Ancient Egypt workshop - Hands on mummification!

On Tuesday we had a visit from Horsham Museum who brought with them some incredible ancient Egyptian artefacts, most of which were about 5000 years old. Whilst this time scale may be tricky for the children to grasp, the children took part in lots of activities that highlighted important parts of Ancient Egyptian culture.

After trying on traditional Egyptian dress (and learning it was common for children below 9 years old not to wear any clothes!!) We then got to try the complicated ritual of mummification. There were so many little steps and each of the children had the chance to come up and do a job, whether that was removing an organ, drying out the body, or the wrapping.

The final part of the ceremony needed the God Anubis to welcome the body to the afterlife.

Plaistow Primary - London visit.

We felt very welcome visiting our friends at Plaistow Primary in East London on Thursday.

The children were bubbling with excitement as we boarded the train to Victoria from Billingshurst Station.

We navigated the tube and the busy colourful market to reach the school just in time for a quick introduction in classrooms before lunch. The children were amazed by some of the differences in the surroundings and one child was even overheard saying “Wow they have stairs!” We loved looking at the display boards and spotting the same topic work that we have been doing.

The children played on all the new equipment and lots joined in with a big football game at lunch.

Before beginning the journey back, the children were tasked with finding something new to buy that was unavailable in their local stores at home. There was an abundance of cultural jewellery and fresh exotic foods for the children to sample.

All the staff were particularly pleased with everyone’s sensible behaviour and were happy the train connections all went smoothly and on time, unlike last year! A massive thank you to all the adults who helped out and made this trip possible.

Art Week fun

We have had a great time learning new techniques and exploring ways to represent different weather or climate conditions.

It started with an inspiring assembly from Mrs Tappenden, launching this years theme of Surprise! a tiger in a tropical storm, by Henri Rousseau.

The children practised their sketching skills looking closely at tigers in different poses. We then used tracing paper to transfer these onto styrofoam tiles so that we could make our tiger prints.

After a few goes testing it out we then printed the tiger on our 3 different backgrounds and added more detail including special effects to each picture. We are really happy with the finished results and can’t wait to show you at the parents gallery this Monday afternoon. See you there!

Awesome Autumn Photography

It feels like Winter is definitely here now with the frosty mornings and Christmas decorations up. However in the last week of Autumn we crept outside with our iPads and captured some lovely images to show how our school grounds are changing. These are a selection of the children’s best images.

Awesome Anglo-Saxons!

We knew we were in for a treat on Monday when Mike from Portals to the Past arrived in his full traditional Saxon armour, carrying huge swords and razor sharp spears. We were swiftly transported back 1500 years to the decline of the Roman Empire and given a blow by blow account of all the gruesome events that occurred between 410AD and 1066. Here are a few photos of the hands on fun the children had.

What a Camp Out!

We are exhausted, sweaty and smelling of camp fires but it was definitely worth it. There was so much for the children to do and a beautiful, secluded setting to match. We did den building, sausage making, bug hunting, woodland games, fire lighting, sausage cooking, washing up after ourselves, campfire singing, night time forest walks, learning about farming and managing land and of course plenty of playing in the woods. There’s much more that the children will remember and be able to share but for now I will share as many photos as I can.

Dream Catchers and Story Telling

We have had a lot of fun this week learning about Native American culture as we near the end of our American Road Trip topic.

We have spent a lot of the week learning Native American folklore stories and trying to remember them off by heart. I’m sure your children would love the challenge of retelling some of the stories we have learnt. You could ask the about: How Rabbit stole fire, How Bear lost it’s tail, Buffalo and Eagle Wing as well as Hiawatha and the Peacemaker.

I have put spellings on Google Classroom and we also have the songs on their for the KS2 production of Matilda. Please help your child learn the words as some of the songs are quite tricky. As always, the time spent reading and doing times tables with your child is much appreciated.

Postcards from New York

The children have worked really hard finishing off their postcards from New York and we now have a lovely display in the classroom courtesy of Mrs Reed. We will be sending them home at the end of term to be delivered to the various family members they are addressed to.

In maths we have been working on applying our decimal knowledge to money and solving different calculations. We are continuing to work on getting our times tables faster, one way to do this is with times tables rockstars. We have a competition running currently between the school houses to see who will practise the most.

If you prefer your child to practise offline then all children should be bringing home their times tables books (We had a big improvement in the amount handed in this week which is excellent!) and today they have taken home a times table grid to fill out too.
We really appreciate all the time taken to learn spellings and listening to your children read each week so please keep it going. Current spellings are up on Google classroom.

Finally our P.E sessions with Mr Meanie have been interrupted by the bank holidays. Luckily we have been able to book him in for Tuesday 9th so please send children in P.E. kit if possible (and Fridays). They will not need P.E. kit on Thursday 11th. The final session with him will be on Monday 15th May, after that we will return to Thursday P.E. lessons.

Enjoy the coronation bank holiday!

U.S.A. Road Trip has begun!

The children have been back to working hard this week, learning lots of new facts about the U.S.A. We made the most of the sunshine and started by exploring a giant playground map, finding the answer to missing state abbreviations. Please quiz your children and see if they can remember what NY, CA, FL or TX stand for among others. We even learnt the native American tribe that lived in that state before Europeans arrived. The first city we focus on is New York and we have been getting to know the major landmarks.

In maths we have been working on our knowledge of decimals and can now order and round decimals up to two decimal places. We are getting closer to our national multiplication tables check so please make sure practice stays as regular as possible. Many children have been given new times tables books to use at home, please let me know if your child has lost or completed theirs.

Year 4 Football tournament in Horsham.

Last Friday, I had the treat of accompanying 9 of the children to Horsham to compete in a big football tournament. For over half of them it was there first ever experience playing matches against other teams but the excitement hid any nerves.

Football tournaments are some of my favourite memories and I’m happy to say coaching is just as enjoyable. The team fought hard right to the final whistle in every game and this effort was rewarded with two last minute equalisers. We finished the group stage with 2 draws and 2 losses.

This gave us a match for 7th place. Despite tiredness the team kept working hard for each other and managed to get a 1 - 0 victory in their last game. They should be very proud of themselves finishing 7th out of 10 much larger schools. Thanks to all the parents that came to cheer us on too. A massive well done to: Albert , Ayush , Emilia, Jenson, Morris, Ollie, Logan, Riley and Mia.

Visiting the other Plaistow!

We had a long but fantastic day on Wednesday taking Year 4 and Year 6 into London to meet our linked school Plaistow Primary school. The journey involved taken a train from Billingshurst to Victoria before jumping on the tube to Upton Park. This was a real adventure, especially for those children that had never been on a train before.

We were warmly welcomed by the Plaistow Primary and given a lovely roast for lunch. The children got stuck into making new friends quickly and enjoyed a fun orienteering activity.

After leaving the school we were able to stop off at some shops to see the diversity of the area and compare it with our local Plaistow village store. The children particularly enjoyed seeing the Indian bangles on offer.

The children did so well managing the journey home, staying close to their adults at all times. Even the 30 minute delay at Horsham didn’t dampen their spirits much. We are so grateful to all the parent helpers that took part and helped give the children such a memorable experience. Hopefully Plaistow primary will make the return trip to us in the Summer term.

Art Week - Bridges, Robots and Donuts!

We were given San Francisco as our class focus for art week, based on the cities mentioned in Around the World in 80 days.

The children have done a brilliant job constructing the golden gate bridge out of lollipop sticks, cardboard, pipe cleaners and wool.

We chose to look at the artist Eric Joyner since he lives in San Francisco and uses it’s features in his art. HE likes to take everyday scenes and make them extraordinary by including robots and donuts. I am sure you will be impressed when you see the hot air balloon we made with Helen based on Eric Joyner.

This is Golden Gaters by Eric Joyner.

The children have also used this artwork to inspire them to write a 100 word story which you will be able to read at our gallery on Monday (16th) afternoon. We hope to see you there!

Science, Potion stories and Christmas parties

We have made it to the end of Autumn term and Christmas has begun!
Before the end of term we finished off our science with an exciting experiment: making a gas (Carbon dioxide) from a solid (bicarbonate of soda) and a liquid (vinegar).

We also had lots of fun writing and telling our potion stories. Well done to the winners of the class vote: Emilia in 3rd place, Noah in 2nd place and the winner Beau!
In maths we are getting super speedy at our times tables and Wey and Rother were the best pair of houses in the recent Times Tables Rockstars challenge.

We had our Christmas party on Thursday afternoon and it was lovely (If a bit exhausting!) having the entire KS2 group together. The children have worked really hard this term and I hope they have a nice relaxing break, with just a bit of times tables practice sprinkled in around the festivities too! Thanks for all my kind gifts and I will see you all in January, Mr Butler.

Making potions and testing the speed of liquids.

We have had lots of fun creating our magic potions this week. We use them as inspiration for a story that involves a magical potion effect. We have also done a science investigation to test which is the slowest liquid out of ketchup, honey and washing up liquid. The children came up with some great ideas to make sure it was a fair test and many were surprised by the results.

In maths we have done more work on our times tables, including colouring a full grid up to 12 x 12 so that we know which ones we are confident with. The children should have brought this home in their bags to show to their adults.
I have added the class Christmas carol on google classroom so please check that and have a practice, not long to go now until the concert on 8th December.

States of Matter

This week we have done lots of science, looking at particle theory and understanding what is different about solids, liquids and gasses. The children loved enacting this in the hall.

We have also done lots of computing and used the website www.scratch.mit.edu to bring our potion stories to life.
In maths we continue to work hard on our times tables and have been looking specifically at the 3x , 6x and 9x table as well as spotting the links between them. There is currently an inter-house competition to see who will do the most practice on TT Rockstars this week. At the time of writing Wey are in front with Lavant just behind. The competition runs until Thursday 24th.

Potion designing and Ice cube experiments

This week we have been using our imagination to think of some magical potions. We also designed beautiful bottles for them.

In science we have done an experiment to try and make ice cubes melt at different speeds. We found out how insulation makes a barrier to stop heat from melting ice cubes. Therefore the ice cube wrapped in tinfoil and felt melted a lot slower than the control ice cube. This was different from lots of the children’s predictions who thought it would be like a coat and make the ice cube warmer and led to an interesting discussion.
In maths we have continued our focus on times tables, looking in detail at the 3’s and 6’s.

The Final Roman Battle!

Hello everyone, In the week before half term we finished all our Roman crafts, put on our helmets and shields and marched our way to the hall to re-enact the final battle between Romans and Celts.

The children had lots of fun getting into the “Testudo” tortoise formation. Whilst the Celtic warriors threw javelins (made of foam) at them.

We have been hard at work the first week back from half term and have begun our Potions topic with creating our own magical plants to be special ingredients. Well done to everyone who has already handed in the science homework about solids, liquids and gasses. This provided some interesting discussions with the most controversial things being mayonnaise and butter!

In maths we have been looking at area of 2D shapes by counting up squares. Next week we will be focusing on times tables, starting with the 3s.

Wedding news, Boudicca comics and Roman shields

Thank you so much to all the parents who kindly donated to our card! Starzy and I had the most perfect day imaginable and shared so much joy with our family and friends.

Back in the classroom the children have made some excellent Boudicca comics, telling the story about her heroism in the face of the mighty Roman Empire. Please ask your child to tell you the story as they have been working hard to remember it.

In maths we have been looking at column addition and column subtraction so that we can now add and takeaway 4 digit numbers.

Finally we have started work on our life size Roman shields which will be finished next week.

Spellings will be uploaded to Google Classroom soon. Have a lovely weekend!

Fishbourne Roman Palace Trip

On Monday we had a wonderful day visiting the world class mosaics at Fishbourne Roman Palace. They have a great educational team there and Charley (our guide) gave us a very informative talk about Roman life. We explored a traditional Roman kitchen, learnt how to write Roman numerals and letters on wax and papyrus, tried spinning wool into thread and even built a free standing bridge with wooden blocks.
There is a beautiful garden with lots of curious herbs to smell and a museum with interesting artefacts. One of the things the children enjoyed most was just sitting and sketching the mosaics in the main room.
We all want to say a huge thank you to the parent volunteers who joined us on the trip, We couldn’t have done it without you.

Back in class the children have worked hard writing a detailed recount of the trip. In maths we have started looking at rounding numbers to the nearest 10 and nearest 100.

Next week is an exciting one for me personally as I am getting married in Brighton on Saturday the 8th October. I will be out of school on Friday the 7th.

Roman Soldier Boot Camp

We have had an energetic week in year 4, being put through our paces as we took part in Roman soldier boot camp. We measured our longest javelin throws and timed our 50m sprint. This was all to help us write a letter to Emperor Claudius, asking to enlist in his army to invade Britannia.
The children used lots of new Latin vocabulary like scutum, gladius and galea to sound more authentic. Please ask your children to see if they remember what they mean.

In maths we used lots of practical resources to explore place value and solidify what we have learnt about thousands, hundreds, tens and ones. If you have a dice at home you could even challenge the children to a game of “naughty or nice dice”, they will explain the rules.

Don’t forget there is no school on Monday 19th. We will see you all on Tuesday!