Year 3 and Year 4 loved visiting the British Museum to take a look at some artefacts from the Kingdom of Benin and learn more about this period of history. We realised that these primary sources can tell us lots about the way the Benin people lived. We noticed that there were lots of powerful models of the Obas (Kings) and strong animals to help represent them. Lots of these objects were made from brass, coral and ivory.
Luckily, we also had time to visit the Ancient Egyptian displays to remind ourselves about what we had learned about last term. We even challenged ourselves to spot some cartouches and hieroglyphs on some of these artefacts. We even saw the actual Rosetta Stone! The Year 4 children were excited to visit Tate Britain art gallery to see their class photo in a special exhibition. It was amazing to see the photograph that was taken of the class last year when they were in Year 3 up on display for the world to see. It was even more fun to be able to be in an art gallery and be allowed to make lots of noise!
The children then reflected on how their lives had already changed so much since Year 3 and enjoyed comparing all their new ‘favourites’ with their friends. After looking at their photo, the children visited the Turner gallery and spent some time choosing their favourite piece of art, which they then tried to copy. It was lovely to be able to relax in this gallery and look closely at some very impressive paintings. Year 4 are learning all about Egypt and the Ancient Egyptians. We have been finding out about the geography of the landscape and have been thinking how important the River Nile was and still is today. We are now beginning to think about where the Ancient Egyptians fit into the history of the world and worked together to put some key events onto a timeline.
The Ancients Egyptians were around 5000 thousand years ago so we needed to go outside where we had more space. We decided that Miss Baxter’s foot represented 100 years – she had to walk a long way up the playground. This week, we have been learning about forces. Having explored Egypt on Google Maps, we wondered how the Ancient Egyptians were able to drag huge stone blocks across the desert to build the pyramids.
We learnt that there would be lots of friction between the rocks and the ground when they were being dragged so we investigated which material would have made dragging these rocks easier. We used Newton Meters to measure the amount of force it takes to move big rocks across a range of different materials. We found out that smooth plastic caused the least resistance. This year, Year 4 have been discussing the importance of looking after our environment and have begun to make our school community a more eco-friendly place. We introduced paper and card recycling boxes in every classroom and have been keeping up to date with any news about how the waste we produced is damaging our environment. We were really disappointed to see how much rubbish we noticed in the river on the way to our Swimming lessons each week and really wanted to do something about it!
So, we went down to Ladywell Fields and got geared up in special waders and gloves, ready to help the community by removing rubbish from the river. We filled up lots of heavy duty sacks with the rubbish we found. We found lots of plastic, a towel, a shoe, cans, bottles and many more! We felt really happy to be helping out make our green spaces more attractive for our community but the most important thing was that we helped reduce a tiny about of rubbish that would probably eventually end up in our oceans! Who knew that cleaning up rubbish could be so fun! Year Four had a fantastic day on the Heath representing St Mary’s in an interschool cricket festival! Having spent last term working with the Platform Cricket coaches, Year Four have been developing their cricket skills and game play. We took three teams to the festival to battle for first place.
All of our teams played fantastically using their collaboration and communication skills. We are very proud that Team A won all their games and went on to win the tournament, bringing home some medals for our school. We loved it! In Year Four, we had a brilliant day carrying out investigations and learning about different journeys in science. We showed lots of perseverance and collaboration skills when we acted like structural engineers and built a structure out of straws and tape. Next, we investigated the differences in the distance a sneeze travels when using a hand or tissue in front of our mouths.
After lunch we developed our knowledge of pollution in different environment and thought about how we an help to reduce the impact of pollution. Finally, we made poo! This was brilliant fun because we learnt all about the journey of food through our bodies. It was disgusting!! |
Year 4
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