Blackfell Primary School

The Phoenix of Persia

At first, Year 4 were given the front cover of the text with the title missing. They made predictions about whether the book was fiction or non-fiction, what they thought the creature on the cover was and where the story could be set. The children started listening to a version of the story with traditional musical accompaniments. At various points we stopped to explore the setting and the characters and make predictions about what would happen later in the story. We discovered the story was set in Persia (modern Iran) so we also spent time investigating where Iran is and what the climate and landscape is like there.

Winter Gardens Visit

Year 3 and 4 have had a fantastic day visiting Sunderland Winter Gardens and Mowbray Park. They enjoyed exploring the different sculptures, sketching a walrus, making a satin glass window using natural resources and created their very own piece of art in the style of Andy Goldworthy using what they could find! 

Poetry Day

Well done to everybody in Year 4! Over the past two weeks, we have learning about the poem The Boogeyman. We discussed what we thought the poem was talking about and what we thought he looked like. We then split the poem into different parts and added our own expression. We performed our poem to Key Stage 2. We really enjoyed performing our poem!

Attendance of the Month Movie Afternoon

Well done Year 4 for achieving Attendance of the Month for September. What a fantastic start to the year. We all enjoyed a movie with drinks and snacks! Keep up the great work!

Exploring Area

We have been exploring area. With our friends, we used post it notes to create as many different shapes with the area of 4.

Fire Safety

Year 4 enjoyed a visit from Ryan from Washington Fire Services. They learnt about how to make sure that their home are safe from fire. They also discussed what to do in the event of a fire. Year 4 had fantastic questions for Ryan and we all learnt a lot!

The BFG

Year 4 have been enjoying reading! This week we got copies of The BFG to read for pleasure. Together, we read the first few chapters and already hooked with the story! We can not wait to read and find out what happens to The BFG and Sophie on their adventure!

Geography: The River Nile

In Geography, we have been learning about rivers. Today we have been researching information on the worlds longest river. The River Nile is 6,650 KM long! We learnt about its modern uses, what plants grow along it and animals can be found. We were amazed with the information we learnt.

Year 3 and 4 Visit Albany Care Home

Year 3 and 4 visited Albany Care Home. They had been practising some festive songs and enjoyed singing with and along side the residence. We all enjoyed a very festive morning. Well done Year 3 and 4.

Christmas Dinner

Year 4 had a fantastic Christmas lunch together. We sang songs, ate our food and even had a surprise visitor from Santa! We all enjoyed telling Santa what we wanted for Christmas and a little dance with him.

Tennis 

Year 4 have been enjoying their tennis lessons. This week we reviewed our previous weeks learning with ball control and our racket. We then practised bouncing the ball and hitting. We then practised a rally with our friend. We had a fantastic time!

World Mental Health Day

To celebrate World Mental Health Day, Year 4 enjoyed a well-being hour away from screens and curriculum work. Some of us painting, board games and making key changes for friends and family. It was a well deserved break from all the hard work we've been putting in and we all agreed it was good to be away from the screen.

Exploring Animal Groups

At the start of the lesson we recapped the different ways we could group  animals. One of the ways to group them is into the main animals groups. We listed what these were and sorted some animals  into these groups. We didn’t get them all right at first and we     discussed how we knew if the animal  belonged to the group. We realised they all had  special characteristics. Then we worked in groups to investigate what characteristics the animals needed to have for each group and presented our findings to our friends.

Year 3 & 4 Coffee Afternoon

It was lovely to be joined by so many friends and family of Year 3 and 4! We begun our afternoon by sharing what we had been learning so far this year. All of the children in Year 3  performed "Three Little Birds" and Year 4 performed "Mamma Mia". They then all came together to perform "Respect". We ended our afternoon with a good game of bingo. Year 3 and 4 done a fantastic job! Well done!

Lost Happy Endings

Year 4 listened to the first half of the story ‘The Lost Happy Endings’ by Carol Ann Duffy and Jane Ray. We unpicked some of the figurative language the authors used and thought about what they meant. Once we reached the dilemma of the story, we thought about different possible resolutions and endings and made a note of our ideas for later in the unit. Then we listened to how the authors resolved the problem in the story. After finishing the book, we sequenced it as a class by creating different freeze frames.

Odd Socks

We began our learning on Anti-Bullying week by celebrating Odd Socks Day. This celebrates the fact everybody is different and special. We then created our own personalised odd socks

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Exploring Pavilions 

To start the lesson, we discussed our understanding of the words ‘strong’, ‘stable’ and ‘stiff’ and then looked at the official definitions:

 strong - does not break easily

stable - firmly fixed and not likely to move or change

stiff - does not bend easily

We looked at examples of different pavilions and tried to identify some similarities and differences to help us understand what they were (a light, flexible space which can be permanent but is often temporary). Then we watched a short video which modelled the best ways to construct a simple frame structure for a building such as a pavilion. Using toothpicks and mini marshmallows, we practised constructing different frame structures. At the end of the lesson, we discussed what worked well and what was challenging so we could apply this when building our final pavilions.

Making Switches

In science, we have been exploring switches and how they work. We then revised creating a simple circuit with our friends. We then worked together to create a switch and tested to see if it worked. We found it tricky but we all managed to create our own switch!

Disco Time

Year 4 thoroughly enjoyed their school disco tonight. Children enjoyed dancing, singing and even had the chance to win some prizes for best dancer. We enjoyed hot dogs, crisps and a drink and enjoyed dancing to some more of our favourite songs. 

Exploring the Bible

In our RE learning we have been looking at different versions of the bible. We have looked at children's bible and and adult bible. We looked at the different vocabulary and how it was presented. We then discussed the word meanings.

Black History Month

Aretha Franklin

Year 4 have been enjoying celebrating Black History Month. They have been learning about Aretha Franklin. They learnt about her early life and her singing career. She was the first black woman to enter the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. We created some excellent times lines and informative biographies. We even learnt to sing her number one hit Respect!

Emotional Health and Wellbeing

Today, Year 3 and 4 were Joined by Angela from the School Nursing Team. She came to talk to us about our emotional health and wellbeing. We talked about positive and negative emotions. We then discussed how these emotions present through feelings in our bodies and expressions. We played the game Guess the Emotion with our friends. We then discussed different strategies how to deal with negative emotions and who we can talk to.

Stereotypes

To begin the lesson, we wrote down fictional characters from books, comics, TV and nursery rhymes on different pieces of paper. We then grouped these into characters into those which were male, female or the gender was unknown. Once we had sorted them, we discussed the concept of gender stereotypes and which of the characters promoted these stereotypes. We thought about the influence this could have on us and the messages it would send to children e.g. limiting what someone thinks they can do because of their gender or cause worry to those who feel they don’t fit in with their gender. Some children were able to share other characters who they felt did not fit stereotypes and explain why this could have a positive influence. Finally, we spent time discussing other factors which contribute towards stereotyping e.g. toys, clothes, jobs.

Netball

In our new PE learning, we have been learning about Netball. We have begun by learning three different throws. Chest pass, bounce pass and shoulder pass. We have even begun to try and play games of three verses three. We are really enjoying our netball learning.

Relaxing Techniques

Today in our PSHE learning on Health and Wellbeing, we have been looking at the emotion calm. We have discussed how it makes us feel when we are calm, where we like to go to help us feel calm and why we like it. We then discussed different techniques to help us feel calm and tried Pizza Massage and visualisation. It was a lovely calm afternoon.

Bah Humbug!

Well done Year 3 and 4! What a fantastic Christmas play they performed. All of the children were fantastic with their lines and singing their songs. Well done again! Mrs Milne and Miss Black are very proud of you.

Christmas Party

Year 3 and 4 enjoyed their christmas party today. We all enjoyed coming into school in our party outfits ready for a fun afternoon. We played games such as corners, musical statues and pin the nose on reindeer. We also enjoyed some snacks and had a good dance.