Science experiment - Save our teeth!
March 2023
Our current science topic is Animals Including Humans, focusing on teeth and the digestive system. We have conducted an experiment to see how sugary drinks affect our teeth. The children chose the drinks we should use, and we had eggs to represent our teeth as the outer shell is similar in construction to the enamel on our teeth.
We left the eggs immersed for days before taking them out to see the results. Milk and water had little effect on the shell, coffee and cola discoloured the shell, but Lucozade Sport and Apple Juice actively destroyed the outer layer of the shell! As you can see the shells left in these drinks do not look very appealing. This had quite an effect on some children with them vowing not to drink certain drinks in future!
We discussed ways in which we could adapt the experiment, and ideas were to ‘clean’ the egg shell with fluoride toothpaste first to see whether this had a protecting effect or even washing the egg in mouthwash before it was emersed. Both great ideas – well done Year 4!
World Book Day - March 2023
On Thursday 3rd March Year 4 had great fun dressing as either their favourite book character or clothes that they like to read a book in. We had some amazing costumes as you can see from the class photo. Can you spot who they are?
Our current focus book in year 4 is The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, which they seem to be really enjoying. Many parents and adults that I have spoken to remember this story from their own school days, and it is one that stays on your memory!
It was a great response to World Book Day and we will try and introduce more stories and texts so that the children can be inspired to read for pleasure.
Year 4 visit the Science Museum - Janurary 2023
On Monday 16th January, Year 4 visited the Science Museum too see how inventions over the years have changed the way we live. This linked with our current topic Incredible Inventions. We travelled by coach and saw Lord’s Cricket Ground and Buckingham Palace garden wall on the way, which caused some excitement!
Once at the museum, our two main focus points were Making the Modern World on the ground level, and the Secret Life of the Home in the basement. In the Secret Life of the Home children saw everyday home appliances and how they have changed over the centuries. The first thing they met on arrival was the toilet. On display were types of every design, including some beautiful pottery bowls, but of course ‘flushing the poo’, showing how the flush system works, was the highlight! Everything from cookers to hairdryers, fridges, microwaves, televisions, radios were on display. We learned how things we take for granted today, and which make our lives easier, were once not so simple. Did you know, that to watch the first televisions, the lid had a mirror to reflect the screen, which was situated on top of the unit facing the ceiling? In the 1940’s an American company used an elephant standing on its fridge to show how sturdy it was. Interesting though, as children learned in their Dig for Victory topic last year, that many British families in WWII did not own a fridge, and many had outside toilets.
On the ground floor, were the huge steam engines, which changed the course of our history. Children will be learning the impact these had and how the Industrial Revolution changed the way Britons lived. Again, we saw some of the first inventions of their type from telescopes, x-ray machines, toys, irons, cars, aeroplanes to name but a few.
We also paid a visit to the space section and saw how the pioneers of space made their journeys, how new Earth-like planets have been discovered, but that it would take 250,000 years to get to them! Wow!
The children had a great day and quite a few were out for the count on the coach journey home. Signs of a day well spent!
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!
