Welcome to Silver Birch Class 2024/25

Hello and welcome to the Silver Birch Class webpage. Our teachers are Mrs Downs (Monday, Tuesday and alternate Wednesdays) and Mrs Jackson (Thursday, Friday and alternate Wednesdays). Silver Birch's teaching assistant is Mrs Bailey. This page will be updated termly with information that may be of interest to you regarding projects, timetables, curriculum maps, videos, pictures and more. It will be useful to keep checking this page for any helpful documents and pages that will keep you informed about the goings-on in Silver Birch this year.

Our PE days this term are Tuesday and Wednesday.

This week, as part of our Staying Alive project, we have been learning all about the heart. We dissected a heart so that we could see first hand how this amazing muscle works. 

What a great way to spend a Tuesday morning - in the beautiful March sunshine - participating in the annual Wallingford pancake race.  It was a great atmosphere and everyone supported each other. As you can see the Rowse honey, given to the competitors, was enjoyed after the race! 

What an interesting experiment: we made predictions and then took the samples!

Scary results - definitely need to keep the anti-bacteria wipes to hand! 

Great fun was had moulding, sculpting and blending our own version of the canopic jars, using the thumb technique. Each of the canopic jars used in the mummification process respresent the four sons of Horus. Ours represent our favourite animal or creature. It definitely took great perseverance but I'm sure you'll agree - the results are impressive!

 After attending the level 3 embalming workshop with Claire-o-patra and Tutan-sian-mun, we have a class full of expert embalmers! They extracted the brain with care and were extremely precise when making the incision to remove the following organs: lungs, liver, stomach and intestines. After thoroughly washing the body with water from the river Nile and palm oils, they covered the cadaver in Natron (a naturally occuring salt) and left it for forty days to ensure all moisture was removed to avoid decomposition. Finally, the painstaking wrapping process began before the mummy was place in a home-made sarcophagus. Although there was an element of butchery going on, by the end of the lesson, all students achieved their level 3 certificate. 

As part of our Hanukkah project the class enjoyed making doughnuts this morning, along with making their own boxes to take them home in. 

The doughnuts which are called sufganiyot in Hebrew, is a Chanukah treat throughout the Jewish world. Deep-fried doughnuts representl the oil that burned miraculously for eight days in the temple that was originally destroyed by King Antiochus and his army. 

Who doesn't enjoy a biscuit?  In Silver Birch this week we used biscuits to help us understand the process of evolution. The children worked in groups, each with a variety of biscuits - from the humble rich tea finger to the chocolate caramel digestive.  Sorting the biscuits and discussing which biscuit would come first in Darwin's tree of evolution, and how it would survive and improve. There were discussions about the addition of flavours, layers, and shapes.  The children then designed a biscuit that they thought would come next, some of them very sweet indeed... I wonder if they would survive.

Who killed King Duncan? We had four visitors to Silver Birch recently: Lady Macbeth, Macbeth, a guard and a servant. We had to think of open questions to determine who committed such a heinous crime. We hot-seated our guests and they really had to step into their character's shoes and think on their feet. The majority of us were convinced that Macbeth had committed regicide - will Macbeth be found guilty of such a horrific crime?

In Silver Birch, our term started with 'Take One Picture,' and we studied several paintings by the artist David Hockney. Hockey was inspired to paint swimming pools after moving to California. He loved the patterns he could see in the water and the different colours and shades of blue. We created stunning batik prints, inspired by his work. First, we examined the different patterns we could see. Then we used a hot wax to recreate the patterns. After the wax had dried, we were given a limited paint palette and had to create different hues of blue and green. As you can see the effects are beautiful.

Today we looked at how maths is all around us and how in all jobs maths is used in some form or other.

Who would think you would need to know about angles in football and photography and area for dancing (you need to know how big the dance floor is and how many steps you can do in the space).

Here are a few of the great illustrations that the children created.

After investigating circuits the class enjoyed designing and creating games or pictures that used circuits. 

What budding filmmakers we have in Silver Birch. After being given a brief about having to create a short film to encourage others how and why it is important to stay healthy, the children planned and created their movies. 

Here are a couple - I am sure you will agree they are not only informative but also engaging. Well done SB.

Following our learning about keeping healthy, Silver Birch researched the health benefits of different fruits and worked in groups to produce our very own smoothies.

We gave them names and using our maths knowledge of nets, designed a cuboid smoothie carton on graph paper, making sure they had the right number of faces. 

After we had drawn our nets we got to design our cartons using eye-catching colours. They turned out really well.   Bethan

We started our new topic by learning all about the heart and how this important muscle works. The amazing budding scientists, led by Miss Peecock,  disected a heart and were able to locate the various parts such as the left and right atrium, left and right ventricle, the valve, the vena calva and the aorta. 

 Last week, 27 trainee embalmers undertook the Level 1 embalming course with 'Excellent Embalmers' and we're pleased to announce that they all passed with flying colours! They began by extracting the brain through the nostrils with a long, metal hook and, since we had no dogs on the premises, the brains of our corpses went in the bin! If the trainees had read the training manual before starting the course, they would have realised that the Ancient Egyptians believed the heart to be the center of intelligence and therefore the brain was discarded since it was useless! The next step was to make a small incision, with care, on the left side of the abdomen to remove the following organs: lungs, liver, intestines and stomach. At this point, several of our trainees started looking a bit green around the gills. Luckily, Miss Cleopeecock was on hand with the smelling salts to revive them. Phew! After washing the body with palm oil and water from the river Nile (or vanilla essence if no access to palm oil and water from the river Nile) the painstaking process of wrapping the body in yards of linen began. We are pleased to announce that our trainees were respectful and did a very thorough job, especially the trainees that were too cold to go out for break!

Having learned about the process of mummification and the meaning behind the word 'mummy,' Silver Birch were asked to create their own versions of canopic jars using clay and a range of tools. After a demonstration of the coil and thumb technique, most children opted for the thumb technique to create the base, before creating their own topper for their pots. Such expert handiwork can be seen and several children demonstrated great perseverance when moulding the clay into the shape they desired. It was also lovely to see children encouraging and helping each other when needed. Our next step, once they have dried, is to paint and glaze the pots to a professional finish. Well done for impressive clay work!

As part of our Hanukkah project the class enjoyed making doughnuts this afternoon, along with making their own boxes to take them home in. 

The doughnuts which are called sufganiyot in Hebrew, is a Chanukah treat throughout the Jewish world. Deep-fried doughnuts representl the oil that burned miraculously for eight days in the temple that was originally destroyed by King Antiochus and his army. 

Joe Wicks (The Body Coach) had challenged schools to undertake 1000 Bearpees (burpees with a Pudsey Bear play on words) and Silver Birch were up for the challenge. In twenty minutes, Silver Birch completed a whopping 1340 bearpees! As you can see from the photo, we don't even look tired! Well done everyone for rising to the challenge.

 We began our Hanukkah project learning the story behind this festival of lights. Antiochus, the evil Greek King, tried to force the Jewish people to abandon their beliefs and follow his gods. Those that refused were severely punished and the beautiful Jewish temples were converted or destroyed. Luckily, Judah Macabee and his brothers stood up for their religious beliefs and with the strength that comes from fighting for something you truly believe in, were triumphant in battle against Antiochus' army. The Dreidl game was played by people as a ruse to hide the fact that the Jews inside were reading Jewish scripture. By playing the game on street corners, they were able to keep watch and warn those inside if the enemy was approaching. Jewish families play this as part of their celebrations using chocolate coins (gelt). Silver Birch really enjoyed playing the game, especially winning the chocolate coins! 

'I enjoyed playing the game. I could imagine how Jewish children might feel during the festival.' Molly

 Our WW1 project started with researching facts about the Great War. Children independently researched facts, using ipads and watching clips from BBC Bitesize before grouping the notes into relevant headings. There was such enthusiasm for this topic and once we started uncovering the facts, they didn't want to stop. There were many gasps of horror when we learned about Trench Life and the difficulties that the conditions that the soldiers faced, especially when they saw the pictures of trench foot and heard about the lice and rats. We were also surprised to hear about all the animals that played a part in the war: horses, dogs, goldfish and carrier pigeons. one of our favourite parts was learning about the Christmas Truce and no one could understand how war could continue between the two sides after meeting face to face and sharing a game of football and gifts with one another. After writing our reports, we moved onto writing WW1 themed poetry - see below.   

It was lovely to see actual WW1 medals recently as Faith brought these in from home to share with us. These medals, nicknamed Pip, Squeak and Wilfred, were awarded to those that fought in The Great War. Faith's gran's Uncle Arthur fought in France in the Fusilier regiment as a Lance Corporal. We researched the medals to find out their correct names: British War Medal, The Star and The Victory Medal and the reasons they were awarded to all those who fought for their country during WW1.

We read a range of WW1 themed poetry, including Wilfred Owen's 'Dulce Est Decorum Est' and John McCrae's ' In Flander's Fields'. We discusssed the theme of the poems and writing techniques the poets had used. This led to us writing our own WW1 themed poems based from the perspective of our choosing. Several of us wrote from the viewpoint of a soldier or an animal and some of us thought about the role of women during this period. The poems were incredible with some moving results. 

As part of our Science project on light this term, children in Silver Birch class learnt about how our eyes work and what the different parts of the eye each do. As you can see the posters are so clear and informative and all beautifully presented. 

As part of our Science project on Evolution and Inheritance we have been studying the Naturalist, Charles Darwin and learning about how we have evolved over time. We have also been looking at how fossils are created and how we can learn about the past by studying them. 

The class have created their own Kahoot quizes to demonstrate their knowledge, which everyone enjoyed playing, produced posters and demonstrated their understanding of fossils by creating their own. They have all been very busy Scientist!

We became detectives trying to solve the murder of King Duncan. Several of us thought it might be his sons - Malcolm and Donaldbain as they had the most to gain from his death and fleeing to England and Ireland made them look guilty...We interviewed several guests, who were at the banquet, and tried to ask as many open questions as we could to ascertain who was guilty.

This led us to write our newspaper reports - we had to tell the people of Scotland the devastating news and inform them of the rumours circling the castle. Some children chose alliterative headlines and others chose rhyming or use of word play/pun for their headline. 

Interestingly, Macbeth had very little appetite that evening, considering that the banquet was to award him his new title: 'Thane of Cawdor' and he seemed to find it very difficult to look King Duncan in the eye...hmmm!

 Do you know why the thistle is Scotland's national flower? According to legend, the Norse warriors were about to attack the sleeping Scottish army. Barefoot, they advanced towards the Scots in their slumber. Alas, one invader stepped on a thistle - ouch! His cries of pain woke the whole camp and a great battle commenced. Victory for the Scottish army, but it could have been a very different outcome if those invading Norsemen had worn shoes!

Silver Birch were challenged to demonstrate what they had learned about counties and cities this term by working in groups to draw a map of England. This group were able to not only draw the outline of England correctly, they also named most counties and through carefully about the relative size of each one. Did you know that there are 48 counties in England? Rutland is the smallest and North Yorkshire is the largest county. Super impressive map work, girls.

Take One Picture

 Our Take One Picture was Van Gogh's 'The Fat Bees.' We researched facts about bees and wrote very detailed non chronological reports because we became so fully invested in our project that we became real bee experts. We questioned why honey came in different colours and wondered if this affected its taste. Probably one of our favourite parts to our project was taste-testing different varieties of honey and we learnt the following: the darker the honey, the richer the taste.

We also learned about the process of making honey, which is technically bee spit and this led to a piece of stunning artwork. During the honey making process, beeswax is produced in the hive. We used beeswax to create a batik print of what the inside of the hive would look like. Using tessellating hexagonal shapes and different honey hues we think we captured the hive's interior beautifully.

A scientific drawing to demonstrate the anatomy of the bee. This is Lucy's incredibly detailed work.

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