Today in PE the children wanted to focus on mirroring in their gymnastic sequence. The children activated prior skills from last weeks mirroring lesson.

The children said that they would be successful if they could put at least 6, 7 or 8 actions together in their sequence on the floor and apparatus.

At the end of the lesson the children decided that next week they would like to attempt a whole group mirroring sequence.
Watch this space.

Blues Improvisation

Today we created some BLUES IMPROVISATIONS.
Firstly we listened to Goodbye Now and compared its STRUCTURE with HARD TIMES BLUES.
We noticed that both contained verses with instrumental breaks, and that each phrase lasted for eight BEATS.

We also noticed that the instruments played in the recording were different from instruments used today. This was because the recording was made during the DEPRESSION in America in the 1930s, and many people had to use homemade instruments.

We took it in turns to IMPROVISE RHYTHM and MELODY on various instruments. For the MELODY we used the BLUES SCALE.
Eventually we were ready to perform a twelve bar blues improvisation.
One group played the chord sequence from last week.
One group performed melodic improvisations during the instrumental breaks.
Three groups played rhythmic improvisations during the instrumental breaks.

This group played the chord sequence from last week.

This group improvised melodies using the blues scale.

This group improvised rhythms on a washboard (a traditional instrument used by blues musicians),and guiros.

This group improvised rhythms by beating on tin cans rather than drums.

This group improvised rhythms by improvising on 'home made' shakers.

We recorded our improvisations twice and used the play back to assess our performance. We decided that our second performance was better because we kept in time, made more interesting improvisations and all stopped together. Look at the Blog later to watch our final performance.

In language today we discussed the feelings of children who were evacuated during the war, and other people that the evacuation affected.

We used some real life recollections of evacuees and and their foster families as a starting point. Our task was to create a role play about a certain situation:
Evacuees parting from their families at the railway station.
Waiting to be picked by a foster family.
An evacuees first meal with their foster family.
Can you tell which scenarios these children are performing?

We were then given a short time to improvise a role play about our chosen situation.
Our SUCCESS CRITERIA was to present a short, well structured play, including relevant facts, information and especially the emotions involved.

These plays will help us in our language task this week, which is to write a short story showing empathy and understanding of the emotions involved.
The children agreed that this was a good way to provoke thought about the emotions and problems involved when children were evacuated. They also thought that it was a good way to think about the structure of their story.

Today we continued with our PSE lessons.

We talked about how, in our whole school assembly last week, Mr Roberts showed us a video of Susan Boyle auditioning for Britain's Got Talent. We were reminded of how we all pre-judged her because of her appearance.

This afternoon we discussed how sometimes difference can be a barrier to friendship.

We also thought about how we sometimes pre-judge people and make assumptions about them before we really get to know them.

We also tried to think about how it might feel to be excluded or treated badly because of being different in some way.

We worked in groups to produce a Diamond 9 to order the issues and differences that may form a barrier to friendship.

Here are one groups' ideas.

Colour of skin.
Physical disability.
Cultural differences.
Jealousy.
Wealth, or lack of it.
How people dress.
Hobbies/interests.
Peer pressure.
Sporting/academic ability.

We talked about how we often assume that, if someone is different from us in one way (maybe how they dress, or what foods they like), they will be different in other ways too....and we can get this very wrong.



We ended the lesson by discussing 'prejudice.' We talked about how, if we are prejudiced against groups of people, we limit our potential friendships and miss out on the opportunity to enrich our lives by finding out about how we are all similar, and how we differ.

Very soon you will be given a story writing challenge. You already have been given the targets you need to achieve your various levels. For homework, use the websites below to practise some of your language skills.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/english/spelling_grammar/

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/Games/educational/literacy2.htm

What a fantastic day!
We all had to come to school dressed as a number. A lot of effort and imagination went into our costumes.







Take a look at the efforts J7 and J8 made.






























FREDDY FRAMEWORK was very busy today!
We used COMMUNICATION, THINKING and, of course, NUMBER skills.

Our first task was to complete a co-ordinates challenge set by Mrs Marlow.



You found the co-ordinates of this clue boys. For how long was Mr Norman a governor of our school? Here are some members of Y6 working it out from the dates on his memorial bench!

Mr Williams was lucky. He had Mrs Deaves and Miss Harries to help him work out the answers!

Next, we were set a challenge by some visitors from Techniquest.

We had to become Maths Detectives to solve a crime using our NUMBER skills.

Our Co-ordinates challenge winners! Well done both of you.

Our 'best dressed' numbers.

Thank you Mrs Marlow for organising a great day, we really enjoyed ourselves.