Ben Bullen

We got to make flatbreads again with a lady from Ben Bullen.  We had to work together to make the dough, then share and shape it.

We then got to make smores, which were very yummy!

Team building games

At first we had some demonstrations about all the games we were going to play. 

Task 1: we couldn't touch or drop the bomb otherwise it would blow up, so we had to use ropes to tie around it and lift it.

Task 2: we had to step on planks to get from one place to another, but if someone wasn't of the plank or if no one was on the plank then it was taken away.

Task 3: we all had to hold hands in a circle but the were hoops and gaps between, and we had to go round in a circle without letting go of hands.  The hoops weren't allowed to touch and you had to make the hoops go around the circle.

Task 4: we had to block the marble from falling through holes and get it to the jug.

Chess Masters

Is chess a sport?


"It is not recognised as a sport in the UK and receives no public funding. However, the International Olympic Committee and over 100 countries recognise chess as a sport."


Chess is a competitive and strategic game, which needs players to think ahead. Although it is not recognised as a sport, many see it as having sporting qualities.

We learnt the basic rules of chess, and used this website to practice our skills.

The basic rules are:

• white always moves first
• each piece moves in its own way
• if the king is threatened it is called check
• if the king is threatened and has no possible moves without being taken, it is called checkmate

Chess moves:

• The king can move one square in horizontally, vertically or diagonally
• The queen can move any number of spaces horizontally, vertically or diagonally
• The rook/castle can move any number of squares vertically or horizontally
• The bishop can move any number of squares diagonally
• The knight can move in an L shape eg. two forward and one left, or two right and one forward. It is also the only piece which can jump over others
• The pawns can move two squares forwards on its first move and then one square forward or backwards. They take diagonally

Climbing rockstars

Nine of us went at a time, and four of us went on the wall each time. We had to try to get to the top and press the buzzer in a couple of minutes before we moved around the wall. We had to put on a harness which kept us safe if we fell off the wall, as it lowered us slowly.  The instructor connected our harnesses to safety lines. Every time you got to the top, you pressed the buzzer and we counted how many times we got to the top. To get down you just let go, and the wire would lower you slowly. We put our legs out in front to kick away from the wall just in case.

"It was very difficult, but it was fun."
"It was trickier than I thought it would be, and I never knew I would be able to do it."
"It was hard at first on certain sides of the wall, but every time you tried you thought harder about where to put your feet next."

Yoga

We have been trying different yoga practices, and learning breathing and stretching techniques. One of the tutorials we have been following is here.

Image via Google: https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwi_yeuvwIDcAhWDDOwKHQPZBvcQjRx6BAgBEAU&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pinterest.co.uk%2Fpin%2F558235316287803306%2F&psig=AOvVaw2-pxsu8lgmbhKPmexJhX1I&ust=1530623862144263

Outdoor Week

This week at Upland we are spending lots of time outside! The teachers have spent lots of time organising activities for us, including people coming from local companies and clubs to teach us things like rock climbing and orienteering.

We can’t wait!

Orienteering Awesomeness

Orienteering is when you follow a map to find specific point.  This year we got to use dibbers, which are electronic devices which track where you have been. This meant we had an accurate time for our task, and that we couldn't cheat because we had to go to each point in order.

"We had to go around the course in a certain order, to see who could go around the fastest."

The instructor is from the local club, and he told us about the children's club starting after the summer. He was very helpful, and we all knew exactly what we had to do.

Our times went from 2 minutes to 1 minute 9 seconds.

World Cup computing

This week in computing, we have presented World Cup data and statistics on bar and line graphs. We had to analyse the data, and decide whether we would use a bar or line graph to present it. If the data was measuring change over time, then we used a line graph.

English inspired Art

This term, we have been reading How to Train Your Dragon and it has led to some fantastic writing. However, we haven't just used this book to inspire our English lesson, but also our Art lessons.

Last week, Vivienne showed us a huge collection of beautiful and highly decorated eggs. We then used different grades of pencils to sketch our own egg design.

Here are some examples:

Reading buddies with Storey class

Today, all the classes from Key Stage 2 went downstairs to work with Key Stage 1. We listened to Storey class read, asked them questions and read to them too. We were so excited and had a great time.

Whole School Write

This week, we begin our whole school write. It is based on the picture below:

We spent our first lesson discussing the picture, and deciding what we thought was happening. We had lots of interesting ideas, and talked about the importance for buildings and housing, but also the importance of countryside and farms.

We also spent some time talking about conservation and the areas in the UK which you can't build on.

We all agreed that countryside is important.

Whodunnit?

This term, we have been looking at Data in Computing. So far, we have made lots of different types of graphs, but we also spoke about the branching databases we made last year about Bexley, and this year in Science.

A database is a place that keeps data in one safe place, like a telephone book or diary. Today we used a database full of people's names, ages, genders, heights etc. We were detectives and had to solve the cases, by inputting the most significant data and choosing from those suspects. It was quite tricky to make sure we worded everything carefully and specifically enough, to narrow down the suspects.

The game we played can be found here.

Rounding games

In maths, we love to play games which test and apply our skills and knowledge.

This week, we played two games all to do with rounding.  This helped us apply our fluency, reasoning and problem solving from throughout the week.

The first game, which can be found here: https://nrich.maths.org/10945 involved rolling two a 0-9 dice and rounding to the nearest 10.

The other game, which can be found here: https://nrich.maths.org/10438 involved rolling two dice and making a decimal number to round.

We had lots of fun!

We’re gymtastic!

A huge thank you to the PA and to Athena for putting on our gymtastic fundraiser. We had such a fun time, and all did so well.

McCartney Dragon and Viking Jokes

This week, we wrote funny jokes to tell Toothless the dragon from How to Train Your Dragon. We then logged into the Google Drive and all worked on the same document to create a book of jokes.

Maths games

As part of our homework this term, we created games based around moving through the four quadrants.

We had lots of interesting games, and we really enjoyed playing them. This helped us consolidate our learning.

Royal Wedding Celebration at Upland

On Friday afternoon, all the children of Upland Primary School went on to the school field for the celebration of the wedding of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's wedding, which was taking place the next day.
When outside, we sat in circles and we had a picnic.  We also listened to some music and played some games.

During the Royal Wedding, which took place at St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle, the Royal family and lots of celebrities and friends, watched Prince Harry and Megan Markle make promises (vows) to each other in front of the entire world over television.
James Corden, David Beckham, Idris Elba, The Queen, Serena Williams, Prince William, who was Prince Harry's best man, Charlotte and George, Megan's mum, Prince Charles, Michael Curry and Oprah Winfrey were all in attendance.

Throughout the ceremony, there was music from orchestras, a cellist, an award winning gospel choir and the church choir.

Afterwards, the newlyweds went for a carriage ride around Windsor.  Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are now known as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

Is the best way to train your dragon, to yell at it?

Today in English, we had a debate about whether shouting at a dragon is the best way to train it. In How to Train Your Dragon, Professor Yobbish had one piece of advice:

YELL AT IT!

In partners, we discussed what way we would use to train our dragon, and we made notes to help us during our debate.  When debating you should make sure that you are not talking over each other, and that your point is related to the other person's.

Some of the points we had to make are listed below.

• You shouldn't yell at dragons because:
• they might not understand your language
• they have very small ears, which may be very sensitive
• they might react violently
• it will be more likely to attack you than obey you
• it might fly off because it will be scared
• your enemies will know what commands you are giving your dragon
• it will encourage them to hate you
• You should yell at dragons because:
• they are usually disobedient
• you will sound more serious
• it will give you more attention
• it will knock sense into the dragon
• it you talk it might not hear you because it might be developing it's hearing skills
• in battle it is noisy so the dragon must be able to hear you
• shouting will make it more aggressive
• it is more likely to do what you asked

Computing week beginning 14th May

This week in computing we made a different style of graph. These graphs track changes in data over time, and so we looked at the top temperatures of the week and plotted them using Microsoft Word on a line graph.

We had lots of tricky problems to overcome; including our data getting muddled up and different line graph styles not showing the data clearly enough.

How to train your dragon

This week, we have started reading How to Train Your Dragon, which was written by Cressida Cowell. Lots of us have seen the films, but the book is very different.

So far we have met the trainee heroes, who have taken part in their first test as part of their Dragon Initiation Test. Hiccup, the future chief of the tribe, isn’t particularly hero-like, and often gets pushed out of the way for his cousin, Snotlout, to take over.

Today, we had the chance to design our own Dragon. Dragons are very important to the people of Berk, as they use them in battle but also for hunting and to help with jobs. We thought of adventurous adjectives to use in noun phrases to describe our dragons. Later in the week and next week, we are going to create pages for Viking Dragons and their eggs.

Computing week beginning 7th May

This week we collected data from our classmates, and then used our computing skills to create a chart on Word.

The hardest bit was making sure that all our data was included in our spreadsheet, as you have to click and drag the guide lines to include the data on our chart.

Mountain Work in Yr4

In Year 4 we have been looking at Mountains and Rivers. We made some lovely paper models to explain how rainfall leads to streams which flow down mountains. It was great fun and here are the instructions for you to make one at home.


Equipment: a piece of A4 paper, blue felt tip pen, masking tape and a small bottle with water.

What to do:

1. Carefully crumple a piece of A4 paper.
2. Unfold the paper.
3. Place it on a flat dry surface.
4. Gently push each side inwards to form a mountain shape.
5. Use your fingers to push the centre of the paper upwards
6. Use the masking tape to attach each side to the clean surface.
7. Study the sides of your mountain then use the blue pen to draw lines down the creases of the paper. These are your predictions of where the water will flow.
8. Very slowly and a drop at a time, pour the water on the top of your paper mountain.
9. Observe the rain flowing into small streams as it goes down the mountain.
10. Did the water follow the blue lines that you predicted?

Why not make one at home with an adult helper, enjoy!!

Mr Bevan and Mrs Lasenby

Do gases weigh anything?

This week in Science, we have investigated whether or not gas weighs anything.  Some of us thought that because gas was invisible that it wouldn't have any weight to it, others thought that because it is a type of matter that it must have a weight.

To test our scientific reasoning, we got a range of fizzy drinks, in cans, which we compared before and after they were shaken.

We had a few issues to address first:

1. Would the balance scales pick up any tiny changes in weight?
2. Would the weight of the can change if it was closed, and the gas couldn't escape?
3. How would we be able to compare the weight before and after shaking, if we were just using balance scales?

We had to make sure our balance scales were balanced and ready for accurate measuring. We also decided to test the cans closed and opened; this way we could see if the gas escaping had an impact on the weight of the can. We used a control can, which had a sticker and had to stay the same, and this way we could compare the shaken can to the control can.

Equipment:

• balance scales
• a variety of fizzy drinks in cans x 2 of each

Method:

First of all, we set the scales up and made sure they were balanced, and then we weighed the cans to check they were the same.

After that, we shook one of the cans, and then we remeasured and compared both cans again, using the balance scale.

Immediately, we removed the can and shook it again. We repeated our measuring and recorded our results.

Finally, we opened the can, very slightly, so that some of the gasses would escape. We then swirled the cans to release more of the gas. As we did this, we listened and could hear the gas coming out of the can. We measured again and took our final notes.

Results:

We found that the can which had been shaken, weighed less at the end of the experiment. This proves that gas has weight because as it escaped from the can, the can became lighter.

How can we prove gases exist?

This term in science, we are learning about states of matter. These are solid, liquid and gas, and each state of matter has its own properties. For example, you can pour liquids but not solids, glasses fill up all the space they can and solids don’t change shape unless they are forced.
Everything in our universe is made up of particles, and the way these are arranged in solids, liquids and gasses is different. Particles, or molecules, in a solid are closely packed together in a regular patter, those in liquids are more random and have space between them, and gases are totally random and have a lot of space between the particles.

Today, we set out to prove that gasses exist. We already knew that:

• Things can be moved by gasses
• Gasses are usually invisible
• You can feel them, like the wind or breathe
• We are alive because there is oxygen in the air around us
• Sometimes you can smell gases, but this is usually a safety measure.

We carried out observations at five different stations.

 

1. Shaking a bottle of fizzy drink. We noticed that lots of bubbles rush to the top and create a foam. Sometimes fizzy drinks go everywhere when you open them.
2. Using syringes to move and feel gas. Nathan and Teddy noticed that if you fill the syringe with air, then cover the end with your hand, that you can’t push the air back out.
3. Blowing bubbles into water. We all like blowing bubbles in our drinks, even though we’re not supposed to. The gasses in our breath are bubbling up through the water.
4. Sponge immersed in water. We squeezed the sponge and saw the air escap from the spong and up the rough the water.
5. Immersing a bottle under water. As the water rushes into the bottle, the air escapes and bubbles out.

We proved gasses exist!

Computing week beginning 23rd April

This week in computing we have been learning to make charts with data we’ve collected as a class. We’ve all made our own charts with the data we collected. First of all, we opened Word and inserted a chart. Next, we added the data, measurements and labelled our bar chart. Finally we chose a background and the colour.
By Sadie and Mahjabin

Preparing for World Book Day

We had some reading for pleasure time on Friday, and we loved it!

All around the world 🌏

This term, our topic is all about geography. We will be studying maps and atlases to locate the world's countries, with a focus on Europe, North and South America. We will also be looking at the environmental regions, the key physical and human characteristics, and the capital cities of the countires within these continents.

As an introduction to the topic, we completed jigsaw puzzles of specific continents and used them to locate counties within those areas.

We had great fun!