Author: Mrs Freeman

LO: RIC

To link reading to our current topic (Time Travel – Transport), the children in Year 4 were asked: “Did wealth affect the way people travelled?”

One of the history age related requirements for Year 4 is that, children recognise that the lives of wealthy people were very different from those of poor people.

With this in mind, the class were given a RIC reading starter as a fifteen minute activity at the beginning of our topic lesson. You have probably heard your child talking about RIC reading activities. These sessions are fairly short and the children have just three questions to answer all with a different focus. This is done independently and, when complete, we discuss the responses to the questions. Purple pens are used to mark, correct, edit and improve answers.

This was our topic themed RIC this week.

Retrieve (fact finding)

What can you see, that is the same, in all three pictures?
Interpret / Inference

Would you need to be rich to stay in these rooms? Explain
Choice (language, structure, presentation, thinking about the choices made by the author/director/artist)

What do you think the illustrator is trying to do by showing these images?

R  I can see beds, doors, mirrors, walls and pillows.

I  Yes. They look like bedrooms from old Victorian houses. The third one looks like it would cost a lot of money.

One bedroom looks posh because it has a sofa in.  The top room looks very small. I’m not sure if that is a sink or a toilet? Rich people wouldn’t have a toilet next to a bed. Two of the rooms look comfortable because they are bigger.

C  I think the pictures show what Victorian bedrooms looked like. Maybe how much houses cost and how big they were? They are all different sizes and only rich people had a sofa in their bedroom. To show that if you had a lot of money you could have a bigger house.

After this activity, we discussed the class system in Victorian times and the impact wealth had on peoples’ lives. I questioned the children more about the images.

“Where do you think they were taken?

What have they got to do with transport?

Are they all in the same place?”

There were some superb responses and the children were intrigued to find out more. With a few clues, I informed the class that the rooms were all cabins on the Titanic! This then created lots more discussion about the famous disaster. Next, we will look at a cross section of the ship and where each type of cabin was situated. Did this affect survival rates?

 

Year 4 have been writing some character descriptions. After reading some examples, the class thought about the type of vocabulary that creates a good descriptions.

Here are a few ideas we experimented with:

Use adjectives to describe the physical details of a character.

His scaly, wrinkled nose sniffed the air.  

Nouns to fit the personality of the character.

Clothes, particularly need to match the personality of the character.

scruffy, torn trousers

The way a character moves gives much away about their personality or feelings.

Shoulders hunched, feet dragging he shuffled towards the darkened windows of home.

Then, the children thought about including prepositions. These can be used for the following:

To show the position of something.
Her bag was under the chair.
The dog crawled between us and lay down at our feet.
His flat was over the shop.

To note the time when something happens.
They arrived on Sunday.
The class starts at 9 a.m.

To the way in which something is done.
We went by train.
They stared at each other without speaking.

Some prepositions are made up of more than one word, for example:
They moved here because of the baby.
We sat next to each other.
The hotel is perched on top of a cliff.

With all this in mine, the children wrote some impressive sentences.  We based our descriptions on a legendary hero, Beowulf. Using this famous warrior as our focus, proved to be a great link to our current topic.

Lots of the children searched for ambitious and appropriate words to use in their writing. There are some superb examples below.

A brown, leather belt was draped around his strong waist. Phoebe

The fierce, Anglo Saxon warrior came upon the hideous creature.
The gem encrusted, silver sword lay in his hand.
Noah

A mighty, fearless warrior sailed across the choppy seas. Liam

The revolting, three headed beast flew over the seven seas.
He held his powerful, dangerous dagger in the palm of his hand.
The fearsome warrior hides his silver sword behind his back.
Sakina

The brave hearted warrior trawled through the seas as if he was immortal.
Felix

The ugly, hunched backed monster lurked in the shadows.
Daisy

His bright, yellow, blood shot eyes gleam wickedly in the light of the moon.
Jemima

The next stop on our travels through time has been the Viking Ages. Year 4 have looked closely at the boats used by these fearsome warriors.

“The boats needed to be strong to carry so many men,” stated Sami. 

“Why did they come across the seas?” enquired Jessica.

Following some research the children found out some very interesting facts about the boats.

Though Viking boats came in many shapes and sizes, the most iconic and effective Viking vessel was undoubtedly the long ship. Long, narrow and flat, long ships were fast, durable and capable of navigating both choppy seas and shallow rivers. They were also light enough to be carried over land.

Then, came the question, “How do boats float?”

We discussed that boats, canoes, ships, kayaks, and rafts all have one thing in common- they are used for transport on seas and rivers, because they float.
It’s easy to figure out that if they are made out of wood they will float, because wood floats in water. However, when you see a huge cargo ship or a cruise-liner that looks like a floating building on the water, you can’t help but wonder why this massive chunk of metal doesn’t sink.

Due to the curiosity of the children wanting to find out more about floating, our lesson took a slight scientific diversion.

Using just a bowl of water, some weighing scales and Blu Tac, I gave the children a question.
“If two objects have the same mass, will they both float?”

The class used some prior knowledge and were able to make great scientific predictions.
“No, they will both sink because the objects are the same weight.”

“It depends on the shape of the object”.

“I think the air in the object will make a difference.”

“I predict that one will float. If the objects are different shapes then it depends how much water will be pushed away.” An excellent prediction from Harris!

“The heavier it is the more it will sink.”

“I remember learning about a man called Archimedes who sat in a bath and shouted Eureka! I think that was something about floating.”

This interesting fact then left the children inquisitive to know more about the man taking a bath.! Together, we found out about this great mathematician and why he became famous just for sitting in the bath!

The Archimedes’ Principle
A long time ago in ancient Greece, a mathematician named Archimedes was taking a bath. When he got in, a certain amount of water got displaced and overflowed over the rim of the tub. Why?

Archimedes figured out that if the weight of the object being placed in the water is less that the weight of the water displaced, the object will float. This is known as buoyancy or the Archimedes’ Principle.

Following this new piece of scientific information it was time to get back to our experiment.

 

“If two objects have the same mass, will they both float?”

 

The solid ball of Blu Tac sank straight to the bottom. The Blu Tac shaped like a boat floated.

“Why?” I questioned the children.

“It is because the weight of the Blu Tac has been spread out across a bigger area.” stated Felix.

“The boat isn’t heavy enough to push the water out of the way.” said Albie.

I was so impressed with the questions asked by the children and by how inquisitive they were. Despite not starting off as a Science lesson, it was important to follow the children’s curiosities and this led them to further investigations, improved understanding and deepening scientific enquiry skills.

Well done Year 4!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This week, Year 4 have completed their Roman chariots. The final thing left to do was to test the chariots against the  agreed design criteria. The children have worked very hard to make their product functional, appealing and fit for purpose

Design Criteria  

 

Today, Year 4 got into the ‘Bake Off‘ spirit. The children enjoyed making healthy muffins. It was great to hear so much mathematical talk  happening  during our lesson. We discussed scales, fractions, amounts, cooking times, measures and much more.

Apples fresh from Mrs Pearson’s garden added a healthy, fruity twist to our muffins.  Thank you, Mrs Pearson, for the ingredients and all your help.

Following a morning packed with learning, Year 4 spent ten minutes enjoying some mindfulness techniques.

Mindfulness can add to the quality of our lives in numerous ways, from nurturing a sense of inner peace to enhancing self-confidence and our attitudes towards others.

Mindful Hearing
In this exercise, the children were guided through an experience of paying attention to sounds.

Mindful Breathing

In this exercise, children were guided through a process of paying attention to their breathing.

• “I feel so relaxed now.”
• “My lunch time is going to be calm.”
• “I reflected on my learning.”
• “I listened to my breathing. It was like the waves of the sea coming in and out.”

 

With our chariot designs complete, it was time to begin to build them. The children used clamps and saws carefully and safely. Accurate measuring and sizing proved a little tricky at times. During our lesson, I saw some superb teamwork, lots of resilience and impressive DT skills.

 

Year 4 have been busy writing their very own recipes. All of the children have worked hard to structure their work according to the purpose. It is always great to see children using their learning environment (walls) and dictionaries to aid their writing.

Mr Owen and I have also given the class the choice of a pen or pencil to write with. Some of the class have a preference and we have seen such an improvement in handwriting and presentation.

Keep up the good work, Year 4!

Part of the Year 4 expectations for Design and Technology is that children are able to research design criteria to inform the design of functional, appealing products.

Also, children need to be able to  generate, develop and communicate their ideas through discussion and annotated sketches.

With all this in mind, Year 4 set about designing Roman chariots. Continuing on with our travels through history, exploring transportation, the next stop – the Romans.

As a class, we discussed the difference in transport for pleasure and transport for industrial purposes. In the Roman Empire, chariots were not used for warfare or work purposes, but for chariot racing, especially in circuses, or for triumphal processions, when they could be drawn by as many as ten horses or even by dogs, tigers, or ostriches!

• Following lots of research, work began on our very own chariots. The children worked hard to annotate their sketches while thinking about a design criteria.
• can move
• can hold a person (Lego)
• pulled by horsepower (toy)
• move over rocky terrain

There are some superb designs below.

Below are some more of our recent cave paintings. The children worked very hard to create pattern, detail and texture.