St Oswald's Catholic Junior School

3DT drew Italy, the reigning champions, as our World Cup country. We learnt lots of facts about the country. We created mosaics in the shape of the Italian flag and the famous ‘boot’ shape of the country. Our favourite part of the week was when we took part in ‘Come Dine With Italy’. We tasted Italian pizza, pasta and ice cream. It was all delicious! We really hope Italy do as well as they did last time in the World Cup.

3GN have been researching Brazil. We focussed on the Brazilian carnival and a dance called the Capoeira. Children use the internet to gain as much information as possible on the Brazilian carnival and its history, which they then presented to the rest of the class. The children also designed and created their own carnival headdresses using a range of materials. In pairs children learnt the basic movements of the Capoeira. They then developed this into a short sequence and performed, with music, in front of the rest of the school.

4RY drew Argentina as our World Cup 2010 country. We learnt lots of facts about the country and their football team. We painted Argentina flags and waved these in assembly. We also designed a new football kit for the Argentinean football team to wear in the 2014 World Cup. During our PE lesson we learnt some moves from the Argentine Tango, this was very complicated and a lot of toes were stepped on! We had lots of fun learning about Argentina!

5RN drew Cameroon as our World Cup Country. We made brightly coloured masks using crumpled up tissue paper. For homework we could either make a power point presentation or a booklet. Come on Cameroon!

Over the holidays the children carried out a project on Honduras. They either presented it as a power point or as a ‘big book’. They had to include information about History, Geography, climate, culture, food, education, economy, health and much more. They then presented their work to the class. Children also made and ate a local Honduran food called ‘Baleadas’. This was a tortilla filled with either a mincemeat filled with either a mincemeat filling or a sour cream, refried beans and cheese filling. The children also learnt a Honduran dance called ‘Baile Sopa de Caracol’, which roughly translates as ‘Dance of the snail soup’. Dance styles vary, from local ‘punta’ style to different Caribbean styles such ans meringue, reggae and salsa.

6BL looked at ancient Japanese crafts including origami. The pupils created their own examples varying in difficulty. 6BL investigated the art and poetry and created their own version of the “Big Wave”. In Literacy, students wrote Haiku poetry about the seasons and special football Haikus.

This week we have researched facts about South Africa. We have looked at climate, food, clothes, geography and sporting pastimes. The children worked in teams to research a topic and produce a power point about what they have learned. The children used tie dye technique on a t-shirt to produce a fantastic example of an African tie dye. They studied African tribal masks and why masks were used and they experimented creatively with paper to produce effective and colourful African masks. The children listened to African music and learned some dance moves. They hade a fantastic time!