Geography - Cardiff Bay Fieldwork Part 2

Once we had finished our debate we got soaked as we made our way to the Visitor Centre to see the scale model of the Bay.

The tour guide has worked in the bay since 1973. He used to be a docker and could tell us lots of information about how the Bay used to look.

We then watched the video that showed us how Cardiff has changed over the last 200 years. It was only a small town in the 1790's.

We even took Freddie Framework to Cardiff Bay.

Roald Dahl was christened in the Norwegian Church.

We found out that this building is where all of the coal was measured. The Titanic set sail using coal from the valleys, that coal would have been recorded in this building.

This is one of the locks that allow boats to come into and go out of the Bay.

Science - Investigating Ice

J5 and J6 had an enjoyable afternoon investigating ice. They developed their science skills and suggested enquiries for their fellow class mates to undertake with ice cubes.

The children came up with interesting enquiries and then had to choose the one their group were going to undertake. Plenty of thinking skills were incorporated into the lesson and many groups came up with interesting activities such as "Where would the ice cube melt fastest?" or " Does stirring the ice cube make a difference to the time it takes to melt?" Up above we can see one J5 boy eagerly waiting for his ice cube to melt.

Many groups used salt and vinegar to try out different enquiries.
Once the children had started undertaking their enquiries, they had to think carefully about the best way to present their evidence. What were thay going to measeure or time?

One group decided to put the ice cube outside as the weather was cold, in the hope that this would keep it solid the longest.

Pleny of numeracy skills used to time the ice cubes and to record the temperatures.

A fun afternoon of enquiry science had by all.

MATHS MATHS MATHS - WHAT A FUN PROBLEM SOLVING DAY

What a great problem solving day we had last Friday!

As usual, Mrs Marlow has put the photos on in reverse order, so our first activity is at the end! Not to worry!

Here we can see our number winners with their Pudsey bear biscuits! Well done - fantastic costumes.

Here we can see two of our girls on the coordinates trail around the school. Did they find the telephone number for elite systems on the side of Mrs Pope's classroom?

Number Fun out in the yard.

Here we can see the children being challenged and using plenty of thinking skills!

They were challenged to split into teams and get from one side of the pitch to the other without standing outside the hoops. The children loved the exercise!

This must have been one of the most fun sessions of the day. We can see the children playing a game that Mrs Marlow used to play in brownies.....yes I can remember all those years ago!

The game involves telling a story and whenever a number is mentioned, the children have to run down the middle, around the sides and back to their seats as quickly as possible, trying to beat their opposite number.

The second session of the day involved lots and lots of dolly mixtures!

The children were challenged to predict the number in the bag, predict the weight of the bag and predict the total length of the dolly mixtures if they were in a line touching each other.

The children enjoyed counting and finding out how near they were to their predictions and most of all enjoyed eating the dolly mixtures!

Techniquest came to Pontyclun Primary School! J5 and J6 were maths detectives and listened to a series of videos about a burglary. They had to then use their maths skills and work out who committed the crime.

Spelling Words for week ending 27/11/09

Spelling Words for week ending 27/11/09

A,e,i,o,u words – unstressed vowels, vowels that could be missed when the words are said.

1. Family
2. Different
3. Generally
4. Marvellous
5. Generous
6. Interesting
7. Miserable
8. Boundary
9. Factory
10.Separate
11. Listener
12. Easily
13. Lottery
14. Conference
15. Library
16. Offering
17. Explanatory
18. Temperature
19. Dictionary
20. Vegetables
21. Literacy
22. Voluntary
23. Secretary
24. Prisoner
25. Necessary

A Visit from the Welsh Assembly Government, Ogwyn Davies Art Work, Geography - Journey to the Bay and PESS Gymnastics

We were so busy on Monday - Thursday last week!

Here you can see the children using maps to try and make a human map of the journey from Pontyclun to Cardiff Bay.

They had to focus on compass points, ensuring that they were lating in the correct direction. Additionally, they had to use their numeracy skills in order to work out the kilometres along the journey and decide how many people were to represent each road.

Super geography skills and a fun lesson for all! Da iawn.

Here we can see part two of our art project from last week. The children had to apply the lessons they had learnt about Ogwyn Davies and his love of incorporating writing into his pictures and adapt this idea for their own picture. They used the words "Ogwyn Davies" and "Tregaron" in different fonts.

We had an exciting morning this morning with a visit from Dilwyn from the National Assembly for Wales.

He provided us with plenty of information about our trip to the Bay next week and our visit to the Assembly.

We learnt about the different political parties, the number of assembly ministers, what the assembly can make decisions on etc... and how much money the assembly have to spend.

We finished the day with a gymnastics lesson. Both classes were practising their shapes and performed sequences with their talking partners.

A busy week! Problem Solving Day tomorrow!

European Presentations

This week the children have been performing their speaking and listening task for the term (communication skills): European Presentations. Each child produced a short presentation on a Eurpoean country. Some used powerpont to aid their performance (ICT skills), all included numeracy facts (numeracy skills) and intersting information. Sll of the presentations were amazing and pictures can be seen lower down the blog. The following are the powerpoint presentations taht were created. They were fantastic, well done to all of you who worked hard on these.

Spain
http://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AcMgTYsQ-M1DZGN4ZzhkdHFfMzMweG1zNWJkZDY&hl=en

Portugal
http://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AcMgTYsQ-M1DZGN4ZzhkdHFfMzEzZzdzZHdiZnM&hl=en

Poland
http://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AcMgTYsQ-M1DZGN4ZzhkdHFfMjk1aG41Y3J2ZHQ&hl=en

Sweden
http://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AcMgTYsQ-M1DZGN4ZzhkdHFfMjc5Z3Y1M3I4bjI&hl=en

Portugal
http://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AcMgTYsQ-M1DZGN4ZzhkdHFfMjUwaGhnN3h4ZGI&hl=en

Denmark
http://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AcMgTYsQ-M1DZGN4ZzhkdHFfMjM3Zzdzam1iZ3I&hl=en

Cyprus
http://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AcMgTYsQ-M1DZGN4ZzhkdHFfMjIyY2c3ZzcyZmQ&hl=en

Belgium
http://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AcMgTYsQ-M1DZGN4ZzhkdHFfMTgzaGIybTJwZjY&hl=en

Art Project - Ogwyn Davies

This afternoon, J5 and J6 started their art project for the half term.




















We are studying the work of Welsh artist "Ogwyn Davies" who lives in Tregaron.


Ogwyn Davies uses writing within his art work and we looked at some of his pieces this afternoon.




















A friend of Mrs Marlow used to live near Ogwyn Davies and has managed to get his address. As a class, we decided to write him a letter.

Here you can see J5 coming up with interesting questions to ask him in our letter.

The children thought carefully and wrote questions such as

1. What inspired you to use welsh writing within your art work?
2. When did you first decide to become an artist and why?
3. What do the words mean within your work?
4. How should we approach our art project, which is similar to your "Wal Gymreig" piece?
5. Any advice you would give us before we start our project?

The children have been set a home challenge to collect different types of fonts and lettering etc form any resource e.g. Internet, packages, magazines, newspapers and have been asked to bring them in next Wednesday.