Alien Visitors!

Year 1 were visited by some special alien guests!
Unfortunately the aliens didn't know how to speak in any human language.
Luckily Amber and Jade classes had read all about Beegu the alien and they understood how hard it was to communicate.
The children helped the aliens to settle in by giving them names for everyday things in the classrooms.Now the aliens seem very happy in the year one classrooms. When the children go home they can be found doing all sorts of things!

Debating

Silver class year 5 have been learning debating skills.

They have been thinking about our local area.

They are learning skills that will help them in the future.
They have been taking turns to chair a meeting and each of them have prepared to speak either for or against a motion.

The Research Conference

The Research Group were invited to speak at a research conference at the Institute of Education in central London.

The group were the opening speakers at the conference and shared what they had learnt about research and how to do it. They wrote their own presentation and spoke to more than 60 other adult researchers and pupil researchers from other schools from around the country and the world.
The group talked about what research is and about some of the difficulties they faced.

Professor Kathryn Riley welcomed them all as important guests and they enjoyed lots of little extra treats in the day like juice and pastries at coffee time!

Wonders of the World

 

The topic in year 4 this term has been the Wonders of the World. Children and teachers held an exhibition in the Top Hall.

This exhibition was inspired by the excitement and enthusiasm of the children as they began to discover facts and stories about natural and manufactured wonders in our world.

  

Year 4 teachers supported by Ann and Carina, linked the project into many different areas of learning:

Adventure stories and artist's profiles in Literacy, travel agent money problems in Maths, multimedia presentations and robot journeys in ICT, images using mixed media in Art and wonders of the world soundtracks in Music.

Each artist had their own display space with a biography and examples of their work.

All Sapphire and Silver parents visited the Top Hall gallery space, the evening was a great success.

The Big Question

A small group of pupils from Amethyst and Ruby classes have formed a research group.

They have been working with Olly and Philippa to share their ideas about research. 'We have been trying to think about what research is', said Fabbiha. Dorian said, 'We thought about different ways we can do research.' Working in groups, they have been thinking of an issue they would like to research at Columbia School. Muzahid said, 'We called our issue our Big Question.'

The Big Question is: 'What do children at Columbia School think about waste?'

This week the group are about to start carrying out their research. You will see them busy around the school or you may be asked to take part!

Mummification

Ruby and Amethyst classes are learning to animate.

We learnt all about the process of mummification first and then began to make our own animations to show the process.

We used recycled materials and plasticine to make our props and scenery. We used all the old and mixed up plasticine from school. We set up our scene and used the tripods.

It was very tricky, we really had to work as a team. If our camera was out of focus, we put our finger into the scene and pressed the shutter very gently to make it come into focus. We learnt that to make a good animation, we had to move our models and props just a tiny bit at a time.

We had to learn skills like changing the duration of the shot when we edited our films.

It was lots of fun!

Time for Tea

Parents and friends took tea at Columbia School for the annual Big Draw event.

The middle hall was transformed into a quirky tea room for pupils to visit. When they arrived they discovered a world of tea, cakes and music with live models to draw.

Ann, Carina and Katy chose many of the detailed images children had drawn and displayed them in the lobby.

Amber Class Film Co.

Amber Class have been working hard to finish their latest film.

Lafaniel said, "Everyone put their creative ideas together to make this film." Viewers answer multi-choice questions on personal safety and responsibility in a spoof game show format.

Want to have a go? Type "Gameshow" into the box on the Columbia School website to view it.

Children have been taking on all the roles in the production of the film.

Storyboarders, actors, directors, sound engineers, costume and prop makers.

Ussama "thought the actors did a great job."

Olive said, "It was great to work so closely with our class-mates in our last year of school."

Maps

Several classes have now finished their class films.

Ebony class made a film called "Maps".They had a special viewing of their film in their classroom before showing it to the whole school.

They loved seeing themselves on film and felt that the whole process meant they had to think really hard about what they were learning. Hamza said that "thinking a lot makes you feel happy and helps you learn."

As each film is finished, it is being uploaded onto the school website and you can follow the links in Enrichment Activities then Creative Projects to view them.