Art

This week, Courtesy Class learned about the works of Rebecca Vincent, who is a landscape artist. She uses a source of light in her paintings and uses soft colours in the background and darker colours in the foreground. After picking out some of our favourite work, we had a chance to replicate one of her famous paintings. First, we painted a source of light and blended the colours of the background together. We then added the hills and grass, and used tiny paintbrushes to add some detail and texture. We then painted trees, getting darker as they neared the front of the painted. Finally, we added the shadows under the trees.

Science

We've had a fantastic start to the week, exploring shadows in science. We investigated the amount of light that passes through different materials, and learned the words transparent, translucent and opaque. We also tracked our shadows throughout the day by drawing around them in chalk at 9am, midday and 3pm - our shadows in the middle of the day were very short because the sun was high up above us!

Music

What a fantastic music lesson! This week, we explored Djembe drums from Africa. We learned how to create different sounds by using different parts of the drum and playing with different parts of our hands. We practised a range of rhythms and played some games to test our listening skills!

Light Investigation

This week, Courtesy class was investigating light. We used torches and materials to explore how light travels and how we need light to be able to see. We sorted objects into light sources or not, and then discussed natural and man-made sources of light. Some children tried to draw by being blindfolded, so we could learn how difficult it was to complete tasks in the absence of light. We discussed safety for our eyes and the importance of wearing sunglasses and not looking directly at the sun.

Coding with Purple Mash

This week, Courtesy class has been building on their learning on coding. We are using 2Code on Purple Mash to try and create algorithms based around different challenges. If we come across an issue, we need to debug the algorithm – it was really hard but we mostly got there by the end!

Learning Lift Off

Courtesy Class had their learning lift off on Monday, looking at different plants and small creatures around our school grounds. We had identification sheets to help us name twigs, leaves and fruits, and then sat down to do some sketching, in the style of Maria Sybilla Merian.