In our science lesson this week year four were investigating the melting point of butter, chocolate and cheese. We used hot water and foil cake cases to do this safely, making careful observations over time. We then used these observations to help us draw a conclusion.
Today year 4 were excited to have a visit from polar explorer Adrian Hall. He spoke to us about his expeditions, showed us all the equipment he packed in his rucksack and shared lots of photos at the start of the day. After this, he worked outside with every class, teaching them about map reading and compass skills before they completed a treasure hunt around the school grounds. We had a great day and now feel we know a lot more about the life of an arctic explorer.
Year 4 finished the term by designing and building Iron Man faces with electronic glow in the dark eyes. They had to wire up the LED bulbs with batteries and switches using all of their knowledge about electrical circuits taught this term. We were very impressed with the final outcomes.
Year 4 were delighted to welcome the NHS Cambridgeshire Community Service Trust today to run a 1 hour big worries and anxiety workshop with each of our classes. It was pleasing to see the children coming away with so many new strategies to help them manage their emotions and feelings.
We have spent a number of weeks building up to our final Iron Man illustrations. The children have enjoyed studying the work of other artists, practised new water colour techniques and experimented with using a range of different drawing media. Our final pieces are now complete and ready to be displayed in the classrooms and on the year 4 corridor display.
This week, year one and year four pupils buddied up for an afternoon session of African animal research on the iPads. It was wonderful to see such polite and caring partnerships between our older and younger students. Our year ones went away with lots of interesting and useful facts about meerkats, lions and giraffes which they will use to help them with their writing next week. We look forward to them sharing this work with their older buddies at the end of term.
This week in year four, we have been learning to code and write algorithms using repeated instructions. Using the free Turtle Academy software, the children were able to create different patterns and shapes, exploring the effect of changing line length, angle and the number of repetitions. They were very excited to see their images appear on the screen as you can see below.
Year four are studying the science of electricity this half term. We began by looking at and comparing appliances that use mains power and batteries. This week we built simple series circuits in order to test whether different materials were conductors or insulators. By the end of term we hope to have designed, built and wired up a light up, interactive Iron Man inspired by the Ted Hughes book we have been studying in English.
This week all three year four classes have been putting their design and technology skills through their paces building Roman catapult models. The children have been closely supervised measuring, sawing and gluing the different parts together in our final activity from what has been an extremely engaging history topic. There has also been opportunities to test out the firing capabilities of their long range-range weaponry using rubber missiles and plastic soldiers. Mr. Cross was pleased to hear there was no bloodshed!
Year four have been learning all about teeth this half term and have set up an investigation to see what affect different liquids have on tooth decay. To do this, we have supplemented eggs in the place of real teeth as the shells are made of enamel! You can see some of the photos below after 7 days and we look forward to finding out the final results in our science lessons this week.
