Year 4 Activity Week!
The Year 4 children at ‘Hazeldown Basecamp’ have demonstrated their Core Values participating in a great week of activities including ‘having a go’ at inspired art and poetry, ‘collaborating’ when playing table games such as Trivial Pursuit and Hangman, showing ‘curiosity’ during our nature spotting activity, being ‘resilient’ when trying to solve Sudokus and Boggle, ‘building relationships’ while further developing their tennis skills and learning to play rounders, and of course ‘being resourceful’ at our amazing Forest School!
Day 2 started off a little wet and windy but as you can see from the photos, a little mud just added to the fun. Groups today took part in crate towers, low ropes, bushcraft, orienteering, shooting, archery and raft building. Thankfully the weather cleared up for the afternoon, which the group on the lake were really glad about!
We are struggling with the Wifi here at the moment, we will upload more photos as soon as possible.
Day 1 at Colehayes has been a blast! The sun finally came out for us as we settled into the beautiful accommodation; then we moved onto a range of activities that included climbing, using low ropes and crates, bush crafting and orienteering. We have loved our first day and cannot wait for more activities tomorrow. Our dinner this evening was lovely, we ate everything and finished the evening off with a short story from our class reader book “Beyond the Stars”.
Yesterday, Year 4 were taken into the hall for a dance through the decades. There was music from 1920s through to 2010s. The children loved the different styles of music and dance that were in these decades. The whole disco was topped off with the children’s costumes. This is just a taste of the different music genres they will be exposed to during our learning journey.
Fir Class have been exploring fractions today. They where using Cuisenaire rods to help them find equal parts. To really push their understanding further we started to think about parts, asking questions like if this rod is 1/3 what is the whole?
We are starting our new topic Misty Mountain Winding River by completing the companion project Vista. Vista is all about drawing mountain landscapes. We started the morning by learning about an artist’s tool called a viewfinder and we went outside to draw our own beautiful landscape using the tool.
After that we started to look at famous paintings of mountains. We were able to compare similarities and differences between them and explain what we like about them and how the artists had used colour, line and texture.
We then learnt some pen and ink techniques such as hatching, stippling and random lines and we practised creating tone by moving the lines further apart. Next, we used pencil to create tone and finally watercolours. We then investigated how artists use atmospheric perspective to make things look like they are far away.
Lastly we looked at the colour wheel and explored warm and cool colours.
After lunch, we used everything that we had learnt to create our own mountain landscape. We hope you enjoy looking at out pictures!
Well done to Gisella. Gisella has really challenged herself with her reading and is getting much better quiz results. Keep it up Gisella!
Congratulations to Lola. Lola is really focussed with her reading and is getting great quiz results. Keep reading Lola!
Congratulations to Patience. Patience really enjoys reading and is very focussed and organised when she visits the library to choose her books. Well done Patience!
Well done to Teagan. Teagan is an avid reader and enjoys visiting the library to change her books. Teagan also recommends books to her friends. Keep reading Teagan!
Today we have been making a healthy snack for our Burps, Bottom and Bile Learning Journey Celebration Event. The children were challenged to make their own healthy cereal bar. First the children investigated existing cereal bar products by evaluating taste, texture and ingredients. This was followed by using an existing recipe that they scaled up so there was enough for everyone. They then innovated their product to meet the needs of their consumer. Finally, the children chose fruits and seeds to add to the basic mixture. Once baked, the children then tasted and reflected on taste, texture and if it met their design criteria.
During this half term, Redwood Class have been learning all about Hockey. They have learnt new skills that enable them to play 8 a-side-games, some of these skills are the push pass, 1-1 tackling, getting into space and shooting. We have been working excellently on our collaboration to help our teammates improve, taking risks so that we have fun and most of all being able to be resilient when the score doesn’t go our way.
This week in Literacy, we were immersed in our new text The Paperbag Prince. We spent time developing the main character’s feelings in the story, we collaborated to decide how different events made him feel. Then some members of the class sat in the hot seat and were interviewed as if they were the Paperbag Prince.
We all learn in different ways, and the more ways we are exposed to something, the stronger the neural links become in our brains. When we make strong links in our brain, we remember more. This is a huge help when it comes to writing: our brains can quickly and efficiently recall those key phrases that we can then use in our own writing. Hot seating is one of the many ways we develop this in class.
Yesterday Redwood class had a wonderful time making their own poo. As our hook for the new learning journey – Burps, Bottoms and Bile – They all created the digestive system to see how their food travelled from one organ to the next.
We began our investigation by using our incisor and canine teeth (disguised as scissors) to cut up food. The food then made its way to the back of the mouth where our molars took over. Once our molars had got to work the saliva glands (syringe filled with water) secreted moisture into the mouth to create a soft mushy substance. The food made its way through our oesophagus to the stomach, it was met with a strong acidic liquid (vinegar) where it was broken down. Once this stage was finished, it was moved to our small intestine (tights). The children had to remove all the goodness at this stage so we dipped this into water and red food colouring where we were able to see all the nutrients leaving the substance. Once through the small intestine, it was onto the large intestine, this meant squeezing all the water out!! The now semi-dry substance was delivered through the rectum and into the cup where the children could see the final stage of the digestive system. The children observed the final product replicated faeces.
Fir Class caused a right stink this afternoon when they spent time making poo!
As our hook for our new learning journey – Burps, Bottoms and Bile – the recreated the digestive system to seen
how food becomes poo.
First we cut up the food using scissor to represent our incisors, the used a cup and our fists to do the work of the molars – crushing the food. Syringes acted as our saliva glands and added some moisture to the mix. We then moved the mixture into the stomach which added acid (vinegar) and continued to squash the food.
Once it looked ready, we moved it into the small intestine, we dipped this into our pot of ‘blood’ which showed out the nutrients are absorbed into the blood stream.
Finally, we squeezed out the excess liquid just like the large intestine and then we released what was left from the rectum.
Today in year 4, we have been thoroughly enjoying our last day of term by planning, producing and evaluating Norman drawbridges. We have used our Metacognition in planning our learning environment and how we were going to tackle the challenge. Then, we used the stage of monitoring to ensure we reflected on the effectiveness of the resources used and ways we could improve it. Finally, we evaluated the final product and after some discussion and changes, we were proud of the final pieces.
What a busy term we’ve had in Spanish lessons in KS2! We have been using all of our Hazeldown Values to learn how to greet people, say how we’re feeling and ask others, ask for school equipment and talk about our personalities and those of our friends plus key vocabulary such as numbers and days of the week. We have begun to learn about Spanish phonics and are acquiring bilingual dictionary skills. We have also really enjoyed using our online platform to play vocabulary games to support our learning.
Congratulations to this half term’s Star Readers.
Year 3
Well done to Oscar who is trying really hard with his reading and is reading every day in school. Brilliant, keep it up Oscar!
Year 4
Ellie is now enjoying reading and finds the books she is choosing interesting. Great news Ellie!
Year 5
Jet is challenging himself by reading longer books. Fantastic Jet!
Year 6
Aussie has gone from being a reluctant reader to a very confident reader and in his own words, “I really enjoy reading now”. That is great news Aussie!
As part of our spelling today, Fir class created sentences about Remembrance Day which included words from the year 3/4 spelling list. We reflected on the sacrifices they made during the war and felt empathy for the lives lost and others who were/are impacted by war. We demonstrated our resourcefulness by using our spelling list to create the sentences. We then shared our sentences with the class.
Today in Fir Class, we have written persuasive letters to the general public, as well as companies, to persuade them to take action regarding plastic pollution. In literacy, we have been learning why and how we write persuasive letters. We used our prior knowledge from our learning journey of Blue Abyss, along with devastating plastic pollution facts that we learned by visiting Plymouth Aquarium.
We used the metacognition cycle to plan, monitor and evaluate our persuasive letters. You can see from the pictures that we used our plans effectively to support our writing, as well as monitoring them by using our purple pen to edit and improve. This demonstrated our learning value of being reflective. We have shown our resourcefulness learning value by making sure we have all our helpful resources in front of us. Great learning Fir Class!
On Monday 18th October, Year 4 visited the National Marine Aquarium as part of their Blue Abyss learning journey. It was a brilliant day, all the children represented Hazeldown brilliantly. We were treated to a dedicated tour of the Aquarium with a member of staff. After lunch, we were then able to take part in a workshop which meant the children had the opportunity to classify different materials from the stomach of a deep sea animal. This meant sifting through fish guts, eaten squid and devastatingly plastic. Everyone worked collaboratively throughout the day, but most importantly, the workshop made some us have to be more resilient as the smell was not pleasant!
Well done to this half term’s Star Readers!
Year 6
Izzy has really focussed on aiming for her reading target challenge this half term. Well done Izzy!
Year 5
Joe who is doing well with his quizzes. Keep it up Joe!
Year 4
Max who is really enjoying reading his books. Keep reading Max!
Year 3
Austin who is enjoying reading his books from the library. Keep reading Austin!
Since the beginning of term Year 4 have been investigating place value within 4 digit numbers. This has included counting in varying amounts, rounding, working out how to place numbers on number lines with varying scales and using manipulatives to show the composition of a number.
Today, the children have been generating numbers using dice and then finding 1,000 more and 1,000 less. To further deepen their understanding, they have been creating generated statements that they can then apply to a number with a different amount of digits.
In Maths this week, we have been manipulating four-digit numbers to tackle word problems. We have all had to work collaboratively to pull ourselves out of the Learning Pit. During this lesson, we used our Metacognition phases to plan and monitor how we are going to tackle these questions.
Today in year 4, we have spent the morning being immersed in our new learning journey called Blue Abyss. At the start of our activity, we had a visit from Mr and Miss Shark. They had a great reception as they danced their way into class to Baby Shark. Not only did we get a great dance, but they led our interactive ‘Plickers’ quiz about the ocean, also we watched an episode of Blue Planet 2 on the ‘Big Blue’. These two activities gave us the chance to question what we already know and what we now want to find out in this learning journey.
This morning, the Saxon village of Hazeldown was invaded by marauding vikings! It began with a voyage across the sea and a march into the village of the North. The vikings soon settled and integrated with the native Saxons. Within the village, house building, bread baking, weaving, potion making (apothecary), runes and pottery activities took place. During all these activities, amazing collaboration was found between the tribes. To celebrate this, great swordsmanship and dance skills were performed in the open arena. To bring the day to a close, a traditional fire ceremony took place to thank the Norse god Odin for nature’s gifts.
This year we have made a sculpture for the art trail in Teignmouth. The sculpture features a piece of artwork from each class, Forest school, breakfast and after school club, and Little Acorns. Each class had a school value to represent on their piece and we are sure you will agree they did a fantastic job! All the children and staff, joined in by leaving their own mark or fingerprint on the artwork. Please pop down to the seafront and take a look, the sculpture is in the flower bed close to the pier. Please remember to vote for our sculpture once the voting opens. As soon as we get the voting information, we will pass it on to you.
Fir Class have been challenging themselves this morning to work out how our number system works when the digits were replaced with symbols. The children had to use their knowledge of number patterns to piece together a coded hundred square. Resilience and collaboration was definitely needed!
Today we went to Plymouth Aquarium on a coach. In the first room we visited there were 38 Starfish and we used our maths skills to work out how many Starfish legs there were. There were 190 in total! We saw a Catshark and learnt they take 9 months to hatch from their purses. We also met Friday the Turtle, he swam over our heads. We found him in the Atlantic Ocean zone. The largest Jellyfish is called a Lion’s Mane Jellyfish, we learnt that the their tentacles can wrap around the walls of the aquarium. We learnt that Jellyfish don’t actually swim, but they drift on the currents. There was a species of fish called Humphead wrasse the first was called Cooper and the second was called Mini. In the Great Barrier Reef zone we found there were 3 types of coral: Cabbage Lever coral, Mushroom coral and Staghorn coral.
During this week, Year 4 have been set a challenge as part of our topic on the Blue Abyss. They were asked to design, test and create their own submarine. In order to achieve the end product of a waterproof Submarine, the children have had to use collaboration, resilience and resourcefulness. We have been using our Metacognition cycle throughout this week to plan, monitor and evaluate each stage of our DT challenge. Here are a selection of photographs showcasing the learning journey.
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Over the last week, year 4 have been making links between fractions and decimals. They have been learning about decimal notation and that tenths and hundredths can be expressed as decimal fractions.
Fir Class have really embraced Forest School this half term. They have been learning new skills and also carrying out a range of science based activities as a follow up to Science Week.
This afternoon, Year 4 have been learning about and creating their own ocean food chains. The children were investigating the predator/prey relationship and learnt how green plants turn energy from the sun into food.
Here are some great photos from the children who were at home learning on World Book Day.
It looks like you all had a great World Book Day!
Around the School in 13 Bubbles!
I was lucky enough to take a socially distanced journey around the school to take some photos of the children dressed up for World Book Day. There were some fantastic costumes from all year groups. Thank you to everyone who joined in both at school and at home. Photos of the children who are currently home learning will be added to the blog at a later date.
We are over a week into our remote learning for some children and Year 4 are showing what resilient and resourceful learners they can be! This term’s topic -Burps, Bottoms and Bile! – has got off to a rather gruesome start looking at the digestive system.
Here are some of the things they children have produced to show they learning.
Year 6 Jacob
Jacob is an avid reader and at every opportunity spends time reading. I had to interrupt Jacob reading to award him with his Star Reader bookmark. Keep reading Jacob!
Year 5 Isobel
Isobel loves reading and frequently visits the library to choose another book by Jacqueline Wilson. Brilliant Isobel!
Year 4 Cameron
Cameron is an avid reader who enjoys both reading and quizzing on his books. Keep it up Cameron!
Year 3 Evie
Evie enjoys a visit to the library to choose her next book. Well done Evie!
Year 6 Maisie
Maisie has recently increased her reading range and thoroughly enjoys sitting reading a good book. Brilliant Maisie!
Year 5 Alex
Alex is such an avid reader that I had to interrupt him reading a book to award him his Star Reader bookmark. Fantastic Alex!
Year 4 Evie
Evie enjoys a wide variety of genres and loves visiting the library to choose her next book. Keep it up Evie!
Year 3 Harry
Harry enjoys reading and is always happy to tell you about the latest book he has read. Brilliant Harry!
Year 6 Isla
Isla is really enjoying reading at the moment and is getting amazing quiz results. Keep it up Isla!
Year 5 Saffy
Saffy is an avid reader and chooses lots of different genres to read. Fantastic Saffy!
Year 4 Amelia
Amelia is achieving fantastic results on all her book quizzes and enjoys coming to the library to change her books. Amazing Amelia!
Year 3 Josie
Josie is an avid reader and enjoys visiting the library regularly to change her books. Keep reading Josie!
Year 6 Mia
Mia has discovered she loves reading. Brilliant Mia, keep it up!
Year 5 Kitty
Kitty is achieving fantastic results in her reading quizzes. Amazing work Kitty!
Year 4 Lacey
Lacey is really enjoying her reading and loves visiting the library to change her books. Well done Lacey!
Year 3 Gracie-Mae
Gracie-Mae is a really enthusiastic reader. Keep it up Gracie-Mae!
Year 6 Amelia
Amelia has become an avid reader and is making fantastic progress with her reading target. Amazing Amelia!
Year 5 Oliver
Oliver has become an enthusiastic reader. Keep reading Oliver!
Year 4 Ethan
Ethan is a regular visitor to the library to change his book after completing a book quiz. Brilliant Ethan!
Year 3 Patrick
Patrick loves reading and reads whenever he can. Fantastic Patrick!
Year 6 Lewis
Well done Lewis you are really challenging yourself with your reading. Keep it up!
Year 5 Evie
Evie is really enthusiastic about reading the Roald Dahl books. Amazing Evie!
Year 4 Henry
Henry is trying really hard with his reading and getting some great quiz results. Keep going Henry!
Year 3 Rufus
Rufus is an enthusiastic reader. Keep reading Rufus!
Congratulations to this week’s Star Readers
Year 6 Aston
Aston is showing great determination with his reading. Well done Aston!
Year 5
Year 5 Jude
Jude is making a really determined effort to achieve his reading target. Keep going Jude!
Year 4 Zerren
Zerren is showing a really positive attitude towards reading and choosing books. Keep it up Zerren!
Year 3 Lauren
Lauren shows great enthusiasm towards reading and visiting the library. Amazing Lauren!
Here of some photos of the things that we have been up to in school this week.
On Google Sides some of the children have created a presentation about their sound experiments.Here is one page.
We have been completing our online Google Forms.
Journaling
Creating Google Slides to show what we think life in 2100 will be like.
Learning about food chains.
Learning about the parts of flowering plants.
Creating scenes on Scratch of underwater predators hunting their prey.
Started our extended writing tasks.
Children in the ‘Ebony Class Bubble’ have settled in well to their new school day. They’ve been working really hard and even had time to explore the wildlife outside on the field, making bird’s nests.
TTRS are holding an event to set a Guinness World Record for the highest score on TTRS in one minute.
They would like you to film yourself completing a 1 min game in the studio and then sending it to them. The highest score will be the Guinness World Record holder!
This link takes you to the website to explain how you can enter. The closing date is 4th June so you don’t have long.
https://ttrockstars.com/page/gwr
This week has been amazing on TTRS! I have never seen such high scores. Fir class have smashed it out of the park with a whopping 7, 981 correct answers!!!!! They are most definitely the reigning Hazeldown Champions.
Here are this week’s results:
Next week the battles have been arranged based on where you came in the school overall this week. So Fir scored the most with Bonsai second so they are battling each other next week.
The battles look like this:
Battles begin at 8:50am on Monday and will end on Friday at 3:15pm. Let’s see if anyone can beat Fir!
Last week’s TTRS results are as follows:
Congratulations to the winning classes: Monkey Puzzle, Ebony, Apple, Palm and Fir.
To organise battles this week, I have ranked the classes based on the points scored last week. So Apple scored the highest amount closely followed by Fir so they are battling each other this week.
This is how the battles look:
Here are the Battles that have been randomly picked out of the hat by some of the older children in school. Battles end on Friday at 3:15pm!
Here are this week’s results. Well done to Oak for being the top scoring class this week. Congratulations to Cherry Y3 for their victory over Monkey Puzzle. It was a close race between Bonsai Y5 and Ebony Y6 with Ebony finally winning. Apple Y2 did an amazing amount this week! Well done to Redwood Y4 who were victorious over Holly Y6.
Next week’s battles will be drawn at random, so log on on Monday morning to find out who you will be battling.
This week’s Battles have finished with he following results:
Holly 1096 v 628 Ebony
Bonsai 762 v 499 Monkey Puzzle
Fir 2305 v 1811 Redwood
Oak 4487 v 512 Cherry
Apple 723 v 354 Palm
Congratulations to the winning classes. Just to change things up a little next week, the KS2 battles will be between a class and their nearest competitor.
Next week’s battles will be between:
Oak (Y3) v Fir (Y4)
Holly (Y6) v Redwood (Y4)
Bonsai (Y5) v Ebony (Y6)
Monkey Puzzle (Y5) v Cherry (Y3)
Apple V Palm
Battles start at 8:50am on Monday!!
Year 6
Ebony are the winners with 1691
Year 5
Bonsai won with 1182
Year 4
This was really close! With only 28 more correct answers, Fir were the winners
Year 3
Oak smashed it with 4554 correct answers!
Year 2
Apple Class won with 750
This week’s results:
Ebony 16,424 v Holly 13,173
Bonsai 7,267 v Monkey Puzzle 370
Redwood 2020 v Fir 218
Oak 11,504 v Cherry 4223
Apple 222 v Palm 87
Congratulations to the winning bands. A new battle will start on 14th April so get practising!