Friday 9th October
It's been another busy week in Year 4. Take a look at what we have all been up to.
4JP
Negative numbers
We have been using time lines in maths and history this week. Some of us got a little bit confused so we have done lots of practice and we are much better now! We did some work on BC and AD in our topic lessons and had to put a whole Roman timeline in order. This linked well to our maths work on negative numbers. We had a go at drawing negative numbers using pictures. Mrs Purdom actually let us write on the tables! Sssssssshhhhhh.........don't tell Mr Jones.
We worked on greater than and less than with negative numbers and learnt how to read a thermometer. It was a bit tricky at first but we didn't give up.
The rise of the Roman Empire
After we completed our Roman timelines, we considered where it all began. We learnt that Rome was a collection of small villages on the banks of the River Tiber. It started off really small but it grew and grew. The Roman Empire was at its height in 117AD. We coloured our maps to show the land that was occupied by the Romans and the land that was occupied by the Celts at that time.
A musical morning
Wow! When Mrs Purdom asked us to bring in our musical instruments, she didn't realise we would have a whole class band! We had a lovely morning listening to each other play our instruments. We thought about how the sound is made for each one. We know that sound is made by vibrations but we didn't know how those vibrations are made and changed in different instruments. Luckily, we had some experts to help us.
Here are the guitars. We listened to electric and acoustic. Th electric guitar's sound is made through the pick up, which is small magnetic discs under the strings. We saw that the strings were different thicknesses on both guitars. Liam showed us how the sound changes when you move your finger up the fretboard.
. Here's another string instrument - the ukelele. It works in the same way as a guitar. The other instrument her is called a kalimba. It's an African instrument which has metal prongs. When you twang them, they vibrate, a bit like a ruler on a desk. The different lengths produce different sounds.
Some instruments are played by blowing them, but not all in the same way. The tenor horn is played by buzzing (or vibrating) your lips together. The flute is played by blowing across the blow hole. The clarinet has a reed in the mouthpiece. When you blow into it, it vibrates, making the sound. The sound is changed in all of these instruments by pressing keys or valves to block the tubes.
The recorder works in the same way but you blow directly into the mouthpiece. We also heard the bongo drum and noticed that the sound was different when you tapped the middle of the drum to when you tapped the edge of the drum. We thought this was because the skin was tighter at the edges so the vibrations would be different.
The other strings instruments we listened to are the violin and the cello. They are both played with a bow (made of horse hair) The sound is made and changed by drawing the bow across the strings. We noticed the sound changed when the bow was angled differently.
And finally, we listened to the keyboard. We learnt that a piano has strings attached to the keys and there is a hammer inside the piano. When you press a key, the hammer hits the string and this makes the sound. We thought it might be a string instrument but we found out that it's usually classed as a percussion instrument.
What a great morning's work!
4CW
In Year 4, we would normally go to visit Tapton Congregational Church, but due to current circumstances they have had to come to us instead. Reverend Knockles told us all about the interior of the church, including features such as the organ and the pulpit. She told us a lot about her job and about the history of the church. She came with Daryl, who is learning how to be a minister. We also sang a little song together that she might sing in her church. They sing five or six songs each time they meet. They love singing! She has given us a little job to do which involves us making a wreath for Remembrance Day and she has also asked us to sing some Christmas Carols and record our singing so that she can play it to her congregation to cheer them all up.
4JD
This week we put together our class book based on a Roman myth about how Rome was founded in 753 BCE. The myth was about twins named Romulus and Remus. We enjoyed painting the different scenes in water colours. It has already been in demand in our book cornere with lots of children wanting to read it again and again and again. You can read the full story here!
Later this week, we completed our whole school art work. Our class worked on paintings of Ogres. We have looked at different face shapes and did lots of mixing to create different water colour shades. We found that using the black broad felt tip pens, really brought our Ogres to life! (not really to life as that would be terrifying!). Here we are busy being creative!
Here are some of our wonderful (but slightly frightening) finished ogres. We will feel proud when we see them as they are being put up all around our school.
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