Year 4
Summer term
Science this term is all about exploring living things and their habitats! We've been learning about how scientists classify different living things and the similarities and differences between them. From mammals to crustaceans, there are so many different ways to categorise animals, it's been so exciting! We had a deeper look into invertebrates and conducted our own bug hunt, trying to stop the different kinds in our local environment. We had to remember our school rules and think about how we could find and study these creatures without hurting them or destroying their habitats.
Spring term
We came back from our Christmas with a bang... tap and chime as we delved into the exciting topic, Science. We have begun the spring term by exploring the concept of sound. In these fun lessons, we were able to experiment with musical instruments and question how sound is actually created. We then worked together to explore how sound is able to travel and be heard.
In Computing this half term, we've been working on our collaborative skills in order to support each other and problem solve. We have had the exciting experience of building in 'Minecraft Education'; we were able to apply our mathematics knowledge by following simple design plans and having a go at building different structures in a 3D space. We then challenged ourselves and developed our skills by following more complex designs like recreating the school!
In Science, we have started learning about digestion and how our bodies work. A first, we explored the different types of nutritions and the effects that they have on us; it was very interesting to learn about where our energy comes from. After this, we began to experiment with the effects that different liquids have on our teeth; we did this by using hard -boiled eggs, with the shell replicating our enamel and kept them in different types of liquids (water, coca-cola, vinegar and milk). We can't wait to see what has happened to the eggs!
In Spring 1, we have been learning all about what our bodies need in order to survive. First, we looked a different nutrients and the kinds of foods that will help us stay healthy. After this, we wandered what happens to the nutrients and how our body processes them; together, we built a human digestive system and worked together to show each stage of the body processing food. As you can tell, it was quite messy, but very fun!
On Numbers Day, the entire school dressed up as a number and were given different challenges to complete! In year 4, we had to use our elephant learning power to work collaboratively and build the tallest tower by using only 60 blocks! We thought it would be easy, until we started building and soon realised we would have to think strategically and work together to solve problems as we weren't allowed to help the tower stand up. We had to be resilient when our towers fell over.
We have been so lucky to enjoy the nice weather out in forest school. This new and exciting part of our learning ensured we could explore the outdoors around us, problem solve together and get friendly with the environment. We've covered so much from tieing knots, building and testing rope swings and even making fires!
Autumn term
Ufton Court Trip
What a fantastic start to year 4! Linking with our Romans topic, we had the amazing opportunity of visiting Ufton Court and spending the day learning all about life in Roman times. We worked together to protect our General by using shields and different formations - this helped us to develop our collaborative skills as we had to make sure we worked as a team. We were then able to explore the life of a Roman solider through the exciting experience of slow - motion sword fighting! The more dramatic our death, the better! After all of this, we continued to work collaboratively as we took part in Roman trading!
RE Day
As part of our RE learning and focus concept of 'Worship', Year 4 spent the day learning all about Hinduism. We firstly focused on how Christians worship God and the things we do in school such as saying prayers and lighting candles together. We then looked at the 'Puja' (the act of Hindu worship) and how this compared and differed to Christianity. We were very respectful as we investigated the items on the Puja tray.
