4J

Welcome  

to class 4J!

My name is Mrs Jones and I teach in 4J, where I work closely with Mr Harding next door!

We have three members of support staff: Mrs Tuer, Mrs Harrison and Mrs Hunter .

This is our very own class page, so feel free to suggest ideas for what you would like to see here.

Sports Day

What a lovely day for our Junior Sports Day! Here are a few pictures of each event. The overall winners were Team Black - congratulations to everyone who took part!

Egg and Spoon

Design a healthy cereal box

As part of Healthy Week, we have been amazed at how much sugar is contained in food, and especially cereals. If you could invent a new cereal, what would it contain? We brainstormed words to describe our new improved cereals. Tasting different types of cereal was a great incentive to enhance our imaginations.

Puppy Love!

Matthew has brought his new puppy in to show the class! Sooooooooooo cute!

Trip to Ingleborough Caves

On Friday 3rd May, we visited Ingleton to explore the caves. This visit was part of our topic on the Stone Age. It was a bit wet and cold when we set off.

Fossils!

Sam brought in some fossils for us to look at, which his dad had given him. The best one was a fossil of a tooth, which was over 10cm long!

Letters to the World Governments - Plastic Pollution

As part of Literacy, we have been looking at the importance of persuasive writing and the effect it can have on changing the world. We have written some letters to the leaders of countries around the world, highlighting the dangers of plastic in the oceans and the harm it has caused to the plants and creatures of this environment. We have suggested ideas for the leaders to consider and we have asked what ideas their countries use to combat this problem. We are hoping for some replies soon!

Year 4 Production - The Big Green Adventure

Our production has been a great success! We had great audiences on both nights and the children performed fantastically! We hope that our message about saving the planet has inspired parents, family and friends to think about how important it is to recycle, in our pursuit of making our planet a safer and more healthy place to live.

Recycling week -  data handling

As well as creating art with plastic tops, we found them really useful for creating and interpreting bar charts! And they can be used again and again!

Trashion Show 2019!

Our 'Trashion Show' creations were magnificent! We really enjoyed 'strutting our stuff' on the catwalk in the hall and showing everybody our creative fashion ideas!

Up-cycling project with Year 3

We enjoyed a great afternoon with our friends from Year 3 making a plastic plant pot out of plastic bottles.Our finished pots contain a seed we can grow. We thought they would make super Mother's day presents!

Schools Go Green - University trip

As part of our recycling topic, we have been on a trip to Lancaster University, where the students have been helping us understand more about where our food comes from. We have learnt about how much of our food is imported from all around the world - kiwis, pineapples etc. We have also been exploring what food is grown in our own country and when they are available in the shops.

The Shredder

We all had a go at shredding plastic into small pieces, which can then be melted down and re-moulded into bowls, pieces of art and clothing. 

Trip to Salford Quays - The BBC Philharmonic Orchestra

What a wild and windy day! We boarded the coach just after 9 am, ready for our long journey to Salford Quays. The traffic was horrendous but we made it just in time! The BBC studios are enormous! Whilst Mr Harding's class listened to the orchestra, we made our way into the Lowry centre to eat our lunch. The it was our turn to hear the orchestra play. We entered the studio and had great seats at the top, where we could see all the instruments we have been learning about. We recognised the oboe, which played the note to tune up the whole orchestra. The commentator introduced the different sections and the orchestra played music from around the world. We loved Grieg's 'Hall of the Mountain King' and Copeland's 'Rodeo'. Sometimes the music was really loud and sometimes really soft. We heard new sounds - the celeste and the harp. We gave the conductor and the orchestra a huge round of applause at the end.

We also had a quick tour of the LS Lowry Gallery, looking at the versatility of the artist. We really liked the  huge pictures he painted.

In the last week, we invited our parents to take part in some of our activities this half term. Mr Harding's class made sushi and in our class, our mums, dads and other relatives became Taiko warriors for the afternoon, practising drumming and Japanese moves!

4J wish you a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

Year 4's mini Christmas Tree Festival 

In the last week of this very long half term , we have been preparing for Christmas by learning about how different countries around the world celebrate Christmas. We worked in threes and selected a country from a hat. We then had four days to produce a Christmas tree made from cardboard and we had to decorate it so it represented the country we chose. We researched how our country celebrated Christmas and shared our information with our class. 

 On Thursday we invited the parents and other children from school to visit our Christmas Tree festival. In the dark classroom, the trees (lit up with fairy lights) looked beautiful - it was magical! Our parents loved it and learned lots about Christmas around the world. Some parents commented that our festival set them up ready for Christmas!

Many thanks to our wonderful parents, family and friends for bringing an extra contribution to the foodbank appeal too!

Visit from Father Damian Porter

Because Year 4 have been working on the idea of 'light' in Christianity, we wanted to know what this idea means to a Christian in today's society.

Father Damian Porter, from Church of the Ascension, came to talk to the children about what the idea of 'light' means to him. We learned about choices that Christians make to try to make the world a 'lighter' place.

Measuring the perimeter of our school playground

We chose a beautiful, sunny day to go outside and measure how long a kilometre was. First we measured out 100 m with a trundle wheel and a marker. Then, in pairs, we placed a marker where we thought the end of the kilometre would be.

Our playground is enormous! We weren't even close - we would have to go all the way round, and half way again, to measure a kilometre. We didn't mind being wrong because it was fun!

The Saxophone

Lucas, who is an ex-pupil of Torrisholme, comes in to help in class on Wednesdays. He is an excellent musician and brought in his saxophones to show us. He plays in lots of bands and at school. He plays the alto saxophone and the bass saxophone, but his favourite instruments are percussion instruments.

Electrical Circuits

As part of our Electricity topic, we have been making circuits. In pairs, we had to light a bulb. Our trip to the power station and Mr Whyte's visit really helped!

Our trip to Heysham Power Station

We have had an excellent day out to the power station in Heysham. We travelled by coach and entered the Visitor's Centre. Julie introduced us to the staff. After we had removed our coats and bags, we had a talk about the power plant.

After lunch, we got ready to take a tour around the power station. We needed high-viz jackets, ear-defenders and glasses.

We weren't allowed to take photos on our tour but we saw some amazing things! Everybody was really friendly. Abigail's dad came round to give us more information.

Visit by Mr Whyte

Mr Whyte is an electrician. He came to school to tell us about his job and about electricity. He showed us how to make electricity by pedalling a bike and taught us about the dangers of electricity.

Making Tudor Houses

We have been designing and making Tudor houses. We investigated the style of houses and other buildings that the Tudors lived in. We learned that, because land was expensive, the Tudors built a smaller ground floor and then the upper floors got bigger and bigger, giving them more room. We used this idea in our designs.

It was really tricky but we got there in the end!

Pictures to follow.......

Trip to Samlesbury Hall

Roman Numerals

The Battle Of Bosworth Field - Torrisholme Style!

This week we have been acting out the Battle of Bosworth, which was part of The War of the Roses. The war was between Richard III from Yorkshire and Henry Tudor from Lancashire - both men wanted to be the king of England.

Each of our pictures tells the story....

Henry VII's army from Lancashire and Richard III's army from Yorkshire met on Bosworth field. They were fighting for the throne of England.

Richard's men waited at the top of the hill and Henry's men stood at the bottom of the hill.

Henry's men were losing so he called for his bowman...

All of a sudden, Henry's men were winning. Richard knew he had to do something drastic, so he made a move towards Henry. He was going to kill him, himself!

Richard drew his sword and threatened Henry. At once, three of Henry's bodyguards jumped up and attacked Henry. 

Henry was dead!

Wise Owl

This is Wise Owl. In class 4J, Mrs Jones chooses a child at the end of every day who has made an extra special effort with their work or contributions in class. Wise Owl has a sleepover with that special person at home.

Aimee took Wise Owl home last Friday and made him a special suit of clothes! He is now sporting the very latest in Owl fashion - a new hat, scarf and gloves, ready for winter!

A walk around our Local Area

How well do you know the area our school is located? Last Friday, we set out on a little walk around our school environment and the local shops. Mr Harding set us a collection of  fun questions and puzzles to solve. We worked cooperatively, in small groups, to answer the questions. We needed good observational skills to find the answers.  It was a beautiful sunny day!

Changes, changes, changes......

We have been thinking about how we are always growing and changing. What can we do now and what will we be able to do even better by the end of Year 4? Also, how will our bodies change and how will our hobbies and preferences differ. We have been making little time capsules to record what we are like now. We have included information about our favourite things, a piece of string to represent our height, our handspan measurement and the area of one of our feet in centimeter squares.

Spaghetti and Selotape!

To encourage the children to be more resilient, we set a short challenge for the children to build the tallest structure they could using just uncooked spaghetti and selotape. The children worked in groups of three and four. It was very tricky because the spaghetti kept on snapping but everybody kept positive and showed great perseverance. The winning team built a stable tower of 91cm!

BLP - Resilience

In Year 4, we are working hard to become resilient. We have decided that this means that we must

try,

try,

try,

try

and..........

try again! 

We will be developing these skills in lots of our topics and subjects, including team building exercises. 

We will let you know how we get on!

This is our class mascot Not Yet the Yeti. He encourages us to keep going when the going gets tough!

He is gentle and gives us gentle encouragement to try our best. We love his soft fur!