Materials at Newstime

For the first news time of the new unit of inquiry, some of the children remembered that I had asked them to bring in items made from some of the materials we had talked about during our introductory brainstorming session. Others discovered that there were things they already had at school which could be part of a Materials News Time. I thought that was quite resourceful of them!

Whose blue crocs are made of plastic?

Who brought in a plaster statue of a princess in a decorated cardboard box?

Who showed us a plastic drinking cup and a glass jar decorated for Christmas?

Who had a pink fabric shawl?

Whose flower-pot was covered in metal?

Who wore a scarf made of wool that day?

Who had a metal spoon?

Who brought this strange-looking metal object? When we tapped it on our knees or on the table we could feel it vibrating and hear a humming sound. Pascale told us it was a tuning fork.

Who had a paper ticket in one hand and metal money in the other?


Who modeled a brightly coloured cotton beach outfit?

Who brought a wooden box decorated with metal studs?

Whose green plastic ball could bounce up to the ceiling?

Who had a pink cotton scarf decorated with lurex threads made of metal?

Whose red purse was decorated with plastic beads?

Who came to school wearing a wool pullover and a cotton shirt?

Ask your child who brought in the different objects.

Mask Making with Mrs Horsford

During one art activity linking strongly to the unit of inquiry "Materials", the children worked with Mrs Horsford and Catrin to create a mask using papier-mache.

The three slide shows show you children at work and the finished masks.

The first slide-show shows the children using balloons as a base to stick on the paper strips.



The second slide-show shows them drawing the design for their masks and painting them.



Finally the masks are modelled. Ask your child which one they made and have a look at the other amazing creations. Sometimes the masks are modelled by the owner, but in some cases the children were absent when the photos were taken.

A New Unit of Inquiry

We are just beginning to think about our new unit of inquiry on Materials, which is in the Organizing Theme: 'How the world works'.

The Central Idea is:

‘The world is made up of materials which have different uses and properties’

We will focus on questions such as:

Where do materials come from?
What are materials like?
What can different materials be used for?
How do materials change?

As we try to find answers for these questions, we will research the origins of a range of materials, thinking about whether they are natural or made by people. We will use a variety of adjectives to describe and sort materials according to their properties. We will think about how materials change and whether the change is reversible or permanent.

During the unit a range of skills will be developed; social skills where children will learn to share materials; research skills where children will describe and record observations; thinking skills where children will grasp meaning from material learned; communication skills where children will read for information; and self-management skills where children will plan and carry out activities effectively.

This unit will be heavily science-based, but there will also be opportunities for work across the curriculum, including using different tools and materials in art activities and sorting shapes according to specific properties and/or attributes in mathematics.

So far in the class the children have made their own paper, used papier-mache to create wonderful masks and started to make clay pots. They have hunted for materials around the classroom, delved with interest into a range of non-fiction books and watched short videos about paper and clay.

Today they went on an expedition to the Musée Ariana to look at the ceramics and glass on display there.