Friday 25th April
Today, we had an opportunity to listen to Year 5 reading their stories to us. We enjoyed listening to their Portal Stories and we were impressed with their expression and the description of their characters' emotions. We listened really carefully as it will help us with our own story writing.
Friday 21st March - Art - Plinth People
Today, we created our plinth people using the plinths that we had previously made to display our art. We used wire to mmould the shape, then used binding to flesh out the body, and finally, cut materials to clothe them in the styles we wanted. It was very challenging, but working and helping each other and trying different techniques worked well. We were really pleased with the results. Each figure was unique and showed movement and the plinth worked brilliantly.
Thursday 20th March - English Drama
Today, we retold the myth that we had written about Hercules! Just like a travelling band of players that entertained each town, we moved to a different class to perform our play. We had a narrator within each group and each person took on a role within the story. Can you spot who was acting the role of Hercules and who was the monster he defeated?
Tuesday 18th March - P.E. Dance
We have started a new dance theme based on solids, liquids and gases and had to think about the different ways these matters move. We practised moving like a solid and being synchronised, first in pairs, then in larger groups and fianlly, the whole class! It was more challenging. Counting beats of four helped. It was also great exercise for working as a team.
Friday 14th March - Take One Piece - Turner
Today, it was our turn to enrich our cultural learning by looking at the famous marine landscapes by Turner. We chose Snow Storm which was painted in 1842. We brought the painting to life with drama and told it as a story. We split into different groups to dramatise;
- What was happening before the storm
- The view from the harbour
- Lighthouse keeper and crew
- On the boat in the snow storm
- The view from fishermen and other sailors
- What happens next
It was a very fun way to explore the drama of the painting!
Tuesday 11th March - History Trip to Colchester Castle
Today, we made the most of our local history with a fascinating trip to Colchester Castle, or Camulodunum as the Romans called it! This castle, built in Norman times is built of the foundations of the Temple of Claudius, the Emperor who managed to successfully invade Britain in AD43. There have been many Roman artefacts found in the area, plus the tale of the exciting revolt led by Boudica who destroyed Camulodunum, then Londinium and finally St Albans with 200,000 Celts. We We enjoyed walking around this historic building and following a scavenger hunt. We built a Celt roundhouse and a Roman Villa; we loved trying on costumes. The highlights of the day were going into the dungeons for the story tour!
Thursday 6th March - WORLD BOOK DAY
We have enjoyed a whole day of revelling in books! Each House was given an Assembly by House Leaders about their author. Next, we designed our own book front covers and wrote a blurb to capture readers' interest. Then, we had Drop Everything and Read time. Next, we enjoyed a 'Book Cafe' where we were able to share books with each other and create a Book Tasting Menu of of three books we would like to read in Year 4! We learnt about the story of War Horse by Michael Morpurgo and finally, had a class teacher swap so they could read to us. What a day....
Tuesday 4th March - P.E. Dance
We span, high kicked, tiptoes, jumped and hid in our dances based around the theme of a spy! Today, we had a lot of fun acting and reacting with a partner and created some sequences that were dramatic, fun and entertaining!
Monday 24th February - English
Today, we started a new writing unit based on myths and legends. A myth is a traditional story that explains the origin of a culture. A legend is a story based on a real person from the past often with exaggerated details. We learnt about different themes that Myths and Legends portray such as good vs evil, heroes and heroines, wise vs foolish, love and defeating an evil monster. Using the Legend of Robin Hood, we acted out parts of the story in freeze frames.
Wednesday 5th February - Art - Still Life
In Art today, we painted our fruit clay tiles. We mixed the acrylic paints to make the correct colours for the fruit. Don't they look amazing!
Monday 3rd February - Science - Investigating Switches
Pupils showed great knowledge about how an electrical current needs a complete circuit to flow around the entire circuit. Today, we built our own component - a switch - to control the flow of electricity. We use a piece of card, two split pins and a paper clip. The card needed to be an insulator and the paper clips and split pins needed to be conductors so the circuit would be complete when the switch was turn on.
Tuesday 28th January - Science - Electricity
Today, we experimented with creating different circuits to prove that electricity will only flow around a complete circuit. We also looked at how to add other components such as a buzzer or a switch.
Next, we learnt how materials can act as insulators or conductors. Some materials like paper clips allowed the current through but others like rubber bands or pieces of cloths didn't.
We could tell if they were conductors because they completed the circuit and the bulb would light up. In real life, people use tools like screw drivers whcih has plastic handles to stop the electrical current from flowing through the metal part and into a human body. Metals are much more likely to be conductors though we also learnt that rusty metal does not work as well. Copper is a very good conductor so lots of electrical wire is made using copper.
Thursday 23rd January - Art Topic - Still Life Clay Tiles
Expanding on our topic of Still Life, we have used our previous sketches of fruit to design and play a clay tile. This involved using line marking and etching and attaching objects we had made using cross hatching and creating slip (a mixture of clay and water which acts as a glue). It was really fun trying out the effects of different tools to see what textures we could make. We are now waiting for our clay to dry fully and the next stage will be painting them.
Thursday 16th January - Performance Poetry!
Pupils have really enjoyed practising and performing their poems! Using repetiton, rhythm and alliteration, their poems were creative, funny, dramatic and lots of fun. We used actions, facial expressions and changed the volume and speed of of our voices to express our poems.
Monday 13th January - Maths Division with Manipulatives
Today, we used Base 10 to learn about division. We learnt that dividing means sharing or grouping in equal amounts. We were given division calculations to break down into groups. Some were straight forward like 39 divided by 3 but others needed us to exchange tens for ones. Here is some of our work. Can you match up 51 divided by 3 with the correct picture?
Monday 6th January - English
As part of our new poetry unit, we will be working in a group to plan, write and perform a poem. Today, we learnt about how to make everyone feel valued and contribute well in a group. Inclusion techniques are activities that help everyone feel part of the group. They include:
These actions show we care about everyone's opinions and help create a friendly atmosphere for discussion. In small groups, we discussed the topics of pets, followed by sports. We also looked at what happens when inclusion techniques are not used. We all agreed that inclusion techniques really help with our discussions.
Friday 13th December - D.T. Finger Fluency and Make and Break a Traditional Mince Pie
Today, we learnt pastry making skills, measuring ingredients and following a porcess to make a sweet pastry suitable for a Christmas treat. We learnt to use our finger tips and lift the flour and butter together and rub together to create a breadcrumb effect. Next, we added sugar, an egg yolk and some cold water to form it into a ball. We did as much of the blending as we could with a knife so our warm hands didn't melt the butter. Using flour to stop it from sticking, we rolled out the pastry trying to make sure it was in a thin even layer before using round cutters.
We then investigated a range of different fillings before deciding on what ingredients to use in our final pies.
Wednesday 4th December
Today, we learnt about factor pairs in Maths. We learnt that a pair of numbers that are multiplied together are the factors and the multiple in makes is a product. Example: 4 x 5 = 20 4 and 5 are factors of 20.
We explored factor pairs of 24. Here is what we found.
Thursday 21st November - Science
Today, we had great fun experimenting with how sound travels through different mediums. We found that sound waves travel faster through solids than water and air because the particles are densely packed and vibrate rapidly causing the sound wave to reach the reciever in a faster time. Sounds travels slowest through air as the particles in a gas are further apart. We compared how sound waves travel through air, liquids and solids and discussed our findings.
Friday 15th November - PANTOMIME 'Beauty and the Beast'
It was a pleasure to watch the children's faces. They loved the performance and were singing along. Here is what they thought:
Ivy - I loved the songs especially the Taylor Swifty songs!
Kian - My favourite part was when Mr Pruce and Mr Hopgood went up to dance!
Isabella - I loved the part when the characters started talking about Pokemon.
Ruby - I loved it when they play set Fire to the Rain as part of Luminere's songs.
Reuben - I found it really funny when the actors started dabbing.
Tuesday 12th November - PSHE - ODD SOCK DAY!
Today, we celebrated all the many ways we are different. Pupils enjoyed sharing their ideas about this year's theme of 'Respect', what it means and many ways we can show respect to those that are different from ourselves. Pupils shared things that were special about them and unique skills that they were good at. We each made a mini-flag to colloborate and create a Class Flag. Finally, we could show off our odd socks!
Friday 8th November - Music
We have been learning notation and how to read music and counting the beats. Introducing two new notes, we can now play B, A, G, C and D. We practised pplaying a four beat tune which used whole beats, two beats and half beats. We then had our first go at Jingle Bells!
Thursday 7th November - P.E. Outdoor Adventurous Activities
Pupils enjoyed games of tag to warm up. We learnt a new game called 'Leap Frog' where you had to try to get your own cones the other side of the obstacle when you an only move one object at a time. It was very tactical! To make it harder, we increased the number of cones.
Monday 21st October - Art
We have really enjoyed creating concertina books of illustration based on the Jabberwocky. Today, we shared adn reflected on our creations. We realised we had to use our imaginations a lot during the process as the poem hints at things but it also has a lot of nonsense vocabularly and 'portmanteaus' (words blended together). Pupils challenged themselve to make the ilustrations dark and dramatic in places. Charcoal was a great media to use to achieve this. Eveyone's interpretation of the dreaded Jabberwocky and other creatures from the poem was different. We shared our thoughts on each others' work.
Wednesday 2nd October - R.E.
We had two visitors in RE today - Sheena and Kaite from the Christian Youth Organisation who came in to support our R.E. topic 'Can Love and Kindness Save the World?' We worked in teams to illustrate the parableof the Great Banquet.
Friday 27th September - Science
Today, we experimented with different foods and melted them to test their different melting points in degrees celcius with a themometer. We recorded our results and our observations.Gummy bears had the highest melting point at (60*C) an it also cooled the quickest to become a solid again. Coconut Oil had the lowest melting point (38*C).
Monday 23rd September - Art
In Art, we have been looking at the work of different illustrators. Today, we are learning to explore imagery and atmosphere and how to use different media, lines, shapes and colour.
Thursday 19th September - P.E. Fundamentals
We had great fun in P.E. learning what agility is and how it can help in many sports. We used tag games were we had to avoid the opposition and reach a given point without being tagged. Mrs Rolfe-Adams joined in and confirmed it was a hard challenge!
Thursday 12th September - World First Aid day
Pupils learnt about the importance of first aid. The role of a first aider is to:
Thursday 5th September - P.E.
Pupils are enjoying their first lesson of 'Fundementals'. Today focussed on using core strength and they were up for the challenge!
