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Year 4 Residential Visit- Caldecotte Xperience

On Thursday 22nd - Friday 23rd June we went on a two day and one night visit to Caldecotte Xperience. Over the two days we participated in: caving, rock climbing, raft building, canoeing and team games. All of the activities required us to use our fantastic team work skills and for many of us the activities were new (we were brave and approached all challenges positively). We had lots of fun and listened impeccably well to the instructors who told us how to remain safe! On Thursday night, we had a campfire and toasted marshmallows, which was very enjoyable and tasty. 

Take a look at some of our photos below!

Year 4 India Day

To celebrate our topic on India we had a cross curricular day which involved us doing lots of different activities and trying new things.

We were very busy in the DT room preparing, peeling, chopping, mixing and rolling different ingredients to make Chana Chaat and chapatis. In Owls' classroom, we had the opportunity to taste some indian snacks including: papadums (spicy and plain), naan breads and Chana Chaat, we could also try different dips and chutneys. Whilst tasting the food, we commented on the flavours and our opinions. We learnt a Bollywood dance routine and then we choreographed our own routines using Bollywood style dance moves. Throughout the day we had the opportunity to design our very own Mendhi patterns using either sand or pens. We could also have our designs put onto our hands using henna.

Jungle Settings

We have been reading The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling, as part of our outdoor learning we worked in small groups to explore and find natural materials outside to create our own jungle settings. 

Sketching Techniques

In our art lessons we have been developing our sketching skills and learning new techniques. We used different pencils and understand that some pencils are softer or harder than others. We practictised different techniques including: cross hatching, random hatching, contour, stippling and ink wash. We applied our techniques whilst sketching daffodils.

Let the Battle Commence

We used our very own shields to re-enact a Roman battle. We created a tortoise formation (which was the most popular amongst the Romans) and a wedge formation. Can you identify which formation is which? 

Science Day

Year 4 had a very enjoyable day full of DT and Science. We began our day with a bang (quite literally) with a visit from a scientist from the Open University. We were amazed when he showed us lots of different experiments including; how to shrink a plastic bottle without using any fire and how to inflate a balloon inside a bottle!

We were set the challenge of constructing a Roman Catapult in groups of three to then test the distance a counter could travel depending on how far we pulled our catapults back. We had to measure the distances very accurately, some counters travelled further than 1 metre so we had to convert our measurements into centimetres.

MK City Discovery Centre

On Monday 27th February, Year 4 visited MK City Discovery Centre to introduce their 'Invaders' topic all about the Romans. We had a fantastic day and found out lots of interesting facts about the Romans, we were fascinated by the amount of Roman history in our very own home of Milton Keynes!

 We enjoyed re-enacting a typical Roman banquet but we are not too sure that we would have enjoyed the dishes, ostrich and calf brains would not be our first choice of food! We met a Roman soldier who told us lots of interesting facts about Roman armor, weapons, battle formations, games and even commanded us in Latin! Throughout the day we saw and held various Roman artefacts including: coins, a wax tablet and mosaic tiles.

Pre Historic Britain

We have been finding out about Pre Historic Britain, we specifically found out about 'The Stone Age', 'The Bronze Age' and 'The Iron Age'. We performed an assembly to celebrate and share our learning. We created cavemen art work, silhouettes of Stonehenge and Iron Age pinch pots.

As part of our topic we also studied the book 'Stig of the Dump', we wrote Haiku poems about Stig and his dump and shared some examples during our year group assembly.

Can you identify Stig in the photographs below?

Happy Birthday Milton Keynes

We visited our very own MK50 exhibition held in our school hall. We found out lots of interesting facts using the variety of sources. Many of us were very surprised to see how much Milton Keynes has changed over 50 years!

In DT we have been designing, making and evaluating our very own instruments. We thought carefully about: how the instrument was going to make a sound, which materials to use and the purpose of our product.

We were all very successful in making an instrument that could produce a sound!

As part of our Science topic on sound, we investigated a variety of different materials to find out which materials insulate sound most effectively. With a partner we chose two different materials and made ear muffs to use as part of the investigation.

Which material do you think insulates sound most effectively? 

All About Africa

As part of out topic work we have been finding out about Africa. We have been using our enquiry skills to carry out research about different countries within Africa. We have been lucky enough to have visitors from MK Music Service teach us how to 'call and respond' whilst drumming. During Art Week we were inspired by African artist Stephen Njenga and created our own masterpieces. As a year group, we created lanterns for the Middleton Lantern Parade and modelled our designs on African flags.

Forces of Nature

This term has begun with a bang! We have been finding out lots about volcanoes and earthquakes.

In English, we have read the story of Pompeii and many of us have been left wondering whether or not Mount Versuvivus will erupt again during our lifetime... 

Volcano Day

Year 4 had a very exciting day involving earthquake drills, volcano art, creating lava, baking hot rock cakes and even handling rocks from a real volcano. We each got to explore every activity and made the most of experiences. Our colourful clothes represent volcanoes...can you spot the ash clouds?