We had a brilliant day on Friday building dens and all for a good cause. We worked together and used our imagination to create our dens to work in – all the time thinking about children who are not as fortunate as us. We raised money for Save the Children to help them continue their excellent work providing shelters for children who need it.
How do Class 10 learn about the water cycle? By creating it in a plastic bag of course! We have created perfect miniature climates inside clear plastic backs and attached them to the window.
As the sun shines through the window, it heats the water allowing it to evaporate into water vapour. As it cools, it condenses back into water droplets – in a clear demonstration of the water cycle!! See if you see it working!
In science, we have been learning how materials change state and in maths, we have been looking at statistics in maths and how to read and draw tally charts, bar charts and line graphs – so it seemed like the perfect opportunity to use chocolate to investigate our theme in a little more detail!
To complete the tally charts, we quizzed year 4 on their preferred chocolate flavours and then converted the results into a bar chart – making sure we had a correct scale and appropriate labels.
To generate data for our line graph, we investigated how quickly chocolate melted and compared the temperature of the water as it cooled the chocolate! Class 10 showed great restraint with all the melted chocolate around the class room!
Members of Class 10 have really been embracing this term’s homework by getting creative in the kitchen. As well as ‘cress-head eggs’ and ‘chopping board water cycles’, we have also had (in true Willy Wonka style) homemade chocolates designed and produced by our class members! They look incredibly professional – I hope they taste as good as they look!
A fantastic day was had by all when Year 4 visited York’s Chocolate Story museum!
Class 10’s day began in the Willy Wonka-inspired Chocolate Making workshop. After a unanimous vote, bubble gum flavour was selected for our Edible Chocolate Wallpaper. We listened really carefully and followed the instructions to create amazing chocolatey wallpaper, that even had a picture transferred on it! It was good enough to eat!
After lunch, we made our way up the ancient Shambles, looking at the fascinating sweet and fudge shops as we walked! We were then ready for the main event – a trip through time, as the story of chocolate and how it came to York was demonstrated in a brilliant interactive way.
We began in the time of the Mayan and Aztec civilisations, when chocolate was as precious as gold and then we learnt about the Chocolate Pioneers who brought chocolate to York and turned it into the amazing industry it is today. There were one or two surprises along the way – but we won’t reveal all in the blog – we don’t want to spoil it for you!
As we moved to the second floor, we entered the virtual factory floor to discover how chocolate is turned from the bean to the bar. We learnt how our taste if dependent on smell and how to hold chocolate so it doesn’t melt.
As we moved to the second floor, we entered the virtual factory floor to discover how chocolate is turned from the bean to the bar. We learnt how our taste if dependent on smell and how to hold chocolate so it doesn’t melt.
And then another hands-on activity – making our own chocolate lollipops! With sprinkles galore, we shook, sprinkled and shimmied until we had the perfect treat!
The resident Chocolatier explained how fillings are put into truffles and then it was time to pick up our lollipops!
We left on a total sugar high, all in agreement that the day was ‘sweet’!
Y
We had a visit today from the Yorkshire Cricket Club and had an hour workshop with them. The children had loads of fun and had some great cricket skills! Definitely some future cricket stars at Green Top, watch out Joe Wroot! A big thank you to mr Spetch for organising this afternoon and I think some children are keen to sign up for the allstars training camp!
Miss Hilton
On Friday 28th April, Class 11 visited York Chocolate Story. The children had a wonderful time and they got to see how chocolate is made from the beginning and how the cocoa bean was first discovered. We also got to eat lots of chocolate too! We had a fantastic tour around the museum and in the afternoon made our own bubblegum chocolate wallpaper YUM!
A brilliant time was had by members of the Green Top KS2 Book Club today at the Doncaster Book Award Finale, held at the Dome.We have been reading, blogging and voting for the books all year and today was when we discovered the winners!
Arriving early, we had time to practise making lots of noise with our home-made shakers and then the fun started…….
Liz Millions, an illustrator and writer, gave us a very entertaining crash course into how to draw imaginary creatures like dragons and unicorns. Starting with a potato or baked bean shape, she gave us tips on how to create fabulous cartoon characters. Just by changing the eyes and the mouth, she demonstrated how to completely transform a picture – and all done with her unique, hilarious sense of humour!
Joshua (call him Josh) Seigal was up next! He entertained us with his brilliant, interactive poems about chicken, his dog and how he ‘doesn’t like poetry’! We learnt lots about rhythm and how to perform poetry and it was great how he got us all joining in. He was then kind enough to sign our books and pose for a photograph with us!
In the afternoon, after a second ‘slot’ by Liz Millions (Teddy Bears and Pirates this time!), we were delighted to welcome Philip Ardagh, the’ 2 Metres Tall, bearded, international best-selling children’s author’ to the stage. His wacky style had us howling with laughter – especially when he told us the story of his second-hand (sorry ‘second-bottom) pants that he was forced to wear.
Finally, the winners of this year’s awards were announced. Congratulations go to Primary List winner, Julian Clary, for ‘The Bolds’; Secondary List winner, Amy Alward for ‘The Potion Diaries’; and Roald Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes, winner of the poetry list.
A big ‘Thank You’ to the committee and volunteers of the Doncaster Book Awards for staging another fantastic event, yet again free of charge. Check out their website on www.doncasterbookaward.net for more photos, news and events.
Well done to Charlie, Hattie and Jasmine, winners of our Extreme Reading competition, showing us how a good book can be enjoyed anywhere!!
Think you can better? Pass your pics to Mrs Graves!
Today the winning bloggers from the ‘Why I love Green Top Blog’ competition received their prizes in our Out of this World assembly. They have all been given a £5 voucher to spend at our book fair this week!
Well done and enjoy your prize!
