Willow Class (Year 4)

Welcome to Willow Class
 
Willow Class is a Year 4 class. Mrs Chapman is the class teacher. They have support from our teaching assistant Miss Gray. 
On Wednesdays  afternoon, Miss Gray takes them swimming  whilst the class teacher has their PPA time. 
Willow Class
 
Our weekly timetable is as follows:
 
WEDNESDAY - Year 4 go swimming in the afternoon and should bring their swimming kits with them to change at Morpeth.
THURSDAY - reading books are taken in and changed and reading is logged for the reading ladder.
Also, this is our PE day: children should come to school in their PE kits. 
FRIDAY - we have a forest school session in the afternoon with Miss Gray so wellies are needed in school. ALSO Reading books come home and spellings are completed and reset. 
 
 
Welcome to Willow Class
Monday 26th September - European Day of Languages
We had a wonderful day learning about everything Greek. Our day started by having food tasting of Greek food on the yard. WE then looked at pictures of Greece and considered where in the world it may be and how it's climate is different to ours. After break we then watched some videos and looked at PowerPoints to learn about customs and traditions as well as adding to our own facts we had brought in from home. We then created posters of our knowledge and decorated our core values written using the Greek alphabet. Finally we learnt a traditional dance to Zorba the Greek which we showed to the other classes. 
 
Tuesday 4th October - Alnwick Castle 
What a wonderful day we had at Alnwick Castle, reinforcing all our understanding about castle defences and methods of attack. We started by having a tour of the castle grounds then split to go around the state rooms and play at the knight's quest. After lunch we checked out the 3D model of Alnwick Castle from the past and did a workshop reenacting storming the barbican. We were delighted to all get our own commemorative coin like the Scottish would have paid as ransom to get released for the jail in the keep. 
Tuesday 8th November - Sunderland Glass Centre
As a launch to our 'feel the force' science topic, the children all went to Sunderland Glass Centre. Whilst there they made their own fused glass tiles that will be collected later in the term after they have bee heated in the kiln. They also watched a glass blowing demonstration where the exert made a snowman. In the afternoon they did a range of changing states experiments, building their understanding of solids and liquids as well as soluble and insoluble substances. 
 
WB: Monday 14th November - Interfaith Week (Sikhism)
What a wonderful time we have had learning about the Sikh religion. The week started learning about the Gurdwara, their place of worship. They then met Jaswinda from the North Sikh Community, he taught us all about the Golden Temple, their selfless acts and importance of music amongst many other things. The following day we learnt all about Guru Granth Sahib, their special book which teaches them their way of life. Later they found out about the 5ks and how they have important relevance to Sikhs, As light is often an important part of many religions, the children listened to the story of Mandi Chhor Diva and how he liberated prisoners and is celebrated for bringing light. 
The final day was action packed with the opportunity for Henna patterns, Bhangra dancing and eating a communal meal - which was helped greatly by a specialist dancer and very kind family members of a child in our class who we are fortunate enough providing the henna and food. 
Friday 20th January - Multi skills final 
We were delighted to have been shortlisted for the  Northumberland School Games Multi skills final. We joined on zoom having practised some of the challenges through the week. The children had to do:
- Shuttle run, weaving in between the cones as fast as they could 
- Holding a balance on one foot for up to 60 seconds 
- Working in pairs to pass a ball over and under to each other 
- Passing beanbags between two spots using  alternate hands in a bridge position
- AND THE MYSTERY CHALLENGE: passing a ball around the world, back to ack with a partner. 
The children all did amazingly, shoring great team spirit, resilience and determination, they encouraged each other throughout and all made vast improvements from when we started the challenges earlier last term. 
Total superstars! 

Week beginning Monday 13t February – Geography Week

What a wonderful week we have had focussing in on the continent of Oceania. The children started by considering where the content was in the world, what it’s climate and vegetations may be like and how they knew this from their work on Arctic habitats.

They the sorted a range of human and physical features and diamond ranked them based on their favourites. They learnt about how many countries are in the continent and some of the country names. Then they found out about Australia being part of the commonwealth and not wanting to have the union jack on it’s flag anymore.

This was the driving force for their shirt designs, the front had the flags of the continent and a few aboriginal symbols, where as the back displayed their new Australia flag design. This incorporated the five stars for the different territories as well as traditional Australian animals. Landmarks and climate. We invited parents in to help sewing the felt and painting the patterns and then  modelled their great designs in a whole school fashion  show to iconic Australian artists. What a fab week!

Thursday 2nd March – World Book Day

What a wonderful action packed day we had. We all dressed as animals from a story and loved guessing what we were all dressed as. We went to our forest session before lunch and listened to the story 'The tree that held the moon' it was a beautiful story all about what happens to the ash tree during it's life and what animals it encounters. We looked for the types of tree stages in our forest and measured how old one was. Then they worked in groups to create their own pages from the book using what we have been learning in English for setting descriptions such as the weather, time of day, powerful adjectives and prepositions. 

Back in class we went to Early Years in the afternoon to read them our pop up books we had made last term and then designed book tokens for a competition,. 

Friday 31st March - Poetry Innovation 
As part of our English work this term, the children have been studying the poem 'There's a Rang Tang in my bedroom'. It is an emotive poem , drawing attention to the deforestation of orangutan's habitats for palm oil and the impact it is having. After identifying the poetic features and discussing the feelings associated with the different stages of the poem they used rhyming pairs to create their own innovated line. 
They performed it using green screen to share online and raise awareness of the need to buy sustainable palm oil products and help these wonderful animals. 
Thursday 11th May - Centre for Life 
What a wonderful way to consolidate and teach elements of our space topic this term. The children started with a workshop all centred around astronauts, focussing on: using robot arms to change model solar panels, taste testing astronaut food, investigating the best insulating gloves using infra red cameras, determining how much wee a space nappy can hold and launching a rocket. After this they explored the 'Wow Zone' seeing how science can create amazing things, they also used the 'Space Zone' to build model rockets and explore a model space station. Before lunch they watched a science show all about the Earth's climate and renewable energy. Finally, they went in the planetarium and explored the night sky, Newcastle and Sydney's landscape, other planets,their orbits and features  in our solar system and what it is like to land on the moon.