Summer 2017
Spring 2017
Play in a day: Greece is the word! – Conflux Theatre came in to school to help us create and perform our very own play. We used our knowledge of Ancient Greece along with our brilliant acting skills to tell the story of what the Ancient Greeks did for us. We then performed our play to Year 5 and 6.
What did the Ancient Greeks eat? – Sarah came and made lots of different Greek food for us to try! We tried a Greek salad, an omelette filled with Greek food and lots more tasty food and drinks!
Heritage Hunters – This half term, Class 4 have been working with Ruth from Auckland Castle to become Heritage Hunters. Ruth came into school each week to help us learn about the people that used to live in Escomb in the past, and to find out more about how our local area has changed.
We used old maps and census records to compare Escomb today and Escomb 100 years ago. We also had the chance to visit Bishop Auckland to look at Victorian and Georgian buildings.
We found out that lots of the roads and buildings from 100 years ago are still here today, they have different uses now. Lots of people who lived in Escomb used to work at the local mines and mills.
Greek Jewellery – We have been making jewellery inspired by Greek designs. First, we did some research to find out how the Greeks decorated themselves. Then, we used our clay skills to mould and shape a pendant. We added detail by scratching the clay and adding little piece of clay to the surface.
Catapults – We worked in teams to see who could build the best catapult and measured the distance it would throw the items
Soundproofing – We wanted to find out which material was the best at blocking out sounds. We thought of different ways of investigating this as a group, taking on the roles of different scientists. Each group had to try using different materials to block out a sound, making sure that it was a fair test.
We found out that polystyrene and egg boxes were the best at blocking out sound.
Ancient Greeks Visit Year 4! – This term our Learning Challenge is, ‘Has Greece always been in the News?’ We are looking forward to learning more about the Ancient Greeks! Ancient Greeks came into Year 4 and we had lots of interesting questions to ask them.
Autumn 2016
Should we rebuild Pompeii?
What happens to the food we eat?
This half term in Science, we are finding out what happens to the food we eat. We started by learning the different parts of the digestive system, before creating our own versions of the system. Then we made our own models of the human mouth using playdough. We labelled the different teeth.
Outdoor Maths
Class Assembly
On Wednesday 19th October, we welcomed parents into school to see our class assembly. We shared our English, Art, Science and Learning Challenge work before performing Mamma Mia by ABBA.
Invade?
We split into two groups to discuss whether Claudius should invade Britain. We thought of reasons for and against. Then we created a conscience alley to try and persuade the Emperor that we were right.
Timelines.
To help us learn which eras come when in history, we completed a whole class activity. Ten of us were given paper tabards to hang around our necks. Each tabard had a different time period on and our challenge was to arrange the times in chronological order.
How could we cope for a day without electricity?
To launch our Learning Challenge, “How could we cope for a day without electricity?” we experienced a power cut in Class 4. The lights went off and we couldn’t use the computer or whiteboard. Even the heating went off. We thought of ways we could make ourselves more comfortable; some people put on their coats and some used blankets. We read a story using torches and lit a candle.
We talked about why it is important to have a torch ready in case there is a power cut—candles are very dangerous and can start fires in your house!
Next we thought about what we already knew about electricity and came up with some tips for surviving a power cut. Everyone was surprised how many of the appliances we use every day rely on electricity. We don’t know how we would cope with out it!
We have also been investigating how circuits work, making bulbs light up and buzzers buzz.
[Slideshow "year-4-electricity" not found]Teikyo University
We were extremely fortunate to have a visit from a group of Japanese students studying at Teikyo University in Durham. The taught us about their culture and there were lots of activities to do. We learnt some Japanese, dressed up in traditional clothing, used chopsticks and even made origami.
After the session we talked about what we had learnt about Japanese Culture. We were also proud that we had shared some of our culture with the Japanese students. Some of use decided that we would like to learn Japanese and even visit the country in future.
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