Notices

Merlins (Years 3 & 4)

 

 Welcome to Merlins!

Mrs Salter is our Class teacher. Mrs Chambers and Mrs Twine are our Teaching Assistants team. We are a mixed age class of Years 3 & 4. We enjoy the many different ways we learn in Merlins from  traditional writing activities to practical science experiments  to the physical and creative making – all cross curricular!

Merlin’s have had a very busy Autumn and Spring term this school year and are nowlooking forward to the summer term!


In the Autumn term our Topic was the London Olympics since 1908. The children were surprised to learn how few sporting activities there were in the early London Olympics, how few women were allowed to participate and more importantly how poor the training and fitness was of those participating. Critically, how poor the judging, timing and awarding of medals were in comparison with today’s strict rules and regulations.Preparing for London 2012 we had a visit from Mary King – Equestrian Olympic Silver medallist –sharing with us how she prepares for the Olympics and what she hopes to achieve at London 2012.

Mary King's Olympic Medals

Medals

                               

Mary Knig & Merlins

Mary King & Merlins

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Merlins and Eagles to visited Buckfast Abbey the week before Christmas which gave the children a wonderful opportunity to prepare for Christmas. They met the brothers of the Abbey, had a tour of the Abbey and participated in Christmas craft workshops.

Buckfast Abbey

 

Stain Glass Windows

Christmas Crafts at Buckfast Abbey

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Spring term heralded the new topic of the Ancient Greeks – Children and Family. The children have thoroughly enjoyed finding out about the Ancient Greeks, particularly the Spartan training regime, making Greek vases in art and creating Ancient Greek musical instruments.
 
 
Making a Greek Vase

Making a Greek Vase

 
 
 
 
The class has had tremendous fun finding out about the Earth, Sun and Moon through science, particularly working out how the Earth moves (orbits) in relation to the sun, how the moon orbits the Earth and the remaining eight planets in our solar system. The children spent a sunny day plotting the Earth’s movement on the school playground. They also worked out the size of the Earth to the Sun by placing a scaled sun, the size of a 45cm pizza, at the bottom of the playground. Then, by walking to the top of the playing field with a scaled earth, the size of a finger nail, (behind the church) were able to get a sense of how enormous the sun is, and it’s distance in relation to planet Earth.
 
measuring the 'movement' of the sun.

Measuring the movement of planet Earth

 

As a follow up to our science topic on Space the term ended with a trip to the Norman Lockyer Observatory. Here the children were immersed in all things astronomical from learning about all the different constellations, more facts and information about the eight planets in our solar system and….. how astronauts go to the toilet in space where there is no gravity! The children found that piece of information particularly interesting. We also had great fun on our school science day where we tried to balance 2 or more ping pong balls over a hairdryer, blew up ballons with Co2, made rocket propelled cars, tried to work out why oranges sank in water once they were peeled and much , much more.

Looking forward to the summer term our topic will be geography based on  ’Coasts’. Our focus will be the Jurassic coast, a wonderful resource on our doorstep, with a boat trip up the coast – weather and organising permitting.

Other forthcoming events are May Day, a Diamond Jubilee tea party in the playground, the KS2 summer production and sports day to name but a few.