Weekly News 14th December 2018

Wow! What a busy week! Year 4 spent the first part of this week performing 'Bah Humbug!', first to the school and then to parents and family. Throughout, they maintained an extremely high standard of both performance and behaviour and should be very proud of what they have achieved.

Throughout all of this, the children have continued to learn and practise their times tables and will be looking to improve their score on the '66 tables facts' at the end of the week.

We have nearly reached the end of 'The Pugs of the frozen North' and the children are excited to find out how the story ends. They loved the idea of echosnow, screechsnow, slumbersnow and shrinksnow and then  had a lot of fun inventing new kinds of snow and describing its effects.

Reading Champions
Would you be willing, and are you able to spare some time, to come into school on a regular basis and read with some children? If so, we would love to hear from you. 

Weekly News 7th November

This week, we received a nocturnal visit from Father Christmas. He left snowy footprints outside the door and a letter inviting the children to tell him what they have been up to this year and what they wanted for Christmas. The children were really excited to draft and write letters back to him.

We have also been rehearsing for the play. The children now know their lines really well and are excited to get into their costumes for the performances.

In maths, we have continued to use the 6 and 9 times tables to solve problems and challenges. 

Next week, we will challenge the children to remember the 66 times tables facts. If you want to give your child a challenge, they can have a go at the times table activity on this site: https://collins.co.uk/pages/primary-mathematics-times-tables-test-simulator.  

Weekly News 30 Nov

This week, we have been exploring the myth of the Kraken and have written class poems inspired by the appearance of this terrifying monster in ‘Pugs of the Frozen North’. If you would like to read the Giraffe’s poem, I have attached it below. Be careful not to read it too late at night! We are now following the Great North Race and have been drawing maps to show our understanding.

In Maths, we have continued to explore the effects of dividing by one, and have been representing our thinking with bar models. We are also looking at multiplication and division facts for the 6 times table.

This week, The Giraffes have been very busy with Lions and the year 3 classes rehearsing for our play, ‘Bah Humbug!’ the singing is already amazing and next week we need to ensure that the Children are able to say their lines without having their scripts on stage. The help that you give your children with this is greatly appreciated.

The Kraken

Kraken sneaks sneakily

With long scary tentacles

Ice breaking like glass

Dropping from the sky

Clear crackling ice with slimy slithery Kraken rising,

Massive rock tentacles

As frightening as a great white shark

As long as six pythons

Body rising like snakes

Most ancient, enormous fearful Kraken.

Skin silver like a shark

Enormous like skyscrapers

Overwhelming power and destruction

Fearless danger

Snaky tentacles like endless roller coasters

Fast as a bullet, demands power

Gliding through darkness.

Slithering like snakes

Eyes full of fear

Frightening, sharp beak, tearing  prey.

Scraping sharp points.

Big bulging eyes like giants

Crashing on the sea like huge waves

Sharp, strong killing claws

Body like red-hot steaming lava.

You will never see it coming.

Weekly News

This week we have been writing letters to the Snowfather. The children really enjoyed imagining what they would do if they lived in Snowdovia. They are now imagining what it would be like taking part in the Great North Race.

In maths, we have been dividing and multiplying numbers by 0, 1, 10 and 100. Sounds easy doesn't it? The children have been using their knowledge to solve challenges and problems.

In science, we have continued to think about changing states. We now know that  ice, water and steam are actually all the same thing. Our experiments show that the only difference is temperature.

We have continued to practise our play, 'Bah Humbug!'. It is very important that the children all know their lines by next week as we will start rehearsing in earnest.

This week, for our reading cafe, we listened to the story of Rama and Sita. We learned that Diwali is a time when Hindus and Sikhs celebrate their reunion. We made our own Diwali lamps and Rangoli patterns to join in the celebrations.

We also collected words to help us think about light and guidance.

How much does gas weigh?

Surely it doesn't weigh anything does it? We weighed bottles of lemonade and then opened them to let the carbon dioxide gas out. What do you think we discovered?

Winter Wonderland

We have been doing Winter Wonderland as our new topic . We have been  reading 'Pugs of the Frozen North.'We have been making pugs and designing jumpers for them. Also, we have been thinking about what it would be like being trapped  and have been listening to the sounds of boats stuck in the freezing ice. We wrote noun phrases that described what it might have been like.
                                                     - Imogen and Chloe

Aquaducts

We have been thinking about how the Romans moved water to their towns and cities. We  discovered that they used aquaducts. We decided to make our own structures to transport water, but the only materials that we had were newspaper and sticky tape. 

Surely that's not possible? -  Hah! Giraffes don't understand the meaning of the word!

Bar Models in Maths

We are using bar models to help us understand and create number sentences. This is particularly helpful when we are using larger 4-digit numbers.

We can also use bar models to help us understand what we need to do. They help us find the missing value.

Science Cafe

Yesterday morning, Year 4 had an egg-cellent time at our Science Cafe! The children used their scientific skills to make eggs float and prevent them from cracking when dropped.

Thank you to everyone who came - we hope you enjoyed our egg-periments as much as we did!

Resourceful Children!

In Maths, we have been finding the lines of symmetry of different triangles and quadrilaterals. It was fantastic to see the children using the working wall to identify which shapes they had and convincing each other using precise, mathematical vocabulary.

Sinister Shape Causes Mayhem!

After a lovely break time in the sun, Giraffe Class returned to the classroom to discover that it had been turned upside down and their games had been stolen!

After tidying this terrible mess, the students created wanted posters using the features of the shapes we have been learning about in class. Mr Body (our caretaker) provided vital evidence to help us deduce who the culprit of this horrendous crime was: Kevin the Kite!

Once he was found, the class had an intense discussion about what his punishment should be.

Finally, we decided to build a prison cell for Kevin the Kite so he will not be able to cause mayhem in any other classrooms!

To ensure this awful event does not happen again, the children have set up the iPad as  'CCTV' to watch out for other shapes entering the classroom during break time and lunch time. One student also sent a letter to the school office to keep a vigilant eye out for any other sinister shapes.

Lessons Taught By Students

By demonstrating our seven wonders of learning, Giraffes have recently reached their target of 3000 dojo points. As a reward for this achievement, the children voted to have a day where they became the teachers. It was fantastic to see them showing off their skills across the curriculum, delivering Maths, Science, English, Music, PE & Art sessions.

West Stow

Last Friday, we explored the West Stow Anglo-Saxon village. We enjoyed seeing artefacts in the museum and discussing the experimental archaeology used to find out about Anglo-Saxon life. Equipped with interesting facts and details, we have returned to school to write a comparison of our lives and how people would have lived 1400 years ago.

Wonderful Learners

Since returning back to school after the holidays, Giraffes have been continuing to demonstrate our seven wonders of learning across the curriculum.

On the first day back, the children were inquisitive when we had a workshop about rock music.

Here, the whole class were focused on their handwriting work. We are focusing on improving our presentation this half term.

The children challenged themselves with tricky mental calculations in our 'Beat the Calculator' task. Very aspirational!

Today, we have worked collaboratively to retrieve and infer information from a text about Grendel - a terrifying monster in our class text 'Beowulf'.

Water Cycle

This morning, we have been concluding our scientific study of solids, liquids and gases by looking at the water cycle. This group of students acted out the water cycle, using scientific vocabulary in their explanation.

Winning Wizards!

Here is a video of the winning spell from our Wizards' Workshop. Enjoy!

Wizards' Workshop

Last week, we were set the challenge of writing our own spells, learning them off by heart and performing them to Whale Class. All the children were very expressive in their performance and included lots of exciting actions! We also made colourful potions to accompany our work.