Year 4 News 2016-2017
Sports Day 14th June
Year 4 enjoying sports day at the Oval Bebington. The weather was fine and the children were all dressed in their house t-shirts. A very excited year 4 set off on the coach to Bebington. We were straight into our first event and worked round the different sporting activities. The most popular being the high jump. We finished by racing in our house teams with the relay race. The children showed a fantastic team effort and ensured they gave their best.
Year 4 Residential to Delamere
Year 4 have returned from their residential in Delamere Forest.
The whole class worked as a team to complete the activities including den building, orienteering, and Tyrolean traverse.
We then travelled back to the Wirral for our sailing lesson.
What a busy couple of days but enjoyed by all.
Well done Year 4!
English (wb 8th May)
As part of our non-fiction unit this term, pupils carried out a role play in groups acting as a Tudor king or queen, tailor and a reporter. They worked as a team to help the reporter write down the conversation using relevant speech marks and punctuation. Pupils enjoyed an interactive but focused lesson!
Art (wb 13th Mar)
This week in Art pupils have been continuing their Tudor Collage project using a range of materials. They have enjoyed linking this to their learning on The Tudors in History!
Science
SEED Madagascar - Conservationists
Year 4 have been learning all about soil erosion in Madagascar. This is caused by deforestation, and leads to many areas of Madagascar being used for agricultural purposes, or left as barren soilless land. This means less habitats for the amazing, endemic plants and creatures of Madagascar. SEED Madagascar are a N.G.O working with the people of Madagascar to ensure they can earn a living through projects such as bee keeping, instead of the need to cut down and burn areas of rainforest for income. We have been working with SEED to develop new ideas for conservation. The conservationists there loved our ideas for ways in which people can share their environment with other living things in a sustainable way. Some were even shared on one of their Facebook blog posts here:
https://www.facebook.com/SEEDMadagascar/posts/?ref=page_internal
Skyping SEED Madagascar
Following our conservation ideas, we began to learn about different plants and animals in Madagascar. Some favourites are; the comet moth, flying foxes, lemurs and fossas.
We continued this research by video calling Madagascar to speak to Harriet Stigner the Beekeeping Specialist, and Jack Ord the Project Development Officer at SEED. We were able to ask lots of questions, as well as learning all about pollinators. Did you know that banana plants are pollinated by flying foxes?
For more fascinating facts about Madagascan animals and plants, ask a member of Y4.
Water Treatment
As part of our 'Water' topic in Geography (linked to Science) Year 4 have been investigating how our water is treated. They used sieves, cotton wool, funnels, sand, spoons, rocks and filter paper to filter dirty water through a number of stages.
Water Hardness and the Mpemba effect
Year 4 have been investigating water hardness and the Mpemba effect as part of their geography topic on water.
Water hardness was tested using special colour changing strips, which we compared to a chart to determine the hardness of our local tap water.
Tap water varies from soft to hard in different areas of the country, due to the rocks it has filtered through, and where it has been stored.
You can find out more about this by watching the video on http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/z893k2p.
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BBC Terrific Scientific - Ruby Barnhill investigates water The BFG star Ruby Barnhill goes on a journey to Buxton to investigate why there are differences in our tap water across the UK. |
We now also feature on the interactive BBC Terrific Scientific Map. First find our school, then select the water experiment to see our results.
The other experiments will be completed throughout the course of the year and uploaded to the corresponding university, so keep checking!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/terrificscientific/map
International Mother Language Day (wb 13th Jan)
We celebrated International Mother Language Day by asking parents to share their ‘mother’ language with us. The response was tremendous and we were very lucky to have a full day where we practised not only the language but also learnt about some of the traditions of the countries. Year 4 lessons were Arabic, Farsi (Persian), German, Greek, Italian, Korean and Mandarin. At assembly, two of our year 4 boys also put on a very impressive demonstration of the Korean martial art Taekwondo.
Health & Wellbeing (wb 30th Jan)
As part of our Health and Wellbeing topic this term, In PSHCEE this week Emma form Glencain Dental practice came and talked to the children in Year 4. She demonstrated the most efficient method when cleaning our teeth and the children all had a practice with the toothbrush on a ‘dental teeth’ model. The children were interested to learn that after cleaning their teeth they should never rinse their mouth out with water, as this might rinse away the fluoride which they have just coated their teeth with. All the children enjoyed wearing the mouth masks and gloves and I hope they will continue cleaning their teeth using the correct method, using their new toothbrushes.
French (wb 30th Jan)
The children have been learning the vocabulary and structures associated with naming family members. They have created their own family tree, matched the French to the English and have shown that they can use the correct possessive adjective, dependent on gender. They had fun listning to various monsters describing their families and matching what they heard to pictures.
Mummification
Children used their knowledge of mummification to mummify a tomato in Science. First, they made a small incision in the tomato using a knife, and then they scooped out the seeds inside using a spoon. During Ancient Egyptian mummification these ‘organs’ would have been stored in canopic jars, we kept ours on brown trays to keep them ‘safe’. The children then rubbed the entire tomato with antibacterial gel using kitchen towel. This killed any nasty germs that may have been lurking inside the ‘body’. Next, the children weighed their tomato to find the pre-mummification weight.
To complete their job as embalmers, Year 4 filled the tomatoes with ‘natron’, ensuring it was sealed tight using bandages and packed the ‘bodies’ into their containers.
We allowed the tomatoes to preserve for 2 weeks, then unwrapped them to find the skin had dried and become wrinkled. The tomatoes also weighed a lot less. Why do you think this is?
Making Malas
To complete out topic on Buddhism we worked in groups to make Buddhist jewellery. A mala is a string of prayer beads commonly used by Hindus, Buddhists and some Sikhs for spiritual practice. Malas are used for keeping count while reciting, chanting, or mentally repeating a mantra. We used beads which represent natural materials; wood, bone and coral.
Report Research
This week the pupils in Year 4 have enjoyed finding out more about animals by accessing the internet and non-fiction books. They have conducted their own research and have been motivated to plan a report based on their own interests. We look forward to writing and thinking about ways to present them next week!
Greek Food Tasting
This week in History, Year 5 have participated in an Ancient Greek food tasting session, commenting on taste, texture, aroma and appearance. Some pupils felt that the olives were sour and bitter, as you can see from some of the reactions!
French
In Year 4 the children have been learning the vocabulary needed to describe their bedroom, house and the furniture in a house. Here they are matching the beginnings and endings of words for rooms in a house. This took a lot of concentration but was helped as they had just played dominoes with the names of rooms in French.
PSHCEE
This week in PSHCEE we have been discussing ‘teamwork’ and learning how to achieve our goals and overcome obstacles by working together and respecting one another. We brainstormed situations in where people help each other and linked this to the Olympics. Our second PSHCEE session was to carry out co-operative games. One was a ‘Balloon Bop’ and ‘All Aboard’, where the pupils were given a challenge to all fit into the loop of rope and ensure everyone was inside. As the activity progressed the circle was made smaller! The pupils had to stop and think about an idea on how they were to get everybody inside the circle. They decided that they would all step inside one at a time and help each other to avoid them all jumping in and causing an accident. A sensible choice!
States of Matter
Year 4 have been investigating evaporation. They planned their own experiments, thinking about the variables they would have to control and change. They found that the colour of the material does not have an impact on the rate of evaporation. One group discovered that the higher the temperature of the room, the more water was evaporated. Another group realised the cloth they didn't hang up had 3.5ml more water than the one on the washing line!
Coca Cola Coins
Following on from studying the 3 states of matter in a bottle of Coca Cola, Year 4 predicted the impact it would have on a coin. After leaving the coins submerged for a few days, those who used copper coins such as a 2p found that the drink removed the oxide layer from the coin. Leaving it looking shiny and brand new. The copper oxide reacted with phosphoric acid to produce copper phosphate which does not adhere to the penny so the penny is left bright and shiny.
Constructing 3-Dimensional Shapes
In Maths, Year 4 have been looking at the properties of 3D shapes. Before they built their models they had to work out how many edges and vertices their model would have. After designing their cubes some children went on to make a tetrahedron, triangular based prisms and even a dodecahedron, which has 12 flat faces.
Celebrating differences
Year 4 children were looking at potatoes in this week’s PHSCEE lesson. They took note of their characteristics and used these to make up stories about their potatoes.
The children came up with names for their potatoes such as Bob, Bubbles and Jeffrey and we learnt that they had hobbies including breakdancing, swinging on the monkey bars and watching TV. Their favourite food was pizza and potato salad!
After mixing our potatoes back in the bag we tried to find them but then discussed that it didn’t really matter because although they had differences they were still potatoes and therefore similar.
We then talked about how we were all different and that was to be celebrated but we are still all human beings.
Year 4 make raisins dance!
Today year 4 investigated gases in science, using carbon dioxide bubbles in lemonade to make raisins dance. Carbon dioxide bubbles attached themselves to the raisins and acted like little lifejackets to bring the raisins to the top of the container. When the bubbles burst, the raisins sank again, making them dance up and down.
Year 4 have the whole world in their hands!
During Geography lessons, year 4 have been learning all about layers of the Earth. A modelling dough was made using hair conditioner, corn flour and food colouring. The children then worked together in small groups to make models showing the crust, mantle, outer core and inner core.
How to Train Your Dragon
Year 4 have kick started their new topic on 'How to Train Your Dragon' in English by presenting their own imagined dragons. They have read the first few chapters of the book and discussed the characters, selecting powerful adjectives and identifying adventurous vocabulary to describe them. They have used drama techniques to act out scenes within the story, created character profiles and learned all about pronouns.
