Where is the Antarctic?

To begin our topic, we used Google Earth and atlases to locate the Antarctic. We looked at the nearest countries and identified key geographical features. 

How is climate change affecting the Antarctic?

In our mantle this half term, we will be exploring the effect of climate change in the Antarctic. 
We will discover that, for some scientists, Antarctica is pretty much home – they live and work at the research station all year round, and experience the changes through the seasons. We will become a team of scientists that have been sent to the Antarctic to observe penguin behaviour and numbers, look at temperatures and measure the thickness of the ice. 
We began our mantle by slowly and carefully moving one piece of paper, representing ice bergs in the Antarctic, showing the ice melting and drifting away. We discussed how is this going to impact on the animals that live in the Antarctic. "I wonder what would this look like from above? How can this be measured?" Someone suggested we used a drone to measure and monitor how far the ice is spreading.
We then looked at some pictures showing how the ice is melting due to climate change, we discussed as a group what we saw. We will be carrying out observations and measurements in our own research base in class.

Celebrating fantastic work in Daffodils

Scarecrow competition winners!

Before half term, we made a scarecrow for Hope House scarecrow trail. The children and staff at Hope House all voted for their favourite scarecrow, and we came first!