To begin our seasons and weather topic we looked at where we live in the world and used the atlases to name the countries of the UK. The children were challenged to add the capital cities. We also used maps and atlases in RE. We looked at a variety of food labels and identified which country they had come from.
We have been learning all about less than and greater than in maths and comparing numbers. The children are becoming very confident using this vocabulary to compare numbers. In English we are looking at the story of ‘Percy the Park Keeper After the Storm.’ We looked closely at a variety of books and identified the author, illustrator, blurb and illustrations, explaining what each of these are and why they are important.
We had a fantastic science lesson learning all about our senses. We used mystery feely bags to explore our sense of touch and use adjectives to describe the objects. We carried out a blind smelling test to see if we could identify the different smells. For taste, we tried different foods and discovered sweet, salty and sour tastes. We looked around and used our sense of sight to describe what we could see and sat very still to see what we could hear.
The children have settled in really well and have been working hard. They love exploring the areas of provision inside and outside and completing the challenges and have demonstrated their problem solving and resilience skills. Here are some of our photographs so far.
This week, as part of Genes for Genes Week, Class 4 have been learning about genetic conditions that affect people through our whole-school worship. We explored the important role of DNA, which can be thought of as the set of instructions used to build all living things.
To help us understand this idea, we used a LEGO model analogy. Just as a small change in a set of building instructions can result in a very different final model, small differences in DNA can lead to significant changes in how living things develop and function.
Although DNA is far too small to be seen with the naked eye, it is present in every cell of our bodies. make this more real, we aimed to extract DNA from strawberry cells. Wearing appropriate eye protection, we carefully used a range of simple chemicals to break down the cells. As DNA is such a long molecule, it then clumps together into small white lumps so that we could see and extract it for ourselves. It was exciting to observe something that is normally invisible!
Alongside our scientific learning, we focused on developing our measuring skills. We practised using a variety of scientific measuring equipment accurately, including syringes, pipettes, measuring cups and flasks. We quickly discovered that precision is vital in science: the more carefully we measured each ingredient, the more successful our DNA extraction was.
Take a look at our gallery below. It’s not easy to see in a photograph, but the small white lines in the picture of the cup are lumps of pure strawberry DNA!!
This year’s county show display is looking fabulous and can be seen in the Learning for Life tent! Celebrating all the work we did in the summer term about caring for our environment! It includes some incredible writing from our current year 4 and 5 pupils; some wonderful art work from across school including portraits of Sir David Attenboro; and our Environmental Pledge coordinated by our committed Eco-Team that everyone in school has agreed to follow!
Well done everyone and thank you for your contributions!
Did you notice the two very helpful volunteers who are helping in the Learning for LIfe tent over the next two days!