This week, we have started to learn about multiplication. We know how to add 4+4+4+4+4+4+4 but we like the idea that we could just do 7×4 instead. There’s a lot to learn and we are just at the beginning but knowing that multiplying is just a quick way instead of repeated adding is one of the first things we’ve thought about. In groups and with partners, we’ve started to make little groups of different items and written sums to go with them. Sometimes we write the repeated add sum and sometimes we write the times sum. Everyone is pretty excited and enthusiastic about this new Maths.

Over the course of this term we have been working on  project where we will end up with (hopefully), a Stop Motion movie. Our learning Outcomes for the topic relate to making models, drawing plans and using technology. Our Topic skills relate to working together co-operatively.

We have been working through an engineer’s planning routine – ask, imagine, plan, create, improve, present and reflect.

So far we’ve asked ourselves question on which materials we’d need and how we’ll go about it. We have planned a short story and drawn out a storyboard, breaking the story into little chunks that we will film. To build the sets for our movie, we are using all the cereal boxes that we asked parents to send in. The characters in our movie will be Lego minifigures. There’s going to be a goody and a villain.

At this point in the term, we have been practising different skills using the tablets and the Stop Motion App. We can make our Lego figure walk, dance, slip and do magic. Our set creation is about half way there.

In a couple of weeks time, we should have practised all the skills we need to learn. Our sets should be ready and we will have a special day where we spend however long it takes to film our movies, using the tablets.

Our ‘working together’ skills have been really tested in this topic and we have learned a lot of useful ways to compromise for the greater good and to get the job done.

One of the things we’ve been learning about this term, is how to write Instruction texts. We looked at some good examples of real instructions and found out what the important parts are, so that we could work towards including all these things in our writing.

Using different time Openers and an assortment of Bossy Verbs, we’ve written instructions on ‘How to make bird cakes; How to do the Canadian Barn Dance; How to get ready for playtime and How to plant vegetables’. Over the course of the last few weeks, we started this by supporting each other a lot and we’ve progressed to being able to do this type of task independently, which we are very proud of!