Balby Central Primary AcademyOur blogs
Date: 26th Nov 2020 @ 3:45pm
Year 5 assumed the roles of journalists and characters from our book, "The Polar a Bear Explorers' Club". They took it in turns to interview each other and gathered quotes in preparation for their newspaper reports.
Date: 26th Nov 2020 @ 3:39pm
Year 5 investigated area and perimeter using Cusinaire Rods! It was hard but fun!
Date: 25th Nov 2020 @ 7:58pm
3...2...1...action!
We are now movie makers! When we started learning about animation (our computing topic) , we were complete novices.
The first skill we learnt was how to make a flip book which was actually much harder than we thought it would be.
After that, we learned how to shoot frames. When we had mastered this , we planned our own story. This was very exciting as we had to make our own background and characters. Once they were ready, we began filming. Here are our first attempts. Keep a lookout for our next scenes!
There's a lot more to rocks than we originally thought...
Date: 24th Nov 2020 @ 8:35pm
Year 3 have been exploring the properties of rocks again today. They were given four challenges:
- Choose a rock that will be suitable to be the roof of a new building. It needs to be waterproof due to the amount of rain we have in the UK.
- Choose a hard wearing, durable rock that we can use for ramps at a skate park.
- Choose a rock that will be suitable for a new statue in the local park that will not be damaged by acid.
- Find a rock that is suitable for a kitchen worktop.
In order to solve the challenges, the children worked in groups to test a range of igneous and sedimentary rocks to see which were strong, waterproof, hard-wearing and unaffected by acid. Have a chat with them to see what they have found out.
As well as this, we have been learning about how rocks are made. After making their own igneous and sedimentary rocks, they started making comparisons. We are becoming quite the experts!
Date: 24th Nov 2020 @ 2:51pm
Today we got the bikes and scooters out. We had so much fun riding them around our outdoor area especially going down the hill where we went really fast! Some of us were a bit wobbly to begin with so we had to work hard on our balance and make sure we looked where we were going so we did not crash into anyone!
Date: 23rd Nov 2020 @ 6:59pm
Please take a look at some of our fantastic maths work!
Date: 22nd Nov 2020 @ 5:56pm
As part of our DT project, learning about, designing and creating periscopes, Year 5 learnt about different types of joints this week: we then assessed these, considering which would be the most/least effective in order to create our own periscopes. It was a messy lesson but it was fun!
Date: 22nd Nov 2020 @ 5:50pm
This week for "Anti-Bullying Week", Year 5 created ther own Haikus with a shared message of "uniting against bullying". The work will also be proudly displayed in school. We are so proud of how mature and thoughtful the children's poems were - they really did have some beautiful, powerful messages to make.
Date: 22nd Nov 2020 @ 4:35pm
Brilliant Biomes
As part of our work on the many biomes over the world, this week Year 6 have been focusing on The Tropical Rainforest.
We looked at the features of a rainforest, the locations where they might be found, the animals we might see and of course the many layers it has. We loved learning about this as ir gave us some background knowledge about the Amazon Jungle which is where our class text ‘The Explorer’ is set.
We were then very excited to make our own biomes in a jar- this is called a terrarium. To do this we used stones, charcoal to filter the water, moss, some soil and of course a tropical plant. We finished with a spritz of water to help the 'water cycle' take place. This should hopefully mean that now our lid is on our jar it will create its own climate and it will not need watering again!
A few weeks ago we also learnt about the chaparral biome. So because we had so much fun we decided to make an open terrarium using slightly different materials. We used sand to mirror the terrain in the desert and used plants that grow naturally in this climate- cacti!
Have a look at our terrariums below.
Date: 22nd Nov 2020 @ 2:09pm
For our Thrive session this week we focused on mirroring. We sat opposite our friend and had to copy each others actions without using our words. Eye contact and concentration were really important as we followed what our friend was doing. This activity works on developing relationships with others in the class.
Date: 20th Nov 2020 @ 4:13pm
In D&T Year 2 have been testing materials to see which would be the best material to use to create a bag for a soldier. We decided the bag must be waterproof, strong, flexible and comfy. After testing many different materials the children decided that fabric would be the best material overall. We had lots of fun testing the materials and got a little bit wet!
R.E - The lost sheep & the good shepherd
Date: 20th Nov 2020 @ 4:04pm
After focusing on the religion of Islam in the first half term, the children have moved onto learning more about Christianity in R.E. We read the story of the lost lamb and the good shepherd and discussed why every sheep was so important. We then re-told the story and turned it into a story cube. Here is an example of what the children produced.
Look at what we have been up to this week!
Date: 20th Nov 2020 @ 2:49pm
This week in Art we have been sketching our figures in readiness for starting our wire sculptures next week. We practised our Iron man poses and our partners identified the different body parts we used to perform our pose.
In Maths this week we have be learning to interpret data. We have used tally charts, frequency tables and pictograms. We have also drawn our own bar charts using our own data sets.
There's a Monster in the Shed...
Date: 19th Nov 2020 @ 8:28am
A strange thing happened the other day. Reception were outside and we heard a noise from inside the shed. We investigated and listened carefully and decided there must be a monster in the shed! We planned and built a monster trap and we haven't heard a noise since. We will keep checking though - just in case!
Have you ever wondered what it's like to be flat?
Date: 17th Nov 2020 @ 7:48pm
Have you ever wondered what it's like to be flat?
Well, if you were to ask the children in Year 3 , they would be able to tell you exactly what it's like! This half term, we have been on a reading journey with a young boy called Flat Stanley. We have loved learning and writing about all the things he can do now that he is flat. One particular adventure that we enjoyed writing about was when Stanley saved the day by posing as a painting in the Famous Museum and helped capture two sneak thieves! Here is just a sample of some of our work.
Letters from Sunny the meerkat!
Date: 16th Nov 2020 @ 4:02pm
Year 2 have been reading the story Meerkat Mail in class during Autumn term 1. The children enjoyed completing a range of work based on the story from learning about animals in science to looking at countries in Africa and around the world in geography. Our main writing task for this book was to write a letter as if we were the main character Sunny and send it to our Meerkat family telling them why we were unhappy and had to leave. We were super impressed with the quality of the children's writing and how they presented their work beautifully writing up in handwriting pen for the first time.
Date: 16th Nov 2020 @ 10:45am
This week in Science we have been learning about solids, liquids and gases. We investigated changes of state to help Willy Wonka keep his chocolate river flowing.
In Writing this week we have produced wanted posters for the Iron Man using persuasive writing skills as part of our Book study approach. Over the past two weeks we have learned many techniques to produce our posters both in written form and using the laptops.
The Explorer Descriptive Writing
Date: 15th Nov 2020 @ 3:25pm
The Explorer
Katherine Rundell
We may have only just started reading our new novel study book, but we are already completly engrossed with the story. This week we have focused on producing some incredible pieces of descriptive writing. In class, we have looked carefully at vocabulary, sentence types and how we can create clear images in the readers head. Have a look at some of the writing we have produced below.
Date: 15th Nov 2020 @ 1:15pm
Nursery class have worked hard, using a variety of materials, to create poppies for Remembrance Day.
Date: 15th Nov 2020 @ 12:56pm
The Nursery children have made a wonderful start to the school year!
The children have been enjoying learning lots of new skills and exploring the environment in and out of the classroom.
This year we have been very lucky to have new provisions added to our outdoor area including a very popular new sand pit and mud kitchen.
We have been looking at Nursery Rhymes, discussing characters, settings and actions. We have built walls for Humpty Dumpty, spider webs for Incy Wincy and building boats to row! Their imagination has been inspiring.
The children have worked very hard in the classroom and have enjoyed building and creating masterpieces! Below are some lovely images of the hardwork they have produced this half term.
Date: 12th Nov 2020 @ 3:38pm
Last half term Year 2 were looking at African art with the end goal of producing our own collage inspired by African artists. We appraised African artists such as John Ndambo, Fred Mutebi and Edward Saidi Tingatinga. We practised a variety of drawing techniques using shade and thickness of lines. We planned our collage thinking about the materials we would like to use and used pencil crayon to produce a final plan. Finally we used glue and a variety of materials to create our collages.
Date: 11th Nov 2020 @ 8:59pm
We have been very busy in Reception exploring our classroom and outdoor area.
As part of our technology work we have been taking selfies using an ipad. We had to hold the ipad, turn the camera to face us and press the correct button. As well as all of this we had to make sure we showed our best smiles!
We may have got wet but it was brilliant exploring capacity. We looked at containers of different shapes and sizes, predicted which would hold the most water and investigated to see if we were right!
We have had such a lot of fun exploring our outdoor area. We have used our imagination to turn the crates into a train and went on a journey to the beach, forest and lavender hills. There have been many cakes baked and dinners cooked in the mud kitchen, we may get messy but we develop our motor skills, imagination and language at the same time. We have been exploring the tubes rolling balls and cars and seeing how fast they go.
Look at how hard we have been concentrating to complete the jigsaw puzzles in the classroom. We have worked together and looked carefully at the pieces to see where they go. We have been very proud of ourselves when the puzzle is finished!
