It's been a wonderful week of work at Eaton Bray Academy!
On Tuesday, we were visited by a local children's author, Susie Davids, who visited the younger children to read one of her books to them. The children loved the story and enjoyed talking to Susie about their favourite parts of the book.
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Foxes Class children have been looking at the forces involved in machines and the way we can use force to obtain a goal. Their goal was to ring a bell, which sounds simple, but their "machines" had to have three stages that would use "cause and effect', and the transference of energy, to achieve the goal. These types of machines are called Rube Goldberg Machines; a complicated machine designed to do a simple job.
From their initial concept drawings through to design and building, students drew on their knowledge of Art, Maths, Science, and Literacy to achieve their goal. In the coming weeks, skills will be honed and the children will build machines of greater and greater complexity.
During their History and Geography lesson, the children learned that the Anglo Saxons left lots of evidence of their settlement in the local place names that we take for granted. They learnt some Anglo Saxon language and were amazed that these words appear in place names that they knew only too well. For example, 'ton' means 'farm' and 'ea' is derived from 'eau', meaning water. 'Eaton', therefore means 'farm near water'. Looking at a local map, students found many local place names and deciphered their meanings.
In Music and dance, they have mixed five songs together and are now learning some dance moves that they will put to the music. The songs the children have chosen are from the 1980s to today and they are having fun trying to dance to them.
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There was more Science excitement in Badgers Class, when they took their volcanoes out onto the school field to watch them erupt. They poured water, washing-up liquid, vinegar and baking soda into the mouth of the volcano, and watched as the ingredients reacted together to create a froth of "lava". They then repeated the experiment using Coke and Mentos for a second "explosion."
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In Hedgehogs Class this week, the children have been celebrating Bonfire Week. They found out about the origins of Bonfire Night by acting out the story of Guy Fawkes, and shared their own experiences of firework displays in news time. There were lots of art activities for the children to choose to complete, with some children turning the small outdoor area in front of the classroom into a firework display by creating chalk patterns, whilst others created chalk firework pictures. Some children painted pictures of fireworks in free painting time and created their own model rockets. During their fine motor sessions, the children had to carefully draw a trail to find a rocket. They also wrote their names in glue and covered them in glitter to look like a firework display.
Mrs Matthews lit a bonfire in the Hedgehogs outdoor play area, and the children watched from a safe distance.
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On Thursday, Otters Class enjoyed a wonderful trip to London to the Natural History Museum. They travelled by coach, and enjoyed spotting all the exciting sights of London en route to South Kensington. In the museum they looked at fossils and dinosaur exhibits, which tied in nicely with their topic work for this term about these prehistoric creatures.
After a picnic lunch, the children took part in a stegosaurus workshop, where they met Sophie the Stegoaurus, and learnt lots of interesting facts about her. They were fascinated to learn that the stegosaurus' brain was only the size of a lime, and that consequently Sophie wasn't terribly bright!
Finally, following a visit to the gift shop, the children returned to school tired, but full of enthusiasm for all that they had seen and learnt.
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