Mini greenhouses - December 2022
Linking to our topic in the Summer Term, Dig for Victory and learning how people lived without a fridge, freezer or supermarket, Year 4 have been discussing how it is that today we can have non-seasonal fruit and vegetables all year round. This led to a discussion about greenhouses and their use, how they help plants to grow, and also a little about their history.
We have found out that many goods grown abroad are flown to the UK to put on supermarket shelves, but also how commercial greenhouses keep us stocked up with our favourite fruits and vegetables all year round. Did you know that a type of greenhouse has been around since Roman times, when the emperor Tiberius demanded that cucumber be available for his table every day of the year?
The children have designed their own mini-greenhouses and made models of them. We have used lolly sticks or Jelutong for the frame, cling film, acetate or plastic sheeting for the windows. Some of our designs have an opening for ventilation.
We have been measuring, sawing, glueing and learning about ways to strengthen our frames, and hope you like our designs.
Year 4's fantastic assembly - November 2022
On Thursday 17th November, parents of Year 4 were treated to a terrific show of what their children have been learning this term.
The children began by sharing some of the writing they had been doing. Their first focus was Stories from Other Cultures, and their hook was an animated film called The Catch. In the story, a young fisherboy, has the repsonsibility of feeding the tribe, but can only catch tiddlers from the small pond near his village, because it is half empty. Hearing a fox yelp from the bushes, he carefully sets it free. The cheeky fox then steals the fisherman's catch and heads off into the dark, forbidding forest. Nervously the boy pursues, and is led to a huge lake full of enormous fish. Helping the boy, by providing a stick for a rod, the fox waits while the boy makes his catch. Before they part company, the boy throws a small fish to the fox as a reward, whereupon the fox disappears into the sky. Was it real, or just a spirit? The chidlren used some fantastic vocabulary to write the build up to the story. This was followed by some autumn poetry where they had been learning to use alliteration, rhyme, similes, pattern and powerful vocabulary. Again they shared some of their creations with us.
The term's focus in humanities has been Foootsteps Around the World, where we have looked at the continents of Africa, Australasia and Europe. Starting with Africa, we created a powerpoint presentation of an Africac country, finding out about its climate, population, traditions and some of its culture. We then moved on to find out about James Cook's discovery of Australia and thought about how the different groups involved: explorers, convicts and aborigines would have felt about the changes that followed.
In science the topic for the first half term was States of Matter and the children had great fun pretending to be atoms of each type of state, before wowing their audience with a song which reminds them of their learning.
The children were so exctied to share what they had learned and the audience were very impressed with their knowledge.
Well done Year 4 - keep it up!
