We ended the term with a wonderful class Christmas party. We enjoyed a range of crafts, colouring and games (along with some party food) to end a fantastic term in Year Four, what a way to end 2021 in school.

We loved the experience of the pantomime in school. We were treated to a performance of Dick Whittington and thoroughly enjoyed joining in with the reprise, songs and mood of the performance!

Sketching Bethlehem scenes, we then applied the simple line drawing to a piece of lino. Using lino cutting tools, we carefully cut out the lines to make the image. After applying paint to the lino, we were able to take a print to create a Christmas card.

After exploring how texture can be created with paint, we were able to produce a finished piece of work for a calendar to take home. Looking at shades of colour for each season, we then added a simple tree silhouette.

Given a puzzle of a person, we were challenged to put it together and work out who it was. Why were they so important?

Discovering it was Alexander Graham Bell, we watched a clip about his life and why he was so passionate about helping those who were deaf to talk. His work as a scientist and inventor was instrumental in developing the telephone that we still use today as a vital means of communication around the world. His knowledge of how sounds are made and how they travel was instrumental in this and we were amazed by his work. We discussed if his work inventing the telephone or work with deaf people, enabling them to have a voice was most important, what do you think?

In Science, we made our own string telephones to explore how sound can travel. We enjoyed working in pairs and were amazed to find that they worked!

Once again we were lucky enough to have support from Trevor from St Thomas' Church to help us create our own Christingles. It was great retrieval from other years to recall the symbolism of each part. We then took our Christingles to church to be lit as part of Year Threes Carol Service.

To master our learning about the water cycle, we created our own circular books based upon the book The Little Raindrop. We followed the cycle the little raindrop took to create a book that told a similar tale. Here is one of our examples! 

After our virtual workshop with Anglian Water, we were sent some resources to use. Recalling some of the ways we can save water, we made pledges of things we could do at school and home to save water and thought of some of the things we could share with adults at home to save water.

Building on our work from the last lesson, we explored once again the work of Rembrandt and his sketches. We each chose one to focus on and looked at how we could re-create his work using the different thickness and direction of lines that he did. Choosing from a wide range of media, we were able to explore how we could work in his style, making careful observations.

We have been challenged to create some snowflakes and stars from wire. We loved exploring the wire and how we could easily bend and sculpt it to create different shapes. Bending it around objects to create the desired effect, we were keen to encourage and support one another in this new skill.

'Encouraging each other, overflowing with hope.'

This week we were developing flexibility and strength in a positive summer flow. Focusing on the down dog, tree pose and cobra, we worked in groups to create and hold the pose. We began to explore other poses, ready to create our own flow too.

After drawing what we thought a Viking would have looked like and describing them as vicious, brave, mighty, menacing warriors, we explored evidence that gave us more information about them. We were surprised to find they were farmers who often lived a simple life, craftsmen who traded and didn't just go around stealing what they wanted.  Our opinion of them definitely changed during the lesson. Make sure you ask us about Vikings and what they were like!

Consolidating our understanding of chronology, we used timelines to explore who was living in Britain and when. We were interested to see that Vikings and Anglo Saxons would have lived side by side. Retrieving our knowledge from previous learning about place names and how we know who named each settlement, we were astounded to see that both Anglo Saxons and Vikings would have resided in our local area.

Viking Loan Box

As we continue to explore trade in Viking Britain, we used the loan box from The Collection in Lincoln to see what clues there were that the Vikings traded. Handling the objects, we asked questions about their life. Who did they belong to? How were they made? What materials were used to make them? Why were they made? 

We loved to ask and begin to answer the questions we had, linking our thinking to how we know Vikings were traders. We were also shocked to discover they were fine craftsmen and that many were simple farming folk who settled here.

Rembrandt- Drawing

This term we are working on creating our sketch books. Exploring the work of Rembrandt and how he creates his sketches of gestural drawings, we have used his sketches to inspire our own. Using a range of different media, we have explored his use of line to create movement in his work.

Anglian Water

We were really lucky to take part in a virtual Anglian Water visit. Exploring how we use water, where it comes from and the work of Anglian Water in ensuring we have clean, filtered water to drink we were able to reflect on our own water usage. Making connections to our prior learning about the Water Cycle, we were able to think about where water comes from and its importance to life around us.

We particularly enjoyed choosing the different materials to use to try and remove as much debris from dirty water as we could. Running on the spot for two minutes, helped to visualise how we waste energy every time we leave the tap running whilst we clean our teeth.

We continue to explore vibrations in sound. Exploring different ways vibrations are made, the sound produced and how we know there are vibrations there to make the sound.

We have been exploring texture using paint. Adding glue and flour to the colour pigment, we are able to create a background for our artwork. We can't wait to share our finished work with you!

How important are vibrations when making sounds?

We began our learning on sound by exploring different percussion instruments and how they make sounds. Identifying how strumming, plucking, shaking and banging create different sounds we went on to carry out investigations. Using our senses of sight, hearing and feel, we were able to begin to describe our observations of how vibrations are vital for making sounds.

What do we notice when a tuning fork hits the table and is then placed in water?

What does this teach us about vibrations?

What do we notice when a drum is struck with grains of rice on it?

How can we create different sounds on a ukulele?

Spelling Fun!

We have really enjoyed exploring spellings to team teach and identify the patterns we are working on. Reading words together and discussing ways to break down words so that they are easy to remember and spell, we really are encouraging each other,  and overflowing with hope. We are able to discuss which are the easiest to spell and those that are trickier for us to focus on during the week.

Working efficiently in Maths.

As we continue to master addition and subtraction methods, we have explored how we can be most efficient with our calculations. Exploring different strategies of using number lines to count on and back, column method, making adjustments and using rounding to support our estimations, we have been able to select the method most useful for each calculation.

Read All About It!

As we continue to write to inform, we have revisited the epic tale of Beowulf, writing news articles about key events. After completed the reading, ending with the death of Beowulf, we retold these events in the form of a news article. Wanting to add quotes to our writing, we took on the role of Wiglaf, writing questions we would want to ask him as an eyewitness, reporting his answers using the correct punctuation for speech in our writing.

Yoga

This term we will be exploring yoga for our PE. Not only will this support our physical fitness, it will also support our mental health too and teach us vital skills for being still and reflective. To begin with we explored connecting breath and movement.

We Will Remember

We had great pride making our poppies for our class wreath. Recalling what it means to remember at this time of year and its importance, we reflected on how we can show respect to others.