This week has been a busy week in Learning Journey. We have completed the geography section of Water for Everyone and have started focusing more on the science aspects now. In geography task 3 MP3 worked collaboratively to produce a news broadcast about droughts and floods. You can see some in the clips below. In science task 1 we looked at dangerous water creatures. Most of us thought that sharks, crocodiles, or box jellyfish were the most dangerous creatures in the water. How wrong we were... Come check out the displays outside of Y6 to see who the real dangers are!

In Y5 the learners have been really impressing us with their fantastic maths skills- they have all been great thinkers! Next week we will be moving on to looking at multiplication. As well as practising our multiplication facts, we will be looking at different mental strategies we can use to solve more challenging questions mentally.
For example:
If I know that 5 X 3 = 15
Then I know 50 X 3 = 150
We will also be learning the formal written method for multiplying one and two digit numbers by larger numbers and then using this to solve different word problems. 

In Y6 the learners are taking on a very special task. They are all becoming learning facilitators for a lesson! In pairs Y6 are planning and delivering a maths lesson on a topic that we have learnt this year. As great LFs they are responsible for planning the lesson, making sure to include different Beginning, Developing, and Mastering level activities, and to focus on the Knowledge, Skills, and Understanding required for each learning goal. Stay tuned, as next wekk they will deliver the lessons that they have planned!

This week year 5 have begun to write their own mystery stories.  We are basing our story on the short film Road's End. We watched the film then made story maps to support our writing. We are focusing on using different sentence types to make our readers curious and intrigued. We know that using simple sentences in our writing can build up tension and create a tone of suspense. 

​In Literacy this week, Year 6 have written their explanation of how Wallace and Gromit's Turbo Diner works using their notes from last week. They had a checklist to ensure their writing was high quality. They had to think about the layout, the punctuation and language they would use. Their specific learning goals were to use the correct tense throughout their writing and to use third person. Year 6 also carried on our ongoing goal of using ambitious vocabulary. ​

Breaking News! We interrupt this blog to bring you an important announcement...

MP3 have been learning about floods and droughts this week. 5J and 6P worked together to research drought, and 5A and 6V worked collaboratively to find out all about floods. We looked at a number of different websites, reports, videos, pictures, and newspapers to gather all of our information. We are currently using this info to create a TV News report on a specific flood/drought affected region.

Make sure to tune in next week to watch our news reports...

Below are examples of MP3 teaching MP2 all about water pollution

Y5 have been brilliant thinkers using the RUCSAC method to solve tricky multi-step word problems. Next week we will be continuing to solve a range of increasingly challenging multi-step addition and subtraction word problems. We will then be learning about factors and multiples. Knowing our times tables is really useful for finding factors and multiples so we will be practising these through a range of games and activities.

This week in maths Y6 have revised our knowledge of factors and multiples. We then extended this by learning about what the Highest Common Factor and Lowest Common Multiples are. Finding the LCM and HCF of just two numbers seemed too easy, so we ramped it up by adding in a third and fourth number as well.

Through the lens of Geography and ICT, Milepost 3 recapped and extended their knowledge and understanding of the Water Cycle. We identified all the key geographical vocabulary and then used this to make a stop animation. We then dropped these into iMovie and did a voice over explaining the process before adding music, titles and credits. We had lots of fun working in groups and used our cooperation and communication personal goal skills to work well as a team. We then answered geographical questions by following QR codes that led us to picture, text or video information. ​

In our next Geography learning were focusing on the causes of water pollution. In order to share our knowledge and understanding we are creating a teaching resource to share with MP2. We are working cooperatively and being great thinkers to make sure our resources have all the essential information so that MP2 will learn lots about the causes of water pollution. We are making comics, board games, writing plays and presentations! To try help other teams to improve, we have given them specific feedback to give them ideas and positive comments about their resources.

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This week in maths Y5 have been practising our addition skills. We have been using a variety of strategies to practise adding in our heads. We shared our ideas with each other, which was really helpful. We have also been practising a written method of addition - the column method! We practised answering lots of questions and talked about the mistakes we might make. Then we showed our understanding by using the column method to solve challenging word problems! We were all great thinkers and were able to complete the challenges. 

We followed this by working on interpreting and solving a range of addition and subtraction word problems. We will be using the RUCSAC method to help us achieve this:
Read the question
Understand and Underline key words
Choose the operation
Solve the question
Answer including units
Check your work

Y6 has been focusing on multiplying and dividing decimals by powers of 10. We discovered effective ways to calculate these by simply moving the numbers along the place value chart. We then looked into negative numbers and how they are used in every day life. Y6 delved deeper into the negative number world, solving complex problems and even writing our own word problems for the learning facilitators to solve! We have reviewed prime numbers and are beginning to look at factors and multiples.

In swimming lessons this term the Year 6 classes have been learning about survival swimming. They have been practicing swimming in clothes and have also learned how to use their clothes as flotation devices in an emergency.

Thursday 13th September: MP3 residential meetings straight after school. Y5 in 5A's room and Y6 in 6P!  

Wow! What an amazing way to start our new learning! Our new unit Water for Everyone was kick-started this week with a whole school Entry Point! All learners from Nursery to Year 6 participated in a variety of obstacle courses and relay races involving water. It was so nice to see so many of the personal goals on display. All groups were being great communicators and very respectful when working across the mileposts, and the cooperation shown was off the chart!

After the hype of the entry point, it was time to bring it back down and learn about how all the fun we had was going to relate to our learning in the upcoming weeks. In the Knowledge Harvest and Explaining the Theme we learnt all about water use and the specific learning goals that we will be achieving in geography, science, society, and international throughout this unit.

This week Y5 have been planning and beginning to write our autobiographies. We are thinking about using different skills including: writing in first person, past tense and using lots of adjectives to make our work interesting. Next week we will be continuing with our biographies and then working on editing and re-drafting. It has been really interesting to find out about the different things our class mates have done in their lives!

This week Y6 have been learning how to write in chronological (time) order, use past tense accurately, use time connectives to link paragraphs, and use ambitious vocabulary. We have focused on making our work interesting and exciting for the reader as we recounted our summer holidays. We planned these carefully using the iPads to create a visual plan and a story map to plan the order. We also made sure we started with an introduction, used clear well-structured paragraphs and finished with a conclusion. 


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This week Y5 have been practising and improving their measurement skills. We measured different items in the class and recorded their length accurately up to 2 decimal places. We were great thinkers when we made links with out learning about place value from last week. We practised converting cm to m, mm to cm and m to cm by multiplying or dividing by 10 or 100. 

Y6 have focused on place value this week. Learning all about numbers from thousandths up to trillions. Working out efficient ways of reading, writing, and saying large numbers and working cooperatively to ensure that we understand what each column in the place value chart represents. Y6 have also started rounding numbers to the nearest 10, 100, 1,000 or 10,000 and are working on rounding decimals to the nearest whole number and to 1 or 2 decimal places. It's been a busy week!

The first week or so of the year has been all about Brainwave in MP3. In this unit we ​have been learning all about the brain and how we learn.  This is so that we can make sure we are looking after our brains and ensuring we are always learning to the very best of our ability.

For our Entry Point we thought about why we needed to learn about the brain and used a Mix, Pair, Share to share our ideas with the rest of the milepost.  Then we were able to explore real animal's brains through looking, touching and dissecting both pig and cow brains. Though we were initially quite apprehensive about this investigation, we used our personal goals of resilience and risk taking to show the maturity that comes from being in MP3.  Once we had investigated the real brains, we made salt dough models of them, thinking carefully about what we observed.

For our Knowledge Harvest we were challenged to complete a Who wants to be a Millionaire? quiz and in the Explaining The Theme part of Brainwave, we completed an activity where we needed to find the missing words that helped us learn about what we would be learning!

9 PERSONAL GOALS. 
We read Stuck by Oliver Jeffers, and considered which personal goals were being shown in the book. If any of our personal goals were not being shown, we considered how the characters would need to change to show them.
 
GROWTH MINDSET. 
The MP3 learners were used as guinea-pigs in a growth mindset experiment! They did not know it but were being given sudukos and half were being given growth mindset praise, the other half were being given fixed mindset praise.  We then looked to see if the type of praise we were given affected the challenge we gave ourselves.   
 
We thought about the factors that affect our learning and these can differ for each individual. We then gathered information from the rest of our class looking at HOW WE LEARN BEST, thinking about sleep, food, subjects, time of day and feelings.  
 
We also learned about NEURONS AND THE BRAIN. We know how neurons work and how they make connections which help us to learn.  We  were able to draw diagrams of neurons explaining how they worked.
 
MP3 were also learning about MEMORY  We know what memory is and the difference between long and short term memory.  We have tried some different strategies to help you to remember more, such as, Chunking and Association. 

In INTERNATIONAL MINDEDNESS we  created our own definitions of what International Mindedness means to us and created a logo which represents International Mindedness.  

For our Exit Point we had wobbly brain jellies!  Inside the jelly were some hidden KNOWLEDGE questions all about things that we had learnt over the course of the unit.  We answered these with our team and then got to eat up the rest of the jelly!

Are you ready for another turbo charged year of learning in MP3!

As always, we will be kicking off this year with the brainwave unit. In this unit we will learn about learning; look at brains and how they work; look at external factors that can influence how we learn - such as food, sleep, & environmental factors; examine growth and fixed mindset approaches to learning; and long and short term memory! So many things to pack into this week and a half!

We are very pleased to welcome some new learning facilitators to the iCAN and MP3 team.

Ms Abbey and Ms Jess will be the Y5 Learning facilitators. Ms Abbey was at iCAN already, but has moved to the MP3 team. Ms Jess has joined us this year from England and is looking forward to working with the amazing learners in MP3.

Ms Victoria and Mr Phill will be the Y6 Learning Facilitators. Mr Phill has made the huge move from Y5 to Y6, whilst Ms Victoria crossed the globe to be here, joining us from Tristan da Cunha!

15th August @ 5.00pm: Parent/Carer/ LF social get together in the garden
Come along and meet the team in an informal setting.

22nd August : 5.30pm: Curriculum meeting
​An information evening about the curriculum used at iCAN.

What an amazing way to end the Time Tunnel unit. Thank you to all the parents and families who came out to participate in the amazing trivia quiz! The learners really had a chance to showcase all of the knowledge, skills, and understanding that they picked up over the past few months. A HUGE congratulations should go to the winning team One Boy who narrowly edged out the second and third place contenders MKD and Z Minus. Thank-you's should also be extended to the A-Team (parents) who, although they tried valiantly, could not keep up with the outstanding learners in MP3

Another iCANS's Got Talent has come and gone, with the winners this year being 6! 
​6R worked together to perform a modern dance mash up of some well known songs. The learners had lots of fun putting it altogether and are very proud to be this year's iCAN's Got Talent winners! Special mentions to the runners up Brandon, Nina, and Noya.

Y5 this week became the learning facilitators. The lessons that they spent last week preparing, were delivered this week with such professionalism it made me question my own worth! They learners displayed their knowledge of the subjects, created worksheets, explained the hows and whys and used cooperative strategies to boot! Well done Y5 - Your, slightly jealous, learning facilitators were very impressed with what you produced!

This week Year 6 , inspired by their visit to the Puzzle Chamber, have been designing their own maths themed board games. The learners have worked in groups to plan, design and make their games, ready for year 5 to play next week. ​

Last weeks talk topics about music was a nice one, I was pleasantly surprised with the lack of chat about Justin Bieber and Beyonce; but was also slightly disappointed and taken aback when the rock classics were referred to as the old peoples music... Anyway, next week is the last of the talk topics and its a cracker of a theme: Holiday plans. Are you going back to your home country for the summer? Are you going to a new country/ place? Will you be visiting family/ friends?

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International Mindedness is the final subject in our Time Tunnel unit. This week we have thought about what makes up the foundations of a future society. We created building blocks to show the key elements that would be needed to ensure that the future generations were more successful than some have been in the past.

On Sunday Mr Tom took several children from Year 6 to watch Svay Rieng play against  Beuong Ket. The game was scheduled to be played at Olympic Stadium but was changed last minute to the Old Stadium. Beuong Ket won the game 3-1 , much to Mr Tom's disappointment, but all the children had a good time. Some even managed to get on TV! ​

In Y5 we have started to review our maths learning. We are doing this by becoming the learning facilitator for a lesson! Our task is to take a specific learning goal and then teach it to the class. We need to create a power point to help us, use cooperative structures and differentiation, and then finally teach it to the class. This week we have been creating the lessons, next week we will deliver them. What a time to be alive!

Y6 are a week ahead and have already become the learning facilitators. Using their knowledge of a range of topics they were able to plan and deliver lessons. It was great to see the learners reflect on their understanding and consolidate their learning from across the year. 

​As we near the end of the unit time tunnel MP3 continue with geography. Creating a scale drawing of Angkor Wat proved more challenging than anyone expected. This task involved skills from a range of different subject areas; learners needed to convert between units of measurement (maths), use tools with accuracy (technology) use scale and maps (geography) and research the correct dimensions of the temples (information technology). The end results are sensational!

This week in literacy Y5 have been continuing to explore: personification, similes and metaphors within our poetry unit. We have crafted  poems about a range of animals using the simplistic Haiku frame structure. Our poems had to give clues about the animal but needed to follow the line pattern of 5, 7, 5 syllables. Can you guess which animals we were describing? 
 
Deadly carnivore
Skinny flexible body
Venom injector
 
 
Shadowy black fur
Magnificent coloured beak
Polished bead-like eyes
 
 
Chocolate brown fur
Ripped, muscular light brown legs
Do not mess with him
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​This week in Literacy Y6 have performed a version of Pandora's Box. We brought the various characters to life through expression and characterisation. We were able to use our knowledge of play scripts to then write our own. We used the story of Little Red Riding Hood and adapted it for the stage. We thought about accents, storylines and stage directions in order to create a modern version of the traditional tale. 

This week in maths Y5 continued to work with graphs and data. We finished our line graphs before looking at other types. It turns out that some data sets lend themselves better to a particular style of graph! We needed to look at the data and then decide which graph we would use to represent it visually.

This week in maths, Y6 learners have been the teachers! Working with a partner, learners have had to plan a lesson to revise our maths learning this year. Each pair was given a different learning goal alongside the Knowledge, Skills and Understanding break down for their set goal. The learners then used this to complete a blank lesson plan sheet. Next they designed their PowerPoint complete with questions and finally they made their own activity or worksheet. The learners will be delivering their lessons next week to the rest of their class.  

​Year 5 filled their thinkers pot with beads, and as a reward for displaying the thinkers personal goal they were set a marble run challenge. In this challenge Y5 needed to create a track where a marble would: travel 3m, run both up and down hill, cross a bridge, touch two tables, change directions at least three times, perform a vertical drop of 20cm, go down 7 steps made from Lego, cause a domino effect with 10 dominos, and then finally finish in a plastic cup!

​This weeks discussions around birthdays really raised some interesting points. I heard that turning 10 was a much bigger deal than turning 11 – who would have thought? Next week the discussion is all about Transitions. Who will your new Learning Facilitator be next year? Are you moving to a new milepost or school? What are you excited about? Are you feeling any other emotions? 

MP3 continued to focus on the geography part of Time Tunnel this week; again working with maps. For this task we were required to use a map and scale to find the actual distance from one place to another in Cambodia. We then decided to see if we could use that knowledge of scale to create an accurate representation of Angkor Wat. It is proving a remarkably challenging task creating a scaled drawing of this ancient building, even for this sensational bunch of learners. Stay tuned next week to find out how they got on...

Y5 have been continuing with poetry this week. We have edited, redrafted, and improved on our original poems through the use of personification and targeted descriptive words which provided the reader with a much richer image. Y5 then began to look at haiku, and are looking forward to writing their own haiku next week.

Y6 have been exploring themes and ideas behind the Greek myth Pandora's Box. We have used drama to bring characters to life. We needed to make sure that we could read play scripts and identify the various features. Next week we will be choosing a specific Greek myth and then write our own adapted version in the form of a play script.

Y5 have continued to explore line graphs this week. We have looked at which graphs work best for certain sets of data, and how to accurately choose the right graph for the right set. We created our own charts based on both given data and our own research. Come check out our display as it builds over the next week.

This week in Y6 learners have revised using the four operations with fractions. We have not looked at this since Learning Block 3, so Mr Tom was pleased to see most learners had remembered how to add subtract multiply and divide fractions. We had to spend a small time reviewing how to solve problems with mixed numbers. A very worthwhile week of reviewing.  

This weeks talk topic of plastic created a lot of good discussion about how we could be better recycling this material. A lot of learners were surprised to find out exactly how long it takes plastic to biodegrade.  Next weeks talk topic is Birthdays.  With the Kings Birthday next week it might be a good time to reflect on birthdays: How do we celebrate birthdays? Do all cultures celebrate the same? Is turning 10 more interesting than turning 9 or 11?

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