Year 4 newsletter

Wow!   We are having an amazing start to summer in Year 4.  As we started our Viking topic, we looked at sources of evidence in history and were shocked to discover that historians and archeologists even use coprolites (fossilised poo!) to learn about the past.  We discovered that the Vikings ate bread, fruit and fish from studying their 'coprolites'.  Luckily the coprolites we dissected were not real because we found evidence of certain microbes...Sticking with the Viking theme in literacy, we have been retelling the saga of How Thor lost his hammer.

One of our highlights of the first week back though, was learning about the process of digestion in science through simulating it in the classroom.  Using potato mashers for teeth, green washing up liquid for bile and sieves for intestines, we followed the journey of beans on toast right through our 'bodies'. 

On Friday, we devoted the day to zero discrimination. We were inspired by inspirational sports stars to write our own 'tweets' to stamp out homophobia in sports.  We learnt about the struggles of Gwen John, an early 20th Century artist, and all women at the time, through studying her portraits.  We were shocked and fascinated at the same time as it provided a valuable opportunity to dicuss equality both in terms of equality for women in general as they struggled for recognition and opportunity on par with men, but also the struggles of the LGBT community at the time.  Understanding these issues, we produced our own self portrait sketches, in the style of Gwen John.