We all had a fabulous time on American Day in nursery. Lots of children joined in dressing up in red, white and blue and looked brilliant. Even the members of staff in nursery joined in wearing cowgirl hats and made the children laugh lots with singing and dancing.
Year 3 impressed us with their passion for politics during America Day. It was fantastic to see the children so interested and engaged in the upcoming American elections.
We started the day by exploring the continents and journeyed from Windhill21 over to the United States using Google maps. We then spent some time exploring the 50 states and hearing from children who had holidayed in America.
We learnt about the American Presidents (past and present) and discussed what qualities we thought made a great leader. We worked in groups to make a diamond 9 and used our oracy skills to explain our decisions. Does a great leader have to be confident? Does a great leader have to be a good listener?
We then turned our attention to a president that we considered to be a good leader: Barack Obama. We read about his background and watched some of his inspirational speeches. As a class, we discussed what made his speeches so effective and powerful and created our own success criteria to define what makes a good speech.
After lunch, we were challenged to write our own speeches in teams. The brief was to generate an exciting new idea for a fantasy playground and to pitch it to the rest of the class. The children had so many fun and exciting ideas, from theme parks to slumber parties. After they had collaborated in their teams, the children used the success criteria from earlier to plan and deliver a speech to the rest of the class. We were so proud of their passion, confidence and effort. There are clearly lots of future leaders at Windhill21!
Year 5 were fantastic scientists this morning, working through the process of an experiment and thinking carefully about all the steps. The children created predictions, thought about equipment and a method for the experiment. Our experiment involved dropping different sized ‘meteors’ into sand and measuring the diameter of the crater created. After completing our results tables, we concluded that the larger the meteor, the larger the diameter of the crater! The children really enjoyed this experiment and it was a lovely way to end our Space Topic.
Wow! What a day!
Year 2 began celebrating America Day by taking a quiz from Mrs Moore and Mrs Wood. We were amazed that in America there are 50 states and on the flag there are 52 stars! We also enjoyed listening to the nation anthem.
We explored where America was on the map so that we knew where it was compared to where we are. We used Google Earth to find Windhill21 and then zoomed all the way out to see the whole of the UK. We couldn't believe how small we were! We then travelled over the Atlantic Ocean to look at the USA. We focused on looking at Florida as a state and learnt that it is as far away from us as 7 UKS!
Our teachers then surprised us with a trip to Disneyland Orlando, which is a very famous tourist attraction in one of the states of America. We packed our bags and boarded the plane, making sure we didn't forget our boarding passes of course! We flew from England to Orlando (it was a surprisingly fast 9 hours 21 minutes!). We arrived in Orlando and then explored Disneyland, experiencing the parades, rides and all the Disney characters from our favourite films. It was great fun and we were very excited!
When we disembarked from the plane, we were invited into the Disney animation studios, where we learnt about Walt Disney and the company that he has created. We learnt that his first animation was of a mouse called Mortimer Mouse, who later became known as Mickey!
We then learnt how to draw just like Disney! We watched how the animators draw Mickey Mouse, and then we had a go at being animators ourselves. We think you'll agree that our drawings are amazing! We're sure to be hired by Disney one day!
The afternoon was filled with cheerleading to Party in the USA, and we even got to use pom-poms in our dance! Miss Freeman was so impressed with our dancing (videos to come soon!).
We have had a fantastic day exploring all things America and hope we can visit again soon!
What a day we have had in year 6! We started the day with a whistle stop tour of the USA - and followed it up with a closer look into the upcoming presidential elections.
With George Washington at the helm, the children were then taken on a journey into the past...and we learned about the American Revolution (with a touch of ‘Hamilton’) and how Mr Washington ended up as the first ever American President. With typical flair and passion, the children then wrote their own constitutions for their class...and delivered their new laws with aplomb.
The year 6 team certainly enjoyed the day...lots learned and plenty of trademark year 6 energy and engagement!
Year 4 have had such a busy day learning about America!!
We started the day by flying to and over America in a small propellered plane. We saw New York (The Statue of Liberty and Central Park), a baseball stadium, Niagara Falls, Las Vegas and all the landscapes in between!
The children have all presented their speeches and voted for their chosen President(s). After lunch, the winning candidates will be announces!
This morning for America day, the children have discussed the topic of politics and the US elections. The children have then joined in groups to create a party they believe the other children will vote for and the winning candidates will win the election and will take the role as President(s). The children have written powerful speeches they feel will win over the citizens of the Year 5 classes. We are looking forward to the results!
This afternoon, the children were given the opportunity to learn about the meaning of road signs as part of the road safety session with the Mini Police. We were able to use our knowledge of signs we have seen out and about, including the school sign outside of our school. We were also interested to learn that there are many different signs to help road users and pedestrians stay safe on the roads.
Today in our topic lesson, year 5 explored further the sophisticated farming techniques that the Mayans used. We looked closely at Slash and Burn and debated as to whether it was a sustainable technique. After watching a video, the children collected lots of evidence to support the positives and negatives of the method. We concluded as a class that Slash and Burn was not the best method and there are more sustainable farming techniques used today.
This week in year 5, we are taking on the role of Christopher Columbus. We are learning about his voyage in 1492 to the Americas and exploring how he must have felt through film, drama and writing. We hope to create some powerful diary entries by the end of the week!
Today we recreated some powerful scenes from the film 1492: Conquest to Paradise. The children were great at showing, not telling me what they were acting.
Year 4 have had another buys few weeks including our Victorian day, science experiments and immersing ourselves in Jim’s life (a Victorian boy living in a workhouse!)
As part of our Victorian day, we dressed up as poor Victorian children, acted out a street scene with street sellers and pick pockets and followed the rules of a Victorian school!
