Year 4 were delighted to be joined by so many parents and carers this week for our Egyptian style baking sessions for our Fantastic Finish! We thoroughly enjoyed learning how to make the aromatic flatbreads and in addition to this, being able to apply our learning from across the curriculum, from History, learning that there were depictions of bread making within hieroglyphics from the time of the Ancient Egyptians, use of our maths knowledge of fractions and measures to accurately measure ingredients, using our reading skills to navigate the recipe and even some Science in understanding the chemical reactions and changes which occur when proving the bread. We certainly enjoyed tasting the freshly baked bread- so much so that lots of parents and pupils requested a copy of the recipe so that they could bake them again at home! Many thanks again to all who attended! 

In addition to all of this, we have been enjoying experimenting with making music in computing, broadening our bank of strategies for mindfulness and have been refining our map work skills in Geography by completing puzzles and utilising digital reference tools such as Digimaps to answer true or false questions about the River Nile. 

Year 4 have thoroughly enjoyed learning about the Ancient Egyptians and we ended our topic in style with a special workshop. This began with us stepping back in time to Ancient Thebes where we learnt that a boy king had taken the throne after a time of turmoil and was bringing back the old ways and restoring ma’at (order). We really enjoyed participating in the story of Tutankhamun’s reign through a combination of practical making activities, drama and role-play. Our morning focussed on making and role play. While working, we were also tasked with spreading news and asking questions to learn more about Ancient Egypt and the reign of Tutankhamun. For the afternoon we recreated the festival of Wepet-Renpet: The Opening of the Year. We practised and then performed The Lamentations of Isis and Nephthys, The Tale of Osiris or The Dance of the Wax Crocodile.  We had a wonderful day immersing ourselves in this eventful time in history. 

 We have also been challenged to use our history learning in Literacy and all planned and wrote our own playscripts with links to the Ancient Egyptians. We really enjoyed writing and bringing the playscripts to life and many of us managed to infuse them with a sense of humour which made our friends and teachers chuckle!

 In Art we have planned some fabulous Ancient Egyptian final designs and we are excited about creating our very own papyrus style paper to create these final designs on.

 In French we have been practising and mastering vocabulary for describing the family and can now add this to a conversation where we introduce ourselves and ask and tell someone about who is in our family. We are Linguists!

Year 4 have settled into being back at school after the holidays successfully and are enjoying the start to our new learning topics for this half term.

In History, we began our new topic on the Ancient Egyptians by creating our own timelines to visually represent all of the significant civilisations, events and people that we could recall from our prior learning then built on this by including some important dates related to Ancient Egypt. We found out that hieroglyphics were used for communication and writing in Ancient Egypt and used these to create our every own cartouche designs depicting our names. We have also been finding out about how the pyramids were built in Ancient Egypt and are very much looking forward to our Ancient Egyptians workshop later this half term!

In Science we have relished the opportunity to experiment with sound and have enjoyed carrying out investigations into pitch, volume, continuity and repetition to create sounds with different combinations of characteristics. This topic links well with our Music learning for this half term which focuses on songs with positive messages and without a doubt, we will be using our voices to create some impressive sounds with our singing and even some rapping this half term.

In Maths we have relished new challenges related to fractions and developing our fluency in identifying and solving problems involving mixed number and improper fractions. So far we have explore, identified and converted mixed and improper fractions and this will undoubtedly stand us in good stead for our problem-solving sessions. In Literacy we have been highly engaged in our reading and writing linked to the tale of Aladdin and fantasy stories and we will be moving on to planning and writing our own fantastic versions of these tales.

Year 4 have been learning about coding in computing. We have been challenged to create our own coding blocks to create different effects. This week, we linked these to our work on habitats in Science by creating a sequence which would return a lost animal to it’s natural habitat. Once mastered, we will combine and apply a range of elements to create our own digital games.

In Literacy, we enjoyed interviewing one another and writing balanced arguments in response to the question ‘Should children wear non-uniform to school every day?’ We have learned how to present our ideas effectively to inform and engage the reader and have been able to explore and refine our use of formal and technical vocabulary.

In music, we have enjoyed playing the glockenspiels as a solo, in small groups and as a whole class. We have been practising reading musical notation and have progressed from accompanying a few bars to a whole song!

In Art this week, we were inspired by the work of Henri Matisse and in particular a piece called ‘The Circus’ in which he used paper cut outs to create a collaged composition. Matisse called this ‘drawing with scissors’. We applied this technique to our own compositions in which we explored proportion, overlapping, interlocking elements and aspects of tone.

Year 4 kicked off the new half-term in creative style with a DT Day! We followed our designs which included aerial and elevation views to create an array of pavilions for a range of purposes and audiences. We were challenged to use tools and materials safely to create a freestanding structure which matched our designs. In addition to this, we were tasked with creating cladding (coverings) using techniques such as folding, weaving, and piercing. We realised that designers often face problems when constructing their designs from drawings and therefore need to show lots of resilience, determination, and growth mindset to achieve their goals. We had a great time constructing our designs and the comment “This is the best day ever!” from Thomas in Rowan just summed this up!