Stanningley Primary School

Our day ended with the presentation of our attendance certificates. These show our Victorian names which which chose from the census documents for Stanningley in 1891.

In the afternoon, we split into small groups for a carousel of activities. We each got to enjoy: Physical Drill, sewing, making silhouette pictures and writing with ink and dip pens.

During morning playtime we had apples and milk before playing with ropes and hoops. We took part in a game of Oranges and Lemons and then, at lunchtime, we played In and Out the Dusty Bluebells. Excitingly, Miss Marsh had brought some actual Victorian objects for us to have a close up look at too.

After our Victorian playtime, we had more lessons - Reading a poem, Writing on our "slates" and on object lesson. Victorian children looked at objects to learn about their properties. We looked at sugar lumps, peppercorns, cotton and tea. We also did some nature study, looking at lavender. Members of St Thomas' congregation visited us as Victorian members of the school board, come to inspect our school.

We spent a whole day at our local Victorian School - St Thomas' Board School. The congregation of St Thomas' Church very kindly lent us their beautiful building and grounds for the day. Dressed as Victorian children and teachers, we arrived at school to find the bell ringing for school and we entered to pay our pennies and have our hands and face checked for cleanliness before the register was taken. Then it was our first two lessons - Religious Instruction and Arithmetic.

We enjoyed cheering through all the races in Sports Day! The sun came out an we had a lovely afternoon.

This term, Year 4 are returning to learning the recorder in Music. We have learnt the notes B, A, G and are beginning to learn E. We can read music and play along with a pre-recorded track. Now, time to practise and get ready for a performance.

Having learnt chess since September, it's now time for Class to start their Chess Tournament - playing six games between now and the end of term. Who will be the overall winner?

In science we have been researching animals and their habitats. We searched our school grounds for creatures and living things as well as their habitats. We also linked this learning to computing and English. We used the I.pads and non fiction books to research an animal and a plant. Children used their google school account to create a google slide show. They were amazing!

As part of our unit on Victorian childhood's, we looked at the lives and work of Dr Barnardo and Lord Shaftesbury who both tried to improve the lives of working children. We then discussed which of these two social reformers made the biggest difference to Victorian children and presented our ideas to the rest of the class.

We learnt how to make coil pots using various techniques with clay. We used Roman pottery as our inspiration, linking with our History topic.

Dave from D:Side gave us information about the effects of alcohol and the laws around its use by adults. We all had the chance to try on goggles which simulated the effects of alcohol on our vision. It was very hard to perform even the simplest of movements!

As part of Healthy Week, we enjoyed an orienteering session. We used plans of the school grounds to follow set routes and we used an electronic "dibber" to record when we reached numbered points on our plans. This allowed us to receive a time for running the course and finding the points.

As part of Healthy Week, our visitors from the Mindmate team showed us that it is normal to feel anxious and that we can so somethings to help when we notice anxiety We learnt how to recognise when and why we feel anxious and and then how to use a range of strategies to feel calmer again.

On World Book Day, we all dressed up as a favourite book character. Our Chess expert, Stephen, even joined in as Captain Hook

Among lots of lovely book-based activities, we joined with Y3 for a quiz and for a book review session when we had the chance to share some book recommendations based on our recent reading.

We all enjoyed watching the fabulous Science competition entries in Y4. They were all very knowledgeable and we learnt something new with every experiment.

We loved our visit from the RSPCA! We learnt about the work of this charity and how we can take care of animals and approach them safely. Juno, the dog, soon made herself at home in our classroom and really enjoyed all the attention!

We all enjoyed watching the talent show and we were very proud of our brilliant Year 4 performers!

Year 4 had a fantastic session when the Bikeability team came to train our children in how to handle a bike safely. Whether they were new to cycling or more experienced, each member of our class listened hard and improved their skills while having lots of fun.

Year 4 spent a wonderful day at Nell Bank working on our River topic which covers objectives in both our Science and Geography work. First, we put our wellies on and headed off into the woods. We looked over the valley and could see the high ground of Ilkley Moor. Our guide, Rob, showed us how the water falls there and flows down to the River Wharfe which then joins the River Ouse. Rob explained how evaporation, condensation and precipitation work in the water cycle. He took us to see a huge tree. We looked at a 2l bottle of water and had to guess how much water the tree would draw up from the ground in hot weather - a massive 1000l. We went to look at a tiny stream, which is the source of a tributary of the River Wharfe, and we followed it down through the woods. We each chose a stick and threw it into the River Wharfe when we reached a bridge over it. By looking at the sticks, we noticed that the water flowed faster on the outside bend of the river. Rob showed how this faster flowing water caused erosion on the bend of the outside bank of the river and deposited pebbles on the beach on the inside of the bend. He also made sure that we know how dangerous the river can be. After lunch, we learnt how to use a map and compass points to do orienteering and we worked in pairs all around the site, finding the hidden numbers which were at the letters shown on our maps. Finally, there was time to explore the fabulous adventure playground. Everyone had a fantastic day and the Nell Bank staff were full of praise for Year 4's beahviour.

We made a cloud in a cup! We put warm water in a transparent cup and then placed an ice cube on a piece of foil on top of the cup. We discovered that the water evaporated from the surface of the warm water as water vapour and that we could see it form clouds on the inner surface of the cup as condensation was caused by the cooling effect of the ice cube. Some large drops of water formed on the underside of the foil and fell - like rain! We are learning how evaporation and condensation work in the water cycle.

We are studying Rivers this term and we used atlases to locate some of the world's largest and longest rivers such as the Amazon and the Nile. When we had located the river, we made a sketch map to show its course .

In Science, we are looking at how materials change states when they are heated and cooled. We planned an investigation to find out what temperature chocolate melted at. Having made a prediction, we heated chocolate over some warm water and used a thermometer to measure the temperature of the chocolate when it changed from a solid into a liquid.

We had a wonderful time at our Christmas party! There were games in the hall, party food, pass-the-parcel and a message (and presents) from Santa!

We all enjoyed putting on our Christmas play - "A Midwife Crisis!" There were lots of lines to learn and we loved practising the songs with Year 3. After many rehearsals, the day of the performance arrived and a packed hall had a wonderful time watching the show!

To conclude our 6 week, reading intervention programme, today we were proud to take a small group of Y4 pupils to visit Waterstones Book Store, in Bradford. The store is often described as a gem of a bookshop, housed in Bradfords Victorian Gothic Wool Exchange building. The children had the opportunity to explore the store whilst putting into practice some of the reading skills that they had learnt over the past weeks. Before leaving the store, on the mezzanine floor, the children were given the opportunity to sit in the balcony cafe, with a book and admire the architecture of both the shop and the city.

To bring our Peace Week to a special end, we all took part in Children in Need. We wore our Children in Needs outfits to raise money to help others across the country.

We had a visit from the Road Safety Team to help us learn how to cross the road safely. After some training in the classroom, it was time to practise our skills on some of the roads around school. Everyone crossed the road safely and impressed the Road Safety Team.

Our Reading Bears group have been working with Gaz from Bradford City F.C.. They have been enjoying all sorts of books and have read them out loud to some of the special teddy bears that Gaz brought along. They went to our local library in Bramley to choose some books and explore everything that's on offer at a library!

For our topic about sound we have been discovering how we can hear sounds. We discussed different vibrations and the difference between pitch and volume. We made string telephones to support our science work.

We enjoyed a fantastic trip to the Henry Moore Institute. We were shown the very interesting sculptures which form part of the Weight of Words exhibition at the Institute. We also worked with an artist to make our own sculptures: temporary shelters with a collage of words which we connected to the experience of refugees.

This half term year 4 have had the opportunity to participate in cricket for PE.

As part of our work on collage (inspired by Matisse), we have been experimenting with lines and shapes. We made curved and straight lines and then chose where to cut them to make shapes which we arranged, noticing when they reminded us of a particular form.

Today we voted for two people - a boy and a girl - to represent us on the school council. Everyone wrote a speech to explain why they would be a good councilor. We were given voting papers on which we showed our choice before placing them in the ballot box. We have to wait until the votes are counted before we know who has been elected.