Author: Mrs Freeman

 

This week, Year 3 have been introduced to their new mini topic – ‘Forces.’

Did you know that without forces our world would be silent and immobile?

The lessons began with the children recognising that everything on Earth is powered by forces, pushes and pulls which act on our bodies and the things around us. Forces make things move and stop moving.

Having discussed pushing and pulling, it was time to demonstrate these forces using our bodies. Working with a partner, the children created their own push and pull forces. Some were easier than others!

Magnetism

Before some experimental learning, we discussed magnets and named different types. The children were fascinated to see what happens when a magnet gets close to a magnetic object.

A magnet can move an object without touching it.

Using iron filings, we tested different magnets to see if this was true.

Magnetism is an invisible force. A magnet attracts or repels other items. Magnets have north poles and south poles. These attract each other. But two north poles will repel each other, as will two south poles.
Iron is magnetic, so any metal with iron in it will be attracted to a magnet. Most other metals, like aluminium, copper or gold, are not magnetic.

With forces in mind, Year 3 put these into action in their Bollywood PE lesson.

by Mrs Burgess 

 

Well done to all of Year 3 for a super assembly today. The children spoke clearly and with such confidence. We all enjoyed the ‘Guess Who‘ game too!

Thank you to all who came to watch the assembly. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!

Some great examples of narrative writing typed up for Class News by Henka and Liam.

 

     Dobby the Brave

by Henka

One miserable evening, the elves were gathered in the palace on top of the toadstool blundering about Fenris and what to do with the powerful, massive wolf. They figured that they needed a magical rope, forged by goblins, to tie Fenris up. A shrill voice broke the silence: “Let me go! I will get the rope and trap the mighty wolf!”. Dobby’s voice broke the sullen silence. Although Dobby barely had anything to help him except a hat, that allowed him to fly and a wrankin, a race of animals that have parts of different creatures – elephant, unicorn, snake, T-Rex, werewolf and sabre-toothed tiger. Although it is dangerous, it is quite gentle. Dobby ran out of the castle and set off to find the rope.

Dobby travelled far and wide looking for the golden rope. He passed valleys, crossed rivers and walked through deserts. When walking, he encountered villagers who pressed juicy plums and long baguettes into his cold and shaky hands. He ate these contentedly and carried on his journey. When they reached Neilfam, the home of frost giants and a really cold, windy and snowy place, was when Wig loses Dobby’s hat. He blew out his trunk which made the magical hat fly away and Dobby plummeted to the ground! Wig just managed to save his master but the hat was nowhere to be seen. Dobby sat  and cried and cried and cried until he had no more tears to cry.

                Crump and Wadela’s Adventure

by Liam

One freezing cold night, the fierce warriors met in their ruined house to make a plan to defeat the evil, ugly goblins. The warriors angrily and loudly discussed a plan.

In angry voices, the other warriors said Crump should go and get the diamond, shimmering crystal. Crump felt scared. But he wanted to see the crystal first, so he snatched Wadela’s hands and set off nervously. Crump walked through the gloomy, damp forest with his four-legged, horn-headed friend.  For the next two days, they travelled across swing bridges, over steep mountains, shadowy lakes and icy rivers.  As they travelled, people pressed smelly cheese, brown crusty bread and clear water into hands.

 

Our big topic ‘Time Travel’ has now come to an end.  From Roman roads and chariots, to Japanese magnetic trains, Year 4 have enjoyed their journey through time. We have studied so many different forms of transportation and the purpose for which they were designed.

The Year 4s and the Year 6s spent part of Friday morning talking about the learning in their books. They then fed back about what each other had learned and particular pieces of learning that impressed them.

Finally, we would like to share some of our learning that has been put on display in the classroom.

 

 

Last week, the whole school had the same Creative homework.
  ‘I know how to STOP bullying.’
This homework was set in response to our learning last week during anti-bullying week. Throughout the week, each class had the chance to talk about what bullying is, what the different types of bullying are and how can we STOP it:
                                                                    Start
                                                                    Telling
                                                                    Other
                                                                    People

Our school definition of bullying is, as agreed by our School Councillors:
Bullying is when you hurt someone, physically or emotionally, several times on purpose.

We invited parents in to see how we celebrate and review our homework.
We began by looking around the room at each other’s  work before sharing some that had stood out to us. There certainly was plenty of creativity on show.

It was impressive to see how many different ways the children thought of to get our message of STOP across.

 

 

 

 

This week, Year 4 have been learning about ‘perimeter.’

What is the perimeter?
The perimeter is the distance around the edge of a 2D shape.

Calculating the perimeter.
Children start to learn about perimeter in Year 4.

The age related expectations are that children can measure and calculate the perimeter of a rectilinear figure (including squares) in centimetres and metres.

We began by discussing various units of measure such as; millimetres, centimetres, metres, kilometers, miles and inches.

Using string to begin with, the class were asked to measure the length of each side of a shape by marking the string in the correct place. Next, the children carefully worked out the length of the string by measuring along a ruler. When all sides had been calculated, then they had to add these measurements up to find the perimeter.

7cm + 3cm + 7cm + 3cm = 20cm   “I can use doubling to work out the answer.”

7 + 7 + 14               3 + 3 = 6                14 + 6 = 20

 

At this point, the children recognised that a rectangle has two long sides that are exactly the same length and two short sides that are exactly the same length, which means we only needed  two measurements  The class then thought about different ways they could  work out the perimeter.
10 + 4 + 10 + 4 OR (10 x 2) + (4 x 2) OR (10 + 4) x 2
The perimeter of a shape is always calculated by adding up the length of each of the sides.

It was great to see some converting of measures happening without any prompting to do so.

“134 cm is the same as 1 metre and 34 cm,” commented Leo.

 

 

In Year 4, the children have been looking at the features of a narrative. The basic purpose of narrative is to entertain and to gain and hold a readers’ interest.  Narratives sequence people/characters in time and place but differ from recounts in that through the sequencing, the stories set up one or more problems, which must eventually find a way to be resolved.

There are many types of narrative. They can be imaginary, factual or a combination of both. They may include fairy stories, mysteries, science fiction, romances, horror stories, adventure stories, fables, myths and legends.

After reading the story of Blodden,  the children studied the features of the tale and how it was set out.

To ensure that we could retell the story in detail, the class worked in groups to act out part of the Blodden adventure. Year 4 had to allocate parts to each other and rehearse as a team. They were asked to think carefully about how each character may move, speak and look.

We had some super performances and it was great to see everyone joining in.

 

 

 

 

 

We’ve already learnt lots about transport through the ages and today we linked our topic with some maths. Year 4 have shown a lot of interest and curiosity regarding one of the biggest transport tragedies of all time – the sinking of the Titanic. We held a debate to discuss whether or not it is right to retrieve artefacts from the sunken ship. Does this help us to appreciate how items from the past can help to understand history?

With a focus on how the lives of wealthy people were very different from those of poor people, the children studied the class system on board the Titanic. After examining a cross section of the famous boat, we had a much clearer view of each class and whereabouts they were situated on board.

Did more first class passengers survive the disaster?

In order to answer this question, the children had to collect and record some information about the capacity of the lifeboats. Then, using this data, Year 4 had to present their findings in the form of a bar chart. Next, after looking at the total available capacity of one boat, they had to work out how many 1st, 2nd, 3rd class passengers were in the lifeboat and how many crew.

The children were then able to calculate the amount of empty spaces there sadly were on lots of the lifeboats.

At  the end of our lesson we discussed icebergs. Having already created one over night, the class looked closely at the iceberg in water.

“Most of the ice is under the surface of the water,” commented Ethan.

Harris added, “Ninety per cent is underwater.” A fact he already knew!

We discussed that each iceberg is unique. They float low in the water due to the sheer weight of the ice, which is why the tip of an iceberg is no measure of what lies beneath. Quite a scary thought!

 

 

 

 

 

 

This morning, Year 4 took part in a skipping workshop. The children were taught many different skipping styles, some of which were really quite complicated. However, this did not deter the class! Instead, the  approaches taken by the children were full of both resilience and determination.

Later in the year, we’ll be taking part in a skipping competition alongside other schools.

Last week,  Year 4  walked to Allerton Grange High School for a sports session. We were all impressed with the organisation demonstrated by the older students. Year 4 were engaged right from the start thanks to the motivating energy from the leaders. It was great to see the  high school students interacting with all the children and offering support to those  who lack confidence in sport.

Thank you, Allerton Grange!