Learning the parts of the human body

In English and in Social Science, 1st Year Primary students had learned the parts of the human body, but in English we have been able to review them all together as a team.

Using different students as models, first they made the shape of a person on a card, including all the details, such as the toes. Moreover, one by one, each student wrote the parts of the body.

After this, we played two games; in the first one, they had to find on the mural a part of the body that another student had chosen and said. In the second one, a student pointed to a part of the body on the mural and their partners had to say the name of that part of the body. In both games the students swapped roles among them.

This was a fun way to review and secure their learning in a cooperative way, involving them in their own learning.

Jesica Simó López-Maroto

English Department

Talks about diseases

Third Year Primary have been studying diseases. As there are great websites with information written in an easy way for children to understand, it was a nice subject for them to research themselves. In pairs, they read about a disease, for example "measles" and presented the information to the class. 

By sharing the information, they not only learnt about the disease they researched, but also about those investigated by their classmates.

Annabelle Reece

Science teacher

In 4th Year Primary we did a chicken foot dissection

The first thing we did was count how many bones we have in our fingers. Then, we talked about the difference between the motion in our thumb and the motion in our other four fingers.

The second thing we checked out was what makes our fingers move. We learnt that tendons connect muscle to bone. 

A chicken's foot is very similar to a human leg; both are made up of many different cells, tissues, and organs. 

By conducting this investigation we found out that by pulling tendons we can see a chicken's toes moving just like in our own hands!

The experience was great, we learnt through touch and investigation.

Cristina Paredes

English Teacher

DOCTOR’S APPOINTMENT

A doctor’s appointment gets the students used to particular medical terminology. Each role play serves a specific purpose when practicing speaking. It allows the student to become more familiar with certain terms.

This time our pupils have practised some vocabulary related to Unit 3 (Health). They have talked about symptoms like high temperature, itching, a cough, headache and what to do when you feel ill.

 Eva Furió

Science Department

THE FIVE KINGDOMS

The aim of this project is to help pupils have a general overview of the 5 kingdoms used to classify living organisms.

Pupils, working in 6 groups per class had to make a poster displaying the most important information about each of the five kingdoms: animal, plant, proctist, fungi and monera kingdom. Some groups used the Scrapad app.

Pupils selected and analysed available information (mainly from the coursebook), facilitating application and creation of knowledge.

Eva Furió

Science teacher

Cumbre climática

Los alumnos de quinto de primaria realizaron un simulacro de cumbre climática durante la semana de proyecto bajo la temática de Don Quijote.

Los alumnos se dividieron en cuatro grupos, cada grupo representaba un país debía investigar una temática: la flora y los niveles de agua en Castilla la Mancha durante la época de Don Quijote, la flora y los niveles de agua en Castilla la Mancha en la época actual, la fauna en Castilla la Mancha durante la época de Don Quijote y la fauna en Castilla la Mancha en la actualidad. 

Una vez que realizaron su investigación, presentaron los datos mediante una presentación. A continuación, establecieron un debate entre países en el que llegaron a varias conclusiones. Finalmente, los países de la cumbre llegaron a varias conclusiones y dieron varias soluciones para mejorar el estado de la flora y la fauna de Castilla la Mancha.

Fue una experiencia muy enriquecedora para nuestros alumnos, que les dio la oportunidad de compartir ideas, respetar las de los demás y reforzar el trabajo en equipo.

Beatriz Guiral

Science Department

Cress heads

In Second Year Primary, the children are studying plants. So, they have grown cress heads. Cress is a plant that the English eat a lot in salads and egg sandwiches. It grows quite quickly, so the children have seen them sprout and grow to the point where they can eat them in a matter of days.

Learning about plants is much more fun and motivating if students actually grow something. They have put the soil in the pots, then put the seeds in, and then watered them so that they grow. And then they took them home, and could try eating the cress if they wanted to.

Annabelle Reece

Science Department

 

We explain Unit 2!

Fifth Year Primary students have been Unit 2 teachers! Our students’ curiosity has no limits, therefore we decided to ask them to prepare and teach The Five Senses and the Nervous System to the rest of the students. 

They were divided in different groups and each group had to explain, in a very original way, its part of the unit. They created huge craft eyes, theatres and even movies!

Moreover, they had to prepare a revision activity in order to check that the rest of the students had understood everything well!

The results were amazing and once again they surprised us with their originality!

Beatriz Guiral 

Science Department

 

EATING AND GROWING

Eating and Growing is one of the units in 1st Year Primary. Among its contents we find the importance of eating a varied and healthy diet. For that reason, students have done the classification of some foods according to the steps of the Food Pyramid and to whether they were healthy or unhealthy.

Another content included in the unit is the use of cutlery. To remember its names, students have done an amazing mini-project. They made a complete cutlery set out of plasticine and they stuck it onto a cardboard pretending it was their school tray. In that way, they could recognise what piece of cutlery they had to use when eating soup, meat or yoghurt in the dining room.

Mª Pilar Mocé Malo

Science Department

Germs? I can’t see them!

We love reading about germs and bacteria because it’s fun and interesting, but what we really love is actually being able to see those germs and bacteria!!

Bacteria are tiny living things that can make us ill, at least that’s what the book said! So we decided to go to the Primary laboratory to carry out a couple of experiments. 

For the experiments we needed bread, soap and our little hands to check what happens when we eat our snack without washing our hands. After a couple of weeks the results were shocking! We couldn’t believe we had our body, hands and even teeth “infested” and using soap actually helps to wash away all these bacteria. 

Ana Pons

English Department

We know our body!

Learning about bones is called osteology so our pupils are on the way to becoming osteologists. How?? They have named the main bones sticking some sticky notes of different colors to the right side of where they belong. 

Most of them have done really well, like perfect anatomists, by placing the skull, kneebone, ribs, spinal column, pelvis, thighbone (biggest bone in the body), kneecap, fibula and footbone. We have worked in teams and everybody was very pleased to help and learn from each other. 

Later in the classroom we have completed a worksheet to refresh our vocabulary, our protagonist was a skeleton and at the end he was our best friend although he hasn’t got a name yet! 

Eva Furió

Dpto. de Science

Our Bodies

In Second Year Primary, the students have been learning about their bodies; about muscles, bones and joints, and about lungs and the heart, and what we do with them. So we went outside to use various muscles, running, skipping, jumping, and beating our chests like gorillas. 

We also did some yoga, and talked about which muscles, bones and joints we used in the different positions. In the yoga position "cat", for example, we move our spines, whilst inhaling and exhaling. Then we did "cobra" which stretched our abdominal muscles, and used our biceps. We also did a breathing exercise called “Tiger's breath” which involves breathing in through your nose, and out through your mouth, and is useful when we need to relax.

Using our facial muscles, we pulled different faces to show different emotions. However, being able to use our muscles outside we all had happy faces!

Annabelle Reece

Science Department