BBC Ten Pieces and Thetford Forest

Today we left Bressingham bright and early to go to the Corn Hall at Kings Lynn for the BBC Concert Orchestra Ten Pieces concert. To go to an orchestral concert is one of our 100 Memorable Events! Lots of other schools were there as well...

Class 4 have been studying the ten pieces of classical music over the last few weeks and have been performing some in school. The pieces are:

John Adams: Short Ride in a Fast Machine

Beethoven: Symphony No. 5 (1st Movement)

Britten: 'Storm' Interlude from Peter Grimes

Grieg: In the Hall of the Mountain King

Handel: Zadok the Priest

Holst: 'Mars' from 'The Planets'

Anna Meredith: Connect It 

Mozart: Horn Concerto No. 4 (3rd Movement)

Mussorgsky: A Night on The Bare Mountain

Stravinsky: The Firebird - suite (1911) (Finale)

For more information about the project, details about the composers, downloads of the music and lots of other interesting things please see the BBC website www.bbc.co.uk/ten pieces and look under 'Resources'.

Here we are in the auditorium:

The orchestra performed all ten pieces...

Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take photos or video during the concert but we sang Zadok the Priest with some of the BBC Singers and performed our own version of 'Connect It' with percussionists from the orchestra.

Chris Jarvis from CBBC introduced the music and had his photo taken with us!

It was thrilling to listen to the live music and everyone had their own favourite piece.

On our way back from Kings Lynn we called in at Thetford Forest for lunch and some fresh air. We had a great time playing games and making nests...

...it was really hot!

A day of contrasts but, I think you'll agree, a wonderful experience all round🎶🎻🎺🎵🎼🌳🌿!

Malawi Day

We are very fortunate at Bressingham School, to be part of the Norwich-Dedza Partnership, linking an area of Malawi, in Africa, with Norfolk. Today we celebrated this partnership with a day finding out about Malawi. This helps us to achieve two of our '100 Memorable Events': experiencing different cultures and taking part in a group fundraising challenge.

First we painted some pictures of The Dedza area, in the style of an artist named Alex Katz...

Alex Katz paintings:

Our paintings of Malawi in the style of Alex Katz:

Later we dressed in Malawian clothes and made Nsima, a maize-flour porridge that we ate with vegetable relish. 

Then it was time to share what we had learnt with friends, parents, carers and grandparents in a whole school assembly.

Finally, some of us helped to sell rice from Malawi; if we can sell 90 kg of rice it will raise enough money to enable a child in Malawi to go to High School, who would not otherwise be able to afford to do so.

Planting fruit and vegetables

On the 5th of May Class 4 planted some fruit and vegetables. We planted French beans, strawberries and potatoes.

Strawberries reproduce by sending out shoots called runners, French Green Beans reproduce by exploding their seeds as far away from the mother plant as they can and potatoes by forming sprouts which grow into potatoes.

    To begin we dug a hole and planted the strawberries.

   Did you know that strawberry plant flowers are edible?

To plant French Runner Beans we had to dig a small trench and then place them in it, then cover them with a small amount of compost. Some pupils say that was the best bit because you can get your hands covered in mud!

    Here's a photo of the French Runner bean seeds.

    We also planted some potatoes.

Altogether we learnt lots about how plants reproduce and how to plant them. Hopefully our gardening section will grow lots of yummy fruit and vegetables!

Body Percussion

Today in Class 4 we have been learning about body percussion. Body percussion is when you make music using all your body parts. Working in groups we started experimenting with body percussion, making different music sequences using 4 beats of 4 sounds.

Getting used to some movements.

Next we watched a short clip from the amazing 'Ten Pieces' website. First, we were really confused and found it hard but then, after practising, we got the hang of it! It was really fun! One pupil said, ' My favourite bit was the awesome swimming haka.' 

 

Class 4 performing the swimming haka 

Whilst we copied the tutorial we learnt some moves such as:

Swimming haka

Hand swirls

Cross and YEAH

Snake wave

And loads more...

Everyone really enjoyed learning body percussion; fantastic music!

By G.P., B.B. & M.P. (Class 4)

 

Science - Plants

This week in Class 4 we have been learning about how plants reproduce, move and grow. We found out that plants are not that different from us humans; they grow everyday, they reproduce and they constantly move, but you need a special camera to see it.

In Class 4 we were planting flowering plants. 

Flowers reproduce by being pollinated. 

We also looked at the life cycle of a dandelion:

We cut out each step of the cycle, put them in order and sewed them together.

We also named the male and female parts of a flower on a diagram, after we had taken some flowers apart to identify them in real life!

By LN, SR, RW, HS (Class 4)

Visiting the Fitzwilliam Museum

Today we have been to Cambridge, to visit the Fitzwilliam Museum and discover more about Ancient Greece, together with spending some time in the Ancient Egypt and French 19th- 20th Century Art Galleries.

The Museum itself is a very impressive building...

We were very fortunate to have a session with a specialist teacher from the Museum about Ancient Greece. She responded to our questions and we were absorbed by the information that she gave us, together with the evidence that we found around the Gallery in response to her questions abut life in Ancient Greece. 

Earlier we had visited the Art section of the museum, passing through many older paintings until we came to the French Impressionist collection. This was a great opportunity to enjoy the artwork, talk about it and sketch a painting of our choice.