Word Garlands

 

 When I was I child I didn't enjoy going into the Imperial Market in Rotherham. In the middle of the building was an antiques stall, presided over by an old stern looking lady with jet black hair and her scarey looking dolls.

 But that terror has gone now, so come inside!

 The old antique shop is still there.

 

 But now it's a vintage craft centre -The Button Tin.

Everywhere you look there are amazing decorations.

 We went to a workshop to make 'Word Garlands'.

 

 To make a word garland, first chose a story.

Then write down three words from the story onto strips of paper.

 

 Chose some material.

Using the paper strip as a template, cut out a fabric strip.

 Write on one of your chosen words onto the strip of fabric.

 Can you guess which story Reuben's words came from?

 Repeat the process with co-ordinating fabric.

 Jemima chose a spotty-pink-strawberry theme.

Once you have made and written on the three strips of fabric,
embroider over the words.

Finally cut out some more strips of fabric, 

to hang between the words and complete the garland.

Ribbon can also be cut to length and used similarly to fill out the garland.

Gemma from the button tin finished off the garlands for us

by sewing the pieces together.

 The finished Gruffalo garland.

 Rosanna's Sleeping Beauty garland.

 For this we used a mixture of fabric and ribbon strips.

Our word birds are also on display.

If you like these ideas, you might also like story in a jar.

What fraction of the earth is land?

What fraction of the earth is dry land?

I posed this question to Imogen and Jemima.

 

The girls began tackling the task, by looking at the globe and the continents.

 Next, they found the area of each continent and the area of the earth.

The internet was used, but an atlas could also be used.

The fraction was composed:

Total area of the continents/area of the earth

To make it slightly easier to simplify the fractions 

we rounded each figure to the nearest hundred.

After each fraction simplification, we rounded up or down to the nearest hundred. We kept repeating the process until the fraction could no longer be simplified.

And our answer is...

The earth is 3/10 land and 7/10 water.

Cells made simple

Back in May while in Canada, we visited the Toronto science fair. 

A day of amazing science activities.

 I loved this activity, making a cell using lots of craft materials.

 

 Nucleus - represented by half of a polysterene ball.

The nucleus is the brain of the cell, every eukaryotic cell has one and it contains the genetic material (DNA).

DNA - represented by coiled pipe cleaners.

This molecule contains all the information the cell needs to grow, 

reproduce and carry out its specific jobs.

 Mitochondria- represented by artificial red petals.

The energy needed in the cell is made in the mitochondria.

 Microfilaments - represented by wooden cocktail sticks.

These proteins are part of the skeleton of the cell and 

can be used to move the cell.

Microtubules - represented by drinking straws.

These proteins are part of the transport system inside the cell. They work like roadways to transport stuff from one place to another in the cell.

 Molecules - represented by sequins.

The cell always has lots of free molecules in it's cytoplasm, some of them have jobs there and some are just travelling from one location to another.

 Ribosomes - represented by white petals.

In the cell, ribosomes are used to make proteins.

The finished cells...

 The circular cocci cell.

 

 The rod shaped bacillus cell

 Back home in the UK, we did some follow up work about cells.

We used this science kit 'Inside the cell'.

 We identified the key components of the cell and 

then compared animal and plant cells.

 We finished off our learning (for now) by making a DNA model.

 Pairing the bases together.

The finished model!

Another great activity from the Toronto science fair is the pollinator game.

Yorkshire Wildlife Park, Doncaster

I can't believe that a whole month has passed since Rosanna's 4th birthday, she's already 1/12th of the way to 5!

 Rosanna was thrilled that the birthday fairy had been in the night
and left her some birthday presents.

 With help from big sis, she tackled the pile.

After breakfast we set off on her birthday treat, 

a trip to Yorkshire Wildlife Park.

 We spent ages watching the baboons, grooming, chasing
and hanging out with family members.

 There are some brilliant enclosures, where you can
get close up to the animals.

 Most of us enjoyed seeing the Lemurs close up, 

except the birthday girl, who was terrified!

There's a great play area in the trees.

'You can't help being amazed at tigers. His magnificent striped coat shines in the sun. It's hard to believe tigers can be so fierce when they're lying calmly under the trees. Next he prowls around the edge of his cage, looking everyone up and down. What is he thinking, Are they friendly visitors or cunning poachers, plotting to destroy us?' 

By Imogen

'Laying there in the shade sleeping, but then he's up prowling around. He starts to climb up so quickly, but carefully. His tail swishing for balance. He gets to the top and looks at everyone ,shows off his teeth like he's trying to tell us,
"I am the king and you are my prey", but then he lays down and yawns and is asleep again.' By Jemima

Just about enough energy left for a go on the slides.

Back home for birthday cake.

Made by Imogen, Jemima and Nanan.

Hope all your birthday wishes come true Rosanna.

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