On Wednesday in Owl Class we were exploring the idea of a thousand (M if you are of the Roman persuasion!) more and a thousand less with a variety of different numbers and different representations. There were children sorting through multilink, base 10, diennes and all manner of visual representation. The children worked super hard on three different levels of challenge and I was really pleased with the collaborative and independent work they produced. Well done Owls! Have a lovely weekend.
As part of our 150 Year celebrations we were lucky enough to be able to interview a former pupil of the school. My wife’s grandma attended the school in the 1950s and the Year 4s wrote some amazing historical enquiry questions to ask her. Ranging from behaviour and punishments to school lunch, it was great to hear from a living source, all about school at that time. A big thank you to all the children for their enthusiasm and range of questions and thank you to Grandma for answering them!
On Wednesday afternoon we had great fun deciding where to build our Iron Age forts. The children worked quickly to identify relief (hilly land), woods, vegetation and a river/stream. They also worked quickly in using as many post-it-notes as they could in 20 minutes - it was impressive going. Great job everyone but we don’t think there will be any stopping the Roman conquerors coming next week… if you can’t beat them join them!
Welcome to my new Year 4s!
A big thank you to Mrs. Ward and her friends from Pfizer - particularly to our expert - Hannah. Alongside Year 3 we were taught all about the importance of science in medicine making. We had great fun mixing and experimenting with different substances as well as finding out some interesting pharmaceutical facts.
P.S. Lovely clean hands!
WOW! What an amazing couple of days away. A BIG Owl Class thank you to Mrs. Jesse, Miss Dore and Mr. King for taking the time out of their schedules to help us. We had an incredible time: playing, exploring, cooking, making, creating, learning and singing! I must say I learnt a thing or two about camping from some of the seasoned campers in our class. I also learnt quite a few new campfire songs! To top it off, the weather was absolutely glorious. What a great way to spend a couple of day! :)
A super well done to all of my lovely Year 4s for their hard work in completing the MTC. You have all done so well and really progressed, especially when you compare your times-tables knowledge to now with September. Lots of brilliant results and I am proud of you all. Great job today!
Today in Year 4 we were lucky enough to be able to carry out some experiments utilising dry ice. The children were in awe of the process of sublimation (a change of state from solid to gas without going through the intermediate liquid phase as normal ice does). Great science work Owls!
Enjoy!
More to come soon.
But here is a wonderful picture of all the class wonderfully dressed up. What a great way to celebrate a really fun and engaging topic. WE HAVE LOVED 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…?!
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!
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!
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!
Viscosity Experiment
White = double cream
Pink = paint
Brown = brown sauce
Black = soap
Today in art we sketched various potions - with some incredible results. The art from some of these children is truly astounding - great work Owls!
All 21 Owls have finished their shields, we’re going to be marching, parading, formation practising and testudo-forming just before the egg roll this afternoon. Eggciting times ahead.
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!
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”.
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!
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!
