Barasingha - Year 4

Welcome to the Barasingha Page!

I hope you had a relaxing Easter break and enjoyed the sunshine. It has been a big change for the children this term as we have said goodbye to the wonderful Mrs Kemp. I know she will be greatly missed by everyone here at Belmont, especially the children in Barasingha Class. As Mrs Kemp leaves for new adventures, I am excited to be working 4 days a week. We have such a wonderful class and I am thrilled to be see more of you all over the coming weeks! 

This term we will be exploring Italy in our Geography learning. The children are excitedly finding out about important Italian landmarks, land use, as well as learning about volcanoes and mountains. We will also endeavour to increase the children’s fluency in recall of basic geographical facts. For example, naming continents, countries and capital cities. Any map work you can do at home with your children is, as always, beneficial to their progress in school.  In science we will be discovering what plants need to grow well, the life cycle of plants and seed dispersal. The children will be developing as scientists, focussing on the enquiry skills of fair testing and predicting.  

The children’s art skills are developing brilliantly and we look forward to being inspired by famous printmaker Angie Lewin. The children will be creating their own seed head prints inspired by her style.  

As always, please ensure that your child has their P.E kit in school at all times as our lesson can alter days from time to time. P.E lessons can be indoors or outdoors, so please equip your child with suitable clothing for all conditions and ensure that this is named. Our PE sessions this term are planned for WEDNESDAY afternoon, but as mentioned, these can change.

Finally, homework is expected to be handed in on time and completed to the high standard that we would see in school. Spelling homework is given out on MONDAY and is now expected in on FRIDAY. Spellings will be tested each week on a FRIDAY. In line with Belmont’s updated homework policy, children in Year 3 and 4 will receive 5 maths questions on a TUESDAY and a FRIDAY. Children are expected to complete these on the day and return their book to school the following day. The children will mark their own books the next morning. Please encourage your child to ask for help if they are struggling with any aspect of homework. We ask for you to read regularly with your child at home to support their fluency and understanding.  Please sign their reading diaries when you hear your child read or discuss their book. Reading diaries will be checked every other week. We listen to your child read each week in guided reading group.  

If you have any concerns or anything you wish to discuss, please feel free to come in for a chat.

Thank you,

Kate Litten

April 2019

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Knowledge Organisers

We are starting to produce Knowledge Organisers, which are the ‘go-to’ documents outlining the essential knowledge that the teachers will be covering across a unit of work; including dates, key personnel, vocabulary, definitions, and other contextual or technical information. These Knowledge Organisers will be shared with pupils, parents and carers – with the aim that everyone knows exactly what is being taught, and what the children need to learn. The Knowledge Organisers for our topics on Italy and plants can be found below.

Please feel free to use these as a reference guide for what your child is learning, and also as an opportunity to discuss the facts about the topic with your child and find out as much as you can about each subject. Any knowledge that your child acquires before a topic is taught in class will help them to deepen their understanding in lessons.

Knowledge Organisers can also be used to see if your child is able to start making links or offer explanations about the topics they are learning. 

LATEST NEWS!

The Barasingha Twitter Page!

Please follow us and find out what we have been doing in the classroom. If you do not wish your child to appear on the Twitter page please let us know.

Please click on the Twitter link above to go to our page.

French Cafe

The classroom was transformed into a French cafe at the end of term! The children had great fun practising their speaking skills as they ordered delicious bread, croissants and ice creams!

National Centre for Craft and Design

We had a wonderfully, creative day at Sleaford's National Centre of Craft and Design. As well as seeing an exhibition of work by artist, Quentin Blake, the children were able to learn a new skill - collagraphy.

Harriet and Sarah from the Centre, showed us how to create a design in the style of printmaker, Angie Lewin and then cut and stick it onto a collagraph plate, which was then varnished. When completely dry, the children had great fun painting the plate which was pressed onto paper to reveal a print. The end results were fantastic!

You can find more photos from our day in the Gallery.

Inspiring Workshops!

On Thursday 6th June children in Years 3 and 4 were visited by a group of students from Walton Girls’ High School.  The Walton students inspired and engaged the children with a series of workshops on the theme of space.  They kicked the afternoon off with a space quiz in the hall and our children eagerly answered their questions.  Following a presentation, the children split off into groups to write space poems and create their own solar system with polystyrene balls and paint (a bit messy, but great fun).   The final session, run by the performing arts team at Walton, was a solar system dance.  The Walton students had planned, resourced and prepared everything.  It was fantastic to welcome such a hardworking and motivated group of young people into our school and a wonderful afternoon was enjoyed by all! 

Term 5 News!

This term we have been working extremely hard and continue to make us proud every day. The children have been really inspired by our Italy topic and they have loved finding out more about this beautiful country. We have enjoyed some delicious pizzas, cooked by the children for their creative homework. Thank you to all the parents who took the time to help their child with the creative homework. We have had some phenomenal models of Italian landmarks, recipes and of course pizza tasting. As well as all this fantastic home learning, the children continue to be enthused by Times Table Rock Stars and it was great to see so many of the children choosing this option from the homework menu too. Well done on your high scores guys; you are all Rock Heroes to us!

In English, we have been learning to write explanations. The children have loved using Wallace and Gromit's 'Cracking Contraptions' as a starting point for some fabulous writing. We definitely have some ' Snoozatron' experts in the class, so if you are having trouble sleeping at night, you know who to call. We will be applying all our wonderful writing skills to explain 'What causes a volcano to erupt?' and ' How do plants make seeds?' We are looking forward to some more amazing writing from our experts.

In SMSC, the children have been working hard to improve their teamwork skills. They worked in teams of 4 to create a Leaning Tower of Pisa out of paper straws. However, this really was a challenge as the tower had to be able to hold a tennis ball successfully too! The children showed their ability to take turns, listen to others and compromise. We also worked on how to communicate effectively in a team. Thank you to Mrs Shales and Mrs Bell for running this activity and well done to the winning team.

The class have flourished as readers this term and they have been gripped by the class book 'I believe in unicorns' by Michael Morpurgo. There's not been a single book by this author left on the bookshelf since we finished the story. They have all been inspired to read other fantastic stories by this amazing author. We have now started to read ' This morning I met a whale'. The class have loved comparing two books by the same author. Keep up the amazing reading everyone!

Crocus

The children have enjoyed their art lessons this term. Given a photograph of a crocus, the children focussed on the shapes they could see, how to hold their pencil to sketch and how to blend oil pastels. The results were stunning, as you can see. Such wonderful attention to detail.

Moving Monsters!

The class showed great resilience and teamwork when building their 'Moving Monsters'. They carefully planned how they wanted their monsters to look and how they could make them move using a pneumatic system. The finished monsters are fantastic and we all had great fun making them.

Bad Egg

We recently used the animation, 'Bad Egg' to develop our musical and artistic skills. The children were intrigued when we played the sound track to the animation, without knowing what the film was about or seeing the picture. We discussed what could be happening and how it made us feel. We then watched the film without sound and concentrated on what we could see.  The class were able to link the sound to the visual to understand how the music developed the atmosphere of the film. We then went on to draw a character from the film using charcoal and chalk and created some super pieces of work!

Strings!

We are really enjoying learning to play the violin this term!

Roman Day

We had a great day with Partake learning more about the Romans. In the morning, we investigated Roman artifacts, and looked at games that the Romans played. We also tasted some foods that the Romans enjoyed such as dates and their very own tomato ketchup! In the afternoon, two of our class got to dress in Roman clothing. They looked super. Finally, we re-enacted a battle between the Romans and Barbarians with big Roman shields, and the boys won! It was a great day.

More photos can be found in the Gallery.

Christmas Cookies

We had great fun baking these cookies at the end of term!

Home Studies

Thank you for all the wonderful Volcano homework projects. We have had some fantastic models, writing and cakes, to name but a few. We really appreciate all the support you give the children at home and we know that all the reading and homework support is having a big impact on their enthusiasm for their learning and their progress.

RE Week

The children worked thoughtfully and with empathy in RE week this term. They learnt about the story of the prodigal son and why it is important to Christians. Inspired by a sculpture by Charlie Mackesy, the children created their own foil sculptures. The children had to choose what belief or feeling they wanted their sculpture to represent. We had some very mature and reflective responses - love, respect, resilience and peace.

Flag Fen

We had a wonderful time on our class trip to Flag Fen Archaeology Park near Peterborough which is home to a unique ancient wooden monument.  A kilometre long wooden causeway and platform are perfectly preserved in the wetland. Three thousand three hundred years ago this was built and used by the Prehistoric fen people as a place of worship and ritual. Sixty thousand upright timbers and two hundred and fifty horizontal planks are buried under the ground along with many swords and personal items given as offerings to the watery fen. It was a fabulous opportunity for us to discover what life was like for our prehistoric ancestors.  We were able to explore Bronze Age and Iron Age artefacts and made clay pots using natural materials to create patterns. The highlight of the day was listening to a story around the fire in the roundhouse. The children were captivated and we're sure this is something they will remember with fondness in later life. The whole day brought our topic to life and immersed the children in prehistoric life.

More photos can be found in the Gallery.

Celebrating Harvest

We were so proud of the class when they, along with the children in Impala Class , led our Harvest celebration. We all had great fun learning the songs and the children worked wonderfully together to perform in front of their friends and family. Well done everyone!

Rocks and Volcanoes

We have made a great start to our study of rocks and volcanoes.

Our Class Display

One of our first tasks this term has been to create a display to represent our class name, Barasingha. The children used sletching pencils and echo drawings with patterns to create a fabulous Barasingha!

FIND OUT MORE!