This week we have been working on a design and technology project using the TASC wheel. The children have had to use their problem solving skills to help save an explorer who had become stranded on a desert island.

Firstly we shared our ideas on the thinking floor mat. We decided that the best idea would be to build a raft for the explorer so he could sail off the island.
We generated some design ideas by thinking about which materials would work best and looking at examples of different rafts.After that we picked our best design idea and built our own models.

We tested all the models in water to see if they would float, which nearly all of them did. It was very exciting!
Finally we evaluated how we had done by saying what was good about our raft and what we could do to improve it.

We have been developing or directional language skills to help us to write clear instructions for people to follow. We have learnt lots of new language including half and quarter turn and clockwise and anti-clockwise.

We had to write instructions to help the bird get to the worms to feed its baby in the nest followed by creating our own hunt with a partner. We had to think about a habitat and what type of home the animal might live in as well as think about what it eats. We had to you write the directions as a set of instructions?

  

We then worked in the hall with a partner using 6 cones. We had to choose a start point and a finish point and put the other cones in between. One of us put the blindfold on and using verbal instructions we had to direct our partner to each cone finally ending up at the finish point. We then drew our own maps and wrote on the directional language before writing out the instructions in clear sentences using time connectives, prepositions, imperative verbs and commands.

We are working hard to develop our skills as good learners. Look who has been our 'Explorers of the week' for the last two weeks. They have been following the Explorers code and have been rewarded for their hard work, team work, perseverance, respectfulness, ability to try something new and not give up even when it is difficult.