1, 2, 3…BLAST OFF!
Space is the theme for P6b this term and, oh my, are we entertaining the topic with gusto and enthusiasm. We’ve spent the week with a focus on enriching our understanding of planets, planetary bodies and moons. We’ve observed why smaller objects orbit larger objects and how long certain objects take to orbit other objects. We’ve focused on our own Solar System and found it interesting to note that at times the Sun is not actually the centre of our Solar System due to the large mass and gravitational pull of all the planets but, particularly, Jupiter. This also assisted us with our understanding of Pluto and why it is no longer considered a planet.
We’ve been using our new knowledge of the planets of the Solar System to help us prepare to write an information text. We began the week looking at a Solar System information text containing all of the elements one would expect to find in an information text and we will use our knowledge of the layout to help us understand how to write one effectively and independently. We have now finished our plans and will begin writing draft copies of our text next week.
With our reading, we’ve been continuing with our reading in class and in the school library. Each pupil has been given their new reading book as part of their homework for the present term. Furthermore, we are ploughing on with, and greatly enjoying, our class novel: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days.
In our maths learning we’ve been working on angles. We started the week by constructing angle makers to help us see a right angle and how it can be rotated and remain a right angle, this helped us use this knowledge to assist us with our understanding of what an acute and obtuse angle is. We then began looking at how to use a protractor, ensuring that the centrepoint is placed at the specific point where a pair of perpendicular lines intersects. Furthermore, we’ve been working on our verbal reasoning through challenge by using our mathematical vocabulary to explain how we know something, for example: how we know an angle is acute and not obtuse.
Next week we will begin to write our draft information texts on the Solar System and will be continuing to work on our understanding of angles in maths before moving on to perimeter, our next topic.
