PE - Fitness

This week in PE, we have been working on our balancing where we developed techniques to help us not to wobble when we are balancing. We then discussed how we should land when jumping and practiced landing in a squat before we moved on jumping from one foot to the opposite foot and then jumping and landing on the same foot. 
 

Maths - Roman Numerals

This week, we have started our learning on Roman Numerals. We investigated which letters the Romans used and which numbers we have to add to make the numbers and which numbers we have to subtract. Here, we have Hope Class showing us how to make Roman Numerals with bundle sticks.

Science - what happens to a puddle?

Another week, another experiment. This week, we made our own puddle and we observed what happens to the puddle throughout the day by tracing around the puddle each hour. We noticed after the first hour, the puddle seemed to get bigger. After discussion, we realised it would be because children had been running over it during break times. At the end of the day, we went outside to look at our results. Some of the puddle had disappeared and some remained. Again, we discussed why this might be and we think it happened because of the location of our puddle as the sun had not reached it all. 
 

Hope Class Assembly

This term, we proudly displayed our learning of this term to our parents and our friends in Courage Class. We shared our work on The Colour Monster and what we think the term Hope means. We discussed our RE work and shared diary entries on how we think Mary felt as she watched her son being crucified. Following this, we displayed our Hidden Curriculum learning as we proudly showcased our Makaton sign language skills to a choral worship song. Super work Hope Class!

West Stow Anglo Saxon Village - Class Visit

Wow! What an amazing class trip we had! We visited the Anglo-Saxon village to learn more about how Anglo Saxons lived and where they settled. We visited examples of what the different kind of houses looked like and how the Anglo Saxons laid out their houses to best support their lives. In the afternoon, we visited the museum where we had the opportunity to handle some real and replica artefacts. There was a replica Sutton Hoo helmet which is very famous in Anglo Saxon discoveries. Finally, we looked round the museum more to look at more artefacts and Anglo Saxon clothing. 
 

Science - melting solid chocolate to liquid

Today in Science, we had a very tasty experiment in which saw us observe what happens when we try and melt chocolate using hot water bottles. To make the investigation more exciting, we used different sizes of chocolate to see which one would melt quicker. We made predictions and then observed as the delicious treats melted. To check on how much the chocolate had melted, we used straws to poke the chocolate to test the consistency of the chocolate. 
 

Design and Technology - Structures

We have had an unusual delivery at Hope Class. Four containers of biscuits were delivered by Royal Mail in somewhat different states. Last week, we sent biscuits in four different containers to see how well the packaging would protect the biscuits. We sent biscuits in an envelope, biscuits in a plastic container, biscuits in a cereal box and biscuits in a small box that had been reinforced. Our results were promising as the only majorly damaged biscuit were the ones that were in the envelope. 

PE - Fitness

Today, we have been developing our coordination skills by following the flight of the ball and moving to meet the ball. By using our hand-eye coordination, we can throw the ball accurately to our partner. We challenged ourselves by increasing the distance between us when throwing and catching. 

English - Writing complex sentences

In English, we have been enjoying reading the text ‘Tell me a dragon’ and we have been enjoying creating our own dragons. To make our writing more exciting, we have been experimenting with different subordinating conjunctions on how we can use them in different positions within the sentence. Today, we have been letting the fate of the dice decide which conjunction we are to use in our sentence. 

Science - Measuring temperature

In Science today, we carried out an investigation with ice cubes. We had two different coloured ice cubes and made a prediction on what we thought would happen when we put the two ice cubes into the same cup. We then carried out our own investigations using thermometers to measure the temperature in different places around the classroom and also on our bodies. We had an excellent lesson being inquisitive scientists!

Big Write - Setting Descriptions

This week, we took part in our very first Big Write session in a year 4. We were very excited when we discovered we were going to be a setting description based on a short film clip. Mr Shortland only allowed us to watch 10 seconds of the clip and we had to imagine what we would be able to see, hear, touch and smell. We used our adjectives and compound sentences to extend our writing. At the end, some super descriptions were written that made the reader picture they were there. 

Geography - using a map

Today, we were given an aerial view of the school grounds and we had to try and identify key areas of the school grounds on the map and find them. From this, we are going to design our own symbols to create a map that highlight the important areas of our school grounds. 
 

English - drawing a dragon

We are having so much fun reading Our dragon book that we had to have a go at drawing our own dragons! We carefully listened and watched a tutorial on the board to guide us into how to draw a dragon. We then added our own designs to create our very own dragon. Excellent work Hope Class!

English-Tell me about a dragon

To start our English topic this week, we had to open a mysterious package that was left on Mr Shortland’s desk. As we opened each layer, there were some interesting phrases that gave us clues to what our object could be about. We were so excited to see that we would be using a dragon book over the next few weeks to help us with our learning. 
 

PE - Fitness

This week, we have started our Fitness unit of work in PE as we try and see if there is a link between fitness and mental health. This week was all about seeing what our bodies could do, which saw us record baseline assessments from activities that measured different areas of our fitness. In this session, we took part in shuttle runs, stork balancing, press ups and laps around the football pitched, all of which were timed. We then recorded these in our books so that when we test ourselves again at the end of the term, we will hopefully see an improvement in our scores. 

History - Anglo-Saxons

Wow! What an amazing launch lesson we have had! Did you know there is a famous ship burial site known as Sutton Hoo? It is believed to be a burial site to a soldier judging by what was found when it was dug up, including a very famous helmet!

This week, we were tasked to investigate who this burial site belonged to by looking at what was found in the site. We also had our own very own Sutton Hoo as we dug for artefacts that may help us in making our judgements.

After many discussions and looking over the evidence, we agreed that the sister may have belonged to King Raedwald of East Anglia who was the most powerful English King south of the River Humber. He is famous for helping to save Christianity in East Anglia during the apostasy (leaving behind, or straying from your religious beliefs) of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Essex and Kent. We had so much fun and we can’t wait to learn more!

RE - Salvation

This week, we started our RE topic of by thinking about what our question means.

’Why do Christians call the day Jesus died Good Friday?’

This topic is all about what happened during Holy Week and what Christians believe is the true meaning of Easter. We started the topic of by looking at the big frieze in the hall to see if we could identify where the Holy Week features. 
We then predicted what role the palm cross, crucifixion cross and the wooden cross has in the Holy Week. 

‘Encouraging each other, overflowing with hope.’

In Hope Class, we like to share our knowledge and theories with each other. This sometimes means where our learning goes in a different direction than planned.

For example, during our Science lesson, we were discussing what is a solid and a liquid when the conversations started to turn to what happens to sugar and salt when placed into water or liquid such as cups of tea. This then led to an impromptu investigation in which the children of Hope Class led completely themselves. We discovered that sugar and salt both sink to the bottom (salt sinks faster) and when stirred, they both dissolve. We then discussed whether this is why the sea has salt in it. 
At St Thomas’ our vision is ‘Encouraging each other, overflowing with hope.’ and the way that Hope Class encouraged one another during their own led investigation was truly inspiring and left me overflowing with hope and pride.
Super work Hope Class!

Science - Solid or liquid?

On our 2nd day in Year 4, we dived straight into our Science topic ‘Materials’ with an investigation into what are solid and liquids and how can they be classified? This is all part of our overarching question for Science

’Where do puddles go?’

We looked at materials that we thought we could classify just by observing but when we started manipulating them with a spoon, some materials then started moving categories.

We then finished the investigation with some mind-blowing information! We discovered that some materials cannot be classified by Scientists as some materials do not always meet the properties of a solid or a liquid. Some examples of these are jelly and shaving foam (which Mr Shortland had great fun demonstrating by spreading it on his face!)

We can’t wait to see where the new information we have learned will take us as we journey on to answer our question for this topic!

1st day back!

We are so happy to be back at school and what a great 1st day we have had! We have had lots of time to reflect on our holidays and discuss what we want to achieve this year. We spent time reconnecting as well as making new friendships before we attended our 1st Collective Worship in over 18 months!

It is going to be an amazing year and we can’t wait to share our learning with you this year!