Year 4 -Ellis
Trust sports event 22.05.23
The rain may have dampened our walk to Winhills this morning but it didn’t dampen our spirits! We participated in three events - netball, rounders and athletics - against the other local Diamond Trust schools and we only went and came first! Lots of teamwork, respect and resilience on display today. The trophy is the icing on the cake after a fun and busy few days.
Grafham Residential - May 2023
Year 4 have had so much fun on our residential visit.
We have learned lots of new skills such as: sailing, climbing, archery, kayaking, stand-up paddle boarding, high ropes, pioneering and bushcraft. We have also had the opportunity to show how well we can all work together as a team, support one another and recognise others’ achievements - especially if they were finding the activity difficult.
We have all definitely made some fabulous memories!
Grafham photos
Growing artists
We have been learning how to see like an artist, this involves studying shapes in objects and shading carefully to create a 3d effect. We have been doing some botanical drawing, using magnifying glasses to study flowers closely and then use our artist skills to sketch them.
Sound
As part of our science topic we have been exploring how sound travels through vibrations. We made our own string telephones to hear for ourselves how this works. We used plastic cups and string to construct them before taking them outside and trying them out.
RE - Islam Rites of Passage
In our RE unit, we are learning about Islamic faith. We are exploring what the five pillars of Islam are; which countries around the world have Islamic faith; and what the difference is between Islam and Muslim. We are also learning about Muslim birth ceremonies and naming days.
French – Miam, Miam !
We are learning all about French food – yum, yum! We are practising having a conversation in French; listening carefully and picking out certain words to help us learn – especially cognates.
We are learning to order food in a French café, read and say amounts of money, say the names of French shops correctly and create our own menu.
Outdoor Learning
During our Outdoor Learning session, we looked through gardening magazines and had a discussion about some of the articles we found. We were surprised by the range of fruit and vegetables that people have grown. We also thought about the types of fruit and vegetables that we could grow in our school garden.
Castles
Some photographs of our finished castles.
R.E
In this unit, we learned about Sikh Rites of Passage. We found out who Sikhs are and what they believe; we learned about the symbol of Sikhism, called the Khanda; naming ceremonies; the Sikh baptismal ceremony of Amrit and Sikh marriage ceremonies. We had lots of questions about Sikhism and were lucky enough to have a visitor, Mr Bitnam Singh Khalsa from Peterborough Gurdwara, who helped to answer them.
Music
For our music unit, we have been learning about the pentatonic scale. We began by learning all about the story of Nian which explains the Chinese New Year story. We learned musical terminology such as: crescendo, tempo, duration, dynamics and timbre as well as the pentatonic scale. After some practise, we were able to accurately notate and play a pentatonic melody then confidently compose and perform a piece of music.
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Castles
They are not quite finished yet but here are some work in progress pictures. We have researched the features of castles and really thought about these in our initial designs. It has been quite tricky to make sure our structures are strong and sturdy, along with adding a working drawbridge it has been challenging at times. We are very impressed with the level of perseverance shown by all.
Library visit
It was a cold but beautiful walk to the library on Tuesday. Once there, we were given a talk by one of the librarians who explained the way the books are organised. We were told how we could find particular books of interest to us, as well as finding new books to try. She also informed us of the various activities that happen at the library. We had some time to browse and select a book to borrow before using the self service machine to check out.
Forest School
We began the year with Forest School. After refreshing our memories with the safety aspects of working in our outdoor environment, we made fires, bows and arrows, created dens and cooked up a storm in the outdoor kitchen!
During our second Forest School lesson, we celebrated Chinese New Year, balanced on the slack-lines, had great fun sledging down the hill, made frozen food in the kitchen and explored making patterns and writing on different frosty surfaces.
It Snowed!
We were lucky enough to be able to enjoy the snow at school. We explored different ways to make snowmen and worked together to create them.
Design Technology - Egyptian Style!
We designed and made jewellery related to the Egyptian Gods. We thought carefully about our design and the colours that we would use to ensure it was as attractive, to the Gods, as possible.
Following on from this, we looked at some examples of Egyptian collars. Then we learned about the cross-stitch technique and how to apply applique. We designed our own collar based on an Egyptian theme, chose a relevant template, then developed our own design. Using our template, we carefully cut out the fabric. We followed our design using cross-stitch and added applique.
Shaduf
In outdoor learning, we were tasked with designing and building our own shaduf. These were used by the Ancient Egyptians to transport water. We had to listen carefully to each others’ ideas and support one another in the construction.
Tutankhamun
We have been archaeologists, discovering the tomb of Tutankhamun. We had to crawl through the entrance and once inside we could see some of the artefacts found within his tomb. Next, working in groups we drew the items that we had seen.
Friday reading
We venture under the tables for reading on a Friday afternoon, Mr Hinkley takes the register from under his desk!
Maths games and TT rockstars
Science
Here are some photographs from our science eggs-periment! We were investigating the effect of various things on our teeth using eggs because the shells are very similar. We covered the eggs in milk, vinegar, orange juice, cola and water before writing down our predictions about what might happen. The eggs were left in the classroom for a few days. Finally we were able to take them out of their liquids and see what had happened to them!
Sistrums
These are Egyptian musical instruments that we made using sticks and bottle tops. We decorated them with colourful wool.
P.E
During P.E we have been completing circuits. We have worked hard to improve our fitness levels and observe the impact on our bodies.
Outdoor Learning
We have been busy weeding the beds ready for next year’s crops. Some of the weeds were so large it took lots of determination and teamwork to uproot them! We were lucky enough to find some bugs. We observed them carefully then gently put them back into their habitat. We also spent time carefully making poppies for Remembrance Day.
Topic
As part of our Ancient Egypt topic, we worked in groups to research and create timelines.
Maths
In maths, we have been practising our 3, 4 and 6 times tables. We have used our tables knowledge to complete Times Tables Rockstar tests and to challenge our opponent during fun, maths games.
Forest School
During Forest School, we learned all about orienteering. We learned how to use the compass on our map to navigate around the school site, how to use a punch and how to read the key which helped us to create sentences linked to the Ancient Egyptians. We worked really hard and had lots of fun!
ProKick Day Friday 4th November
Well done year 4 for competing in the ProKick challenge! There was such a wonderful atmosphere in the hall as the children took it in turns to kick the ball into the goal as fast as they could!
The Fitzwilliam Museum
On Friday 21st October, we went on our trip to the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. We spent some time in the armoury, studying the various weapons and armour on display, before sketching our favourite pieces in our sketchbooks. We visited one of the art galleries, where we looked closely at art work by many famous artists including Monet, Picasso and Cezanne. We were also lucky enough to see the recent painting of The Prince and Princess of Wales!
After lunch, we explored the Egyptian collection with the help of Jackie, a very knowledgeable guide at the museum. It was a wonderful opportunity to see Egyptian artefacts up close, we even saw a real Mummy!
An enjoyable day for all, the children all behaved impeccably and were great representatives for Middlefield.
Art
We have continued our exploration of cave art, creating negative and positive handprints using appropriate earthy tones. We also made our own paintbrushes using natural resources and had a go at using mud to re-create cave paintings on the stone slabs during our outside learning.
Design Technology
We learned what ‘eating seasonally’ means as well as the benefits of eating different coloured fruit and vegetables. We then had the opportunity to plan, prepare and cook our own vegetable tarts.
