Wednesday 25 March 2015

Visit by Springboard East

Class 4 had a visit from The Springboard East Theatre Company.

During their introduction they discussed how the country is governed by today's present Government and asked the children why they thought less people are voting now than a few years ago.

Springboard East performed a play that took the children back to a time when there was no democracy; a lawless and unmanaged society. 

Together we all travelled in a time machine to the Tudor times when during the reign of Henry VIII a Protestant government was formed that disallowed the views and membership of Catholics. Later, during the time of the Civil War, King Charles and Cromwell battled to readdress the balance of power between Parliament and the Monarchy.

We found out that many people died attempting to gain the vote so for many years a select few made life-changing decisions for a nation.

Travelling forward to 1847 we noted that active Victorians made a huge difference to working conditions and the treatment of children. This was a time when children worked up chimneys, in mines and in mills. Lord Shaftbury campaigned for and put forward laws to change this.

As a class we were then catapulted to 1910. Women were being arrested and jailed for their determined protests and hunger strikes. In 1918 women over the age of 30 could vote - men over 21! By 1928 both men and women could vote when they reach 21 years of age.

Finally we took a trip to Westminster when our very first female Prime Minister was elected.

The concluding part of the play showed us just how many people worked and died to gain the vote. 

We went on to take part in a workshop about the Suffragettes (votes for women).

Class 4 were astounded to find out that some women that went on hunger strike were painfully force-fed to avoid negative publicity for the government of that time .

During the workshop we worked on posters that explored slogans - which persuaded the reader to follow their cause.

We worked well in teams to create eye -catching, colourful and inspirational poster, then discussed which posters got the point across best.

Lastly we took part in a vote, arguing for our own view point.

   We all agreed that we will think twice before we waste our vote!

 
















Tuesday 24 March 2015

Science, Art and Writing Week

This week our whole school is enjoying Science, Art and Writing Week, which will culminate in an assembly which all our parents are invited to attend.

'Falling Things' is the focus of Class 4's Science, Art and Writing. In Science we have been finding out about different forces, including gravity and air resistance. We have investigated how gyrocopters fall when we change the length, the width or the shape of their flaps, the weight they are carrying or the material they are made from. Here are some of us testing our gyrocopters...






Our art focus is also 'Falling Things', beginning with observation drawings of field maple seeds, sycamore seeds and leaves, before using these drawings to inspire some printing. Our final pieces will hopefully show the falling movement of the leaves and seeds. 







Poetry is the genre for our writing about 'Falling Things'. 'Bat' by DH Lawrence is a fantastic poem, which we have enjoyed reading and used to generate ideas for our own poems. Here are drafts of some of our amazing poems about falling feathers, seeds and leaves...









Wednesday 18 March 2015

Gravity versus water up thrust

Class 4 have been finding out about different forces in Science, so far including gravity, air resistance, water up thrust and balanced and unbalanced forces. In this session, we tried out different experiments: 

 - What happens to the weight of an object when it is put in water?
-  Does it make a difference if a ball drops through air or water?
-  Which design of boat will be able to carry the most paperclips when it is put in water, before it sinks, and why?

Here are some photos...






Running out when it first starts to snow...

This is one of our 100 Memorable Events: when we see the first flakes of snow, we go outside to enjoy it. We were so pleased that we did as it didn't last for long. It is difficult to see the snow in these photographs, but it really was there!




Making chocolate!

It may not surprise many people that Class 4 teachers have managed to include chocolate in the curriculum! As part of our Latin America topic we have researched how chocolate is produced, then made some chocolate before writing an explanation text about it. 

Here are some photographs of us making chocolate...




Wednesday 4 March 2015

Pinocchio

The M&M theatre company came to Bressingham today to show us their production of Pinocchio