Marvellous Machines - Autumn Term 2

Our project this term is called 'Marvellous Machines'. This interest-led project teaches children about the technology that is part of their daily lives and how machines help us. The project gives children the opportunity to build and create marvellous machines.

Our big question this term is: "How does it work?"

Week 7

This week our lovely children have enjoyed lots of Christmas activities. They have performed their I-Spy Christmas nativity and been to see Jack and the Beanstalk at Blackfriars. 

Innovate and Express

To complete our Puppets and Pop-ups companion project the children designed and made their own finger puppets. We really had to challenge ourselves to make our puppets look the same as our designs.

Week 6

This weeks puppet focus has been hand puppets and puppets that move.

The children practised their threading and sewing skills to create hand puppets.

When looking at moving puppets we watched several videos. We looked at how each puppet worked and how many puppeteers were needed. We then made our own moving gingerbread men using split pins and sticks.

Week 5

Throughout the rest of the week, we began to explore and make different types of puppets and pop-ups. We created spring puppets and pop-up gingerbread men. The children tried different techniques to join their materials and worked hard to remember and follow the different processes.

Memorable Experience

Over the last few weeks of term, we are completing our companion project 'Puppets and Pop-ups' As part of our memorable experience the children watched Mrs Knight's puppet show of 'The Gingerbread Man' before having a go at being the puppeteers and retelling the story themselves.

Innovate and Express

Our innovate challenge for this projected is based around the story Rosie Revere, Engineer by Andrea Beaty.

After reading the book as a class the children received a letter from Rosie asking them to design and create a new machine ready for the virtual Incredible Invention Convention!

They children thought about what they would like their machines to do, designed them, made them and then gave them a name.

For our express challenge we then worked as a class to video ourselves talking about our inventions to share with our grown-ups at home and to send to Rosie at the convention. 

Week 4

This week we are looking at robots. On Monday we looked at the robots that are programmed to do different jobs and actions in factories.  We talked about different factory machines, discussed what they did, and they might work. We then thought about the sounds they make, and the children used percussion instruments try to replicate these sounds. 

On Tuesday we looked at robots that are designed to look more like humans. We practised creating robots using a range of 3D shapes. The children added tinfoil, pipe cleaners and other objects to give their robots features. 

Children in Need

The children enjoyed coming into school in non-uniform to raise money for Children in Need on Friday 18th November. We discussed how some children are less fortunate than ourselves and that we are helping them today by raising money for them.  The children then had the opportunity to complete Pudsey activities in the classroom and even had a special, surprise visitor at lunch time, which they were very excited about! 

Thankyou for taking part & for any donations :) 

Remembrance Day

We have learnt the importance of Remembrance Day & how we celebrate it every year on the 11th November. We discussed how brave the soldiers were in the war and why we wear poppies to remember them. The children participated in a 2 minute silence with the rest of the school at 11am. We worked together to make our very own class poppy, using resources from around our classroom. The children then had the opportunity to complete poppy activities. 

Week 3

This week we have been learning about vehicles. The children have been busy creating their own vehicles all week and testing them on our ramps and tracks outside. We experimented to see which track made our vehicles go the furthest. The children used resilience and reflection skills to adapt their vehicles as they played and mend them when they crashed!

Throughout the week we also looked at vehicles from the past. We talked about how they work and what has changed. The children were shocked to discover that fire engines in the past were pulled by horses and had to be pumped by hand. The children used the small world dolls house to role play fighting fires with a new and old fire engine. 

Week 2

This week we have been looking at lots of different types of machines

We started by investigating machines that light up. We looked at a range of light sources and decided which were man-made machines that could be turned on and which were not. 

We explored torches and battery candles and then created our own simple circuits. The children discovered that they could turn their bulb on and off by detaching a wire or unscrewing a bulb to break the circuit. 

We then explored machines that help us in the home. We talk about how these are powered and what was used in the past. The children LOVED using the hoover and the dustpan and brush to see who could clean up the quickest and thoroughly enjoyed testing out the hand whisk and electric whisk to see which could make the best bubbles. We all agreed that the electric machines were faster and much easier to use.

Finally, we looked at machines that help us communicate. The children were fascinated by the old, wired phones and phone boxes. We learnt about sound waves and how sound is created when something vibrates. We explored this by making our own paper cup phones. When the string was held taut, we could feel the vibrations as our friend spoke into the cup. 

Week 1

Throughout the rest of this week, we have been exploring terrific tablets and iPads. We learnt about how they work, explored the different ways they could be used and then created Jackson Pollock style art using the Sketchbook app. We learnt how to change the size and colour of the marks we made to create our beautiful pictures.

Memorable Experience

Today we launched our new topic Marvellous machines.

We started by talking about the different machines we have in our homes, at school and in our community. We talked about how machines work and ways that we can stay safe when using them. We then used two machines: a toaster and a blender to create our own smoothies and pumpkin toast for a special Halloween party.