Welcome to the Woodpecker Class!

World Book Day!

Woodpecker Class had a fabulous day celebrating their love of books on World Book Day!  The children came to school dressed as their favourite book characters (wearing some fantastic creations) and took part in a variety of events.  These included: The Big Footy Quiz, Reading Buddies with reception children, making their own book marks and creating their own comics or an alternative book cover for their favourite book. We also read, a lot! Well done Woodpeckers for an amazing World Book Day!

International Day

As part of international day, children in year 3 and 4 have been learning about the country Taiwan. Throughout the day children have been immersed in the language, food, landscape and culture of Taiwan. They have learnt a traditional tale ‘The Salty Sea’, explored the country on a map and studied its landscape, learnt to write their name in Mandarin, created their own Taiwanese menu and sampled some traditional food, including bubble tea (boba tea) a popular drink from Taiwan.

On Wednesday 15th January, Children in Year 3 and 4 had an exciting opportunity to attend a dance festival at Bartholomew School hosted by Step 2 Dance Company, specialists in street dance, breakdance, and hip hop styles. The event was a celebration of movement and creativity, with the teachers showcasing their skills in these energetic and dynamic styles. The children had the chance to watch inspiring performances, learn new choreography, and participate in a large scale dance performance. It was a morning filled with energy, teamwork, and a sense of achievement as they embraced the joy of dance and developed a deeper appreciation for these urban dance forms.  

Art- Ancient Egyptian Scrolls:

In this lesson, we explored Ancient Egyptian artwork and identified the common patterns, colours and images that are found within them. We used this information to create our own version, applying this knowledge of pattern, colour and image we collected earlier. We had the chance to create a wash using paint and then use pastels (oil and chalk), charcoal and coloured pencils to create a design. It was challenging to apply some of the shading and drawing techniques to this new style, but after some exploration Year 4 were able to create some fantastic pieces.

Our visit to the Baptist Church

As part of our RE topic on Christianity, we visited the Baptist Church to find out more about religious symbols of Christmas and what they might mean to a Christian.  During our visit, we explored key symbols including the Star, manger, the three gifts from the Three Kings or Wise Men and Advent candles.  We also learnt about the Christingle and the importance of the Christingle service, for children, as a reminder that Jesus came to Earth as a child himself and offered hope to the world.

Science Detectives:

Year 4 had a fantastic time being circuit detectives during science this week. We had the opportunity to use equipment from Science Oxford to investigate faults in some electrical circuits.  The chidren used their prior knowledge of circuits and switches to investigate, identify and fix the faults within each circuit.

Viking Day!

Year 4 had a fantastic Viking day this week and they all looked amazing in their Viking outfits. We started our day learning about how Vikings invaded Britain and how they attacked the holy monastery at Lindisfarne. Then, we got ourselves ready for the invasion by making some Viking shields, equipped with ‘iron’ bosses to protect our hands during the battle. Year 4 used accurate colours, patterns and even runes to decorate their shield and they look amazing!

Finally, it was time for the invasion…we acted out scenes of the Vikings attacking the innocent monks and discussed how the monks might have felt and why they didn’t defend themselves. Then the valiant Viking warriors battled it out to see who would emerge victorious.

Amazing work Woodpeckers!

Arthur and the Golden Rope:

During this lesson, we explored the front cover of our new class text ‘Arthur and the Golden Rope’ and made thoughtful predictions using the clues we could see.  We then visited the Marsh, on a quest, where we found and investigated some mysterious items that could be connected to the text. Using our knowledge of the front cover, we discussed the relevance of each object. It was fantastic to go on a mini quest and try to uncover the meaning behind these strange objects.

Happy World Mental Health Day!

At school today, we were celebrating World Mental Health Day. We got to wear yellow to celebrate the day, and had an assessembly to discuss how important it is to understand and look after our mental health. 

In class, we discussed some ideas about how we can help ourselves with either big or small feelings. Sharing these ideas really helped us all and it was a fantastic disussion. We then had the opportunity to move our bodies by doing some yoga. We practiced focussing on how our bodies feel and the changes that emotions can have on our bodies.

To finish, we had some creative time. Using oil pastels, we created patterns and got to express some emotions with the oil pastels.

Fantastic work Woodpeckers!

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, foraging 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 silver for the prisoners to be released.  Sadly, the Vikings invaded a second time and took the village as their own. 

The Anglo-Saxons and the Vikings spent some time building some weapons skills such as axe throwing, archery and spear throwing to prepare for the final battle.  It was a fantastic battle, from which the Anglo-Saxons emerged victorious!

The second day was a team building day!  The children were challenged through games such as ‘Crossing the Swamp’, using Land Skis and ‘Rolling the Caterpillar.  They persevered, solved problems and ultimately had fun!   

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!

Year 4 Parent Meeting-Autumn 2024:

Week 2:

In our first science lesson we were introduced to our new topic...SOUND! We learnt that sounds are vibrations that travel through a medium (air, water), but to prove this, we used a range of interesting equipment. The tuning fork in the water helped us both see and feel the vibrations of the sound. A particular favourite of the class was hitting the drum and watching the rice dance about. It was VERY loud and quite messy, but it was great to see and feel the vibrations alongside hearing them.

Week 1

During class yesterday, we were sent to investigate an event that had occurred in the marsh. As we arrived, we noticed the surrounding setting and took note of different sights and sounds we saw. After exploring further, a discovery was made! Giant clawed footprints, fangs and a variety of huge eggs were found. What has been going on in the marsh over the summer? We discussed our findings as a class, and we think that some dragons have been nesting there for the last six weeks! Hmmm maybe we shouldn’t have brought the eggs back to class…some unhappy dragons may come looking for them.