Year 4- Why was the Roman army so successful ?
The focus of our history lesson today was to find out why the Roman army was so successful. We looked at why the Romans needed a powerful army, identifying the equipment of a Roman soldier and Roman fighting formations. We learnt lots of new things including; that the Romans had the largest fighting force in the ancient world, they were the best trained, had the best weapons and were so good that even when they fought against armies that were ten times their size, they still won!
Choir - Let’s Go Sing Workshop
Our choir have enjoyed their second LGS workshop with Matthew. We have been learning an exciting new set of songs in preparation for the concert, and they are already sounding brilliant! We are certainly a small but mighty choir. Matthew was really impressed with their attention and listening during this session.
Odd Socks Day at St Barnabas
To launch Anti-Bullying week, we celebrated Odd Socks Day in style today with some brilliant demonstrations of uniqueness. The children showed off their odd socks to their peers and shared reasons for their choices that really showed off their different preferences and personalities!
Year 4 PSHE - How do we treat each other with respect?
In our PSHE sessions we are focusing on ‘Valuing Difference’. This week we shared different scenarios about how we would deal with aggressive behaviour. The children learned how to recognise potential consequences of aggressive behaviour and suggested how to deal with someone who is displaying this. They showed super communication skillls and discussed conflict resolution and diversity.
Seasonal Stockings Session 2 - Can I explore different ways to join fabric using sewing skills?
In our second DT session, we looked at the different sewing stitches, how to thread a needle and joined two pieces of fabric together using a sewing stitch. The children showed great perseverance and determination as many found it difficult to thread the needle at the start! Eventually, the children selected the sewing stitch that they preferred and got to work joining the two pieces of fabric together. Some children even managed to get on to creating their very own stocking design so hopefully, next week, we can begin on the wonderful seasonal stockings that the children will be making for our Christmas Fair.
Year 4 - Science: Modelling the Digestive System
I’m sure that many of us found this lesson hard to stomach, but it was all in the name of science! The children have been learning about the parts of the digestive system and, this week they created a model digestive system in order to understand the functions of each organ and report on their findings. They acted out the process of digesting a cracker using a bowl and a knife and fork to chop the cracker into small pieces. They then transferred this to the oesophagus, which passed it down to the stomach (a ziplock bag containing water and washing up liquid. Here, the cracker pieces were churned up into a paste, which was then added to the small intestine (one leg from a pair of tights). The children even acted out peristalsis to squeeze the “nutrients” from the paste and push it down through the large intestine before the left over waste was pushed out through the anus (a small hole in the end of the tights. It was a messy but memorable activity, which produced some super explanations!
Year 4 - RE: Interfaith Week & Hinduism
The Year 4 class thoroughly enjoyed their Hinduism workshop on Monday. Our visitor, Prags, from Cultural Educasian, brought in a variety of artefacts in order to explain and demonstrate some Hindu beliefs and practices. The theme for the Year 4 workshop was Reincarnation. Prags gave a great, child-friendly explanation to the children about the Hindu belief that everyone has a piece of Brahman inside them, like a part of a jigsaw, and that their aim is to live a good life in order to complete the jigsaw, Brahman, and make him whole. We learned that being reincarnated signifies that the previous life was lived imperfectly and Hindus are given a chance to correct this in the next life. There was also some time for trying on some traditional Indian clothing and performing a traditional dance.
Lego Club
Everyone had a great time at Lego club again this week. We got the chance to make models we didn’t get the chance to last week and some new ones! The ice cream stand seemed to be a popular choice this week!
KS2 - Observing 2 minute silence
At the end of break time today, KS2 observed a 2 minute silence to show respect to the fallen soldiers of the World Wars and any conflicts that have occurred since.
Friday Celebration Worship
Today, we started our celebration worship by reflecting on our week of remembering to honour ‘Remembrance Day.’ We said that we have been thinking about the people who sacrifice their life to keep us safe and/or bring about positive change in our world such as the soldiers, The Royal Navy, the NHS, the firefighters, the police and the charity workers and we observed a two minute silence to pay our respects. We then congratulated our individual value award winners. Well done to Tommy-Joe, Teddy and Archie in EYFS and KS1 and Rosie, Jack, Grace and Hamza in KS2 as our individual value award winners. Well done to these children for always being respectful, kind, well-mannered and exceptionally hardworking. We also congratulated Desmond, Eliza, Daisy, Jack, Sofia and Tristen for achieving their pen licenses, Ted, Sofia, Daisy, Alice, Darcy, Walter and Sonny for representing our school amazingly well yesterday at the Cidari Moon Conference at Blackburn Cathedral, our Year 6 JagTag team for also representing our school superbly at the Soccer Dome on Tuesday and our Year 5/6 football team for representing school well at the Darwen School’s League last night, Year 1 and Year 3 on being our amazing attendance winners this week and India Mill as the overall value award winners this week. We then congratulated our out of school achievers. Well done to Ava for her swimming certificate, Grace for passing her jazz exam, Eliza for demonstrating phenomenal skill in her horse riding mounting games and for placing 1st and 2nd in her most recent event, Olivia for achieving Player of the Match in a recent football match, Tristen for achieving his blocks badge and yet another belt in his kickboxing, Fletcher for being awarded with his green belt in genjitsu, Thomas for being a super pool player, Cassidy for being a super gymnast and achieving a silver medal for her vault work, Isaac for being an incredible captain and leading his football team with great confidence and skill, Mila, Eden and Sofia for taking part in a remembrance parade and Sofia for achieving several awards for her Brownies. To end our worship, Mrs Ham reminded us that next Tuesday 12th November is Odd Socks Day to celebrate Anti-bullying and Interfaith week and then next Friday 15th November is Children in Need and the children can wear pyjamas, spots or Pudsey merchandise. Rev Ben said a special remembrance prayer and then we sang ‘A Song of Peace’ to pray for a world of peace. We thank all those who could attend celebration worship and we said an extended thank you to the rest of our school family for all of your continued support. We wish you all a lovely and restful weekend.
Cidari Moon Conference
Some of our children and WOW group from Year 4 had an amazing day admiring and reflecting on the moon today at Blackburn Cathedral with Mrs Ham and Mrs Araujo. Most of the schools in our Cidari Multi-Academy trust took part and it was a great way to meet new friends. Each of the children took part in a different activity around a big question about the moon with children from other schools. Rev Ben led an opening worship where we learnt about how God created the moon by hand and crowned us all with honour and glory. Bishop Philip encouraged us all to lie underneath the moon art installation and gaze at it whilst pondering some thought provoking questions. Rev Alan closed the day with a fun moon quiz and we discussed how the moon reflects the sun's light and we can reflect God's light . We finished by singing and joining in with the actions to 'our God is a great big God'. Thank you so much to Mrs Gray from St Oswalds, Knuzden for organising the event and to Mrs Araujo and staff from the other schools for leading a number of amazing activities. What a wonderful day of celebrating one of God's most amazing creations!
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Year 4 Street Dance - Session 2
In our second street dance lesson, Jess asked us if we could remember what moves we had covered in the previous week. This included; bounce, rock, ripple, Smurf and happy feet. Today we added Bart Simpson and then moved into our work on canons. We split into two groups and created a routine of Smurf, push, drop, canon and windmill. The children were super enthusiastic and listened carefully to each instruction that Jess gave them. Every week it’s wonderful to see them incorporating more moves to develop their final piece.