Ancient Greek Day with the History Van

Wow what a day we have had! Our Ancient Greek History Van day was really worth the wait. We were lucky enough to be judges on Ancient Greece Had Talent!

We have found out about five Greek superstars - Hippocrates, the father of medicine; Archimedes, inventor extraordinaire; Philo who invented the waterwheel; Eupalinos, the great digger and builder of tunnels and Pamphile who learnt how to create silk thread and also was the queen of weaving.

We have had a great day: experimenting, building, practising Greek medicine, writing and weaving.

Here are our thoughts on the day:

P – I enjoyed when we made the arch bridge. I liked it how Kathryn explained why it all worked.

H – I learned that I built lots of things that are still used in our local area today. Like the water wheel and bridges we saw in Cromford.

L –I liked the play about The King and The Evil Crown Maker, and how it explained how Archimedes worked out that the gold was missing when he was in his bath!

B– I really liked the part where we got to write our name in the Greek alphabet. I haven’t been to Greece, so I hadn’t seen Greek letters before. I loved the Archimedes screw, as it looked like it moving upwards, when it actually wasn’t. It was like one I saw at my grandmas.

I – I liked when we did the weaving because I really enjoy it. It links to what we did at Cromford mill. I was really excited when I saw we were doing some more.

Our Resilience Stars of the Week

NSPCC Numbers Day

This is a early event to raise awareness for the work that the NSPCC do, as well as raising awareness of the importance of maths, through fun games and activities. We have created a multiplication garden and took part in a TT Rock Stars challenge. 

Greek Masks - the finishing touches

We are adding the finer details to the faces of our Greek Masks. We can’t wait to wear them on Greek Day next week. 

Science - Habitats

As part of our Science topic, we are studying the local environment. We have picked an area of the school grounds and sketched it. Observing the plants and animals in the area. It is winter, we will return and observe our area again in the summer, then look for any changes. 

Benchball in PE 

Progress on our Greek Masks 

Our masks have now dried and we have completed our base coats. We had a choice of either white or blue. We will share our completed masks soon. 

Our Creativity Stars of the Week 

Can you feel the power of the Gladiator…?

We can…thanks to a fantastic visit from Steel today. Steel (Zack) taught us about the four things that we need to be the best we can be: regular exercise, a balance diet, confidence and a positive mind set. 

Our Respect Stars of the Week 

Classification Keys 

After classifying animals into groups, we have been using classification keys to further sort animals and plants. Classification Keys are made up of ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions that sort living things by their characteristics. 

Greek Masks

We are learning about the Ancient Greeks for our topic this term. Did you know that the Greeks loved the theatre? The actors wore masks to show what their characters were feeling. The features had to be bold so people at the back of the audience could see them. We made a prototype mask using card, then used papier-mâché to create our Tragedy or Comedy mask. Keep an eye on this page to see what they will look like when they are painted. 

Handball Practice in PE

This term we are learning all about invasion games. We have been improving our passing skills in handball. 

Our Aspiration Stars of the Week

Programming in Scratch

We have used the three dinosaurs programme in Scratch to learn about infinite loops and count controlled loops. 

Classifying living things

We have been looking at how living things can be classified in science this week. We decided on different ways we could classify and group plants and animals. 

Greek Food Tasting

As part of our Ancient Greek topic we have been tasting Greek food. We tried: feta cheese, olives, tzatziki, sun dried tomatoes, pitta bread, Greek yoghurt and aubergines. We liked some better than others! Our favourites were: feta cheese, pitta bread and yoghurt. Our least favourites were: olives and aubergines.

Here are some of our thoughts:

B said – I liked the pitta bread and yoghurt. The pitta bread tasted like normal bread and you can eat it and dip it in sauces. I liked the texture of the sweet yoghurt.

L said  – I liked feta cheese because it was nice and creamy, and it also tasted sweet to me.

T said – I liked the cheese and the yoghurt. I liked the saltiness of the cheese. The yoghurt flavour was really nice.

H said – the dip tzatziki, I knew it would be horrible just by the smell, and I was right, it tasted horrible as well. I didn’t like the cucumber pieces or the garlic taste.

In said  – I didn’t like the olives or the aubergine. The olives were really vinegary.

P said - I didn’t like the aubergine I didn’t like the smell or the taste. It seemed really tasteless and was just texture.