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.

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.

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!

The Egyptian Nativity

The Egyptian nativity is all about Mary and Joseph travelling to Hermopolis and trying to find a place to stay until god tells them when it is safe to come back. There running away from an evil king called Herod who was trying to kill Jesus!

The wise men came to see Herod and said where is the king of Jews, so King Herod thought that someone was actually trying to take his place as king. So the wise men came to tell Mary and Joseph to run away to Egypt because King Herod was trying to kill the baby Jesus. There wasn't any place to stay so they had to live in the stable but Mary wasn't happy at all so they tried convince the town council members so they can live in Egypt.

There are two Marys and two Josephs because the teachers think it will be to hard to learn so many lines. So the Marys are Jamima and Annebelle, the Josephs are Raymon and Dawood. All the children hate King Herod who is played by Kulvinder. The lights people are Chloe and Bolu and the sound people are Hamida and Ashley. Everyones favourite song is the Egyptian Finale. The play is very funny with silly people and weird jokes.

Soca dancing from the Caribbean comes to Glade

Dance teachers from Black United Kids came to Glade today to teach us different styles of dancing.

We learned some steps to Indian dancing and also 'Soca' dancing, which is popular in the Caribbean and in South America.

During One World Week, Year 4 have been learning about The Americas.

The video shows us having a go at Soca dancing. Enjoy!

4N go to Odeon Cinema in Leicester Square

We travelled by Underground today to London's Leicester Square to see the new film Ramona and Beezus.

Most of us loved the film, starring Selena Gomez as Beezus and Joey King as Ramona.

We used our tube maps to locate where we were and counted that it took 11 stops to reach our destination. It was the first time on the Underground for 4 of us and Mahnoor commented:
"It started really fast, and riding on the train blocked my ears!"

4N recommends that you see the film for yourself.

Year 4 Science experiment

22nd September 2010

This week in science we carried out a fair test experiment which involved recording observations and data. The aim of the experiment was to record which type of fruit minibeasts prefered. The purpose of this experiment was to help inform Ms. Willers as to which fruit would be most useful for her to use in her garden to attract the most insects. She wanted to attract more insects to help feed the three new baby birds that had just hatched.

The experiment involved chopping up 5 different types of fruit, apples, bananas, oranges, pears and grapefruits, and placing them in equal quantities outside in the same grassland habitat. Every hour a different group of children would go out and record the number of minibeasts that were eating each type of fruit. The class recorded all their results in a table and from the evidence obtained it was clear that apples were the best fruit to attract more minibeasts to Ms. Willers garden!

See the pics below of our fun day!