For our topic (World War Two) we have learnt many new facts and done many new activities which we have enjoyed thoroughly.

One of the things we learned about was rationing. We did some tasks and then decided to do some baking that they would have done back then.

One group, the boys, choose that they would make parsnip muffins which was a copy of banana muffins. They used parsnips back then because they could not ship in bananas during the war. It was quite a good idea!

Another group (Saoirse, Livia, Grace) choose to make a chocolate vinegar cake which used a lot of sugar! It used a lot of ingredients so it needed two tins. The batter was quite liquid and the recipe said that it wouldn’t rise that much, although it rose a lot! In the war they used vinegar to react to the bicarb to mimic eggs as they didn’t have enough to go around, especially in cities.

The last group (O-Jo, Isla and Merryn) choose to make an apple sauce cake. In the war they didn’t have much fresh fruit so they had to use jars of preserved fruits. The apple sauce cake was quite big and rose a lot.

The results

In the end, all the bakes didn’t look like we expected! We were also surprised by how they tasted.

The first thing we tasted (parsnips muffins), in our opinion had a funny taste to it. We all decided that parsnips don’t belong in muffins! We thought it tasted horrible so we don’t recommend it! We all agreed that it was the worst out of the lot!

The second thing we tasted (chocolate vinegar cake) was a lot better than the muffins. We couldn’t taste the vinegar at all and we thought it tasted ok! We said that if we were in the war then we would eat it. Also, it tasted quite like a normal chocolate cake, just not as sweet.

The last thing we tasted (apple sauce cake) was all right. We could taste the apple but not as much as we thought we would. The cake was quite dense and a mouthful to eat. We thought it was ok but we would have eaten it if we were in the war.

Over all, everything was very fun to make and we enjoyed it a lot. We ranked them from favourite to least favourite:

1. Chocolate vinegar cake

2. Apple sauce cake

3. Parsnip muffins

We took the leftovers home and let our families try them!

By Saoirse

This term we had to share our learning in assembly, all about our topic. Our topic has been “Afore Noo” and we decided to learn about WW2.

We all went into partners of two or three so it was easy to decide what we wanted to talk about from the term. We spoke about our STEM challenges, Anderson shelter models and afternoon in the polycrub and did a quiz with the school about the Axis and Allies flags.

Everyone was confident and spoke very well in front of the audience.  The other classes liked it (especially the plane launchers) and gave us a big round of applause!

By Grace

For our maths, we have been learning about scale.

In real life we use scale because we cant draw huge plans the exact size of what they are, like a big building or a machine.

Architects, engineers and builders use scale to make accurate plans.

We decided to draw a scale drawings of the multicourt.

First, we went to the multicourt to draw rough sketches of the lines but you could tell they weren’t to scale and our drawings didn’t look like the multicourt.

After with a very long measuring tape, we split in to two groups  and we measured all the different sections and lines.

 Next, we got squared paper to draw proper scale drawings.  The square paper was different sizes for different groups.  For example 1cm  equals 1m.  Or 1 cm equals 50cm.

 Even though they drawings look different they are all the correct size.

This term we have done lots of fun and exciting things in maths. 

By Grace Morrison

This week we made blackout poetry.

Blackout Poetry is when you take a (printed out) page from your favourite book (or a random book) and make a story from the words!  We used WW2 novels to link with our topic.

How you do this type of poetry is, go along the lines choosing the words that most stand out to you. Then you eliminate words slowly forming it into a creative poem (it could be about anything you like).

This was a fun activity to help us create poems, help us use our imaginations and make us think very carefully about vocabulary.

We then decorated them anyway we wanted.  We had a variety of artwork on the poems including: machines, planets, emojis and spiders!

By Merryn Burgess

Today was School Snack Day!

Big thanks to the Parent Council for organising, to Tesco for supplying the food and to the Canteen Staff for preparing all it for us.

It was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone! (P7 didn’t leave one scrap on the trays – not even a pepper…)

We went outside and measured the size of real Anderson shelters in WW2.

They were 2m long, 1.4m wide and 1.8m high.

We were surprised how small they were!  Up to 6 people could be in one so it was not a lot of space and was very cramped.

By Livia

On Tuesday we imagined what it would have been like during the Blitz.

The small Poly tunnel had been turned into a pretend Anderson shelter (the inside was covered in tarp so you couldn’t see out).

In the classroom the air raid siren went off and we had 1 minute to grab any belongings.

Then we had to run as fast as we could to the shelter.

We had three groups: orange, blue and green. Each group had a small space we had to stay in.  We stayed inside it for one hour and 15 minutes.

We did activities in our groups and took notes on our work sheet.  We looked at old photos, listened to music from WW2 and a recording of the blitz.  We also had time to talk, read books and play games with our friends.

We had some juice and biscuits! (Lots of biscuits!)

It was fun but it made us realise how hard it would have been to stay in one for a long time every night with bombs going off.  It would have been terrifying!

Anderson shelters in the war were cold, damp and uncomfortable but they helped protect people and saved lots of lives.

By Livia