It's great to be back! I'm really proud of how hard the children have worked in my absence. They have taken everything in their stride and coped with changes to their normal routine admirably. Well done Year 4.
This week, we've enjoyed the beautiful sunshine as much as possible! Breaktimes and lunchtimes have been on the field and our PE lesson on Thursday was outside on the field too. I've seen great improvements in the children's teamwork skills in PE lessons. They are really communicating well to achieve the best results during the games. Have a look at some pictures below from our PE lesson this week. Looking ahead, we have our Spring assessment week next week. The children will sit 2 Maths papers and a reading paper. It's an opportunity for them to show how much they have learnt and how hard they have worked. We will also be carrying on with our current topics of 'Light' in Science, 'Migration' in Geography and also beginning to write a class version of part of the story of 'Leon and the Place Between'. I'm also really proud of the children this week for organising their Bake Sale to raise money for the people of Ukraine. This was a big success and the cakes looked (and tasted amazing!) Year Four have been amazing this week! Miss Ruby and I have taught the class in Miss Radbourne’s absence and we have been really impressed with their attitude to work and how they have coped with changes to their timetable and usual routines. The highlight of the week was of course our visit to Escot to learn more about the Anglo Saxons. Our first activity was to conquer the maze. A feat of determination, team work and communication, and a good way to run off some energy after the coach journey. The teaching team, dressed up in historical costume, took us to the Saxon Village. They showed us around the village and taught us more about Saxon life. In the workshop we leant to carve wood on a lathe, chisel runes in to wood and see many tools they used and items they would have made in that time. We made a mallet handle and carved a sign. Do you know what it says? In the forge, we were blacksmiths and learnt how to heat and twist metal to make a broach. In the home, we milled grain to make flour, then made bread in a traditional wood fired oven. We sat in fox decorated thrones and saw the kinds of materials people would have had used in their homes. Of course we also enjoyed fighting to defend our village, and putting criminals the stocks and pillory! And I was inspired to introduce a new school rule! In the afternoon we went on a nature walk where we learnt about plants and how they were used as medicines. We visited animals which would have roamed the Devon countryside in Saxon times including wolves, boar, wild cats and lynx. The team were really impressed with the knowledge the children came with, it was clear they have enjoyed learning about this period of time in class, and this experience had added enormously to their understanding. Thank you so much to Miss Radbourne for organising this trip, I know she was really disappointed not to be able to go. A big thank you to Mrs Squires, Mrs Jelley and to the team at Escot for giving the children such a brilliant experience.
Wishing Miss Radbourne and the children who have been away this week a speedy recovery, we look forward to seeing you all back next week. Miss Penny One of the highlights of this week was our Forest School session on Tuesday afternoon, during which we were making a wall in the style of the Anglo-Saxons using Wattle & Daub. The first step was to dig the posts into the ground, which the children took charge of. They then had to weave sticks in and out of the posts which was a bit tricky as they did occasionally snap. Afer this was the messy part! The children made a mixture of mud and straw, using water to mix it all together. This was then used to coat the wall. Everyone worked really hard and we had a lovely afternoon!
Another exciting project this week was in English. The children worked hard 'publishing' their cinquain poems written last week, and we created our very own class poem book. We have now started a new text in English called 'Leon and the Place Between'. In Maths, we have moved onto a new unit about Decimals, focusing this week on understanding how to write tenths and hundredths as decimals. We continued learning about 'Light' in Science, and discovered how reflection can be useful. Our Geography topic, Migration, involved learning about why people migrate and the push and pull factors which can influence this. The children have taken a real interest to learning about this, asking mature and thoughtful questions, some of which consider the current migration taking place from Ukraine. Next week is looking like a busy one and I'm sure the highlight will be our trip to Escot. We are really excited! Please see ClassDojo for information and reminders about this. Have a great weekend, Miss Radbourne. It's the end of the first week back after half term and we've had a great week in Ash Class. We have started lots of new topics which have engaged and excited the children. In English, we have learnt about Cinquain poems. These are shaped like a diamond and have 5 lines. As a class, we wrote 2 poems together: Thunder Loud and noisy Crashing, booming, banging Waking children in the night time Stormy Chocolate Solid and smooth Breaking, crunching, munching It's delicious not nutritious Cocoa In Maths, we have just finished our unit on fractions and will begin learning about decimals next week. Science involved starting our topic all about 'Light and we investigated the difference between transparent, translucent and opaque materials. We are studying Geography this term and our topic is 'Migration'. The children had a lot of questions about this which we will answer in the coming weeks.
World Book Day was celebrated on Thursday by designing and decorating our own t-shirts featuring our favourite book characters, then either wearing the t-shirts or dressing up today. Have a look at some of the photos below - the children looked great! |
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March 2024
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