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.

As part of our art work today the children in Year 4 learnt all about the Terracotta Army. Examining the soldiers found in the tomb of Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China, the children had created their own replicas of the famous army that lay untouched for over 2000 years.

First we manipulated clay into the main body shape that we wanted, kneeling or standing, where we then began to build and mold the defining features of our soldiers. Next the children gave the more personal details such as the facial features and the armor that the army are seen wearing.

Soon the children had all created their Terracotta Army soldier and they were ready to dry to guard the tomb in our class.

Year 4’s exploration of the Shang Dynasty continues.

Over the past few weeks the children have looked at the definition of the word ‘hierarchy’ and how the social order of civilisation started thousands of years ago.

The children have now began to create a script based on different levels of the hierarchy:

Royal Family,
Warriors, Priests and Nobles,
Artisans,
Merchants,
Farmers,
Slaves.

Working in groups the children are now writing a play to re-enact to the class.

Over the past few week the children have been working with salt dough to make their own Chinese inspired dragons.

The children started by mixing flour, salt and water to make a dough. They then use tools to shape and sculpt the dough into the dragon shapes. We then carved different patterns and shapes into our dough to add detail to our dragons.

After leaving them to air dry and then baking them they were then solid enough to paint and add further detail.

We looked at the Neolithic art style of the Ancient Chinese using the colours and patterns our dragons were ready to be decorated.

Monday morning the children in Year 4 and 5 went for a rehearsal of their Sing-fest at Eaton Bank. The children put all their effort and experience from their practice in school into their rehearsal. We began to practice the movements and dances that will accompany our singing.

This half term we have begun to look at ‘celebration’, what it means to celebrate and why it is so significantly important.
We look at the celebration of Passover and why it is so important to religious communities.

They children were able to recall the Seder Plate which we look at back in Year 3 and how we were to remember the past.

Today we looked back at the story of where it all began and role played the Exodus from Egypt and the 10 Plagues of Egypt.

This week the children have been using their knowledge of Carnivores (animals whose diet consists of meat), Herbivores (animals whose diet consists of only plants) and Omnivores (animals whose diet consists of both meat and plants).
We have looked at which animals get energy from plants or animals and how plants are producers who produce their own energy from the sun.

Having their own part of a food chain the children were asked to find where they would fit in a number of different chains, thinking if they were a producer or a consumer.

We then went back to our books to complete our own food chains showing the transfer of energy from one source to the next.

Today the children started their first lesson about Ancient China and the Shang Dynasty. Looking back in time 2000 years before the birth of Christ the children explored what the first civilisation was and how they came to power. We also started to learn our first words in Chinese – nǐ hǎo​ meaning hello.

Today the children have finished our topic about changes of state.
We have looked at how solids melt to become liquids and freeze to become solid again, how liquids evaporate to become gases. This lesson we discovered condensation, where it comes from, why does it appear and even attempted to create a mini cloud in the class.

The children had some hot water in a cup which they covered over with cling film, they then put some ice on top to which rapidly cooled the gas creating a mini cloud inside the container which then created condensation. After making the room dark we used torches to observe our experiment.

This week the children were given the challenge to complete as many questions on TT Rockstars as possible on the lead up to the World Cup.
As a special treat Mrs Isherwood and Mrs Pearce have given a prize to those children who scored 100 points and higher.

Well done to everyone who has taken part and we all look forward to our next upcoming surprises.

Today was the day that the children had been waiting for. Today was the day we made bread.
Starting by planning what our bread should look like and what ingredients would be needed the children then set about making the bread itself.
We mixed together the dry ingredients with a small amount of water, slowly mixing until it began to make a dough. After kneading the dough and adding any additional ingredients brought from home the children then left it to prove and passed it to Miss Roberts in the kitchen to cook for us.
The class then were able to taste their final products shortly after dinner where we had a number of happy faces and a number who were not so impressed.

This week Year 4 have begun their Design and Technology project.
The children will be learning about, discovering and making bread.

This week the children were given a sample of different types of bread to test and evaluate including white bread, pitta bread, whole meal bread and a naan like flat bread.

After tasting and evaluating the different breads the class determined their favourite to be a tie between the white bread and the naan bread.

With the wet, cooler weather approaching it was time to move indoors for this week’s football. Yet again another great match where all the skill that have been developed over the previous weeks were then put into practice with another year 3 vs the school competition.

To start with it was a close game until out of nowhere the school team scored but it wasn’t long till year 3 could stand no more and matched them.

This week in performing arts the children have begun to look at anti-bullying. Roleplaying situations where bullying could potentially happen the children then discussed what went wrong and how to make the situation better.

Today Year 4 began their new Science topic.

We started the lesson by categorising different materials into different ways. The children were given: a paper towel, breadcrumbs, plastic spoon, water, white vinegar, flour, custard, sand, food colouring, rice, hand sanitiser, washing up liquid and breaded croutons.

After a number of minutes and a great amount of discussion in groups as to how they could be sorted the children then discussed as a class what had been found.

The children were then asked to think about which were solids and which were liquids. This then started a debate as to what was meant by solid and what the definition of a liquid was.

After another bout of categorising the children then determined which were solid, and which were liquid. But there was still some confusion as why water could pour but sand could also pour but this was a solid.

The children then went outside and made themselves into a solid and then into a liquid. This showed how the structure of the two are made up and how liquids are able to move much more freely.