Making Potions!

This week, we’ve had the great opportunity of being able to make our own potions from a wide variety of ingredients. There were some truly hideous looking concoctions out there and I can safely say I would have been happy to consume absolutely NONE of them! However, the children showed a brilliant awareness of joining up all their work on Instruction Writing in English with a keen scientific mind. Some even took inspiration from some of the historic potion recipes we have read and researched about.

Here is a class favourite for all of you from Bald’s Leechbook written during the 9th century! (Anglo-Saxon)

INFECTIONS POTION.

Ingredients - Leek, Garlic, Wine, Cow Bile

Mash up equal quantities of leek and garlic. Mix together with wine and cow bile and leave to stand in a brass bowl for nine days. Smear on the infected area.

YUM! Who needs a trained doctor eh…?!

Potions - Red Cabbage Indicator!

Today we had fun experimenting with red cabbage indicator to check if household substances were acidic or alkaline or neutral.

We went through the rules of treating the classroom like it was a laboratory - including hazard symbols.

It was brilliant making scientific predictions and then noting down our observations as the afternoon progressed. We even started to discuss the relative strength of the substances and a few researched the pH Scale!

We looked for patterns and were able to ensure that we carried out a fair test.

I was super impressed by their enthusiasm and scientific approach to our entire investigation.

A really brilliant afternoon - great work super scientist Owls!

Anaesthetic Facts - Treasure Hunt!

On Wednesday we found facts related to the history of anaesthetic from around the world.

Some of the best facts:

1600BC - Acupunture is recorded to be used in China for pain relief.

In c.1350 the Incans chewed coca leaves with vegetable ash to make a paste that they used to spit into the wounds of patients to relieve pain.

4000BC - The Sumerians are the first opium poppy seeds as anesthetic.

We had fun matching the facts to the years and the countries which they matched to - the big map in the playground was very helpful to some!

ENGAGE - Potions class!

Today we tested out the viscosity of several different substances. Our results were varied, with the water speeding down the ramp in 3 seconds, while the brown sauce took a painstaking 11m and 44s!

Messy fun and a great way to begin our topic on POTIONS!

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Viscosity Experiment

White = double cream

Pink = paint

Brown = brown sauce

Black = soap

Fabulous Fishbourne!

We had a wonderful day visiting Fishbourne Roman Palace on Monday. The sun was shining, the weather was beautiful and we even ate lunch outside! The children were a credit to the school and they were really brilliant at showing off all of their Roman knowledge to our activity leader. On a personal note, I very much enjoyed being appointed (by democratic vote - oh how they regretted it!) as head slave. I really bossed the children about in the Roman kitchen, a Gordon Ramsey of the Roman World!

Live Lesson - Lant Street Teenager - Written in Bone

Today we all took part in an online lesson, involving the Museum of London. We heard from a bone archaeologist as well as author, Caroline Lawrence. We learnt all about the Lant Street teenager, a skeleton discovered in London as well as making lots of reasoned opinions based on all the evidence. The children were able to ask questions using the Live Chat option and we were delighted to have several of our questions answered! Caroline Lawrence talked to us all about historical fiction and her new book, “The Time Travel Diaries”.

Shields and sunshine!

Lots of teamwork and friendship on show as we all helped our friends to finish their shields… nearly there! I can’t wait to see the class practise the testudo formation!

Self-Regulated Learning

On Friday afternoons, all the Year 4s partake in Self-regulated learning. They are allowed to choose the order in which they approach tasks. The children are gaining proficiency in prioritising their own learning and thinking about what tasks they should complete in what order. A lot of educational research shows that meta-cognition is an important part of developing the whole learner. We definitely want all of Owls to show they are lifelong learners. Here are some quotes from our Year 4 students:

“We really like the choice element surrounding tasks.”

“I like how it promotes our independence and that everyone is often doing something different.”

“It’s not doing everything in an exact order.”

“We don’t have to just concentrate on one subject.”

“I like that it is ordered by traffic light colour”

“I enjoy the feeling of ticking my jobs off!”

“The teacher does not have to tell us what to do, we can do it ourselves.”

Today there was painting shields (Art) happening; there was music appreciation (with the headphones); English publishing of our chapters happening - so we can send them to the author; Maths work going on; Board game design and DT, plus some history research!

You'll really dig this lesson.

On Wednesday afternoon we undertook some Archaeology work - aiming to uncover some primary Roman evidence. We carefully excavated four Roman graves and discovered various items, including bracelets, vases and hobnails. The children all enjoyed using various tools to help them with the project. We have also watched a real archaeologist talk about areas such as carbon dating and looking at the chemical composition of their bones and the importance of teeth. All in all a muddy but educational and fun afternoon!

World Book Day and The Thief Lord Writing

Massive apologies for completely forgetting to take pictures of all the children so brilliantly dressed up. Special mention to two particular male Owls who were amazing (and I suspect a little chilly) in their dresses. It was brilliant to talk all about books and share our love of reading. We have also spent the last week and will spend all of next week writing a Chapter for the Thief Lord. The Thief Lord is our class text at the moment and I have been really impressed by not only the attention to detail in our writing (lots of Venetian place names) but also all the SPaG we’ve managed to fit into our writing. We’ve had subordinate clauses opening sentences, fronted adverbials (always demarcated with commas), some really brilliant direct speech, a range of pronouns and also some powerful adverbs, verbs and adjectives. Keep it up Owls! :)

Springtime Owls

Today we decided to work doubly hard in maths and we managed to finish early enough in order to be able to go outside. We took our sketch pads, pencils and watercolours and really enjoyed ourselves looking at all the natural life in and around the pond next to our school. It was a lovely way to spend the half hour before lunch!

Merci et Au Revoir Maurine!

On Friday we said a fond farewell to our Belgian visitor. Maurine really enjoyed visiting all of the Owls and says she really enjoyed the experience. Thanks to the hard work of Mrs. Jesse we really enjoyed dissecting owl pellets and then making yummy Belgian waffles as a goodbye treat! Maurine was an integral part of our class and we shall definitely miss her - we all wish her lots of luck in becoming a languages teacher back home dans Belgique!