Mardi Gras Madness

Our Mardi Gras feature week may be over - but the spirit of carnival lives on!  We hope you enjoy these images of our special week. The collaborative art piece that the whole school produced is now on display in the hall. Examples of our poems, masks and costume designs can also be seen on show in the school hall. We all thoroughly enjoyed our workshops and learnt so much about the festival around the world.

Science with Sophie

Class 3 were treated to a science masterclass today. Our visitor, Sophie, teaches science at Thirsk School. We wrote to Sophie at the beginning of our topic on States of Matter asking her all the tricky questions that we had about the subject. Today all our questions were answered as Sophie talked us through the explanations and conducted some fantastic demonstrations.

Using syringes blocked at one end we found out we definitely couldn't compress solids or liquids - but we were able to squash gases.

 Sophie used a jar full of 'particles' to demonstrate how when energy is added the particles start to move more and take up more space.

 Using models of molecules, we learnt how when we add energy bonds can be broken. Some substances require a lot more energy to break the bonds - that is why some metals melt at very high temperatures.

 The class also had a first hand demonstration of evaporation. We put a small amount of liquid acetone in our palms and watched it evaporate in front of our eyes.

 Not all substances act in the same way. Sophie brought in some solid iodine crystals which we heated in a flame. We watched as they turned from a solid straight into a purple gas - this process is called sublimation.

 The class made lots of very useful notes and asked very thoughtful questions.

 For our last activity we investigated corn flour mixed with a small amount of water. We saw how it sometimes acted like a solid, but when left untouched it flowed like a liquid.  This would be a great experiment to try at home!

Class 3 would like to say a big thank-you to Mrs.King for giving up her time to come and answer our questions. The staff would like to say an even bigger thank-you for bringing in the homemade cookies which went down a storm!

'African Voices' workshop

 This week we have enjoyed a visit from the 'African Voices' team at Leeds University. Sepa and Israel visited Class 3 and 4 respectively for a fascinating range of activities themed around Africa. These photos were taken in Class 4, where Israel confronted stereotypes and misconceptions about his continent (he is from Nigeria) with a challenging 'diamond true or false game' in which there is only one solution once all answers are correct.

 This group were the first to solve the puzzle correctly, which included questions such as: 'Are there snow capped mountains in Africa?'

 Israel presented a range of activities throughout the day: we considered where chocolate came from and how resources are distributed to each person from workers at the cocoa plantations to the retailers at the end of the chain (and everyone in-between). This led to an interesting discussion on fair trade products.

 We also had a fact finding activity about several people on the 'African Voices' team and there was an interesting question and answer session where we discovered that Israel is one of 43 children from a polygamous family.

 We also enjoyed a fantastic call and response song, which the children performed really well.

Overall it was a fantastic and informative day! 

Visit from illustrator and author Bruno Merz!

 As part of our World Book Day celebrations this week all of the staff members in school offered a story to share and children chose the book they'd like to listen to. However, Mr Sturgess had a sneaky trick up his sleeve for people who chose the book 'Fins, fluff and other stuff' because he had arranged for a surprise visit from the co-author and illustrator of the story to read it instead!

 As you can see by the faces, the children were mesmerised by this excellent story which asks the question, "What would it be like to be made of other stuff?"

 Shameless promotion for Bruno's book here.....

 The children then asked questions and Mr Merz showed them some incredible original artwork and talked about the process of modern illustration. Firstly, he draws in pencil, which he then scans and flips so that he can trace it....

 ....then he completes the new image with watercolour paint and pen. Finally, it is scanned into the computer where Bruno enhances the colour and adds finishing touches. Here we are comparing an original watercolour drawing and how it looked in the final published version.

 The children were fascinated and amazed by the hand-painted original artwork and they really enjoyed spotting the differences between these and the final piece.

 What a brilliant story reading session!

 Mr Merz also kindly agreed to stay and share some of his work from other projects with Class 4 who were also suitably impressed by his orignal artwork.

 Here Bruno talked about how he altered his style of drawing in order to suit a particular brief.

 You may have even seen his work in Hallmark as he is responsible for many of the Forever Friends designs......here is an unused Halloween design.

 Finally, Mr Merz gave us a lesson on how it is possible to make a huge range of emotional facial expressions solely by altering eye brows and mouth shape.

The children drew as many different expressions as they could on their piece of paper, labelling them all with the emotion they felt was the best fit.

We are all so grateful to Bruno for volunteering to come in and share his work with us - it was a fantastic visit and I was very proud of the behaviour of all of the children as they made a fantastic impression and were extremely polite and interested throughout.  Some of the pupils seemed genuinely inspired by this visit and Bruno's passion for his work. What a great way to spend a Friday afternoon!

If you'd like a closer look at any of Bruno's artwork you can find him here:
https://www.behance.net/brunomerz