonderland, which would float.

Thursday, 21 February 2013

Science

In Science this week we looked at some of the claims made by some toothpaste companies such as Colgate MaxWhite: A New Dimension of Whiteness for a Spectacular Smile and Macleans Ice Whitening: Visibly White Teeth and Whitening that lasts longer, Removes stains without tooth enamel.

We devised a question for our investigation:
Are expensive whitening toothpastes more effective than normal toothpastes?

Read a Newspaper report by one group:

Tuesday, 19 February 2013

Judaism

On the Friday before half term we visited the Jewish Museum in Manchester. At the museum we began by talking about what sacred means for both Jews and Catholics. Throughout the morning we complete various activities such as becoming museum detectives, finding sacred Jewish objects. We learnt and tried on various sacred items of clothing (kippah, tallit, teffilin). Finally we learnt about the Ark and the Torah as some children opened the Ark and took out an example of the Torah.

Below is a copy of the play script for The Story of Purim, which the group also performed for Class Larch:

Wednesday, 6 February 2013

Judaism

This week we have spent time looking at the Jewish faith.

We began by finding out about what Jews believe such as the Shema, their Holy Book, the Shabbat, and symbols such as the Star of David.

We then made posters:

We learnt about the festival of Purim, after listening to the story a group of children worked together to create a play. Everyone made a shaker to use when the group performed the play. When the story is read in the synagogue everyone cheers at the name of Esther and everyone boos at the name of Haman. Some children wrote part of the story for a scroll, while others drew a scene from the story on a scroll. We then decorated the scrolls because Esther scrolls are beautifully decorated. The group then performed the play with the rest of class reacting using their voices and shaker.

We learnt about the Passover story and its relationship to the seder dish. We completed work on the significance of the elements of the seder dish as well as designing a seder plate.

We found out about the Western Wall and how Jews come to the Western Wall to pray and ask God for help with the things that worry them. We thought about what we would like to pray about and what we could ask God for help with.

We learnt about Marc Chagall, a Jewish artist, looking at his painting called Jew at Prayer.

We are looking forward to our trip next week to the Jewish Museum in Manchester.