New additions to the library – thank you, school councillors
At their final meeting, our current school councillors spent time, using part of their budget, choosing new books for our library.
From sport books to science books, there’s a great selection. The books will soon be available to borrow from the library.
And relax….
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.”
School Council elections
In our whole school assembly today, we launched this year’s School Council election process. Our School Council is one of the ways that children are encouraged to take an active part in pupil voice.
The election process allows children to develop an understanding of one of the British Values, democracy, with two representatives from each class, chosen democratically by their peers.
Our current school councillors spoke about their role over the last year and the qualities needed to be an effective school councillor.
These included:
- use the 8 Rs for learning
- be respectful and polite
- help others
- be a good speaker and listener (to members of your class and in the meetings)
- share and be confident with your ideas
- let others speak
- accept the views of others even if you don’t agree
- be friendly and approachable
- follow our school rules and make good choices in class and around school
Watch out for the whole school homework this week all about the election and democracy, ready for the elections next Thursday 25 October.
Bike and run at the Brownlee Centre
The Brownlee Centre is a great facility on our doorstep.
These bike and run sessions, run by the Brownlee Foundation, are open to all children, any ability, aged 8-14. Why not give it a tri?
Chariot construction
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.
Super writing
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!
Active travel winner
To mark International Walk to School month and our recent promotion of the Park and Stride site at Marks and Spencer, we are running a prize draw every week in October.
All children who make an active journey (bike, scoot, walk or park and stride) every day for each week are entered into a prize draw.
Each Friday in October, we will select a winner at random to win a £10 Love2Shop gift voucher.
Here’s our first winner. Keep up those active journeys to be in with a chance to win the next prize.
Designing Roman Chariots
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.
More cave paintings
Below are some more of our recent cave paintings. The children worked very hard to create pattern, detail and texture.
The History of Britain workshop
Following the performance, Years 3 and 4 took part in a History of Britain workshop on Thursday afternoon.
The workshop started with everybody warming up their bodies, faces and voices.
Then the children went on to create statues out of each other. The challenge was to theme their statues on historical figures that they learnt about from the play. This included Winston Churchill, Thomas Farriner, Cavemen, Romans and Vikings. Which historical characters can you spot in the pictures below?
The statues then formed a museum, with the artists stepping away. We discussed rules for our museums:
- One child said: ‘Statues have to stay still!’
- Another added: ‘No talking if you’re a statue!’
- To everyone’s amusement, one statue asked: ‘Is it OK to breathe?’
The pupils were then put into groups of six and were challenged to make a freeze frame of a given time in history that they witnessed during the morning’s performance.
Harman explained: ‘A freeze-frame is like creating a portrait with ourselves.’
The first freeze-frame was to recreate Queen Boudica warring with the Romans.
The next freeze-frame was to show scenes from the Victorian times. Children were specifically fascinated with the forced jobs children had to do at this time.
When asked, Sam said: ‘I wouldn’t have liked to be alive during the Victorian times as I wouldn’t like to work in a dangerous factory. I might lose a limb!’
Brilliant acting, Year 3 & 4! Well done!