Year 4 at Redhills

As part of our India topic earlier in the year we contacted children at Kasiga School in Dehadrun, India. We asked each other questions about our respective lives and discussed the answers. We decided that it would be interesting to create Photostories or Powerpoint shows about ourselves and our lives.

Click here to watch some of 4AS’s Photostories. We answered a set of questions, wrote text, searched for and downloaded images, added music and transitions and in some cases included a voiceover as well.

As a Homework Assignment the pupils were asked to design a House from the future.

They worked really hard on their creations. Here are a selection. Click on each one to zoom in.

www.vodpod.com allows you to set up your own video website. You can link to videos from other sites on the Internet and have access to them from the one site. I have collected some interesting videos to support our topic on Ancient Egypt here;

http://year4egypt.vodpod.com/

Over the last 2 weeks we have been using non-fiction books, films and the Internet to find out about Life in Ancient Egypt. Groups of pupils researched a particular aspect of Egyptian life and presented their findings to the rest of the class. This information was added to a mindmap in note form. These notes were then expanded into full sentences and added to posters or mini-books.

This term we will be studying Life in Ancient Egypt as our History Topic. Here are some useful websites to visit – click on the pictures to open the sites in a new window;

We have been reading and writing poetry this term. One task involved choosing a poem we liked and then listing pictures that could accompany the poem. We used Google Safesearch to find relevant pictures and then uploaded them into Microsoft Photostory 3 (great, free presentation software – get it here). We added text and speech using microphones, edited the pictures, added transitions and chose music that worked well with the mood of our poems.

You can see all the photostories here – use the menu on the right-hand side to select the one you want to watch. Or you can watch them one after another using the player below.

A cinquain (pronounced sankwain – the French for 5 is cinq) is a poem that has 5 lines. Each line is made up of a specific number of syllabes (similar to a haiku). We wrote some cinquains using a specific layout.

Line 1 = the subject of the poem = 2 syllables

Line 2 = two words to describe the subject = 4 syllables

Line 3= three verbs ending in ‘ing’ = 6 syllables

Line 4 = words related to the subject = 8 syllables

Line 5 = 2 syllables to finish off

We have hidden the subject in each poem – can you guess what each one is about?

p_ _ _ _ _ _ _
round flat yellow
pouring cooking tasting
Sprinkled with lots of lemon juice
scrumptious

p_ _ _ _ _ _
cute and fluffy
running eating jumping
lovely dogs walking all around
so cool!

I__ C _____
lots of flavours
licking, biting, melting
strawberry, raspberry, mint too
Tasty!

T_ _ _ _ _ _
giving homework
teaching, moaning, shouting
staring at us giving work that’s
too hard!

P_ _ _ _ _ _
bossy annoying
boring, sitting chatting
impossibly embarrassing
weird

m_ r_ _ _

very messy
stinking, minging, playing
“Tidy your room up now Harry”
O.K.
s_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
tasty, juicy
smelling licking eating
yummy red sour sugary
pick them

m_ d_ _
jet dark black
drooling, licking, running
playing with a ball having fun
barking!

We have been experimenting with a new computer program called Microsoft Songsmith. You sing into a microphone and the program tries to match the notes you sing. You can then choose from a number of preset song styles to back your singing, using these notes.

We split into groups and practiced singing each of the times tables and then had a few attempts at recording them. Images were also added to make videos of the times tables that can be used at school and at home. We hope that they will help the children at Redhills to learn their Times Tables facts.

See the individual videos by clicking on each; 2x Table , 3x Table, 4x Table, 5x Table, 6X Table, 7X Table, 8x Table, 9x Table, 10x Table

We watched a short video about the flora and fauna in an Indian forest and then discussed how to write interesting descriptions of what we might experience if we went there. We used a photo to help us generate our sentences.

I could hear monkeys leaping from each emerald tree to the next, singing in their own special song that know one can understand, like squealing babies.
Next to the waterfall I felt scared, but at the same time excited that I was in a new world, and that at any moment the water would take me away like a blue silk cloth glistening in the air
Amy and Sophie

Above me I could see lots of gushing water falling down. I could hear the crash of the water hitting the riverbed. A herd of elephants were having a drink. I was scared and I thought that at any moment the waterfall could collapse on me.
Oliver

I was standing next to a waterfall on a bridge that was very old, shattered and broken. All I could hear was the water and the birds. A strong wind blew against me.
Harry and Gracie

Above me fell a beautiful waterfall and next to it a huge, green palm tree. I felt freezing cold and I had goose bumps as I put my hand in the blue water.
Kiera and Brandon R

Above were loads of grey clouds. I could hear colourful birds and next to the waterfall were tall, green trees. I felt their rough, hard, bumpy bark.
Chloe and Brandon M

Above me I could see a sparkling waterfall and some tall, green trees standing proudly. I could hear the sound of the trees swaying and the water in the waterfall pouring down. I felt calm and happy.
Joel and Sophie Mae

I could see mossy stones and water all around me. Above the waterfall was crashing down. I could hear birds singing in the trees. I stood with my Mum and Dad watching the landslide of water.
Rebecca and James C.

I could hear the tweeting of the birds up in the trees. Next to the waterfall was a ragged, very old bridge. I felt hot and happy seeing all these wonderful things. Above there fell a beautiful waterfall.
Bethany and Yasmine.

Above there was a huge, black crow. I could hear a snake hissing from behind an enormous tree. Next to the waterfall was a flood of water. I felt a small rain drop fall on me.
Thomas O and Lucy.

This term in Literacy we have been writing explanations. As well as writing explanations for some of Wallace and Gromit’s ‘Cracking Contraptions’, we also designed machines that could serve school dinners, and described how they worked. Here are some of our designs;

Next term we will be studying the lives of children in India. Can you find the answers to these questions?

1) What is the capital city of India?
N______ D_______

2) Draw the Indian flag.

3) Which continent is India in?
A______

4) What is the name of the most
famous river in India?
R______ G_________

5) Which river is India named after?
R_____ I_______

6) Which two games were invented
in India?
S________ and L__________
C________

7) What are the two most spoken
languages in India?
E________ and H__________

What is the National Animal
of India?
T_________

9) Which are the 3 main religions
in India?
H_______   I________
C___________

10) Name 3 countries that share a
border with India;
C_________
B_________
P_________

Over the last two weeks we have been looking at different poems and how their authors use expressive langauge to ‘put a picture’ or ‘feeling’ into the reader’s head. Inspired by a Winter photograph (see below) we wrote poems of our own.

Winter

slippy ice sleeping on the grass
uneven, tall mountains sitting like frozen elephants
glistening snow lying across the hills like a blanket
the cold, wavy lake swishing calmly
bird reflections flying swiftly

by Jasmine

Cold season

the frozen lake
chilly snow white ice lying calmly
huge, freezing mountains sitting like statues
clever reflections flapping wildly
white, frost standing happily

by Rebecca

The Snowiest Day

Rocky, snowy mountains gleaming
bitter, freezing snow sinking into the earth
slippy, crackling ice melting slowly
a sparkling blue lake shining brightly at the sky

by Amy

Snowing Days

Thick snowy mountains sitting fresh
slippy ice is just sitting there
dominant snow falling on the hills
a dark, frozen lake waiting there quietly

by Lauren

Christmas Season

snow is glistening like smashed glass and diamonds
floating in the water
snow birds flying over the sea
their reflections are in the water

by Brandon M.

The Snowy Days

The mountains are freezing cold and very tall
their reflections in the lake are shiny
the snow is dumped over the mountains like a white blanket
the lake is a frozen ice cube
ice falls from the rain like rain

by Megan

Mountain Winter
White, snowy, scary mountains staring with shimmering eyes
cold, shivering snow is sliding down the freezing mountains
an icy, shining lake is reflecting the cold, flying birds
just above the deep

by Jona

We have been using www.jogtheweb.com to link together webpages that feature information on a particular topic. This link will take you to the first page in a series that contain interactive activities about the Tudor Period.

We have been looking into ‘What makes a good friend?’ in our S.E.A.L. work (Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning). Pupils designed and made these ‘friends’ for our display.

On Friday 14th November we went on a Tudor Walk around central Exeter . We visited The Tudor House, The House that Moved, Stepcotte Hill, Mol’s Coffee House, The Ship Inn and The Guildhall. The children answered a series of questions and made sketches of the buildings. Back at School we used pencil, chalk and charcoal and our knowledge of Tudor features to create pictures of Tudor houses.

As part of our work on Michael Morpurgo’s “My Friend Walter” we made ‘freeze-frames’ of selected scenes and then joined them together to help us remember the key moments int he text.

In ‘My Friend Walter’ the ghost of Sir Walter Raleigh steals The Golden Orb, one of the Crown Jewels kept at the Tower of London. We created posters offering a reward for the safe return of the Orb.

We have been using the Michael Morpurgo book, My Friend Walter, in our Literacy Lessons. We drew Story Maps to help us remember the key elements of the plot and to inspire our ideas for ‘freeze frames’.

Our Literacy work over the last few weeks has been based on a book called ‘My Friend Walter’ by Michael Morpurgo. We looked at sentence structure, story starts, use of speech marks and paragraphs and describing characters and settings. The children were given a simple story plot and were then asked to write the story. We read our completed stories to each other and practiced reading slowly, obeying punctuation and using different voices when different characters were speaking. Finally we learned how to record our stories using the free program Audacity, and listened back to them to evaluate their effectiveness.

You can listen to, or download the stories here.

Initially the paragraphs on the posters were aa mixed up. The pupils had to cut-out and organise the information underneath the headings. They then had to plan the layout of the posters so that the information would be easy to read and understand

At the beginning of the year all the children completed a questionnaire about themselves. These were in the shape of jigsaw puzzle pieces and are on display in our cloakroom. The idea is that the children will get to know each other better, find common interests and feel part of a small ‘community’ – the complete puzzle.

As part of our Tudor topic the class were asked to see what they could find out about Sir Francis Drake for their Homework. We used these materials to make a display. Later, we will create and put up questions related to Drake, using the material in the display in order to answer them.

As a class we created a set of simple classroom rules. The children then designed colourful, eye-catching posters to reinforce the rules. Here are a selection (when the sun shines through the window there is a ’stained-glass’ effect.