This week, we were lucky enough to visit Scotland Street Museum and take part in a Victorian classroom experience.  This is related to our IDL work for this term were we are looking at people in history.

The first thing we did was separate into a boys group and a girls group.  We went up different staircases and to different coat rooms to put on costumes.  We wore clothes that children would have worn as their uniform in Victorian times.  The clothes are different from what we wear and this was good to compare clothes from history to clothes we wear now. Then, we had to line up in perfectly straight lines outside the classroom and wait for our teacher.  A few of us had nervous giggles.

After this, we took part in an arithmetic lesson which is like our mental maths lesson.  The teacher was so strict and made us all sit up straight with our spines against the back of our chair.  We had to sit boy girl, boy girl. It was really scary as you can tell by the look on our faces.

Our Victorian teacher told us she did not tolerate talking or carrying on in class.  We found out she was telling the truth when she made some of us stand up as a punishment for disobeying her.

Next, we took part in a handwriting lesson.  The handwriting back in Victorian times was very different to handwriting today.  We wrote with ink and a quill which was very hard to do.  Much harder than writing with a pencil or a pen.

For another task, we had to use mini black boards.  We all thought it was much easier to use the whiteboards and pens that we are used to.  The questions our Victorian teacher was giving us were so tricky as we had to convert money used in 1884 into money we use now.

Our Victorian teacher told us of ways that teachers used to punish children who misbehaved. She showed us the belt which is made of leather and children were hit on the hand within this several times.  She also showed us the cane which was made of wood.  Some children would be hit on the hands with this and others would be hit on their bare legs with it.  This sounded agony! The last punishment was the Dunces Hat. Children would be made to wear this hat and stand out in the playground as a form of humiliation. Yahya very kindly offered to model the Dunces Hat for us.

This was a fantastic experience for finding out what school life was like back in the Victorian times.  We found out there were lots of differences and think that we prefer the school life we have today.

We’ve had a fantastic week taking part in the I’m a Scientist Get Me Out Of Here project.  We have explored different areas of science and taken part in cool experiments.

The first experiment we took part in was to do with electricity.  We worked in pairs and followed instructions on how to make a model car using different materials to build a circuit.

We worked with wires, batteries, crocodile clips, a motor and a switch to try and power fan blades.  We had to work out how to connect all the equipment in order to work the fan.  It was tricky to know what piece of equipment connected to another piece of equipment.

After we worked out how to power the fan, we then had to connect it all to a cardboard tube and try to make power it so that it would move like a motor car.  It was so cool when we eventually made it work.  A lot of hard work and perseverance went into this activity.

Our next experiment was linked to biology.  We learned how our digestive system works by combining different foods and liquids and mushing them all up in a sealable bag.  It didn’t look appetising at all! This represented what all the foods and liquids look like in our digestive system.

Next, we transferred the contents of the bag into a stocking and drained all of the liquid from it. This was the messy part …

After that, we moved on to the final stage of our experiment – releasing the contents…

We used scissors to cut the tights and release the ‘poo’ from the body. There were a lot of screams at this stage 😂😂 This was a funny yet educational lesson.

On the final afternoon of our I’m a Scientist Get Me Out Of Here project, we used our iPads to take part in a live chat with the different scientist who were involved.  This was a good chance for us to ask them questions and find out more about their research.  At the end of the lesson, we voted for our favourite scientist based on which one of their work we believe will have the greatest impact on society.  We will find out who won the competition soon!

This is a reminder of homework which should be done each week:

• an activity from your homework grid
• Practise your spelling words
• Read for at least 10 minutes each night
• Practise your times tables
• Play maths games online
  

Thank you 🤩🤩

As part of our inter-disciplinary learning, we are learning about Force K6 and the British Indian Army.  We are focusing on the contribution of the British Indian Army in World War 2.

To develop our understanding of South East Asia’s contribution to Glasgow, we visited Scotland Street museum.  They have an exhibition set up called GlaswegAsians.

We learned about the contribution to work and society that people from South East Asia brought to Scotland. Many men would take their suitcases and go from door to door selling things like radios. This was called pedalling. The women would sow their own outfits using sewing machines.  Men became bus drivers and sometimes worked 72 hour shifts. When people had enough money, they opened up their own businesses like fabric shops and restaurants.

Some people chose to work in the police, some people worked in politics. The Indian workers union Glasgow was also started because people who came from South Asia felt they weren’t been treated the same as Scottish workers.

After this, we worked in groups and chose an item to create a dance about.  This was fun but very embarrassing.

We also had the chance to record some of our ideas in the recording studio using a voice recorder app on the iPad, which was very  cool.

For our last activity, we imagined we had moved to a new country.  We had to come up with a business idea and open a business in the new country.  This was hard because we had to say why we were opening the business – was it because of personal interest, a family tradition or to bring something new to our new country. There were lots of great ideas, from fabric shops to gaming shops. We used out artistic talents to create what our shop front would look like.

What a fun time we had for Halloween this year.  👻🤡🎃☠️

Everyone looked fantastic in their costumes.  Some looked very glam and some were super scary.

Our class party was lots of fun with games, treats and dunking for apples.  We painted each other’s faces and made each other into mummies too.