Jackdaw Class

Welcome to our Class Page!

Miss Standard came into our classroom and informed us of some unusual happenings that had taken place close to school.  It was reported that strange noises could be heard coming from the Marsh.  Scratching sounds were identified by residents as well as an unusual heat in the air. Miss Standard asked us to carry out a secret investigation and report our findings to her.

Silently, Year 4 made their way across the wet field towards the Marsh.  A rhythmic banging sound could be heard in the distance.  We cautiously crept into the Marsh and made a circle around the campfire area.  After listening to some instructions, we carefully and thoroughly investigated the area and made notes about what we discovered.

After studying the evidence, we concluded that a female dragon may have landed in the Marsh.  We think this because we found two large eggs that we believe to be dragon eggs (one egg was covered in scales).  Other evidence also supports this idea including scratches on the ground, scorched land and wood (which could have been burnt by a dragon) and logs that had been knocked down and moved (which could only have been done by a powerful creature).  We also know that as this unusual event happened at night, the animal must be nocturnal (which dragons are). 

W/C 18/09/23

Sound!

Our Science topic this term is 'Sound!'  Today, we explored how sounds are made.  We studied a range of different instruments and discussed what we had to do to the instrument so that they could make a sound.  We hit each instrument and discussed what we could see, feel and hear.  We discussed that sounds are a vibration.  These vibrations travel as waves, through a medium, to our ears.

W/C 2/10/23

In English this week, we have been exploring and examining non-chronological reports and one of our lessons focused on technical language.  To help the children see the difference between technical and non-technical language, the children had to sort and group words according to whether they were technical or non-technical.  The children later applied this vocabulary to a piece of writing where they had to select the most suitable vocabulary to use and then assessed the impact of their choices.

W/C 9/10/23

In English, we have been exploring subordinate clauses.  Firstly, we identified and wrote main clauses and then used main clauses to write facts.  We went on to expand our facts by identifying and writing subordinate clauses using subordinating conjunctions.  Here are some photographs of a matching activity the children took part in.  Each child was given a main or subordinate clause and they had to find a corresponding main or subordinate clause to create a multiclause sentence.

Hill End!

Year 4 went on an overnight residential to Hill End! 

Their first day was spent either as an Anglo-Saxon or a Viking.  The Vikings were taught how to fight and defend, ready to challenge the Anglo-Saxons and take their villages.  The Anglo-Saxons explored their villages and discovered what daily life would have been like.  They took part in village jobs such as wheat grinding, willow weaving and tanning.  The Vikings later invaded the Anglo-Saxon village and took some of the villagers as prisoners.  The Anglo-Saxons then had to offer sufficient gold for the prisoners to be released.  Sadly, the Vikings invaded a second time and took the village as their own.  The Anglo-Saxons then spent sometime learning to fight and defend which eventually resulted in a final battle, with the Vikings, in order to reclaim their village.

Later that afternoon, the children were challenged through team building games.  They persevered, solved problems and ultimately had fun! 

The second day was an orienteering day!  Initially, the children studied simple maps and courses that progressively became trickier and built upon their knowledge and application of maps.  This led to a final activity where the children used complex maps to locate identified markers around the Hill End site.  

The residential was an amazing success and the children were brave, showed care for each other and were fantastic representatives for our school and our school values.  

Well done Year 4!

Photographs to follow shortly.

W/C 13/11/23

Viking Day!

This week, we spent a day in school as a Viking!

At the start of the day, we all arrived in our costumes, and we were each given a Viking name.  We spent our morning learning about how the Vikings fitted into our chronological understanding of History and explored the initial invasion of Britain at Lindisfarne.  As the day progressed, we discovered how England changed after the Vikings arrived and settled and how this impacted upon the Anglo-Saxon organisation of the 7 kingdoms.  During our day as a Viking, we also investigated writing with Runes and the runic alphabet, designed our own Viking shield for a longboat and sang a song about the Vikings and their way of life. 

We had a fantastic day!

 This term, Father Christmas wrote to both the Jackdaws and Woodpecker class, asking for their help. Santa told the classes that his grotto had fallen apart during a storm and that he needed the year 4s to design a new pavilion that was Christmas themed and structurally strong. Using lolly sticks, cardboard, paper and hot glue guns, the children have planned, designed and constructed pavilions, using cladding to decorate their structures. They look incredible and we are really impressed!

W/C 15.1.24

Times Tables!

Times tables have been a huge focus for us this term.  To allow the children time to develop fluency in their 9 and 12 times tables, they were given the opportunity to create times table challenge cards that they could use to test each other.  We discussed testing strategies and began by testing the 9 times table in order and then in reverse order.  We then tested out of order.  We repeated the same strategies for the 12 times table.  The children enjoyed being 'Quiz Masters' and supporting their partner to learn their times tables at speed.

W/C 29.2.24

A Journey into The Egyptian Afterlife!

This week, Year 4 explored how the Ancient Egyptians travelled through the Underworld in an attempt to visit the Field of Reeds (The Egyptian Afterlife). The children used drama to walk through scorching deserts, swim across vast oceans and vanquish beasts using spells from the Book of the Dead. Finally, the children had to weigh their hearts in order to enter paradise. These pictures show the final challenge Egyptians faced before they met Osiris in the Afterlife.

W/C 19/2/24

Mummification!

This week, Year 4 learnt about the practice of mummification in Ancient Egypt, reenacting the process using tomatoes, as well as a range of household items such as toilet roll, oil, salt, bicarbonate of soda, paperclips and utensils. The steps of mummification and the children's attempts using tomatoes can be seen below, but beware, the steps are gruesome and are not to everybody's taste. 

Step 1: Embalming

During the embalming stage, the Egyptians believed that the body needed to be purified. So, it was brought carefully into a tent known as ‘ibu’. The embalmers then thoroughly washed the body in good-smelling palm wine and rinsed it with water from the river Nile.

Step 2: Removing the brain.

The embalmers inserted a special hooked rod through the nostrils directly to the skull, thus, breaking the brain apart to make it drain out.  Bits of brain tissue were then taken out from the nose and liquified by dissolving in water.

Step 3: Removing the internal organs.