Monday, 2 May 2011

Tudor Websites: Tudors meet the 21st century!

The Tudor period covers the years between 1485 and 1603.

During this time, the family that ruled England was called the Tudors.

The first Tudor monarch was Henry VII, who reigned from 1485 – 1509.












Henry Vlll is probably the most well known of the Tudor kings. His father was King Henry VII and Elizabeth I was one of his three children. He was a very selfish person and by the end of his life everyone was afraid of him, mainly because of his ruthless behaviour toward anyone who didn't agree with him. He reigned from 1509 until his death in 1547.













The last Tudor monarch was Queen Elizabeth I, who reigned from 1558 – 1603.













Find out more about the Tudors. Here are two fantastic websites to help you get started!


Sunday, 24 April 2011

Tudor Costumes

This term in History Year 4 will be learning about the Tudors.

We have a trip planned to Eastbury Manor House (on 27th June) to experience a bit of what life was like for both rich and poor Tudors.

You will need a costume for the trip. You will also wear it for the end of term 'Museum Day'. Year 4 classrooms will become Tudor museums for others at Glade to visit.

Here are some pictures to help you with some Tudor costume ideas. Please ask an adult to help you, but don't rush out to a store... use the time (2 months!) to create your outfit using - as much as possible - what you have at home.

Tudor Costume Meeting REMINDER: 3:30pm on Thursday 28th April. Mr Nicholson and Mr Langtry will be happy to answer questions and explain a bit more about Tudor costumes. We will show some past examples of costumes worn.






































Click on the images to enlarge.


















Wednesday, 30 March 2011

Pop up books for Year 1

Year 4 is preparing to create their own pop up books for DT.

4N visited class 1M on Tuesday to hear from the children there about different books they like to read.

We returned and made a list of some features found in some of their books:
- Bright and colourful
- BIG handwriting, few words
- Simple pictures
- Easy words
- Well known stories (such as Red Riding Hood or Gruffalo)
- Action or adventure stories
- Funny stories
- Non-fiction books

After we finish our projects, we plan to return to 1M to read them the pop up books we created!

Monday, 28 March 2011

Spelling Words - 28th March 2011


Your spelling words this week will help you put the final touches on your 'Footprints' project.

Bananas
whale
swan
geese
forest
coral
reef
turtle
fishing
dolphin
polar
beach
energy
wind
solar
plastic
protect
human
forest
wildlife
earth

Apples
human
ocean
Arctic
Pacific
Atlantic
Indian
polar
binoculars
orang-utan
fossil
fuel
protect
renewable
energy
solar
forest
deforestation
pollution
rising
temperature

Monday, 21 March 2011

Spelling Words - Week of Monday 21st March 2011

Apples An apostrophe can be used to contract two words into one (would not = wouldn't, should not = shouldn't, they are = they're). Many verbs are irregular, which means that they can be spelt very differently in the past tense.

wouldn't
shouldn't
won't
can't
didn't
that's
weren't
they've
you'll
they're
teach
taught
spend
spent
buy
bought
creep
crept
wind
wound

Bananas (words with -ee or -oo)
queen
sleep
between
screen
sleeve
cheerful
thirteen
seemed
sleepily
free
smooth
choose
shoot
swoop
crooked
fool
foolish
school
groove
pool

Friday, 18 March 2011

The Science of Sport

Year 4 have been investigating the science behind exercise this week.

We wanted to find out what happened to our heart beat or pulse rate when we exercised.

We started by sitting quietly and taking our resting pulse. Then we ran around the playground for 2 minutes. We got hot and breathless, but it was fun!

Immediately after we had finished, we measured our pulse rate again. It had gone up. It was much faster!

We came back instide and got on with our work, but stopped to again measure our pulse rate every 5 minutes.

Our pulse rate gradually slowed down over the next 20 minutes. By then it had returned to its normal resting rate.

The table shows you how Muhammed's pulse rate dropped.

We learned that our pulse rate increases when we exercise, but falls again slowly when we stop.

Hello From California!

4N's pen pals from Vannoy Elementary School in Castro Valley, California in the USA sent us a message this week.

Have a look below at the videos they sent us!



Hello Mr. Nicholson!
Greetings from America. My 4th graders made videos for your students.


The videos are spilt into 4 parts. Hopefully we can send some letters with Mrs. Nicholson before April.

From, Miss Lee







Monday, 14 March 2011

Spelling Words - Olympic Week


Spelling words for all spelling groups - Week of 14th March 2011

sports
Olympic
compete
rings
train
race
medal
venue
stadium
podium
movement
competition
celebrate
athletics
swimming
personal
encourage
dedicate
spectator
spectacular

Monday, 7 March 2011

Spelling Words - Week of 7th March 2011

Spelling Test is on Friday.

Apples (including endings -ful, -ly, -ive and -ic)
hopeful
hurtful
beautiful
careful
wonderful
painful
quickly
secretively
jokingly
strangely
speedily
curiously
expensive
narrative
decorative
explosive
photographic
scientific
allergic
horrific

Bananas (including -dge, -dom, and -ea )
badge
edge
judge
ledge
ridge
knowledge
freedom
kingdom
seldom
wisdom
bread
instead
leader
dread
steady
meal
real
steal
healthy
reason

Year 4 Spring half-term Homework Project: ‘Our Footprint on the Earth’




We have used ‘This Morning I Met A Whale’ to launch our project about the footprint humans are leaving on the planet.

We brainstormed many different ways this can be seen, including:
Global warming (rising temperatures)
Deforestation (cutting down too many trees for farms and raising animals for food)
Coral reefs dying
Plastic floating on the seas and being eaten by birds and other wildlife
Endangered animals
Humans fighting other humans
Pollution

We have also looked at some of the good things people are doing to try and ‘soften’ our footprint:
Trying to help the Thames Whale survive
Renewable energy like wind, solar and hydro (water) for less pollution
Protecting endangered animals
Recycling
Being better friends
and understanding others to get along better

We have begun collecting our research in school and for homework.

Here are some helpful websites for our project:
Thames Whale News story
and
CBBC Newsround

Find out about carbon footprints here

Here is a guide to different types of energy

Press Pack Reports tell about what children across the UK think about the environment. Here, 11 year old Zahaib from Halifax has his say.

First News - a newspaper for children

National Geographic for Children

Message in the Waves is a website from the BBC Natural History Unit showing environmental challenges in the Hawaiian islands, especially difficulties faced by birds, sea life and people.

Zero Footprint Youth Calculator (follow the questions to see how you can help the environment)

To create a newspaper for your project, you can use the printing press template from Read Write Think. Click here to get started. You will need to print it once you've finished.

This Morning I Met A Whale!


Year 4 has been reading Michael Morpurgo’s chapter book This Morning I Met A Whale

It is based on the true story of the Thames Whale, which seems to have got lost and made its way into London up the Thames River in 2006.

The story is about a young boy named Michael, who at sunrise spots a whale on the shores of the Thames and thinks he must be dreaming. But the creature is real and brings a message for him - humans must mend the damage they are doing to the planet before it is too late. But how can Michael fulfil his promise to tell others when neither his teacher nor his classmates will believe his story?

The story is about one boy's special relationship with the whale that swam up the Thames. It also provides a powerful message about saving the environment.

DO NOT TOUCH! Year 4 Visit London's Science Museum

Children in 4N and 4L were filled with excitement about visiting the Science Museum on Wednesday.

We learned loads about energy, such as different ways to make it. For example, you can burn fossil fuels like gas, oil and coal, but these also pollute. Or ‘renewable’ ways are also possible, like solar (using the sun), hydro power (like wave power or dams) and wind (using giant windmills mainly along the coast of our island nation).

We also visited the museum’s ‘Launchpad’ area, where we had a go at ‘hands-on’ investigations. Many of the investigations involved forces, motion and electricity, which we’ve looked at in Year 4.

Here’s a short video of our experience,. Enjoy!

Friday, 28 January 2011

When Cludge met Varjak...


In reading 'Varjak Paw' this week, we met a new character: Cludge.

Cludge is a dog, and is described in the story at 'black and bristly, almost as big as a man. Its mouth was full of pointed yellow teeth which dripped with drool.'

4N wrote about the first time Cludge met Varjak Paw, from Cludge’s perspective. Enjoy:

Night time. Cludge walk in alleys. No friends with Cludge. Me lonely. Sad Cludge.

Cludge see cats! Cludge not scared. Go scare cats! Chase, like cars.

Cludge see cats in fight. Small dirty cat need help. Cludge save cat! All run away from Cludge. Dirty cat stay.

Oops! Cludge knock cat out. Blood. Cat ok? Look… cat wake up! Cludge sorry.

Cat talk to Cludge. He nice. Name Varjak. He say “Help me, Cludge.”

We go to save family. Cludge happy! Cludge, Varjak friends!



Sunday, 23 January 2011

4N Explores Local Neighbourhood







4N became local geographers Thursday morning as groups of children investigated the streets around Glade Primary School.

We improved our map reading skills, collected and recorded fieldwork data and described how places around our school made us feel as we discovered 'sectors' drawn up by Mr Nicholson on a local map.

Take a look at our pictures and videos from the day to get a sample of what a great job we did (and what fun we had, too!!).

A big thank you to Mrs Kotecha, Mrs Ward, Mrs Allen, Mr Malloy and Mr Nicholson for being the adult support to their groups.



Friday, 7 January 2011

Hot Seat





Today in Good Works we demonstrated our questioning skills.

Swastika, Laura, Mohammad M, Veishnavan, Anu and Hannah played characters from Varjak Paw. Each of them answered questions in role directly from other children in 4N.
Jamila acted as the presenter.
Here are some pictures we took on our 'hot seat' day.

Wednesday, 5 January 2011

Varjak Paw (meow!)



Year 4 began the week looking at the cover of SF Said's book 'Varjak Paw'.

The children were only told that 'Varjak Paw' is the name of a cat. Using the front cover, they made predictions about the type of story it may be, discussed what they wanted to know about and noted what caught their attention and interest.

Here is a selection of their responses:

- The eyes grab my attention. (Khushi and Rajan)
- It looks like he's near a factory. (Ashley and Mahnoor)
- Does he have eyes at all? (Freddee and Muhammed M)
- Does the cat have a disability? (Laura and Layla)
- Does Varjak Paw have an owner? (Kulvinder and Jamima)
- Why does he have to fight? (Tiyah and Amaarah)
- Is this an adventure story? (Jamila and Izn)
- Is he a vampire cat? (Raymon and Hamida)
- Is he a ghost? (Laksaan and James)
- Is Varjak Paw a warrior cat? (Thivvian and Emma)
- Did he leave his family? (Veishnavan and Hannah)
- Jacqueline Wilson's comment makes me think 'what's going to happen?' (Anu and Swastika)

We're very excited about starting Varjak Paw!