Maths Week at St Benedict's Junior School
Everyone at St Benedict's Junior School, from Nursery to Year 6, had lots of fun with maths in the week before half-term!
There was a definite buzz in the Junior School during Maths Week as the children took part in a range of activities that encouraged them to problem solve, work as a team and apply their maths skills to different situations.
In Reception the theme was “Teddy Bears”. The children had great fun singing “ten in a bed” and counting forwards and backwards to ten. They completed lots of activities counting and sorting teddy bears and made some model teddy bears of their own.
In the Pre-Prep department, the children followed the adventures of Albert the mouse. Albert got up to all sorts of antics including baking some pizza. The children had the chance to go into the cookery room to weigh, measure and time their pizzas being baked in the oven. They created all sorts of pizza shapes from triangles to squares and considered how to make symmetrical patterns with their toppings. Luckily, there was enough left over to make a pizza for the teachers! Their study of shape and patterns led onto some fun activities making necklaces and creating mosaic patterns.
In Lower and Upper Prep (Y3 and Y4), the children engaged in a number of maths mysteries. Linking with their Ancient Egypt topic, the Upper Preps had to work out the mystery of “The Missing Sceptre.” They also used shape, pattern, and symmetry to create fortune tellers.
Form 1 (Y5) had to hone their detective skills in the “Escape Room” solving several puzzles and challenges in order to crack the code and release the gummy bears!
Form 2 (Y6) were busily engaged in their enterprise project “Make £5 grow”. They created, marketed, and sold their products from slime, to tie dye t-shirts to stress balls in order to repay their original £5 loan. All their profits were donated to Great Ormond Street Hospital.
Every class in the Junior School had the opportunity to take part in a team building session hosted by the “The Problem-Solving Company”. Challenges ranged from solving flower patterns to building a 3d cube out of foam pieces to building the tower of Hanoi.
The week concluded with a fabulous Maths Assembly, where the children shared the maths hats that they had made throughout the week. There were some fabulous creations all round. This was also an opportunity to share what everyone had been up to throughout the week and to award the prize winners for their efforts. Well done to Maria in Form 2 who was the winner of the maths poem competition and Alexa in Form 1, who was the winner of the greatest number of items in a matchbox.
Ms L Smith, JS Head of Maths