Sapphire’s news from this week.
Our week always starts with a visit from Mr Heggarty. He is a well renowned storyteller who is working with us for the next few months.
He tells us stories from across the world and gets us to join in. We love the stories he tells us; they’re funny, exciting and at times scary. We’ve jumped out of our seats at times because we’re so engrossed in the story and then shocked when he makes a sudden noise or action.
We are using Marcy and the Riddle of the Sphinx by Joe-Todd Stanton in our English lessons. The Y4s are excited as it links to a book they did last year. We have had to imagine being Marcy so we can write diary entries talking about our fears and going on an adventure. We are really enjoying this unit because it links to what we are doing in History.
We’ve been working on becoming archaeologists in our History lessons. We have had to ‘dig’ up artefacts and work out what they were, how they were used and who used them. Once we did that, we had to measure and then draw the artefacts for our records, just like Howard Carter did when he discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun.
Our Science is also linked to our History. This week we set up an experiment to see which substance best preserves an apple; basically we are mummifying apples! We’ve all started making predictions about which substance would do the job of natron (the ‘salt’ the Egyptians used in mummification). We won’t know the results for a few weeks though.
In Art, we have been working on our observation skills. We have learnt that we have to focus on the shape of the object we are drawing before we attempt any kind of detail. In our sketch books, we have a whole page just of the shape and then a page focusing on the detail; we are seeing ourselves as proper artists now.
In Maths we have been looking at place value, making sure we all understand how numbers work. We’ve enjoyed the explore it challenges in maths even though they can be quite hard at times.
We’re are loving getting to use the Chrome books this year. Mrs Saeed is teaching our computing while Miss Tonner teaches Cyan Class their art. It’s good getting to work with the different teachers in our year group. We’re learning how to use Scratch to animate things and make a little show.
Our class read ‘Land of Roar’ is brilliant. If you love imaginary worlds with wizards, dragons, mermaids and flying scarecrows, then this book is for you. It’s so funny and at the same it can be a little bit scary when the villain appears. We always groan when Miss Tonner leaves ends on a cliffhanger!
We have been extremely busy this term but it’s been great fun. We can’t wait to see what we’ve got coming our way next term!
—