We celebrated Earth Day a little early on Friday last week. We went to Dow’s Wood. We went firstly to see what sort of living creatures we could find. We also spent some time just sitting quietly by ourselves drawing or writing. The idea was to spend some time appreciating the world around us.
Creatures
We found a variety of invertebrates, in the undergrowth and under logs and rocks.
We are building up a collection of creatures we can see in Banton. We will classify these and find out about their lifecycles.
Drawing & writing
Deep in the heart of the forest, lied an oak tree. This tree however, was different from all the others. Not tall or with fine bark or posture. Instead covered with disease. One of the oldest trees you’d think would be colossal compared to the others, not short and plump, even surrounding trees, far younger, would be taller. It was widened with deformed bark that form a distance, looked soft and fluffy, however when touched was solid. At the bottom was kale-green coloured moss, this feature however was ordinary among oaks, unlike deformed bark.
Rory
Tae Mother Nature, I like the wee beasties you hide Tae Mother Nature, I like the wind you blow fae other countries Tae Mother Nature, I like the moss it’s like a cushion Tae Mother Nature, make the tree go high and the breeze go low
Some of the Biggies headed down to Dow’s Wood for a picnic lunch today. We had a relaxing time eating in the woods dappled with sunshine. Food was eaten, trees climbed. A woodpecker drummed around us in the treetops.
On the first day back we celebrated spring by making some cherry blossom drawings.
The class were encouraged to look really carefully at the blossom and draw what they could see, not what they imagined. As you can see the results are wonderful. The scans do not do then justice. Click the images to see bigger versions.
For our last day of term we had another cardboard creativity challenge.
We had looked at some of the work of architect Frank Gehry, and some new cardboard engineering methods. The Challenge was to make a model building, les than 40cm x 40cm x 40cm. Some were inspired by Mr Gehry some seemed to come from the pupils own imagination.
A video from the start of the process.
And after some progress was made:
The Final Products
Along with some of the planning sheets.
The children showed an amazing amount of creativity. They are also now great at solving problems and not giving up.
We have finally finished our rather epic Makerspace project.
We started at the start of term, researching famous buildings. The class them picked a building ( a lot of Big Bens) and got into pairs, trios or decided to work by them selves. They them produced a design and planed how they were going to make their models.
We then had quite a few sessions of building, making, breaking & problem solving. We made some amazing models and learn a lot.
Cardboard ConstructionMontage of buildingHow many inches in a centimetre Painting Big BenWorking together
Earlier this week we invited the rest of the school to view our work and to be inspired to make their own models. We had a fun afternoon.
Share our Stem
Today we used the models again on our open classroom morning the parents who attended seemed very impressed.
We also used out ICT & design skills to create posters about the building we were working on. I think the class did a great job of laying out their information & images, we concentrated on alignment, attribution & readability:
Children’s View
I asked the pupils three questions, here are their answers
The most important thing I learned was to fix the mistakes and always try again and work in a team.
I enjoyed the most painting the building and design the top for Big Ben. I also enjoyed making the clock.
I would make the top I tiny bit different like the design.
Alexia
I learned that it was the tallest building in the world and it had the fastest speed of elevator. I enjoyed how it was supposed to made out of lots of tubes. I would make the elevator move.
Xander
I learned how to fix mistakes when something was not the right size
I really enjoyed painting the building
Ii would change the top a little different in colour
Lexi
The most important thing I learned was that if you run into a problem you can always find a way to fix it. What I enjoyed the most was working with Faith and Alex because it was really fun and we didn’t blame each other for mistakes. What I would do differently next time is instead of the toppers and bells do a bit of the Palace of Westminster.
Juliet
1.Durning the making of our Big Ben we learned quite a lot but the most important thing I think I learned wasn’t any of the skills, I think it was that it doesn’t matter who you work with and it doesn’t matter if it goes your way, it’s about the fun and great times you had together that count.
Whilst making Big Ben my favourite part was listening to my partners ideas and using them in different ways or giving them more ideas that improved their first one.
Next time I would maybe think about the design and give other techniques and suggestions a try, I would maybe make a different building and scale it better.
Olivia Rose
I think the most important thing I’ve learned while making our buildings in the makerspace is getting better at scaling and measuring. I really enjoyed making the centre part of the building because there was a lot of measuring and cutting involved. If I could do something differently I would not make a frame for the bottom part.
Rory
I learned a lot about making and fixing different thing and solving problems. I did enjoy seeing it being finished and looking good. If I could do anything different I would of made the knex more secure.
Harry
The most important thing I have learned was measuring I enjoyed working with different people that I wouldn’t normally work with I wouldn’t do anything different
Alex
I learned that not every thing you should quit so you keep going and that was a good thing to learn so I learned that I enjoyed making the base because I really enjoyed measuring and checking to see if the length and the width is the correct amount I would make more details and try to make my own clock that moves
Tony
I most enjoyed when I had to work out all of the measurements of everything and I enjoyed working out the problems that I had and I learned how to do all of these things and I also learned how to scale thing like these buildings down.
Blair
I learned problem solving and I enjoyed making the building and cutting stuff out the thing that I would do different is working with others.
Jamie
The most important thing that I learned is that if you’ve done something wrong you don’t have to have a temper tantrum you try it again.
I Enjoyed working with my friends and making the net.
The Biggies took part in the school outdoor learning day yesterday. The weather was unrelentingly wet! We got on our waterproofs and took part in a full program.
We started by preparing a fire and making some sticks to toast marshmallows. Next we worked on our maths making circle paterns in the playground. after the interval we got the fire goign and helped our wee pals from Primary !-2 to make s’mores.
After lunch we cleaned up the Bee Cafes and cut and planted some willow whips.
I really liked yesterday it was really fun . I liked the fire pit with the p1,2s and planting the wild flowers I did not like how wet it was because we had to draw circles with a piece of string.
Lexi
I thought it was really fun but soaking wet. I loved the fire pit and the marshmallow. I liked playing the games with the little ones I had so much fun. It was fun watching matheo eat his s’mores like he does with his sandwich. I didn’t necessarily liked making the circles it was challenging but instead I made a monkey with Lexi.
Alexia
Yesterday was a fun and exciting day, our class got split up and we taught the wee ones how to make s’mores safely, we partnered up and used home made compasses to draw circles and we done some gardening, I enjoyed planting the wildflowers and I also enjoyed the fire pit, I enjoyed leading games with my peers and I enjoyed explaining the games to the wee ones. Yesterday I think I used the skills, Leadership, Communication, Planning and Organising and much more. I liked being outside for the day and it was really fun to do those different activities all day, outside.
Olivia
I enjoyed everything. Apart from the tired legs and soaking things of course. Another thing I didn’t enjoy about is the fact I couldn’t finish the gigantic circle. But I feel brilliant about the good comments of the dry s’mores we roasted over the fire. The planting was very enjoyable, especially the bug saving. I found an adorable centipede. I hope the willows grow nicely.
Nathaniel
I Liked doing games with the wee ones & making s’mores with them. I Also liked spending time with them, planting the willow trees was a little hard because of the shovel but I liked it. I Really liked making the wild flower beds with Alex & Lexi I thought it was really fun. I liked being partners with Faith for the circle art and the rest of the day!
The class are making good progress working on their Famous Building models. Some really creative solutions and problem solving.
When making the centre part of the building, we stumbled across a problem with the folds, I used the makedo tool to make folds where I wanted them to be but in the piece of cardboard I was using had folds where I didn’t want them to be. So I used parts of skewers to hot glue over the folds and that fixed the problem.
Rory
In the MakerSpace, Alexia, Chloe and I made a paper bell to go inside our Big Ben, Alexia had designed the bell and once we had made the roof we thought it would be a good idea to use a skewer to attach the bell, once we had tried it didn’t work, the skewer was too obvious and it didn’t work when we put the roof on, to fix the problem we used string instead. We also had the problem of the roof covering the hole for the clock, we decided to vaguely cut a hole in the roof to fit the clock and it worked.
Olivia
My problem was that the flaps were not strong enough to fix the problem we got sticks and stuck them on the the flaps to fix them.
Alex
I had a problem with how the supports for the cardboard strip that does over the bridge would be held. The problem was that I didn’t know how to put a piece that would work good to hold the cardboard. I solved this by using a egg box bit if cardboard.
Harry
I needed to put tape in the inside of my top of the Big Ben to make it easier to hot glue.
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