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.
Cherry Blossom Drawing
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.
Architecture Challenge
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.
Duck-amation
Today we had the Great Banton Duck Race.
When the Biggies came back to class, rather wet, we worked on some animations in Keynote and exported them to animated gifs.
Buildings Built
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.
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.
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
Alexia
- 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.
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
Lexi
- 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
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.
Olivia Rose
- 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.
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
Alex
I enjoyed working with different people that I wouldn’t normally work with
I wouldn’t do anything different
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
Chloe
- 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.
- Instead of making a 3D bell we made a paper bell.
Nathaniel
- Working with as a team is fun and useful.
- I enjoyed painting
- Don’t use frames (unless it’s heavy enough).
Brass Band Week 3
Biggies in the Rain!
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.
Nathaniel
The planting was very enjoyable, especially the bug saving. I found an adorable centipede. I hope the willows grow nicely.
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!
Chloe
Banton Biggies Brass Band
We had our first week practise with Mr Golding this week. It was loud and loads of fun.
Building Buildings
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.
Lexi
Scratching with P1-2
On Wednesday the Biggies went to Primary 1-2 to teach them a little about ScratchJr. This is a programming app for younger users. The Biggies have experience with coding with Scratch itself, micro:bits and Arcade.
Both ethe Biggies and the P1-2 workeked really hard and had a ton of fun. Some of the Biggies wrote about it on their e-portfolios so I’ve taken some quotes.
I learnt how to explain to use scrachJr to younger people and also how fun it is to use ScratchJr.I think we all used a few good different skills but I used ICT, problem solving and leadership I think I was good at all the skills I used. I loved working with the wee ones it was really fun I loved there watching the little films they were all so good.
Alex
We did use a lot of our skills to do the project of teaching the p 1/2’s to be able to use JR For p1/2 it can be a bit hard for them but we weren’t long in teaching them how to use scratchJR. We used of our skills to do so we had to use communication and our own ICT skills. And all in all it was a good chance to work with the p1/2 team.
Blair
We had to make a film or a scene it was so fun with the primary 1/2 . One of the primary one was making a car crash or float about in an iceberg it was so FUNNY.
Faith
This week we worked with primary 1/2 on ScratchJr we were teaching them how to move characters and make them say things. I liked working with the little ones and teaching them how to use ScratchJr because it was really fun and whatever they had they were happy with it. I also enjoyed it because Evie was always thinking ahead. I learned that the primary 2s were already really good at ScratchJr and that it wasn’t me teaching Evie it turned into Evie teaching me.
Juliet
More pictures on the Bairn’s Blog.
