Blackfell Primary School

Let's make the Rules!

We have been very busy in our first day in our new class. We started our day by thinking about the rules in our school and thinking of different rules for our classroom. We worked together and have created some great class rules! We are so excited about our year in Year 4!

When I grow up!

In Year 4 we have been practising our sketching skills and collage techniques. We created a two coloured background using ripped paper and glue. We then thought about what we would look like when we are older and what we would like to be doing. We have really improved with our sketching.

Egyptian Timeline

In our topic lesson we have been learning all about the Ancient Egyptians and the significant events during their time. We worked in small groups, talked about the events and then ordered them. When we had completed this activity we created our own Egyptian timeline and thought about which event we would like to learn about the most. We are finding out great information about the Egyptians and their lives.

Drama Exploration

Today for our literacy activity we have been looking at a variety of play scripts. Together in small groups we;  set the scene, decided on the characteristics of the characters, thought about different props, looked at the different directions then added directions for the   actors to follow. We then rehearsed our scene and performed it to our friends. We enjoyed being directors and actors for the day.

Singing with Claire

In preparation for singing at Durham Cathedral we have been having singing lessons with Claire. She has been working on a variety of vocal techniques to help us develop. We have been signing popular songs and even learning some Latin. We are excited to perform in the cathedral. 

Anti-Bullying Week

Friendship Web

Today to start our anti-bullying week we have been talking about our selves in a positive way. We have been building confidence and saying what we like about ourselves and why. We passed the string around to our friends and began to build a web. We then took turns to say what we liked about different people in our class and what special talents they have. It was great building the web together.

Limericks

Today in literacy we have began to look at the features of a limerick. We have been looking at the rhyming patters. We then worked in pairs to learn alimerick, add actions and perform it to the class. We produced a variety of performances that made us all laugh.

Bethlehem the Musical

The West End came to Blackfell when the children of Year 3 and 4 performed their Christmas Play. All children took part in Bethlehem the Musical! It was a retelling of the Nativity through singing and acting. Everyone made us so proud with their performing arts skills. Year 3 and 4 you were AMAZING! Well Done!

Shining Lights

We have been exploring the quote "Jesus is a shining light" in our Religious Education lessons. We then decided to look at other influential people in history and explore how they were glowing examples of shining lights. We researched Princess Diana, Abraham Lincoln, Gandhi and  Martin Luther King. We could not believe what they did in their life time to help others and show others how to live a good life. We then presented out findings to the class. We have learnt lots of new facts. 

We Love to PARTY!

In Year 3 and 4 we love to party. We came together and celebrated Christmas and the end of our first term in our new classes. We enjoyed playing some traditional party games, like corners and musical statues, and also enjoyed some new games like nibble the biscuit. We all had a fantastic time spending time with our friends and having fun.

Problem Solving

Today we have been thinking about different problems and their solutions. We worked in small groups with our friends. We were given a problem and had to create a freeze frame scene to represent it. We then worked together and talked about what would do in this situation. We then created another freeze frame to show the solution. We enjoyed acting out our scenes!

How do you feel?

To finish our week talking about new beginnings we have focused on our feelings in our classroom. We worked together and discussed what made us happy, in the middle and upset.We then shared this with our friends. We enjoyed sharing our thoughts to the class.

Estimating Maths

We have been doing lots of work on place value so far in maths this term. As part of our maths lesson we focused on estimating the number of objects in a container. We looked at the size of the container and the objects in and them estimates the number of objects. We have been estimating in 10's, 100's and 1000's. We really enjoyed our maths lesson!

Mummification 

In our topic lesson we have been learning about the mummification process and all of the gory details! We have been recreating the process ourselves but instead of using a human we have been using a tomato. We began our process by weighing our tomato, removing the insides with a hook and then putting in a bath of salt. We can not wait to see the changes after the holidays. Keep your eyes peeled for the next stage.

Oriental Museum 

We have had fantastic trip to the Oriental Museum in Durham today. We have been working with Jennie and learning all about the Ancient Egyptians. We have held real life artifacts and looked at a mummy. We have acted out the mummification process and even how to get to the afterlife. We have enjoyed our day and learnt a lot.

Pledge

We have been talking about the different forms of bullying in our PSHE session. we talked about the signs and what we can do to help if we see someone being bullied. We then wrote a pledge about what we would do to combat bullying if we saw it in our school. We signed our pledge with our hand print.

Gymnastic Fun!

This term for PE we have been joined by Mr Dury. We have been working on our core muscles, developing our forward rolls and learning how to cartwheel and even some flips. We are enjoying our P.E. with Mr Dury. 

Balancing

For our last session of gymnastics we have been focusing on balancing. We began by thinking about putting a certain number of body parts in contact with the floor. We then worked together and put a certain number of body parts in contact again. We then worked in small group and worked together to create different balances thinking about stability and height. We have learnt a lot and developed our skills.

Jewellery Making

To finish our topic on the Ancient Egyptian we decided to design our own Egyptian accessory. We became mini designers and thought carefully about what we were going to create. We planned our jewellery to exact mm and planned how we were going to decorate it. We then got crafts and began to stitch our amazing designs onto our felt. We enjoyed our afternoon jewellery making in Year 4.

Blackfell Behaviour Rules

After we had been thinking about our rules in our classroom we decided to show the rest of the school and visitors our expectations.We created some posters to tell them our school rules. We chose our background, inserted pictures and added text boxes. We enjoyed creating our own posters.

How we hear sound.

Today we have begun out topic on sound. We have been learning how sound travels in through the air in waves and vibrates off the particles in the air, liquids and solids. We then tried some fun experiments to see how waves travel through with drums, tuning folks, rice and water. It was a great start to our new topic.

Pitch Perfect

Following on from learning about how sound travels to our ears we have been investigating pitch. We have been exploring a range of different instruments and describing their pitch. We then looked at the instruments features and worked out how the high and low pitch sounds were created. We enjoyed playing with the instruments.

Creating Instruments

To finish our unit on sound we have been using our knowledge of pitch to create a high or low pitched instrument. We planned our instrument and thought about the different features, then we created it and evaluated our instrument. It was great fun making our instruments.

Tooth Decay Investigation 

Do you know that 2 in 3 children have visible signs of tooth decay?

Today in science we were set a task. We were asked to investigate which drink would be the best to prevent tooth decay in children. We planned and set up our experiment. We have each got 5 eggs and placed them in a range of liquids; coke, orange juice, water, milk and squash. We will leave them for a week and see the effect the liquids have on them. Keep a look out for our findings.

Durham Outreach Project

Over the past six weeks the children in Year 4 have been working with Durham Cathedral Outreach programme.  They have been learning a variety of songs, each with different challenges. The children have learnt how to sing in a cannon, high pitched and even Latin! They performed with other children from the Sunderland area and the Choristers from the Cathedral. The children were fantastic. We look forward to working on some new projects.

Well done Year 4 we are all so proud of you!

Beware of the Jabberwocky

Today in literacy we have been looking at nonsense poetry. We worked as a class and discussed what we thought the poem “The Jabberwocky”  was about. We all had different ideas about the imagery and the meaning of the nonsense words in the poem. We then got into small groups and each chose a verse to create our own drama around. We thought about facial   expressions, how we would move and how the verse would be said. We created a short film of all of our verses put together.

All Around our Country

We have been learning all about the the country that we live in. We have been researching local and national populations. We then went on to compare a different region to our own the North East. We enjoyed our morning exploring regional and national geography.

CONGRATULATIONS YEAR 4!

Well done Year 4! What a fantastic first term you have had. In such a short space of time you have achieved so much! You have showed a fantastic attitude to learning and excellent behaviour!

As our reward pom pom jar filled up fast we got ourselves ready for our reward. We decided, as a class, to have a film afternoon with some snack and drinks. What made it more fun was we were in our PJ's. We enjoyed our film and snacks with our friends.