The Sweet Shop

We've been reading some of Roald Dahl's Boy.

My second and only other memory of Llandaff Cathedral School is extremely bizarre. It happened a little over a year later, when I was just nine. By then I had made some friends and when I walked to school in the mornings I would start out alone but would pick up four other boys of my own age along the way. After school was over, the same four boys and I would set out together across the village green and through the village itself, heading for home. On the way to school and on the way back we always passed the sweet-shop. No we didn't, we never passed it. We always stopped. We lingered outside its rather small window gazing in at the big glass jars full of Bull's-eyes and Old Fashioned Humbugs and Strawberry Bonbons and Glacier Mints and Acid Drops and Pear Drops and Lemon Drops and all the rest of them. Each of us received sixpence a week for pocket-money, and whenever there was any money in our pockets, we would all troop in together to buy a pennyworth of this or that. My own favourites were Sherbet Suckers and Liquorice Bootlaces.

Annie surprised us by telling us that she had been to the same school for a while. The sweet shop isn't a sweet shop any more, it's a Chinese restaurant now:

Estimating macaroni

How many macaronis are there?

It works!

At the weekend Justus was thinking about polydron shapes. There was one he wasn't sure fitted with Euler's formula. So we had to make it and check:

F  + V  -  E = 2

31 +26 - 55 = 2

It works!

Estimation - How many Ferrero Rochers in the huge cone?

There was this huge cone of Ferrero Rocher. I think, like the small one, they are just on the surface of the cone. Of course, I couldn't do a video of counting them! You'll just have to look at the photo really carefully.

Now for the estimation.
What number are you sure is too small an estimate?
What number are you sure is too big an estimate?

What is your estimate?

Write it in the comments.

My Beano collection

The Beano is a comic that I collect. It is packed with laughs and pranks and prizes! It's first comic appeared in shops on 30th July 1938. My collection is from last summer to now. The characters are very funny! They include:

•  Dennis the Menace and Gnasher
•  Walter
•  Minnie the Minx
•  Rodger the Doger
•  Little Plum.
•  The Bash Street Kids (Danny,Fatty,Sidney and Toots,Smiffy and many more.)
•  Billy whizz
•  Ball boy
•  Smudge
•  Ivy the Terrible

And lots more! As far as I know, The Beano is a comic that is known nationwide. Here is a picture of my Beano collection. It is a lot bigger than this because this was taken last year.

Estimation - How many Ferrero Rochers in the box?

There were little boxes of Ferrero Rocher too.

To give you some idea of its size, here it is next to the cone.

Now for the estimation.
What number are you sure is too small an estimate?
What number are you sure is too big an estimate?

What is your estimate?

Write it in the comments before you watch the video. (You could watch the video up to the point where I begin to open the box.)

Euler Week

This week we've been investigating polyhedra, making them, and counting their vertices, edges and faces:

Mr Euler had a formula. And it works!

We've also been investigating latin squares and Euler squares:

 In a latin square, each row and column has one of each colour:

We continued using Word documents:

 In Euler squares, you have to deal with the colour AND the shape:

Then, to finish off the week, we looked at graphs, map-colouring annd Eulerian paths, using Joel David Hamkins' fantastic booklet. We still have a bit more to do on this. On the first pages the idea is to find the minimum number of colours to colour the "graph" so that no connected vertices are the same colour, like this:

Here's some of our work in the booklet:

Estimation - How many Ferrero Rochers in the cone?

It's the time of year when all the Ferrero Rocher chocolates start appearing in the shops.

I bought one of the cones.

Now for the estimation.

What number are you sure is too small an estimate?

What number are you sure is too big an estimate?

What is your estimate?

Write it in the comments before you watch the video. (You could watch the video up to the point where the plastic cone is taken off.)

Working with DST

Today 4B enjoyed a DST and IST art activity.  We made Christmas decorations and then ate some yummy cakes together.  
Many thanks to all the parents who made cakes for us.

Christmas is coming……………………

On Tuesday 4G joined DST’s Klass 3 to work together making some Christmas decorations.

Next week Klass 3 will be coming over to IST to make some different Christmas decorations.  

Open Morning

Here are some photographs of our work that we displayed for everyone today.  We hope you enjoyed visiting our classrooms.

And a few more...

3D shapes

This week we have been investigating 3D shapes.  

We have tested Euler's formula of 

Faces + Vertices - Edges = 2 

and found it worked!

The formula is written as:   F+V-E = 2

We then made some polyhedra (polyhedrons) of our own.  These are 3D shapes that have only straight edges and flat faces.

We then checked that Euler's formula worked for our polyhedra.  You'll be pleased to hear it did!