Where to start with everything that has been going on in P7B over the last two weeks…
After showcasing their outstanding musical theatre talents in the FAME! performances, P7B have been settling back into their classroom routines (while also showing Miss Kennedy the Springfield ropes!) and showcasing a whole range of other talents.
Mysteries have been the name of the game in our Maths learning.  In Number Talks,  using clues to estimate, justify, challenge and defend answers have been key to solving the ‘Esti-Mysteries’.  Meanwhile, multi-step word problems have caused a Maths Curse, with everything in our day becoming a potential Maths problem.  Fear not though, P7B know exactly what strategies to use to approach these problems now, not only solving them but demonstrating their understanding by writing their own.  They are well on their way to breaking the Maths Curse!
In Literacy, we have been investigating the structure, features and literary devices used to write theatre reviews.
Our week started with a very competitive ‘Blankety Blank’ Short Read.  Our ‘Blankety Blank’ champions from this week even earned a Classroom Economy bonus for their efforts (more of that later).  We have started to look at the Reading skills needed for a Long Read activity, with a focus on the Read and Understand and Explore Some More skills sections of the Comprehension Compass.  In preparation for writing our own theatre critic reviews, we also started to experiment with ‘SPAGHETTI Sweeps’  to analyse texts, looking for features and literary devices to include in our own.
To test our understanding of persuasive literary devices (A.F.O.R.E.S.T), we watched this….
How many persuasive literary devices did you notice?
Our class novel ‘Shadow Jumper’ by J.M. Forster has been inspiration for other areas of our learning  too.  In Art, we discussed the element of form and used this to create models of the main character, Jack.  Our poetry from last week, using the literary device of personification, was also inspired by the main character’s love of ‘shadow jumping’.  We also spent some time researching and understanding (and experimenting with) the sport of Parkour.Â
In Science, we are preparing to submit our entries for the ‘If You Were An Engineer What Would You Do?’ competition. After identifying a problem that we thought could be or needed to be fixed, we explained our ideas using annotated diagrams.
In our Learning Through Play, we had a chance to test our logic, team work and perseverance skills!
And finally, a couple of new additions to P7B, the introduction of ‘First Chapter Friday’ to share and discuss new books that will be added to our class library. And, the first pay day from the Springfield Savers Bank as part of our Classroom Economy.  Full employment, saving and spending starts next week!
Phew…..it’s a lot! Now time to relax and enjoy the weekend.
P7B and Miss Kennedy
