The end of the road……
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.
Creative homeworks
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.
Great Writing
We’ve been working on writing descriptively this half term and this week’s main aim was to get our readers feeling tense. Here are three great pieces of writing.
Lewis
I was having a calm, relaxing flight until a baby started to cry – classic. The scream engulfed my ears in noise. I didn’t think much of it for five minutes or so… Suddenly, my food started to shake vigorously – very vigorously. Then, the air-con slowed down and the seatbelt sign began to flicker. Then, uncharacteristically, the air stewards looked rather nervous. I started to panic as we had hit some turbulence. Were my eyes deceiving me? The TV stuttered and then went blank – my heart sank. Anxiously, I waited until large bang reverberated around the cabin. It was a suitcase falling out of the overhead lockers… I could feel the tension around me. The air masks dropped over my head as wisps of smoke filled the fuselage. The plane leaned to the right. We were going down.
Humairah
…
As I started to eat, the air-com – loud and noisy – began to slow down every minute until it finally turned off. I, and most people, thought it broke and ignored it. The lights began to flicker same as the seatbelt sign. Getting quicker every minute, the food and trays – loud and shaking – were moving side to side. The shake of the seats reverberated through my body. I still stayed calm. I decided to look through my window and I saw tiny cracks in the wings. Just then, my TV screen began to get fuzzy – probably a glitch – and then turn off completely. That happened to everybody else’s. Some people began to panic – but not me. Then, when I tried to relax and keep calm, the hum of the engine began to get louder and louder as if it were a swarm of bees collecting pollen from flowers in a meadow.
…
Grace
Beginning to doze off in the cool breeze of the air-con, I noticed the breeze slowed. This didn’t concern me. Until… it stopped. I tried everything: pressing the buttons, opening and closing the air-con flaps and trying to tell and air steward or stewardess. They wouldn’t listen. No matter how hard I tried, it didn’t work. So relaxing!
A short minute later, I heard a baby’s shriek from several seats behind me. It was reverberating around my head. I tried getting the thickest cushion I had. Reaching down to get my pillow, I noticed the food on my steel-grey tray was shaking. The crying had now suddenly stopped. I looked around the plane – new and comfortable – and noticed the window cover was shaking. I looked to see if anything else was shaking, It was – everything was shaking.
At home, have a look at this writing together. You could discuss:
- what they’ve done well
- what we were writing about
- how you feel as a reader
- what your child’s writing was like
Living and Learning: Take Over Day
Year 6 have enjoyed taking over today and I’ve enjoyed putting my feet up!
- Dylan started the day by welcoming the class from the playground and saying good morning as they came in the door.
- Sachpreet took the register and noted down everybody’s choices for lunch.
- Martha took charge of answering any phone calls to our building throughout the day.
- Isabella and Albert did a great job leading our topic review lesson with the Year 4s visiting.
- Ethan led our spelling test and Isaac gave us out times table test, coming up with questions (and answers) himself.
- Grace and Rohan joined Mrs Weekes on a learning walk of the school – which they really enjoyed.
- Josh kept a record of any warnings the class received through the day.
- Ben and Noorpreet were on duty at break, giving out cool class tokens for good choices.
- Isaiah and Sachpreet joined Mrs Small on the gate at the end of the day.
- Ripley and Nicky gave out Living and Learning certificates in assembly.
- Pia and Lewis gave out Learning certificates during assembly.
- Humairah and Haniah revealed who had won the cool class cup during assembly.
- Rohan chose the winners of our golden ticket prizes at the end of the day.
- Filip and Noorpreet gave out cool class tokens during assembly.
- Kai gave out homework and made sure everybody knew what they needed to do for it.
Everybody who wanted a job took over part of the day and enjoyed every minute of it.
Here’s our assembly take over
Perimeter
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.
Boldden
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.
Topic Review
As it’s the last week of our big topic we’ve mixed up the classes to review what we’ve learned.
The Year 2s and the Year 5s have spent part of the 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.
Maths Stay and Play
Thank you for attending our maths ‘Stay and Play’ this morning.
We hope you enjoyed learning alongside your children.
We know how to stop bullying.
We enjoyed looking at this week’s Creative homework all about the STOP message.
We began by looking around the room as each other’s before sharing some that had stood out to us. Then, we looked some more so that we could see those that had been mentioned and any we hadn’t had chance to look at yet.
Well done to those people who had their homework to show. There were some really fantastic pieces to enjoy. Unfortunately, a third of our class didn’t have either their homework, their spelling or both this week. Your child should be completing homework independently but help at home by making sure it is completed and brought in on the correct day.
Time Travellers at Herd Farm
Our visit to Herd Farm, to take part in the Forest Schools’ Time Travellers workshop, has been a perfect end to our Time Travel big topic. Herd Farm was an amazing setting, in glorious Autumn sunshine, to discover different types of homes from the past.
First of all, we went right back in time to set up our own Stone Age camp. Lots of teamwork and problem solving skills were needed.
Safety first – Tina taught us how to hold the sticks correctly.
Next, we went to explore the replica Iron Age village.
Tina showed us the frame of the Iron Age roundhouse to explain the materials used and how the houses were put together. What materials were needed to build the houses? How was this different to houses built today?
All the class managed to fit in the larger house. Some Iron Age roundhouses were 40m wide!
What was inside the house? Why were these needed?
Now time to have a snack, enjoy the view and ask Ian, an archaeologist, questions about another type of home we have learnt about, castles.
Ian lit a fire in a traditional way. How did he do this?
The Iron Age roundhouses provided a great backdrop to sketch.
Finally, we spent time looking at the buildings at the residential centre which date back to 1760 and used to be a farm. We spotted alterations made to the old stone barn and farm house since this time to make it into the centre that it is today. The most modern building at the site was a sustainable building made from metal and wood.
We thoroughly enjoyed our outdoor learning experience discovering a range of houses from the past.
