Year 5 discovered during our history topic that the Mayans were famous for their chocolate, so we thought we'd join them in their tradition!

To begin with, we learnt how the chocolate is produced from the cacoa bean to the bars we buy today.

Next, we had to try some different types of chocolate to see which ones we liked the best - chilli and mint were some people's favourites!

Then we designed our own chocolate drop - there were some amazing ideas! We had to decide the types of chocolate we would use as well as what additional ingredients we wanted to include.

Finally, we got to make and then taste our final finished product - but not too much tasting before lunch time!

We hope you enjoy looking at our chocolate designs.

Year 5.

The Primary Maths Challenge is an annual  event organised by  the Mathematical Association.  This year 20 children took part and gained either a Bronze, Silver or Gold award. It is basically a maths test but a lot of thought is put into the questions to make them appealing to upper KS2. There are 25 questions in total with the last five being very challenging indeed! Our results were:
Gold - 2 awards
Silver - 10 awards
Bronze - 8 awards
If anyone had scored 24 or 25 they would have been invited to the MA Headquarters in London to sit a further challenge.

Here's a sample of this years' questions;

Q8 The sum of the digits of 2014 is a prime number. How many years will it be until the sum of the digits of the year is again a prime number?
A 2     B 4     C 6      D 7      E 9

Q12  I am on top of a helter-skelter facing East.  The chute will turn me anti-clockwise through 630 degrees.  In which direction will I be facing at the bottom?
A south    B east     C north     D west       E north-west

Q16  A slug called Glug eats 2 tomatoes for every 3 strawberries. Yesterday it had eaten 35 tomatoes and strawberries altogether. How many tomatoes did it eat?
A 5    B 7    C 14    D 15    E 21

Q22 Last year Gareth was 13 times older than his son Herbie. This year Gareth is 10 times older than Herbie.  In how many years' time will Gareth be 7 times Herbie's age?
 
Q24  In 1588 an Italian mathematician called Pietro Cataldi discovered that
2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 - 1 (in short  2¹⁹ - 1) is a prime number.  When this number is divided by 5, what is the remainder?

Enjoy!

Mr Bullen

Last Thursday, we had an amazing insight into what it would be like to leave our atmosphere and to travel.....into space as Southampton University brought their Astrodome to the main hall!

As we squeezed our way through the tunnel to the inside of the dome, we wondered how it would look like space, but we weren't disappointed! Using a projector and mirrors, the dome really felt like we were looking at a 3D version of the universe beyond our Earth. We visited the Moon, looked at the Moon landings and saw Earth as it would appear from the Moon's surface.

There were so many amazing facts, such as how the Moon's temperature varies by hundreds of degrees depending on the area of the Moon you measure. Some craters of the Moon have never known light!

We learnt how people are currently trying to land a craft on the Moon as part of Google Xprize competition http://lunar.xprize.org/education/domeshow before we finally came back down to Earth and had the chance to ask some questions of Doctor Jones, who is an astrologist, such as, "are there really aliens?"

It was a fantastic morning and we'd all like to thank Southampton University and hope they will visit us again next year!

Year six are getting well and truly stuck in with their Cornwall project so far.  Our literacy has been centred around a Michael Morpurgo story set in Cornwall called 'The Giant's Necklace', which has led to some exciting work on the RNLI. Mrs Tilley came in to tell the children about the amazing work carried out by the RNLI and coastguard -as well as giving some of our children a chance to dress up in the full rescue uniform. 

Furthermore, we are learning about the landscape, economy and culture of Cornwall through geography, music and art. We even had a chance to try some traditional Cornish pasties, kindly provided by Mrs Lipsham.  Here are some pictures of our project so far:

Year 6 have spent the last two days completing their first DT project.  This has tested both  their  construction prowess and their understanding of electricity.  First, the children had to build a sturdy frame out of wood, then create a reversible switch, so that a model lifeboat could be lowered from the station then reeled back in.  The children worked together brilliantly and we have some excellent results, which we are hoping to show our younger pupils next week.  Here are some photos of the children in action - pictures of the finished articles to follow ASAP!