Eyam Homework

This week's homework was to find out, and present, about something that was happening, or somebody that was alive, during the Eyam plague. We had some brilliant and creative talks and posters. Madoc's presentation wowed the class and is easy to share on this p[age. I hope you enjoy! 

Caving at Highfield Hall.

Follow this link to see us having fun in a portable cave that visited the school this week.

Poetry

The last few weeks have seen us studying different types of poetry and finding out the techniques and patterns that poets use to write their poems. We have used this to write a variety of different poems. We have also looked at how poets, such as Michael Rosen, have increased our enjoyment of poems by how they have performed them.

Here are some of our own poems using some of the things we saw Rosen using.

A letter from Uganda

During our Africa topic we have focused our studies on the country of Uganda. We have found out about how people live, where children go to school, how people travel arounf the country and what impact climate change has had on Ugandans. However some questions still remained, so what better way to find the answer than to write a letter to somebody who lives there?

We all thought of questions we still had and put them into letters that were sent of to Mr Lemmey's cousin who lives in Uganda. This week the we received a letter from Uganda...

Dear Mr Lemmey’s class,

Thank you very much for all of your questions - It’s great to hear from people living all the way in the UK. It feels like miles away from where I am right now.  I will try my very best to answer all of your questions in my letter.

I spent the summer working for a charity who build playgrounds in primary schools across Uganda for people like yourselves. I would spend 2 weeks living in one of their classrooms and then we’d build a big colourful playground out of truck tires for them to play on in their lunch breaks and after school. Now I’m working at a kayak school called Kayak The Nile. We teach people how to kayak on the lakes and on some of the rapids on the River Nile. My job involves lots of organizing and booking things for the people visiting. I also manage the staff and make sure that they’re all doing their jobs properly. Working here is very very different to working in the UK. I find that there are a lot less rules here so I think I like it better. I’m also allowed to take different days off each week, which makes it more interesting.

The main city, Kampala is very very busy – you can sit in traffic for hours at a time but where I live is a lot quieter. There are always lots of people walking around though, you can never go far without seeing anyone. I live in a town so there aren’t any farms very near by.  I did pass a herd of cows grazing on the round about the other day thought and we do have chickens in our back garden so there are farm animals around. Their farms are very different here, they don’t have tractors or big machines so they have to do it all by hand. You see a lot of people digging and planting crops in the fields. There are lots of cows, goats and chickens but I haven’t seen very many sheep at all! The other day (I’m not sure if I was dreaming!) but I’m sure I saw a bird that was half chicken, half duck. It was very strange! If you go on safari you can see all kinds of animals though. I’ve seen Lions, elephants, hyenas, zebra and leopards, but luckily you don’t really get them anywhere near the towns.

The weather’s funny here – there is no winter, summer, spring OR autumn! We only have the rainy season and the dry seasons. During dry season the roads get very very dusty because there is no tarmac on them. In the rainy season the roads are super muddy. You are always getting your car stuck – it’s a nightmare. Luckily everyone is very friendly and will help push you out though. 

Lots of people just dump their rubbish on the sides of the road which can get a bit smelly when it’s hot but other than that it doesn’t smell too bad.

I’ve got lots of friends here, some of them are from the UK, some of them are from New Zealand, America and then of course some from Uganda. It’s funny, you get called ‘Mzungu’ here by everyone! It means white man or stranger and you’ll hear it being called from all over as your walking or driving down the road.  I live in my brother’s house here. It’s very nice compared to lots of houses out here but I bet it’s not as smart as yours. We have an ‘Escari’ – he’s a man who guards our gate all day and all night and sometimes he cuts the lawn as well. He doesn’t have a lawnmower though so it takes him a very long time!

There are 36 different languages here in Uganda – it’s very confusing! Most people speak English which is lucky for me.  The local language is called Lugandan. I’m trying to learn it but it’s very difficult.  I can just about count to 5 – 1 – Emu

2 -  biri

3 -  satu

4 – nya

5 -  taano.

I can also say:

 hello, how are you? - Oli o ti a?

thank you –  Webale.

I will be coming back to the UK in May but I really really hope that I make it back out here to visit again at some point. Everyone’s so friendly and life is very relaxed compared with life in the UK.

I hope that helps describe life in Uganda to you. If you ever get the chance you should definitely come and visit.

All the best

Beth

A VERY WET TRIP TO THE CROOKED SPIRE!

Last week, in the torrential rain, we all walked into Chesterfield to spend the day with Ingrid at the Urban Studies Centre. When we arrived, really quite damp, we learnt about what we were going to be doing during the day. Then we talked a little bit about the church building, its famous spire, and some of the different shapes we could expect to see. At the church we were shown up the tower, how the bells work, and some of the theories explaining why the spire was its funny shape. We also found out a little bit about how it was built, before we went to the museum to see the original windlass. This looked like a huge hamster wheel and was used to lift the heavy stone and wood to the top of the tower when they were building it all those years ago.

We spent the afternoon back at the Urban Studies Centre in the Market Hall, where worked in teams to build a small model of a windlass out of Lego. We all enjoyed the day very much, and discovered lots about this amazing, and famous, building in our town. The class worked well together all day, and didn't let the terrible weather stop them from making the most of this wonderful opportunity.

Changing Circuits

In our science topic we have been studying electricity. In small groups we have been experimenting with designing and building circuits. Today we made some predictions about what would happen with some circuit designs, then tested our predictions by building them.

Homework - Electrical Safety Poster Activity

The website that can help you design your poster can be found here

The website that can test what you have learnt sofar about circuits can be found here

The Big Draw Day with Year 4/5 and 5/6

This year's theme for Big Draw day was 'Every picture tells a story.' In the morning we worked in our own classes to practise the skills we were going to need for the afternoon. The skills we had to practise were different mark making techniques that created a variety of effects e.g. clouds in the sky, grass, rock, gravel, moving water, still water and wooden planks.

In the afternoon we were split three ways, if you were with Mr Lemmey the theme was 'The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe,' if you were with Mrs Allsop the theme was 'The Hobbit,' and if you were with Mrs Ross the theme was 'The Wind in the Willows.'