Dear Parents,

We all enjoyed celebrating Diwali at school last week. The children dressed up in colorful outfits and were very lucky to be offered the chance to decorate diyas, within their classrooms.

This week we have been very fortunate to work alongside a photographer Simon Wan Chi-Chung . He has been teaching us all about Cyanotype. This is a photographic printing process that produces a cyan-blue print. Engineers used the process well into the 20th century as a simple and low-cost process to produce copies of drawings, referred to as blueprints. The process uses two chemicals: ammonium iron(III) citrate and potassium ferricyanide.

You can find out more about Simon's work and what is going on at his his studio by visiting his web site at http://www.thephotocrafters.org/

Central Idea: Understanding of Scientific knowledge is constantly evolving and has an impact on people's lives.

Lines of Inquiry:

• Advances in scientific knowledge and understanding (causation)

• Application of scientific knowledge in our lives (connection)

• Protocols associated with scientific research (responsibility)

Science Experiments:

We have been busy carrying out a range of scientific experiments in class and learning to follow protocols in our testing. The children have been excited to test their ideas and curious to find out why things have happened.

This week children have been working in groups to investigate an area of science that interests them as a group. They have been planning and preparing an experiment, finding out the scientific knowledge and understanding behind the experiment, thinking of how this area connects and applies to real life situations and thinking of the next steps to go deeper into their investigation and inquiry. They will then be doing further testing, analysis and application in class as they prepare for their science presentations to Year 5 students on the 14th November.

Please support your budding scientists with their testing and inquiry!

Students have continued looking at the purpose and language features of explanation texts. They have been following the Scientific Method to structure and write up their experiments.

Children have spent the last two weeks looking at division. Please ask your child what their preferred strategy is. The children are now applying their division skills to real life situations, by creating picture books for younger children.

11th November - W.I.S. Play in a Week

14th November - Y6 children to share their science presentations with Y5

22-25 November - Year 6, APA Camp

9th December - End of Term - school closes at 12 noon.