Monthly Archives: October 2015

Professor McGinty performs about World War

Class Work, History

DSCF5304

This week the children in Year 6 Eagles have been lucky enough to have a visit from Professor McGinty.

He came to talk to us about World War I and II. He put on a fabulous show and the children thoroughly enjoyed it. They learnt even more about life in the war for soldiers and their families. They also learnt all about rationing, shelters, and what school life was like. (School children having to carry on with their studies underground while the bombs were being dropped didn’t impress them at all! )

The professor bought along many artefacts such as guns (you can imagine how impressed the boys were!) old coins and gas masks. Faith and Gibril were chosen to dress up in authentic WWII costumes, and Ben got to wear a real gas mask (made in 1939 – 3 years before the Second World actually started). Here are a few of the photos we took:

Year 4 listen to our war poems

Class Work, English

DSCF5237

Today was the first time Year 4 came into our classroom to hear the children read their impressive poetry. We have immersed ourselves in WW1 and WW2 for several weeks now and the children have produced the most amazing poems.

Their focus was to use poetic devices to produce imagery and year 4 were very impressed with how well the children achieved this. Year 4 sat beautifully; listening well and asked lots of excellent questions. It was a really enjoyable end to the week and one we hope to repeat again in a couple of weeks. Hopefully soon year 4 will be able to impress us with their excellent work too.

Sketching war planes

Art, Class Work

DSCF5233

As we mentioned last week, Year 6 are currently working on producing Art in the style of Trevor Lay. Today was all about sketching one of the famous aeroplanes in the style of Lay. They were studying various art works and photographs and trying to use the same techniques. Many children found it tricky but persevered, and I’m sure the final pictures will be worth waiting for.

Recording their war poems

Class Work, Computing, English, History

DSCF5225

As we previously mentioned, it was National Poetry day earlier this week – and today Year 6 worked in small groups to practice and record the war poems they completed on Monday. They were concentrating on projecting their voice and varying the tone and intonation used in their poems. They really enjoyed filming themselves and were able to offer constructive criticism to each other to improve their performance.

War poems

Class Work, English

DSCF5222

It was National Poetry day today- Year 6 have been looking at a number of war poems over the last two weeks.

They have learnt “The charge of the Light Brigade” and have been delving into lots of poems to gain inspiration for theirs. They have really thought about the imagery in the poem.

Ask a Year 6 child if they can quote you a part of the poem and explain why Lord Alfred Tennyson may have used those words.

Read the “The charge of the Light Brigade” poem – click here

War aeroplane paintings

Art, Class Work

DSCF5186

Year 6 were very excited to start their Art lessons. They were focusing on the Birmingham artist Trevor Lay. He specialises in the painting of war aeroplanes and this fits in perfectly with our topic that includes looking at WW1 and WW2.

The first lesson involved studying the colours used by Trevor Lay to produce the landscapes within his paintings. Then the children had a go at emulating these by using pencil and wax crayons. There were some super results, and the children cannot wait to get cracking on drawing their areoplanes later in the week. We’ll keep you updated with their progress.

e-Safety: Plagiarism discussion

Class Work, Computing

DSCF5183

Today Year 6 took part in a Computing lesson based around Plagiarism. They watched a fabulous video all about an up-coming band that got disqualified from a competition because they used someone else’s music.

It sparked a very interesting discussion and one that gave the children a lot to think about. They are becoming extremely confident talking about many aspects linked to computing, as well as other important aspects such as e-Safety.