This term we have had a big focus on our use of IT to support our learning. Most of us are very confident in logging on and getting started independently. We have been using our skills to search for information. We investigated the different jobs people did whilst living in a castle. Our favourite is the Gong Farmer. Ask us what he does. We have also got our sumdog logins working and we enjoyed completing numeracy tasks on the iPads and laptops.
This week we have studied the work of the artist Paul Klee. We were particularly interested in his painting called Castle and Sun. We noticed that he used 2D shapes to create this picture and we discussed the colours he used. We then made a picture of our own. We used oil pastels and water coloured paint.
Our IDL topic this term is houses, homes and castles. We have enjoyed learning about the different parts of a castle and the significance of these different parts.
Stella – Arrow loops are very thin so no one can see them shooting the arrows.
Kiera – Drawbridge – it can be pulled up when the enemy is coming and it lets people out of the castle.
Jessica – The Portcullis is metal and it stops people getting in the castle when the drawbridge is down.
Scarlette – The moat stops the enemy from getting into the castle.
karlie – The battlements are at the top of the castle walls and they are special because the soldiers can hide behind them and then look out and shoot out if enemies are coming.
Annalee – The Bailey is inside the castle.
Bonnie – People do different jobs in the Bailey. The animal stables are in the Bailey.
Peter – The turrets are on the top of the castle.
Ellie – The Keep is the safest part of the castle and the King and Queen can hide there if the castle is attacked.
We decided we wanted to make a castle in our classroom. We discussed how we could do this and what materials we could use. Mrs Gaffney managed to find a very large cardboard box and we got to work. To begin, we looked at castles other people had made which gave us ideas and inspiration. Some of us then drew out a design on the board and we decided what we wanted to include with our castle. One of the main parts we wanted was a drawbridge. We had a great discussion trying to work out how we could make the drawbridge go up and down. Some of us used measuring tapes to work out how big we needed to make the castle to fit along the wall. This week we drew out our design and painted parts of the castle.
