On Thursday, the whole school paused from our usual learning routines to take part in STEM day. Each year group had a different investigation exploring various aspects of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths. Year 5 were tasked with designing and creating an effective catapult. This process had several stages:
- Research what an effective catapult needs to do.
- Design the catapult using the resources provided.
- Make the catapult.
- Test and evaluate the catapult.
- Make improvements to the design and test again to note the changes.
The particular focus of the learning for STEM day evaluating designs. The children had to evaluate what went well with each stage of the designing and creating process, and then what could be improved. This was a new skill for many of the children. After evaluating their catapult model, they made some changes with an open ended question: What would happen if I….
The children also used their knowledge of measurement to take accurate recordings of their results. Some children were able to find averages for their data.
We really enjoyed the day. It was fantastic to see the children taking ownership of their learning and coming up with their own questions to investigate.
Other areas of the curriculum
In English, we have started a new unit on developing character using some excerpts from the film ‘The Impossible’. This week, we began this unit by examining the different characters and beginning to convey character through writing. We have also been learning about active and passive voice through this unit. We will eventually build to writing from different character’s perspectives including using flashback as a technique to convey character and events.
In Maths we have continued our learning journey on decimals, looking at the value of hundredths and applying this to problems and reasoning. Please find the worksheets for this week here: Maths sheets Week 4
Next week:
Olympus and Fuji have their last swimming lesson on Thursday 3rd December.
Please remember to bring in warm PE kits for outdoor sessions as the weather is getting colder.
This week’s PE resource can be found below: