On Tuesday, we had a visit from Sam the sound man. We learnt so many amazing things about sound from how echoes work to ways we could make our own instruments. We all really enjoyed the session and it really helped deepen our Science learning for this half term. A couple of cool facts we learnt were: hard materials produce more echoes, there is no sound in space and the bigger the object the lower the sound it will make.
We finished our samba topic in Music by collating all the rhythms we learnt this half term to create a final piece of work. I have been really impressed with the children’s perseverance in the subject as they are now a lot more confident at playing as part of a group or as an individual.
During our R.E. Learning this hard term, we have been looking at the 5 pillars of Islam. This week, we learnt about each one specifically and played a game to help this knowledge stick in our minds. We really enjoyed it and some pupils were amazing at providing extra information about Islam to support our learning.
In Spanish, we have been learning about different shapes. The children have all really enjoyed this part of our learning particularly the games we have been playing with Mr Ash. Here are some of the words we have learnt if you want to test the children at home:
Una estrella
Un pentagono
Una linea
Un cuadrado
Un triangulo
In Maths, we have been looking at factors and factor pairs. We used counters to help create arrays and work out the factors for different numbers. The children initially struggled conceptually but are now very confident at giving the factors and factor pairs for different numbers.
Our TTrockstar of the week is Phoebe and our Lexia legend is Sienna. Book club was hosted by Matas. He chose the book ‘True Ghost Stories’ by Paul Dowswell and Tony Allen.
In writing, we finished off our shared writing using a film called ‘Alma’ as inspiration. We began planning our final write on Thursday and Friday. To start with we held a silent debate looking at 5 strange items that Mr Ash brought in including: a trumpet, a spooky King Lear poster and a projector. We had some amazing ideas and I can’t wait to read the children’s work next week.
During History, we learnt about how many attempts it took the Romans to conquer certain parts of Britain, weaving in Geography elements and understanding the timeline of events of when this took place. We even create some cool stop motion animations to show the three attempts.
We are hosting a film night to watch Horrible History: The Rotten Romans on Monday 11th December in the hall. This will start at 3:10pm and finish at 5pm. Tickets to this event are £2 and will go towards the cost of our mosaic Art project that we are currently undertaking. You will need to sign up for this event on ParentPay. (This is a PG film; signing up on Parent Pay gives permission for your child to watch this)
Our TTrockstar of the week is Keilan and our Lexia legend is Zara. Book club was hosted by Maidah. She chose the book ‘Interview with a Kangaroo’ by Andy Seed, who visited us last week. It was great to hear that the visit had inspired Maidah to read more non-fiction books.
On Tuesday, we were incredibly lucky to be joined by Andy Seed, who is an incredible children’s non-fiction writer. He inspired us with his knowledge of animal facts and it was interesting to understand how he presented his animal factual books in a question and answer interview format. We can’t wait to read some of his books and use this style of writing in our own writing. We even brought our magpie books into the hall to steal great ideas and facts!
In Maths, we have been working extremely hard on our multiplication and division topic. It has been fantastic to see the way the children’s times table knowledge has paid dividends as we were all confident at using these facts to support our learning.
During Art this week, we made Roman mosaics. We learnt how to clip tiles using tile cutters. We used these pieces to create wave patterns and arranged the tile pieces to fit a pre-existing pattern. We worked incredibly well in our groups and produced some fantastic pieces of art.
In Music, we continued our samba topic. We consolidated our knowledge around the different types of instruments. We then played several different call and response rhythms. Mr Ash started by playing the call part for us to respond. Then different children in class took on the call section. We hope you like it!
Our TTrockstar of the week is Annie and our Lexia legend is Amelia. Book club was hosted by Myra. She chose the book ‘When the Fishes Flew’ by Michael Morpurgo. We also once again achieved a magnificent 99.3% attendance, let’s see if we can get 100% next week.
This week we have been completing our NFER tests. The children have all worked really hard and tried their best in each test.
I would like to take the opportunity to thank parents and carers who have helped the children with the real life Maths journal or the Reading box. Both have allowed the children to extend their learning as well as creating a buzz around both subjects.
Throughout the week, we have been producing work as part of Anti-bully Week. We spoke about the different kinds of bullying and the importance of being upstanders if we see bullying taking place. We all created anti-bullying posters and took part in a school wide picket. Even though we got a little wet, we certainly proved that we could make noise around bullying. On Friday, we also took part in odd socks day which was to show that we should always celebrate our differences.
During our History learning, we looked at the Celts. We started the lesson by writing down all the things we knew about the topic. Some of us really struggled with this. We then undertook an activity in which we worked in teams to complete a series of retrieval questions about the Celts. It was great to see that by the end of the lessons we were all able to write lots more things we knew about the topic.
Our TTrockstar of the week is Amelia and our Lexia legends is Zara. It gives me great pleasure to say that we once again achieved the best attendance in LKS2 with a staggering 99.2%.
This week has been Parliament Week across school. We started our learning by looking at the differences between the two chambers in parliament. We learnt that members of the House of Commons are elected by the British public whereas the House of Lords is made up of experts across different fields and is not elected by the British public. We then made our classroom into the House of Commons to debate an issue. We all took part in a (mostly) civilised debate with Mr Ash taking the role of the speaker.
On Wednesday, we were incredibly lucky to host a live music concert from a local group of folk musicians. We learnt about lots of different instruments from a cello to an accordion. The experience allowed us to listen to a different type of music and we even had the opportunity to join in the performance. We all really enjoyed this opportunity – which was shown by our beaming smiles throughout.
In Art, we worked on gestural drawings to represent a Roman soldier. We initially started our Art sessions by creating our own drawings, making sure to use our whole arm and ensuring our drawings weren’t too detailed. The technique allowed us to create pieces that showed the motion of the images we were capturing. We held another session in which we redrew our images but worked on a collective piece to create a tapestry.
Our TTrockstar of the week is Phoebe. Our Lexia legends are Zara and Tahha as both completed their next level on Lexia. Book club this week was hosted by Enes and Emila. They chose ‘Savitri’s Tales’ by Anthony Horowitz and ‘Why do Snakes Slither’ by Miles Kelly.
What an amazing first half term we have had in 4A.
We ended the half term by going on our first school trip. On Wednesday, we made the short coach journey to the Thackray Medical Museum. We started the day by taking part in a workshop called ‘say ahhh’ which was all about teeth and the digestive system. It was amazing to see how much the children already knew from our science learning this half term. We took part in an experiment that mimicked the way our bodies break down then digest food. In the afternoon, we got the chance to look around the museum. A clear class highlight was Disease Street. This exhibition took us back to the Victorian era and showed the children that during this time there wasn’t: clean water, sanitation or clean medical practices.
In school, we continued our letter writing sessions during English. We wrote a letter from the perspective of a Roman soldier sending a letter back to a loved one in Rome. The children all worked really hard adding in fronted adverbials and subordinate clauses to uplevel their writing. I was really impressed with Phoebe’s, Parishy’s and Aydin’s writing who all produced strong writes this week. Keep it up!
On Thursday, we started our new Music topic ready for the next half term. We began by learning about the history of samba music. We found out that the style of music is popular in Brazil but originated in West Africa. We then learnt about the different types of instruments and that they are in the percussion family.
Our TTrockstar of the week is Phoebe and our Lexia legend is Tahha. Tahha got a staggering 34 units completed! This week, we got 98% attendance which meant we weren’t just the best attenders in LKS2 but in the entire school.
In Reading, we finished our class novel The Firework-maker’s Daughter by Phillip Pullman. The story has transported us to many different places from a treacherous volcano to a magnificent firework competition. The text has provided us much entertainment as well as working as a stimulus for much of our writing this half term.
We undertook our final Beats, Bones and Bodies session of the half term. The children have really engaged well with the sessions and they produced some excellent movements to show the journey of food through our bodies. We all should now be able to identify the different parts of the digestive system.
Next Wednesday, we are going on our school trip to the Thackray Museum. Those who haven’t signed up yet will need to do so as soon as possible. The trip will be during school hours and the children will need to come in their normal school uniform.
Our TTrockstar of the week is Phoebe and our Lexia legend is Ameila. It is really important that we continue to keep up our Lexia usage as well as completing our TTrockstar sessions. Book club was hosted by Lukas and Mya this week. They chose ‘The Odd Fish’ by Naomi and Jamie Jones as well as ‘The Week at World’s End’ by Emma Carroll.
I was also so proud of the class for leading the way in LKS2 attendance with a fantastic 98.3%.
Firstly, I would like to start this week’s blog post with a thank you to all the parents and guardians who came to parents evening this week. It was a real pleasure to share the children’s work and achievements with you.
We started the week by taking part in a Roman workshop led by master story teller Matthew Bellwood. We acted out different Roman scenes from battling in the amphitheatres to then taking a walk down a Roman high street. The experience really helped consolidate a lot of our previous learning as well as teaching us so many intriguing facts. The day after we gathered all the information on to a piece of flipchart paper as you can see we learnt so much we ran out of space.
We have started our new writing topic – which is focusing on informal letters. We started to learn a letter written by Willy Wonka and used our story map as well as actions to bring it to life. Next week, we will be looking at letter structures and beginning to plan our own.
In Maths, we have been working on round numbers to the nearest 10, 100 and 1,000. Initially, some of the children found this difficult but through lots of practice and plenty of perseverance we managed to grasp the key concepts. We also created the rhyme ‘5 or more, raise the score’ to help us remember that numbers from 5 or above are rounded up.
Our TTrockstar of the week is Lukas and our Lexia legend is Tahha. A special mention also goes to Tahha and Zara who brought in books for our weekly book club. Tahha chose a Ben Ten book and Zara chose 13-Storey Treehouse by Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton.
This week, we have focused a lot of our time and energy into making Celtic shields. We learnt that the Celts were a group of tribes that lived across northern Europe and Britain. We started the week by looking at different Celt shields and talked about the difference between them and Roman shields. We then created three designs drawing from our inspiration. We noticed that some of our designs were a little too intricate so we had a go at redesigning our shields in preparation for building them.
The building stage saw us draw out the outline of our shields and cut them out using scissors. We then created shield bosses (the middle part of a shield) by stacking cardboard and glueing it on – which made a relief.
Our Design and Technology sessions ended with us all painting our shields with a base colour and then adding our patterns using chalk pens. I was really impressed with the skill each child showed and the overall finished products. Thank you to everyone who brought in cardboard over the last couple of weeks.
On Thursday, we celebrated National Poetry Day by learning On the Move Again by Michael Rosen. The poem focuses on the migration of people from one place to another. We incorporated lots of actions to help us remember the poem – which we all really enjoyed.
Our TTrockstar of the week is Olivia and our Lexia legend is Sienna. It is really important that we continue to keep up our Lexia usage as well as completing our TTrockstar sessions. I was also so proud of the class for once again leading the way in LKS2 attendance with a fantastic 98.6%.
