Creative homework

There was some really great Creative homework this week when the children were asked to create an animal of their own.

Phonics

When helping your child to blend the sounds in words, it’s really important to say the sounds as purely as possible.

Here is a guide to pronunciation of the phase 2 phonemes.

Safer Internet Day 06 February

Splats Team Robot v Meanies e-Safety Show

As part of Safer Internet Day, on February 06, the pupils from Years 3 to 6 are learning and performing a show-in-a-day with Splats Entertainment e-Safety show.

The day is all about how we act online and in life. Each group of pupils work with the ‘Splats’ director where they learn their scene and then they make props in the classroom. The show is then being performed at the end of school at 2:30pm which we would like to invite you to attend. The day and performance is led by the ‘Splats’ director and the pupils join in and act out the parts.

It is a fun and light-hearted look at what is, of course, a very important issue of safety. The day is designed to get the pupils thinking, talking and developing their awareness of their online behaviour. We hope it will help facilitate discussion at school and at home and help the pupils be responsible and careful in their online activity.

Topics covered during the day include: keeping personal information safe; how we never know who we are talking to online; how to deal with any mean messages; how we never know how other people feel with what we say online; and if we are unsure of anything, we should always seek help from a trusted adult.

If you would like to come and watch the e-safety show, please complete the reply slip, on your child’s letter, and return to school as soon as possible as we have a limited number of spaces.

Mathletics

Have you looked at Mathletics recently?

This is a great online resource that supports maths learning at home.  You child has work assigned according to our learning in class so take a look with your child when you can.

Well done to Christina who continues to complete her assignments and regularly achieves a Mathletics certificate.

Please ask for login details if needed.

An unforgettable experience!

This week, Year 4 enjoyed a visit from The Mimika Theatre Group.

We were transported through a non verbal exploration of four contrasting areas of the natural world.

Landscapes is a unique show featuring puppets, mime, lights and sound which was designed to communicate through atmosphere.

We witnessed remarkable visual effects and transformations all set inside a beautiful  dome.

Throughout the 45 minute session we enjoyed atmosphere, movements, rhythms, and sounds of four contrasting areas of the natural world.

The Sun rises over a buzzing desert, a chick hatches.

The Eagle leaves the nest in search of food.

Below, the Meerkats are alert.

The journey begins…..

Desert

Where the meerkats,lizards, snakes and scorpions battle each other but all live under the constant threat of danger from above…

…the ever circling Eagle searching for prey.

Rainforest

Where Apes and even the butterflies,spiders and birds are all drawn to a clutch of eggs on the riverbank but, the Crocodile is always on guard.

Sea

A crowded kaleidoscope of constant movement, the large and the small, the speedy and the slow, the beautiful and the ugly, the familiar and the bizarre.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Antarctic

Where the snow and the wind, the cold and the ice provide a harsh but beautiful background for the setting sun at  journey’s end.

What did we learn?

At the end of the performance, Year 4 went back to class and discussed the amazing experience we had just been a part of. Not only had this show enriched each child’s knowledge of life, it had also opened up some new and exciting vocabulary. We will be sure to use this in our current report writing. The children were able to say how this show has helped them to learn more about things like:

• environments
• habitats
• different species
• adaptation
• predators and prey
• life cylces
• food chains

We also discussed how using music in the production created an atmosphere for each environment.

“You can tell by the change in the music when a predator is nearby,” said Poppy, hiding behind her hands!

I really enjoyed the show and didn’t want it to end,” Henry said.

“We can honestly say that we found Landscapes to be one the most exciting, moving, educational performances we have ever seen. All the staff witnessed  an awe of wonder on every child’s face as they watched this incredible show.  Indeed, we were all very privileged to be a part of this journey through different lands.  All this without a word being spoken,”  discussed Mrs Freeman, Mrs Charlesworth (who was none to keen on the snakes) and Mrs Pearson. 

Below, there are some images from the Mikika Theatre website for you to enjoy with your child. Ask them to describe each picture and which creatures inhabit the environment shown.

Mimika Theatre

Magical thought Emily

Imaginative said Jemima

Mesmerising whispered Will

Incredible shouted Hifza

Kashif loved it

Albie’s allotment friends

Talha stated it was amazing

Harris loved the lifelike flamingo

Excited were Liam and Sakina

Astonishing scenes blew Leo away

Terrific and thrilling explained Parth

Rayn loved the monkey even though it made us jump

Educational entertainment about the world around us

• written by Year 3

Our newest class member

To fit in with our topic of Life Forces, Year 4 have adopted a gorilla in support of the WWF charity.This incredible charity works to protect some of the world’s most vulnerable animals.    ADOPT A GORILLA The powerful mountain gorilla, now critically endangered with only around 880 left in the wild. The mountain gorilla is one of four surviving gorilla subspecies. They’re found in just two isolated populations – in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda, and the Virunga volcanoes – which span the borders of Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). We will be looking very closely at all aspects that are affecting and causing the decline in population. The adoption and support will to do many things. Such as: train rangers to detect and safely remove snares set for other animals, which can often servery hurt or kill gorillas help to train rangers to protect the gorillas against poaching of babies for the illegal pet trade work with local governments to improve the management of the national parks where gorillas live help to protect vital gorilla habitat help reduce conflict between mountain gorillas and humans when gorillas enter villages and farmland Today, in class, the children were very excited to begin learning about these magnificent creatures. Lots of question were asked and we hope, in time, we will be able to answer them. The children received their first Gorilla update from the charity. This is The Year 4’s first Gorilla update. HOW YOU’RE HELPING With WWF’s help a 10 year trans-boundary strategic plan has been agreed to allow the authorities of Uganda, Rwanda and DRC to work together to help protect mountain gorillas. The plan will help the three countries come together, share knowledge and best practices, and manage the Virunga Massif and its diverse ecosystems in a more coordinated way. Your adoption helps pay for cameras to be put in remote locations – so we can check on wildlife numbers and health. Take a look at this amazing footage of a beautiful gorilla family. www.youtube.com/watch?v=AggPUKh6Z6Y Thank you for making The Year 4’s a Gorilla adopter. Your adoption is really vital to us. Together we can be a truly effective partnership for protecting the natural world. Thank you! WWF Year 4 will keep you posted on all the updates received from the charity.

What is a safe risk?

…was this week’s homework task. In our review, we discussed lots of different safe and unsafe risks. It was evident that children had engaged brilliantly with adults at home – well done.

We linked taking risks to challenge, and talked about how both made us feel. Miss Wilson introduced us to the learning zone model which describes three different stages of learning – the comfort zone (where you feel safe and no risks are taken), the stretch zone (sometimes called the learning zone, where you are challenged and you grow and learn) and the panic zone (where the risk is too great and there is fear and anxiety). We placed each of our risks onto the learning zone model.

It was an interesting discussion as answers varied across the class and answers varied depending on the situation…

“Challenge is when you might be scared or emotional. I wouldn’t ever give up and I would keep trying.” – Musa

“Division has been challenging for me because we used some tricky numbers.” – Ethan C

“Using a number line to subtract was hard. It made me feel a bit panicked because I didn’t like getting them wrong. When I worked with Mrs Burgess I got the hang of it and felt calm.”  – Safiya-Mishal

A special visitor…

We want to say a massive thank you to Mrs Khan who came in to talk to us about Muslim birth ceremonies.

The children loved finding out about a different religion or more about their own as part of this week’s RE learning.

“It was very interesting because I didn’t know that when a baby was born, they got someone special to sing.” – Harris

“I enjoyed learning more about my religion.” – Hifza

“I enjoyed learning about when people have to shave off their hair. They weighed the hair and they paid that amount of gold or silver to the poor.” – Leo

What is ‘8’?

We’ve been learning about the number 8. Can your child explain what’s happening in one of the pictures? Can your child spot eight things at home?