Sewer System and Turtles

EARLY YEARS

This week started with a trip to the Natural Life Sciences. We had the chance to see some different insects in their habitats and then the activities focused on turtles. We learned about the differences between land tortoises and sea and river turtles. We found out what they eat, where they live and how they lay their eggs. We went looking for some turtle eggs in the beautiful gardens and watched the turtles swimming in the pond. The children also enjoyed playing at the big park in Granollers. What a great day! Back at school we recreated the turtle egg hunting and even dug holes in the garden to bury them like the female turtles do. We even made little turtle snacks in Cooking class.

PRIMARY

In Literacy this week, the Reef sharks worked on a reading comprehension about the beach. They learned new words and answered question with full sentences. The Hammerheads also did a reading comprehension called The Big Dinner and they also answered questions using full sentences with negative ideas. Both groups wrote their diaries. In Mathematics this week, we measured the corners of our tables with a special ruler called a protractor. We continued our workbooks and we focused on ‘flip, turn and slide’, lines of symmetry and tessellation. In Science this week we spoke into balloons to feel the vibrations that our voices create. We also watched a video of a person that put a small camera in their guitar and recorded themselves playing a song so we could see the vibrations of the strings. For Topic we visited the sewer system in Barcelona to see what happens to some of the water we use at home. It was stinky but interesting and fun! We also visited Palau Macaya quickly because it is a beautiful art nouveau building and we bought some books in a second-hand bookshop. We went to town on the train!

On Friday we practised Matilda in the theatre and in the afternoon had our first spelling test. The spelling champions for this week were Carla, Elvira and Noa.

SECONDARY

ENGLISH

This week we continued the topics started last week. Our grammar focus was the present passive, and we extended our look at the fashion industry to include developing understanding of the manufacturing process, in particular sweat shops.

MATHEMATICS

Group 1 is still doing multiplications with 2 digits and together with Group 2 they are learning how to do multiplications a faster way: to multiply by 5 is the same as multiplying by 10 and then divide into 2!

Meanwhile Group 2 has finished and corrected their exercises about Square Roots.

Group3 is learning how to solve a Linear Equation when we have the Unknown at both sides of the Equal sign. It is just a matter of Balancing.

Meanwhile Group 4 is dividing a Quantity in a Given Ratio. It is not always 50/50....

At Geometry Group 1&2 is looking at Quadrilaterals, Group 3&4 is learning about the All About the Angles and their Properties.

PHYSICS

We have started a New Chapter 2.2.Energy from the Sun. They will be doing this Wall display that will communicate how an assigned Energy Source is linked to the Sun. They have also to do a presentation of the allocated Energy Source related to one of the elements: Sun, Wind, Water, Earth, Sea, Biofuel and Fossil Fuel. Let's see!

CHEMISTRY

They have continued preparing their "Geology Congress" about 4 different Earth Structure Models. On Wednesday there is going to be a presentation and a debate between the different positions. The "Professor" that is winning is not the one that has the truth but the one that can convice its opponents: Dialectics!

BIOLOGY

We have started a New Chapter, it is about Habitats, the environment where a plant or an animal lives. We have seen different habitats and the animals that live in this environment and the typical adaptations.

On Monday they will be having exam of the Chapters 3.8. Plant and Animal Cells; 3.9. Specialised Cells & 3.11. Tissues and Organs.

GEOGRAPHY

We continued learning about mountains; Mount Everest, Mauna Kea, Mulhacen, Ben Nevis, Aneto. Incredible and fascinating stories can be told about them, there are even movies! We also corrected homework. For next week everyone has to plan a walk using as reference an OS map (following the book indications on page 41).