Well the moment finally arrived, after a year of practicing our instruments we finally got the opportunity to play alongside the Hallé Orchestra.
The children thoroughly enjoyed this amazing opportunity and were singing and talking about it on the trip back, other than those who took a little nap.

We started by practicing with the Love Music Trust on our songs we have learnt each lesson when all of a sudden the music rose from the Hallé orchestra and the children all fell silent. Listening to the different pieces and joining in with the live performance will hopefully be something the children will remember for years to come. We even got the chance to hear the Hallé perform some more well know pieces including the STAR WARS Suite.

I just want to say a huge thank you to everyone who took part and the looks on your faces when the orchestra started were priceless and I will never forget.

Today we were given an amazing opportunity by the company Enrich who came into our school and taught us how to play Quidditch, made famous by the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling.

The children attended and assembly where they were assigned to the four different houses we then waited eagerly for our turn to learn and play this new and exciting game. Throughout the day we could win bonus house points for our teams in the rest of our school work.

The children went up onto the field and listened carefully to the instructions and how the game was to be played. One person was the keeper who was in charge of defending the three goals. One was the beater who was in charge of stopping players with the bludger. The rest of the children were chasers who would pass the quaffle between them and attempt to score goals. However, one person had a special job of being the seeker, their job was to get the golden snitch and win the team 50 bonus points.

The children had a fantastic time and they all got stuck in darting, diving, ducking and defending.

Well done year 4.

At the end of the day we all gathered in the hall once again to see which team would win the house cup.
We all waited eagerly and the winners were…

Hufflepuff (yellow team).

Congratulations and thank you to Mrs Isherwood for arranging such a wonderful experience.

Today year 4 ended their half term with a bang, luckily not a real one.

Today we completed our journey of scientific enquiry into the world of electricity. The children were asked to problem solve using their knowledge of circuits and electrical flow to speed up and slow down a motor controlling a fan.

Some groups were able to work out that the circuit needed more volts to speed up the fan and were able to build circuits including two or more batteries. A number of the class were able to slow down the motor by reducing the amount of voltage by reducing the number of batteries. They were able to further this by adding more items which used more more power and therefore shared the voltage. One group managed to go further with their problem solving by adding a number of wires, where we discussed that this created resistance therefore slowing down the speed of the fan further.

Today the school has celebrated outdoor learning day.
In Year 4 we have been writing poems all about colour. Using the different skills that we have learnt throughout our time on poetry through the years. We then went outside to get inspiration to plan and edit our draft poems.

The children then continued to enjoy their outdoor learning by taking our Science outside.
Following on from our Science on electricity the children were given the challenge to create a switch that could be used similar to a buzzer on a gameshow. It had to be practical and effective but had to be able to transfer to different places. After a rocky start from some groups who were trying to work out which bit of equipment could be used as conductors and insulators we were finally successful with 4 of the groups.
Well done to the perseverance and resilience of those groups who found the challenge a little tricky to problem solve.

The children have continued on their art of being architects. After studying details of St Paul’s Cathedral and completing work on the architect, Christopher Wren, then children worked on their own unique design using the skills and techniques of oil pastels.

The children began by practicing their blending and shading skills then recreating their own St Paul’s Cathedral. We then used our fingers to blend the colours used to create textures and subtle changes to their building designs.

Today Year 4 continued to read our class reader about Miranda the Explorer who has become lost in Europe. Following clues left around the classroom the children have had to work out where Miranda has landed.

Scanning the QR codes which had been hidden around the class the children then had to work out which country in Europe that they lead to.

After examining the evidence which included the population, capital city, major rivers, different biomes, flag, etc the children were able to work out she had crashed in Russia.

Today Year 4 have continued their scientific enquiry into insulators and conductor.
We have gathered a number of items from around the school and tested them using circuits to see if they can complete the circuit and conduct electricity or if they insulate the electricity.

The children then tested the different items to see if their bulb would light. Some items gave the children a little shock when they found that part of them would conduct and parts would insulate. We came to the conclusion that metals make the best conductors.

Today was out final lesson on Animals including Humans and we finished with a bang or may we say a splash.

Today we recreated the human digestive system using household products. Using a rolling pin to simulate teeth, tube for the esophagus, bag for the stomach and a pair of tights for the intestines we then recreated a typical day.

Starting off with breakfast we used the rolling pin to crush and grind our cereal which was washed down with a glass of orange juice. The children then acted as the muscles to aid in the digestion of food in the stomach.

Next we had a quick snack of biscuits and another quick drink which was shortly followed by dinner consisting of a sandwich, crisps and yet another drink. We all then get a little hungry after a hard day of schooling and we had a few more crisps and few more biscuits followed by some juice. After each meal we had to grind down the food in the same manner our teeth work which is then taken down the esophagus into the stomach.

Next the food moved through to our large intestine which uses muscles to push the food through and onto the small intestine while all the time taking the nutrients out which are needed to help give us energy, help support growth and keep healthy.

The final process is that of excretion. The waste that our bodies can’t use are then expelled from our body for a one way trip down the toilet competing our journey through the digestive system.

As the children come to the end of the topic on the animals including humans, the children have been learning about the digestive system. How the teeth are the first process and one of the most important to the stomach and the intestines.
Today we learnt about stomach acid and how our stomach actually works. Taking a jar half filled with red food colouring we simulated the stomach filling with acid in the form of oil. We then added an effervescent tablet to start the stomach acids dissolving process. The children made predictions about what they thought may happen and then it was time to digest.

Dropping the tablet into the make shift stomach they were able to see the effects that take place within their own bodies. We then experimented with different size jars as not all stomachs are the same in size.

Next week the final stages of the digestive system.

This evening a few of our Year 5s and Year 6s went to CHS for a football competition with other schools in Congleton with the help of ‘gaffer’ Mr Liew.

Before the game started the boys began with a friendly warm up.

Our first game was against Buglawton. What a fantastic start for our Marlfield’s group with a win or 2-1.

Our next round was against Quinta and after some dirty tactics from the other team we were beaten 2-0.

Our final round was against Mossley. Our Marlfield’s team played hard and worked hard but unfortunately we were beaten 6-0.

Well done boys you have played amazingly and we are proud of you.

Well today was the day!

After months of practicing today was the day that both Year 4 and 5 went to the town hall to perform our Dancers and Dreamers Medley.

A group of our young artists volunteered to sing solos, stepping forward and performing to the best of their abilities.

A huge thank you goes out to all of the people who have helped in making today the success, we can not say how proud of the children we are.

Please enjoy a few snippets of our performance.

Today was the final day of our adventures and exploration of National Science Week.

We celebrated all of the hard work, investigations and research with each other. Starting with showing our exploration of connections followed by our Eco work and how we can help our world and finally our science linked to the classes current topics.

It was evident that we all learnt a lot and showing and celebrating our findings was fantastic to see.

Huge thank you to Mrs Daley and Mrs Isherwood.

Monday 13th March – Science Week Day 1

The children of year 4 and 3 joined forces today to explore the theme of connections and engineering. How could we connect using bridges.

After exploring different bridges in the Year 3 classroom and what features they have and need to include. The children then moved to Year 4 where we learnt that when things are built we have to stick to a budget.
Having a budget of £500 to build their bridges and get resources from the school shop the children then set out to complete their bridges to span a gap of 30cm across two tables and support either people, cars, animals, lorries or trains.

The classes then worked together to complete their build, keeping to their budget as well as working well as teams within the time provided.

Following on from our own research done at home the children have begun to start the steps to success in making their own coin purses and wallets.

This week we began by identifying how materials are able to stay together and using sewing how the different types of stitches work.
We first learnt the ways in which we can thread the wool through the eye of the needle (without constantly stabbing ourselves). We then moved onto the different types of stitches we knew including: running stitch, cross stitch and back stitch.
Next, it was time to practice ourselves and we all began to create a running stitch in straight(ish) lines. We then moved onto how cross stitch can be used for decorative purposes. Finally, we looked at how backstitch can help strengthen and create more solid lines.

The children all worked wonderfully and tried their hardest ready to design and decorate in the next upcoming weeks.

WOW! What a week we have had in Year 4.
We have started our new story in class, began a new class read, had a guest dancer in school and celebrated World Book Day.

We have started our new story in class ‘The Nightmare Man’ which we will be focusing our writing on for the next few weeks. We have also began a new book in class to read, retrieve, understand new vocabulary and dig deeper into the meaning behind of the books.

As a special treat we had a dander from the West End come and join us to help celebrate World Book Day early. After recapping the story of Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll we then focused on three key scenes. The kitchen scene, the tea party and the rose garden. Groups started by holding a freeze frame from their scenes and then performing a 30 second action from their scene. We then got back together to perform the story of Alice following the white rabbit, falling through the rabbit hole and landing in the world of wonderland. We then moved back to our scenes and joined them together to retell the story.

World Book Day – The children were given the opportunity to dress up as their favourite character for the day where we celebrated our love of reading to all.