World Book Day

Author: Michael Morpurgo

The children in KS 2 participated in an on  - line workshop to celebrate the day. Over 650 schools in the UK participated which is approximately 66 thousand children. The children were able to enjoy listening too and asking questions to the famous British author Michael Morpurgo.

World Book Day was used to celebrate the forty-year anniversary of the first publishing of the author’s book, ‘War Horse. Michael Morpurgo talked about the events of his life during World War two and how these experiences influenced his decision to become an author.

Wk beginning 27.02.23 - Happy St David's Day! Our amazing children celebrated by making 3D models and traditional welsh meals. Congratulations to all the competition winners! 

We have been learning about the physical processes of evaporation and condensation. We conducted an investigation on which tea towel will dry first? (In cupboard, by the window or by the heater) And how the weight of each tea towel changes applying the science skills of establishing a criterion, fair test, hypothesis, method, presenting data in graphs and using the data to support our conclusions by identifying trends and patterns in the data gathered. Children were required to relate their learning to states of matter.

We are still reading the ‘Wreck of the Zanzibar’ by Michael Morpurgo. We have applied our learning on the features of diary writing from the point of the main character’s brother Billy. We also started researching and planning a newspaper report linking it to our context topic; Love water. Don’t waste it.

We also participated in an Expressive Arts workshop with Kinetic Theatre School. We enjoyed the activities and working with their tutor.

This week, we continued reading our new novel ‘ The wreck of Zanzibar’ by Michael Morpurgo and identified key features to help us understand the features of each character. In P.E, we performed gymnastics. We had a mat with a base station, took turns to attempt jumping and landing on the base station, landing in a landing position.  

In Literacy, we started reading our new novel ‘ The wreck of Zanzibar’ by Michael Morpurgo. We analysed the book cover and the blurb and compared it with our last novel. We also used our inference skills to infer characters’ feelings, thoughts and motives from their actions and justified our inferences with evidence.  In Science, we started our topic learning about the different characteristic of matter (Solid, liquid and gas). Then we discussed the water cycle and created a water cycle model in our class.

Art- we used POINTILLISM technique to create landscape art. Pointillism is a technique of painting in which small dots of colour are used in patterns to create an image. We practiced a variety of skills that included shading and blending.

In Literacy, we have been reading ‘Friend or Foe’ by Michael Morpurgo and have been using clues from the text to make predictions about what might happen next in the story.

Friction is a force. A newton meter measures how much force is used to pull something.  In Science, we investigated different surfaces to find out which surface produce lots of friction and which produce not much friction. We discussed our method and how to carry out a fair test using different variables.

In September 2023 the speed limit on roads where people live changed. A new default speed limit of 20mph will come in. We used our artistic skills to design a sign which could be seen all across Wales. To remind drivers of the importance of driving within the 20mph speed limit, helping reduce the danger to children and families using the road.

In RE, we started a new topic about source. We created a mind map to identify the different genre of books, then each one of use wrote about a special book we read. Finally, we enjoyed our P.E practicing our gymnastic skills.

St. Tydfil had a very busy Autumn term, had several school trips, visitors and engaged activities to expand our learning and knowledge.

In Maths, we have been learning about place value and comparing numbers. Multiplying and dividing by 10, 100. Rounding whole numbers to the nearest 10, 100 and 1000. Also, we recently covered coordinates and translation of shapes on Coordinates. Perimeter, area and volume.

In Literacy, we wrote letters from the viewpoint of a character, learned about prefixes and suffixes. We collaboratively worked on creating a balanced argument; about the main character in Welcome to Nowhere story (Omar) and we though about a decision the main character had to take. We recorded the advantages (helped) and disadvantages (harmed) of his decision. We read several comprehension passages and created a newspaper article (report) about Syrian refugees.

 In Context, we started into why the war (WWII, Syria’s civil war, and Ukrain was) had started and what is happening now. We plotted Ukraine’s surrounding countries on a map and calculated distances refugee have travelled. We created bar charts showing the number of refugees in different countries and calculated percentages. We worked collaboratively to generate ideas, facts and information to have a debate on whether countries should welcome refugees especially the UK. We also, created a healthy guide to increase our awareness of our diet and healthy living style.

We always celebrate our Virtues (Faith-Filled and Hopeful) by acknowledging our friends hard work and commitment to learning. Each day our Helpwr Heddiw allocate points to their classmates.

Both St Dwynwen and St Tydfil thoroughly enjoyed our trip to Cardiff Castle where we learned all about WW2.