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...

Amazing Mayans

As part of Class 4's topic on Amazing Mayans we having been finding out about Mayan stelae; a stela is a large statue of Mayan ruler complete with glyphs (Mayan picture writing) . The Mayan stelae tell important information about the rulers such as dates ruled, other tribes defeated and other accomplishments.  

Class 4 sketched their own glyphs and designed a stela. Over  the past two days they have been creating their stela from clay using a variety of techniques.

Creating a stela from a block of clay.

The finished stelae 

Tudor Christmas

Yesterday Class 4 celebrated Christmas in Tudor style. They spent the morning cooking and preparing for a Tudor banquet and learning about the different traditions and their meanings.

After lunch we lit the Yule log ; a tradition dating back to Viking times. The Yule log was kept alight for the whole 12 days of Christmas

Class 4 returned to class to enjoy a Tudor "feast"- gingerbread and mince pies.

We elected a 'Lord of Misrule '  who was in charge of the entertainment . Groups had put together Tudor dances and we learned the Tudor carol ' Boar's Head'  singing it with much enthusiasm!

We finished the afternoon by making wreaths using willow and decorating them with yew, holly and laurel.

What lovely wreaths !