Living and Learning – Vampire cough and sneeze
Well done to Saahir who we spotted using this technique this morning without prompting.
Getting close to the creatures
Today, we met a variety of unusual creatures in our Meet a Creature workshop. These included a tortoise, a snake, a tarantula, bearded-dragons, a gecko and a chinchilla. Some children, and adults, were brave enough to hold or just touch the creatures. We learnt lots of facts about the animal’s habitat and how they adapt to their environment.
Did you know that bearded dragons can drink through their skin?
Amazing animals!
Today, we were fortunate to be joined by ‘Meet a Creature‘. During this hands-on workshop, we learnt all about evolution and inheritance (part of the science National Curriculum for Year 5) whilst handling some interesting, rare animals.
We all had the opportunity (which some of us declined) to hold each animal and learnt lots of facts about how it has evolved over time – we learnt other fun facts, too!
Here’s a few images of us holding some of the animals:
(Warning: look away now if you’re scared of snakes, tarantulas, bearded-dragons, geckos, chinchillas or children!)
Meet a creature
This afternoon, Year 4 came face to face with some fascinating creatures. We held and learnt about a range of mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and mini-beasts. This was a real hands-on experience and every child was shown how to handle the animals with care and respect.
Meeting dragons!
This morning we met a variety of reptiles.
Did you know that a crested gecko could lick its own eyeballs?
Can your child name their favourite creature?
Welcome back
Welcome back to what is set to be a very busy half term indeed!
With links to our current topic and history, the Year 3/4 production of Darwin Rocks, is set to be a must see!
With booming beats, groove-filled guitar anthems and a dubious dress-sense, a theatre company from the distant future pays tribute to history’s most famous advocate of evolution in an adventure of discovery.
This story is about the work of Charles Darwin.
Charles Darwin was an English naturalist who changed the way humans viewed themselves and the world around them through his amazing ideas on evolution and natural selection.
Auditions to begin next week.
Darwin Rocks coming to a school near you soon!
In our writing lessons. we’ll be looking closely at traditional stories with a big focus on the type of language used. These all-time classics will also form the basis of some reading sessions. Year 4 will be acting out and retelling some of these great tales.
The children will investigate the styles and voices of traditional story language and identify typical story themes, such as good over evil.
As we have an upcoming competition, for PE, we’ll be mainly working on our skipping skills. Some of these are quite technical and will take time to learn. It was great to see lots of the children investing in a skipping rope at school.
Topic ‘Life Forces’
On Monday, the whole school have an onsite workshop.
Meet a Creature, an exciting animal-handling workshop, is coming into school.
The Year 4 workshop will be focused around predators and prey.
Pupils learn the terms predator, prey and producer and make links between plants and animals in the form of food chains. Children will discuss the different diets of animals and learn how herbivores eat the plants and then they are eaten by carnivores, so the food (energy) is passed along the ‘chain’.
Photos to follow!
As always, please feel free to pop in if you have any queries. We’re always happy to help.
Living and Learning this half term
- I cover my mouth (when I yawn, cough, sneeze). Get your child to demonstrate the ‘vampire’ method to family members at home.
- I can say something good about myself. It’s important that your child can confidently talk about themselves in a positive way.
- I pay compliments in a sensible way. Try paying compliments each day to each other!
- I receive compliments in a sensible way. Some children struggle to hear positive words about themselves, but this is important for self-esteem. Try paying (and listening) to praise and compliments.
- I know the difference between being proud and showing off. We encourage compliments to be paid – but encourage your children to know the balance between being having self-esteem and showing off.
- I recognise my talents. Talk to your child about talents, whether academic, physical, social or emotional.
Change4Life healthier snacking
Have you see the recent Change4Life campaign encouraging children to have no more than two packaged snacks per day to reduce their sugar intake? Remember fruit and veg are always the best snack and count towards your child’s 5 A Day.
The campaign is launched as Public Health England reveals half the sugar children consume comes from unhealthy snacks and sugary drinks. Children in England are eating nearly three times the recommended amount of sugar. Too much sugar can lead to harmful fat building up inside and serious health problems, and also painful tooth decay.
Recently children brought home the Family Snack Challenge. Can your family complete the 7-day healthier snack challenge? Change4Life provides lots of hints and tips for healthier snacking.
Supermovers
The BBC and Premier League have launched a campaign called Super Movers to encourage children to become more active while learning. Teachers will be using the video resources to get children moving in lessons throughout the day. This physical activity can contribute to the 30 active minutes children should be doing at school.
Why not use the Super Movers video resources to support your child’s learning at home. Activities range from learning times tables to apostrophes.
Hedgehog bread
Using our current topic of ‘Life Forces’, we decided to theme this half-term’s cooking around it.
What could be nicer than a hedgehog bread roll?
These are a great way to introduce the children to the art of bread making. With this fun and easy starter recipe, these mini hedgehog rolls are the cutest bake we’ve ever made!
We have done a fair bit of cooking so far this year and the children are becoming very confident in all the skills needed. These include staying safe in the kitchen and the need for good hygiene. Year 4 were able to weigh and measure the ingredients, and then could follow the recipe well.
Next, came the hard part – kneading the dough!
Using their knuckles, the class worked hard to knead the dough for five minutes. There were a few aching arms after this!
We discussed that when making yeast bread, the kneaded dough has to have some rise time. During rising, the yeast ferments (‘eats’) the sugar and develops the dough. Rising also improves the flavour and texture of the bread.
After kneading, we rounded the dough into a ball and left to rise for an hour.
When the rising was complete, the children set to work on shaping their balls of dough into hedgehogs. Using a pair of scissors appeared to be the best way to create the spikes.
Finally, with two eyes and nose, the little hedgehogs were ready for the oven.
The finished product – healthy, fun and of course cute!
