Architects, designers and builders!

Dear friends and families,

This term has been all about buildings and the children have been developing their design, architecture and construction skills! They decided they wanted to plan and build a city; one of the construction materials available in the classroom is Makedo- Makedo is a building system using screws and saws to cut and fit pieces of cardboard together. Armed with a basic know-how of how to use it, the children were eager to get started and set to work constructing a range of different buildings. Over the next few weeks, the city started to take form and the children worked together to make a park, lay the roads, carefully place each building in position, number and labels the structures, design the river and build bridges to cross it. The children chose to use Bee-Bots to traverse the city. Bee-Bots are simple robots that can be programmed to make journeys around different maps. Creating roads for Bee-Bots takes time and careful measuring. Now the hard work was done, the children could finally start to programme in the instructions and get the Bee-Bots to make journeys around the city. They thoroughly enjoyed this project; it encompassed many different skills such as design, construction, maths, technology, computer programming as well as interpersonal and negotiating skills as they designed, built and steered their paths through their city!

The children have also been looking at a range of buildings from around the world; Ms Maria who comes from near Barcelona shared a wonderful lesson with them about Gaudi and Casa Batllo. The building is based upon the legend of St George and the dragon, the class then recreated the building, each group concentrating on a different part. They used a range of different materials and made a beautiful reproduction! They have also learned about the Eiffel tower, St Basil’s Cathedral, the Burj Kalifa and Tower Bridge, to name just a few. We have also been looking into architectural drawings and floor plans. The children looked at the original plans from the school; they were fascinated by the floor plans and quickly set about trying to work out what each element was and how it was represented. We discussed how the plans are drawn from a birds-eye view and how to represent doors, windows, sinks, toilets…. etc. Equipped with this knowledge the children were keen to have a go themselves and draw floor plans of their own houses, bedrooms or even gardens! 

In literacy the class have been delving into the wonderful world of Micheal Rosen, a children’s poet and author who writes funny stories and rhymes. A firm favourite is the poem Chocolate Cake and the Eddie stories which have prompted great joy and hilarity! Next term the children will be writing their own funny stories in the style of Micheal Rosen, I can’t wait to see what they come up with!

This term has once again brought in some new and familiar faces; we are all delighted to have welcomed back an old friend Esme Jade, it’s great to see your great big smile once again! We have also had a new intern- Ms Cristina who will be with us until May- welcome. Sadly, we had said goodbye (for now) to Ms Anelda who will return in June, fortunately we have the help of the wonderful Ms Dena who has taken over from Anelda, again- welcome! With that, I wish you all a wonderful and fun-filled holiday.

Erica