Welcome to Italy class! We are Year 4. Our teachers are Mrs. Malthouse and Miss Wild (on Fridays) and our teaching assistant is Mrs. Christian.
Archive
This term, Year 4 has the exciting opportunity to learn the violin! Today was our first lesson with our teacher, Mrs Buckland. We learned what the different parts of the violin were called and what they were made of. We learned what the strings were called and a method of playing called pizzicato where we plucked the strings. In the picture, you can see some of the children holding their bows! The children all had an amazing time and were very well-behaved. We cannot wait until our lesson next week!
In our Real PE session today, we were looking at challenging ourselves with an activity called ‘Exchange Objects’! In this lesson, each pair of children had two hoops, one of which contained 4 objects (2 cones, a ball and a ring). One at a time the children needed to try to move the objects from one ring to the other repeatedly using only their feet! They would have 30 seconds to see how many times they could move an object! There were three levels to this task: Level 1 allowed the children to put 2 hands down behind them as they lifted up their legs and used their feet to pick up the objects. Level 2 asked them to have only 1 hand on the floor and the other arm held over their tummies. Level 3 asked the children to have no hands down at all and try to remain balanced as they worked on their task! It was extremely tricky in places but each child chose a level of challenge they could cope with and gave it their best! Well done, Year 4!
Today, Year 4, 5 and 6 were lucky enough to have the author C.S. Clifford come to work with us! He talked with all of the children in the hall and answered lots of their questions. He also showed them his books and discussed some of the characters and plot points. Once he had spoken, he gave Year 4 a writing challenge! He wanted us to write 3 paragraphs starting with a location he uses in his own books: a waterfall that acts like a portal, transporting the children to a strange place. Then, they needed to describe the place they ended up! It was very much like the English countryside but also very odd! He suggested to the children maybe the trees might be strange colours or textures; maybe they might grow sideways or downwards! Then, they would spot a trail and follow it until they met a large mythical creature! The children were told to make their mythical creature by mixing and matching parts of creatures that already existed! Their final challenge was describing how they would communicate with this creature, who was very friendly and lonely but didn’t speak English!
The author then visited the children in the classroom after break and discussed their ideas and taught them some really good tips for making their writing as good as it can be! Big thanks go out to C.S Clifford for visiting us and making writing so much fun!
We have been learning about primary, secondary and tertiary colours. We experimented with these colours in our painting. When it was dry, we used the ‘overpainting’ technique to add patterns to our piece.
Today, the children were very lucky to receive a workshop led by John, a professional dancer. Through dance, they told the story of Rama and Sita, a tale which is celebrated each year at Diwali. Diwali is the annual Hindu Festival of Light. The story of Rama and Sita is about Rama rescuing Sita from a demon King Ravana with the help of Hanuman and his monkey army. The children had a wonderful time representing the characters and were so well-behaved! Well done, Year 4!
To support our learning about Ordnance Survey maps and local geography, Year 5 went on a walk through Wymondham. We started at school, crossed over Browick Road, then cut through to Norwich Road where we used the pedestrian crossing. Then, we walked up Bridewell Street and down Market street, before going up Damgate Street to the River Tiffey. On the way, we discussed human and physical features and land heights, particularly noting how the land rises and falls as you approach and leave the Market Cross. Damgate Street itself also rises as you walk up it and when we reached the Tiffey valley, the children were quite interested to see how the land height was higher on either side of the river. You can see this on the topographical map below, which we took with us.
We also looked out for various examples of human and physical features along the path beside the river and discussed the impact humans have had upon the area. The children were so studious when looking at their maps and they enjoyed comparing what the land looked like on the map with what it looked like in real life.
The children all had a wonderful time and behaved impeccably!
Recently, Year 5 children have had the opportunity to visit Windmill House and spend time with the residents there. A group of around ten children have visited every other Friday and taken part in activities such as reading, colouring, planting and playing lots of games. The residents at Windmill House have been so happy to spend time with the children and each time the children return they talk with great enthusiasm about the fantastic time they have had. The positive effect this partnership has had on both the residents and the children has been amazing to see and we hope to fit in more visits before the end of term.
On Sunday 12th May, one of our Year Fives, Millie Jenkins, completed Race for Life at the Norfolk Showground. She completed it with her mum and some of her mum’s friends and they raised £600! Many congratulations, Millie! We are all very proud of you!
This term, we have been working with micro:bits! Micro:bits are very small computers that the children use to practise coding. These amazing miniature devices can sense, measure and log all sorts of input including light, temperature, sound, movement and even magnetism! They also have buttons and sensors for the children to experiment with. This week, we used the micro:bits to create polling programs. Each button was coded to add to the total for a particular choice! The children used the micro:bits to poll topics such as: favourite sports, animals, football teams, subjects, movies, music and games and then questioned each other. They had a fantastic time!
If you’d like to find out more about the micro:bits, visit this link: https://microbit.org/get-started/what-is-the-microbit/#computing-made-physical
Today, the Year 5 children had the fantastic experience of visiting the Sainsbury Centre, which tied in with the History topic we are currently studying: the ancient Mayans!
When we arrived, we were met by Becca (who works for the Sainsbury Centre facilitating school visits) and Marnie (an artist who led our incredible session)! They explained what we would be doing and the children sat so quietly and listened very carefully to all the instructions.
Then, Becca and Marnie took us up to the Gallery and showed us some of the artwork from the Mayan period, alongside other more modern artwork inspired by the Mayans. The children were given small, folded books of paper and asked to look closely at these objects, making sketches of the patterns and figures they saw. They spent several minutes studiously observing different sculptures before they were given a second task – to show depth in their drawings using shading as if the image had been carved. The children were so focused during this section and produced some excellent ideas that would serve them well in the upcoming session in the studio!
The children gathered in the studio for the next part and were given green wax tablets to imitate jade. They were also provided with tools, gloves, and protective goggles. Their goal was to create a 3D relief using some of the patterns they had seen in the gallery (and drawn in their books) on their wax tablet. To start with, they found it quite hard, but they soon found their groove. The end results were very impressive!
After this, the children had a chance to spend some time outside sketching the sculptures, the ziggurats and the park’s beautiful surroundings.
The children all had an amazing day and were perfectly behaved. Thanks to Ms Barker, Mrs Boyce, and Mrs Forsdick for supporting them, to the Sainsbury Centre for their amazing sessions, and to the Friends for helping us with the cost of the coach!