We had a busy and exciting autumn term. In September, we introduced our topic of ‘The Impact of the Roman Invasion on Britain’ through a Roman Day where we welcomed a Roman soldier to our school. During the topic, we visited Colchester Castle where we were particularly interested in learning about a local female Celtic queen, Boudicca, who successfully beat the Romans in several large battles. On our return, we wrote newspaper articles about her famous victory at Colchester. In our first year 4 assembly, we shared some of our learning and work. In D.T. we designed and built Roman catapults which involved developing woodwork skills. At the end of the topic, the children worked in small groups to present an aspect of their learning to the rest of the class in a variety of ways including through drama, posters and power points. They particularly thought about the oracy skills needed for presentational talk.
Our new topic is entitled ‘What Makes the Earth Angry?’. In our Talking Assemblies, we have already discussed some human created disasters, including plastic pollution and climate change. For our topic, we will be focusing on natural disasters, including earthquakes and flooding. Having watched a volcanic eruption in the playground, we began learning about volcanoes. We wrote poems and represented an eruption through dance. Thank you to all the parents who attended the Tea Afternoon and helped their child make a volcanic fortune teller. Following on from this, we investigated what happened in Pompeii nearly 2000 years ago which we used as a stimulus for diary writing in Literacy. Since Christmas, we have learnt about the features of explanation texts and written 2 of our own linking it to science and our learning about the Water Cycle. After learning about tornados, we are now focusing on floods which will include learning about the Felixstowe floods in 1953. We will be working towards performing our own newsflashes. We are very lucky to have some representatives from the Environment Agency coming to work with year 4 on Wednesday 26th February to talk to us about flood defences in our local area. In science, we have learnt about ‘Animals and Humans’ including skeletons. We learnt about the complex process of the digestive system through a fun experiment. We have just finished learning about ‘States of Matter’ where we explored solids, liquids and gases through a variety of exciting experiments. Now we are moving on to exploring electricity. Thank you to all those parents who have been supporting their children to learn their times tables through TTRS. Knowing times tables for quick recall will support your child’s learning throughout their education.
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Kinetic Science Morning
During the science morning, the children took part in 6 different activities, which embedded their learning of solids, liquids and gases. Making ice melt ‘We had three pots of water, three pipettes and several lumps of ice. Our job was to find the pot of water which melted the ice cube the fastest. In one of the pots of water there was a hidden substance which was making the ice melt quicker. At the end, we discovered that the pot with no sticker melted the ice fastest because the water was mixed with salt.’ Quoted by Jayden Alkaline and acid ‘We mixed different liquids with red cabbage water to see what colour they turned to. If it turned pink, we knew the liquid was an acid. If it turned green or blue, we knew the liquid was an alkaline. The liquids were lemon juice, disinfectant, vinegar, bicarbonate soda and antacid’. Quoted by Paige Cornflour and water ‘During the science morning, we made non-Newtonian fluid. We made it with a mixture of cornflour and water. This substance cannot decide whether it is a solid or a liquid. When pressure is applied to it, it becomes a solid and without pressure it becomes a liquid. This was my favourite experiment!’ Quoted by Lily Making volcanoes erupt 'Using several different ingredients we made volcanoes in an egg cup explode. It was great fun! If you want to try this experiment at home, you will need; baking soda, red food colouring, fairy liquid, water and vinegar’. Quoted by Vazuva Making a bridge As a team, we worked together to build a strong and steady bridge. We were only allowed to use pegs and lollypop sticks. Our aim was to build the longest bridge! At the beginning of Spring Term, year 4 enjoyed watching a volcanic eruption in the playground which led us into our new topic: What makes the Earth angry? Through a range of engaging activities and stimulus, the children developed knowledge of human and environmental factors which impact upon the Earth, including volcanoes and flooding,
In Literacy, the children created volcanic poetry using a variety of figurative language to describe a volcanic eruption. Using a beautiful wordless picture book about the effects of a flood on a family and their home (Flood written by A.F.Vila), the children rewrote the story altering the setting and characters. At the end of our topic, the children worked collaboratively to create and present a news flash about a natural disaster, which they had learnt about through History and Geography. Travelling back through time, the children started the Summer Term In Ancient Greece. Wednesday 26th September Year 4 have had an exciting term so far since returning to school. To launch our topic on The Romans in Britain,we had a Roman Day where a Roman soldier told us all about life as a Roman soldier. Some of us were lucky enough to hold the shield and weapons! The shield was nearly as tall as Catherine! During the day, we also made shields and learnt about a Roman diet.
Next Monday, we’re heading off to Colchester Castle to learn more and try to find out who Boudicca was and why she’s known locally. Watch out for our report on how we got on! Having settled in we’re now busy completing our weekly homework which is reading, learning 5 spellings and practising our times tables on TTRS. Keep working hard year 4! On Thursday 5th July, the year 3 classes came to meet their new teachers.
Year 4 are pleased to welcome Mr Harris to their team as Ms Whitmore is moving to lead year 3. When the children arrived, the teachers tried hard to learn some of the new names! During the afternoon, the pupils listened to a story about Leonardo de Vinci before using their artistic skills to complete a self-portrait. Extending their geographical knowledge, they used atlases to locate Italy, the birth place of the famous artist. This is all in preparation for September when year 4 will be learning about The Romans. We look forward to welcoming them back after the summer holidays. |
Mrs Lynch
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January 2020
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