September:
What a CRACKING start to the new year (cracking quite literally)! We had a surprise guest visiting our school who unfortunately left an awful mess including a cracked, slimy egg. As soon as we found out, we set off on our school grounds to investigate and looked at the evidence that had been left behind to make predictions. Luckily, Mr Bayles our caretaker managed to capture CCTV images of the intruder. Can you believe it was actually a dragon?
In maths, we have been looking at the place value of 2-4 digit numbers and how to partition and represent them in lots of different ways.
This term, our topic is The Terrible Tudors, where we delve straight into The Battle Bosworth, and learn all about the unsavoury King Henry VIII and his poor wives!
October
We are continuing to use Tell Me A Dragon as a stimuli for our writing. In art and D&T, we have designed our very own dragon eye the focus upon sketching with increasing detail and developing our skills using the technique 'cross hatching' skills. We made dragon eyes using clay (see our fantastic creations below).
In science, we have been investigating different skulls and teeth using our scientific knowledge to work out what type of animals they could be.
October is now Black History Month. We are learning about John Blanke who was a Tudor trumpeter as this links with our current topic. Also, Mary Seacole and Lucius Septimius Severus who was a British Roman Emperor. From this, we are creating fact files to share with the school.
November
This month started off with a visit to Gateshead Vue to take part in the Intu Film Festival. It inspired a number of children to become film directors/animation designers. We spoke about this further in our You, Me and the World (PSHCE) session because our current topic is jobs. We looked at qualities and skills that would be needed for this role, as well as many other jobs such as: police officers, neuro-surgeons and sports coaches.
As part of world kindness day/anti-bullying week, we looked at how we must show kindness towards animals too. We created 'adopt me pleas/blurbs' for a range of animals who currently need rehomed at Newcastle Cat and Dog Shelter & the RSPCA. We were beyond proud of ourselves when we found out that both organisations have advertised them on their website, social media and sent us thank you certificates.
This also linked to our R.E. topic where we have looked at the creation panel on 'The Big Frieze Frame' and explored how we can be caretakers of God's creations.
In science we have been learning how the digestive system works. We had such great fun making a working model and making lots of mess.
December
IT'S CHRISSSSSSSTMAS!
Of course we have started the month by putting up our Christmas tree and arranged our nativity scene.
In English, we have watched Shakespeare's play 'Macbeth' have converted the first scene into a narrative using direct speech. To help us prepare for this, we had great fun completing drama-based activities to explore what impact both movement and expression can have to enhance the tone and atmosphere.
In history, we have explored the illnesses and diseases during the Tudor period and we were shocked by the alarming methods they used in attempt to treat/cure them!
In Geography, we are continuing to look at settlements: how they are used; the physical and human features found through the use of fieldwork and looking at OS maps; and how our local settlement has changed over time.
We are really looking forward to attending the pantomime (OH YES WE ARE!); singing at our local church; and of course our Christmas disco where we can bust out some serious moves!
December is most certainly a jam-packed, fun-filled month!
January
Our first day back was busy! Our D&T topic was constructing castles so we spent the day planning, designing, constructing and evaluating our castles.
In PE, we are learning how to play cricket and we are having such a good time! Not only are we learning the core skills, we are also learning how to communicate successfully in order to increase our chances of success when playing competitively.
Our new topic is OUT OF THIS WORLD and it really is out of this world! We have created some rather interesting mnemonics to help us recall the order of the planets, gathered evidence to argue against the flat Earth theorists and have started to explore the impact of space exploration.
In Science, we have been looking at the phases of the moon. What made that lesson even more interesting or should we say tasty was the use of Oreos- YUM!
February
In Art, we have used tints and shades of paint to create texture and mimic 3D shapes. We even used salt to highlight this technique further! Now, we are looking at the work of Peter Thorpe where we will soon replicate his artwork. To be successful, we are going to experiment with different mediums, colours and arrangements of objects for a composition.
In English, we are continuing to read the Iron Man and we are using old M&S adverts to create a menu for the scrap yard using expanded noun phrases. We are then going to write a balanced argument based on whether or not the Iron Man should help save the city using a range of subordinating clauses and fronted adverbials!
We also went into the hall and studied a moon map where we were able to explore distance, timelines and jobs within space.
To top off our month, we created our own robots and applied our coding skills to be successful.
March
March started where we were invited to watch Tim Peake live and found out lots about what it takes to be an astronaut!
This month, we were fortunate enough to watch Michael Rosen live where he performed poems. We loved it and it inspired us to perform our own poetry within our classes.
In art, we have taken our skills of creating tints further and we are currently learning about one-point perspective drawing.
We visited St Peter’s church as part of our RE topic salvation. We immersed ourselves in a carousel of Easter activities each focusing on a key event. We had moments of reflection to think about our own lives.
In maths, some of us have begun learning about measurements in maths and have thoroughly enjoyed being out on our school grounds putting our knowledge/skills into action! Meanwhile, the rest of us have mastered how to use formal methods for multiplication and division.
April
In April, we launched our new topic: Extreme Environments. We have been learning about lines of latitude and longitude and climate zones; developed an understanding of why seasons and climate zones occur; discussing the positions of the Arctic and Antarctic circles.
We were shocked to learn that nobody can actually live on Antarctica due to its extreme climate but a number of us would love to stay in a research station and learn how to launch and analyse weather balloons and sledge!
In D&T, we are adapting recipes for our cooking and nutrition topic. We thoroughly enjoyed being 'taste testers' to be able to describe the taste and texture of biscuits-there were no crumbs left! From this, we have designed biscuits to successfully meet the criteria of target audience specific briefs given to us e.g. engagement parties. Now, we can't wait to make them next month!
Y3/4M and Y3/4E have been attending weekly swimming lessons and their confidence has improved lots! Next half-term, it will be Y3/4S' turn to attend and they can't wait.
May
In our You, Me and The World sessions, we have been focusing on bullying. We explored the role of a bystander and took part in a healthy debate for the following statement: True, false or it's not that simple? Bystanders are just as guilty as the bully. We decided that it was not that simple because whilst they can be viewed 'just as bad', they might feel scared and unsafe themselves. We looked at what impact bullying has on a person's mental health: thoughts, feelings and behaviour.
In our RE topic 'how care is shown', we have looked at how Christians show care and made links to our local churches. We have also explored how other religions show care and it has inspired us to be charitable and conduct acts of kindness ourselves
In maths, we have been looking at fractions and we have loved using the Numicon to help us.
In D&T, we finally got to make our biscuits and they turned out incredible!
June
In English, we have began to explore the impact of unsustainable palm oil and the children have become passionate citizens where they want to help educate and challenge this environmental issue.
We competed in an athletics competition too and the athletics team did us proud ! There was excellent sportsmanship and lots of 1st - 4th places.
In art, we have been inspired by Oenone Hammersley and are beginning to apply newly taught skills and techniques using oil pastels to blend: sgraffito, stippling, heavy and light pressure and use of baby oil.