Maths

Class 4 Get Cooking!

9th October 2018 by Penpol School

Class 4 love Autumn. We celebrated Harvest time this week and were lucky enough to receive our own Harvest gift from Mrs Smart… lots of delicious cooking apples from her tree, so we decided to get cooking. After a class discussion, we decided on apple crumble – yum!

The children had great fun working together, weighing out the ingredients for the crumble mixture and chopping up the apples. Here is how you do it…

Step 1 – Weigh out 400g of plain flour.

First of all you have to put 5 big spoonfuls of flour in the bowl. (Rosie)

The girls measure out 5 spoonfuls of flour each.

Me, Suki and Ava were taking turns getting the sugar. You have to weigh how many pounds it is and then put it in the bowl. (Emily)

The boys are great at working as a team.

Whoops, too much sugar. The girls try to get it back in the bag!

I was cutting the butter with Reggie. We put it in the measuring box, then put it in the bowl. My favourite bit was squishing the butter. (Kensa)

The girls carefully weigh out the butter.

I was putting my hands in the flour and squish it up. It was exciting and fun. That was my favourite bit! (Lily)

After mixing the dry ingredients and rubbing in the butter to make the crumble mixture, the children had to cut slices of apple and put them in the baking dish.

I was chopping the apples with Scarlett. We put flour in on top of the apples. (Erin)

Once the apples are chopped and placed in the baking dish, sprinkle the crumble mixture on generously, covering all of the apples. Place in the oven to cook for about 45 minutes or until the apple slices are cooked through. Leave to cool and … Ta-Dah, delicious apple crumble! Well done Class 4, great team work!

Class 4 are ‘sorting it out!’

13th September 2018 by Penpol School

Class 4 have had an amazing start to the school year and are settling in really well. They are particularly enjoying their maths lessons this week. The topic is ‘counting and sorting’ and the children are trying to find as many different ways to sort the objects as they can. There has been some interesting ideas! Take a look…

Alice and Lola help each other sort out the yellow and blue objects.

Reggie and Bobby start thinking about sums they can do with the bears they have sorted.

Tilly and Kensa enjoy working as a team.

I was working with Zack and we were sorting out the dominoes. We thought that we could put all the dominoes that were 6 on this side. Then Zack had to count the other spots. If it was 7, he put it in his circle. (Anya)

We sorted out the double numbers. We put double 2 on one side and double 4 on the other. (Poppy & Lottie)

The children found lots of different ways to sort the objects. Some chose to sort by colour or size. Others sorted according to length or shape. There were so many great ideas. I loved seeing the classroom buzzing with enthusiasm and listening to the mathematical talk going on.

Well done class 4. I’m very impressed!

Miss Ryan

Investigative Maths taking place again in Year 6

15th June 201815th June 2018 by Mark Pollard

The Year sixes have been investigating how to write algebraic sums in Maths this week, with a little help from some milk bottle tops and Harry Potter!!

The children had to make potions (P) made up of legs of certain animals, including spiders (S), bats (B) and lizards (L). To help with their learning, the bottle tops were used to represent the different animals in the potion. If they wrote the algebraic sum correctly (Mr Pollard’s potion needed a potion requiring 32 legs) it would turn the teacher into a frog! An example which Sammy developed was: 2S + L + 6B = P

I never really like algebra before, but now I feel more confident – Lilly

NB: No teachers were harmed in the making of this lesson.

Super Students Attend STEM Program

12th May 201811th May 2018 by Nic Stanlake

Kian and Max (both Class 11) have both regularly taking part in an event called ‘Super Saturdays’ at Camborne School. From this there stills were recognised and they were invited to attend the Nexus STEM camp in the Easter Holidays. STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and mathematics, during this camp the boys had lots of fun.

The week consisted of building boats, marshmallow bridges, mixing chemicals and all things that go bang.

I had an amazing week learning about and doing things I wouldn’t get to do in Primary school- Max

Nexus was a really good experience and I recommend Camborne School Super Saturdays to anyone who loves science and maths- Kian

Around the World in 80 Grooves

29th March 2018 by Amanda Aspden

Classes 1 and 2 have danced themselves around the world with some amazing dances from India, Mexico, Russia, Hawaii, England and Ireland.

The dance show started with a song to welcome parents in different languages then started with Class1’s graceful Bollywood dance.

I liked the Bollywood dance best. It’s from India. You say hello by saying Nemaste. I liked the changing the lightbulbs bit – Enya

Next we went to Hawaii with Class 2.

I liked doing the Hawaii dance. I liked the beginning where we put our arms in the air. I loved wearing the grass skirts – Poppy

The fabulous dancers hulaed beautifully and some brave dancers came to the front and danced in a duo for the parents.

Class 1 then lept their way to visit Russia and do a sensational Cossack Dance.

I liked the Russian dance best because I liked going into the middle and doing my dance – Layla

The strong and athletic cossacks remembered all the dance moves amazingly well and really enjoyed shouting hey when they leapt into the air.

I liked the jumping bit and twirling bit with your partner. Dobrey dyen is hello- Isaac

Next Class 2 jetted of to Mexico.

With their own class made shakers, they shimmied and shook all the way around the hall to La Bamba.

I liked doing the Mexican dancing. I liked shaking my shaker – Scarlett-Jada

After Mexico, Class 1 came back home to do some English folk dancing in the form of an amazing morris dance.

I liked the Morris dance because it was really good. I like dancing in a circle and waving the hankies – Ruby

The girls skipped happily around waving their hankies in time to the music and the boys marched merrily shaking their bells.

I liked shaking the bells best. I liked dancing in a circle around Will my partner – Mason

Finally, to finish off the show, Class 2 stayed fairly close to home and did some brilliant Irish dancing with great stamps and cuts throughout.

I loved skipping forwards and back. I did a solo with Kieran and did some cuts – Tilly

The children have loved learning about different cultures and have throughly enjoyed learning some new dances. They shone in their performances and remembered all the dance moves like professionals.

We love Maths In Class 1

24th May 201828th March 2018 by Amanda Aspden

In class 1 we really love our Maths. Everyday we enjoy practising our counting with our monster numbers. We try to really understand what numbers are and have a go at representing them in different ways.

A sixteen is a ten and a six, a seventeen is a ten and a seven, an eighteen is a ten and an eight – Layla

Whether we are learning addition, subtraction, sharing, doubling, shapes, measuring, time or money etc we see it as a fun and fabulous challenge that that we can all succeed in.

It’s 3 O’Clock – Isaac

In Class 1 we recognise the importance of reasoning in maths and that it helps children to be able to explain their thinking, therefore making it easier for them to understand what is happening in the maths they are doing. It helps them to think about how to solve a problem, explain how they solved it and to think about what they could do differently.

I like adding numbers. I also like measuring in centimetres and meters – Derora

We use a mixture of board games, cards, shapes, bubbles, building materials, junk modelling, slime and gloop, swamp monsters, teddies, competitions, skittles, numicon, role play, computers, stop watches and measuring tapes to name a fraction of the ways we teach numbers and shape to the children.

I like doing 3 minute Maths because its easy. I do it with my brother. It’s his sheet. I do 3 + 3= 6, or 8+8=16, or 10 + 10= 20, or 100+100=200. I know half of 6 is 3, half of 10 is 5, half of 8 is 4 each. I play snakes and ladders and Daddy tried to catch me up but I winned – Joseph

I have made a hexagon prism out of the magnets. I know its a hexagon because it has 6 sides – Evan

We also recognise the importance of teaching problem solving. It allows children to use their maths skills in lots of contexts and in situations that are new to them. It allows them to seek solutions, spot patterns and think about the best way to do things rather than just following maths procedures.

I like adding and learning numbers. I like learning my bunny ears numbers. I know that double 2 is 4, double 3 is 6 and double 4 is 8 – Derora

In class 1 we explain the purpose of what they’re learning to constantly show them how math is useful in real life. We get involved in activities like cooking and baking, telling time, checking temperature and using money in role play situations.

I love Maths because I always count. I like them because I am learning them. We need to learn everything about them so our Mummy’s will be very very proud – Hana

Investigating volume with Year 6

20th February 2018 by Mark Pollard

This week we have been investigating the volume of different cuboids, using blocks to help find ways to create a shape with the same volume as another.

The children found many ways to make a cuboid with an area of 36cm cubed, including Ben W’s findings that a cuboid measuring 0.75cm x 24cm x 2cm would match that criteria!

It was enjoyable to investigate in a fun and immersive way.

“I liked the challenge of investigating how to make different cuboids with the same volume using the blocks” – Joe

3D Decorations by Key Stage 2

18th September 20184th December 2017 by Jacob Woolcock

This term every child in Key Stage 2 has made their own 3D printed winter decoration.

To explain how they did it, we’ve created a short video for you to enjoy.

It’s been such a fun process helping each child design and make their decorations and Paul and I have really enjoyed seeing their designs come to life. It’s taken nearly five weeks to print them all and while we were waiting we’ve compiled some statistics from the project. – Mr Woolcock.

If you’re interested, you can read lots more about the project here:

And here they are, all 200 decorations!

The fabled ’99 Club’ welcomes it’s first members.

15th November 2017 by Mark Pollard

The children in Year 6 have been working towards entering the prestigious ’99 club’ all year and, this week, 3 children managed to enter it.

To achieve this feat, the children must answer 99 questions, based on addition, subtraction, multiplication, adding or subtracting fractions and finding fractions or percentages of a number. All of that, and they only get 5 minutes to do it in (which equates to just 3 seconds per answer!).
However, this did not faze Ben, Ben T or Freya, as they answered all the questions correctly in the allotted time, with Freya, who was the first to finish, completing all of the questions in an incredible 3 minutes and 10 seconds (under 2 seconds per question!).

A huge congratulations to the 3 of them and hopefully they will be joined by other members soon.

I practiced a lot at home and I managed to beat my best time on the day! – Freya

Think you’ve got what it takes? Feel free to have a practice on the sheet below!

Baking with Michelle

8th October 2017 by Amanda Aspden

Alfie’s mum, Michelle made some delicious shortbread biscuits with Class 1. She started by talking about the ingredients with the children then got them to weigh the flour, sugar, cornflour and butter into a large bowl.

We mixed together flour and butter and sugar to make the biscuits. – Alfie

After briefly mixing the ingredients together, Michelle encouraged the children to take some of the mixture from the bowl, squeeze it together, pat it down and use one of the shape cutters to make a biscuit.

The children shaped, squashed and squeezed the dough mixture into all sorts of creative shapes.

After baking the biscuits in the oven, then letting them cool, the children loved sampling the fruits of their labour.

They are really yummy! – Will

Roman Invasion in Year 4!

“Penpol pupils are curious, creative and courageous learners. Our school community believes in authenticity as the foundations of deep-rooted learning. Through our rich and relevant curriculum, we nurture community-minded, forward-facing international citizens of the future.”