Scott Spring 2022

Parent Curriculum Information – Spring Term 2022

Scott class have been looking at the work of the artist and architect Friedenreich Hundertwasser. His name means ‘full of peace hundred-water’, and we found out that his paintings and buildings are inspired by the patterns that he sees in nature. We worked together to find patterns in the natural world around us, exploring our field and pond area. First we sketched what we saw, then we used natural and manmade objects to print patterns inspired by nature using paint, so that we could experiment with designs. 

Our final product will be a clay tile with a pattern inspired by the work of Hundertwasser, so this week we had a go at using different objects to create patterns by doing relief printing into clay. We had to knead and roll the clay before we printed. We created some very interesting patterns, and are now ready to use what we have learned to design our final products next week.  

In our English learning we have been sharing a story called ‘The journey home‘, by Frann Preston-Gannon. The main characters in the story, a polar bear, a panda, an orangutan and an elephant, are all endangered animals whose homes are under threat. Thinking about endangered animals lead us to explore the term extinct, and to think about what this means. We learned that an example of an extinct animal is a dodo, and were very curious about this creature. One of our learning powers is to be curious cats, and so we wondered who might be able to answer all of our questions about dodos. Lots of us thought that experts at The Natural History Museum in London would have lots of knowledge and would be able to help. 

We used our developing letter writing skills to write letters to the museum which introduced our reason for writing and included lots of punctuated question sentences about dodos that we would like to know the answers to. We then used our knowledge from our Geography learning to think about the Nation, Country and Continent that the museum can be found in, so that we could address an envelope to post our letters in.

We have put our letter in the post and are excited to see whether we may get a response! 

Science

Our Science focus this term has been all about growing and changing, and so we were very excited that the theme for the National British Science Week this year was all about growth. To prepare for parents visiting our classrooms for us to share our science learning, we used spotters guides and equipment such as magnifying glasses to identify and collect samples of plants and animals growing and changing in our school environment. We were able to identify a range of plants such as daffodils, primroses, rosemary, and yew trees, as well as different animals such as woodlice, worms, and woodlice. We used these sample to produce detailed sketches of the living things around us, and even used natural materials to create our paints to paint them. We really enjoyed our learning and are continuing to observe growth happening all around us. 

Design and Technology

In our design and technology learning we have been designing, making, testing, and improving wind-powered cars. We began by thinking about who the target audience for our product would be and created success criteria that our cars would need to meet to work well. We found out all about wheels and axels, and how they enable lots of different types of transport to move. We tested lots of different wheels and axels made from various materials and decided which would work best, before committing to a design. After designing and making our products we were ready to test them, using a hairdryer donated by Mirs Dunning as our wind power! We assessed how well they travelled, and then made a few alterations to improve our products, just like engineers would. Overall, we were able to use our learning power of being changing chameleons and were very pleased with our final developed products.