Class Four

The Grand Mosque Bradford

 in Class Four / Class Three / RE by

All of KS2 travelled to Bradford yesterday to learn more about the Islamic faith by visiting their very sacred place of prayer and worship.

Bilali, our guide for the day, welcomed us at the door and led us all around the inside and outside of the Mosque.  We began with the grand entrance hall with a huge glass chandelier and as we looked around, Bilali pointed out all the different symbols and features around us.  We moved on to the place for ritual washing (called wudu) before prayer, which was a huge bathroom where Muslims will cleanse by washing the face, arms and feet; before wiping the head.  We then moved on to the main prayer room where we learnt all about the weekly homework set my the Imam every Friday.  This encourages the community to do good things – either for each other or for God’s creation – linking our Christian Values with Islamic beliefs.

We learnt more about the five pillars of Islam too; about the festival of Eid and Ramadan from our expert guide and the children had many interesting and valuable questions to ask!

We even remembered to step in and out of the Mosque using the correct foot first (the right foot) which we had learnt from Mohammad at our live-linkup with him the day before our trip.

The Grand Mosque also provided us with delicious treats at lunchtime for both children and staff; and each child was presented with a gift bag containing information books, quizzes, pens, stickers and more!

Thank you to everyone at the mosque for making us so welcome and teaching us so much about faith in our communities.  We all valued our experience so very much and will certainly be back in a few years time when our current infant children move up to the juniors.

 

Coronation celebrations

 in Class Four / Class One / Class Three / Class Two / Whole School by

We had a fantastic day celebrating the coronation of King Charles the Third. We learnt about the service in Westminster Abbey and watched some of the highlights. The children wore the fabulous crowns they had created and enjoyed an amazing buffet lunch. Thank you to Year Six for your hard work making the cakes and crown shortbread biscuits. It was wonderful to see the children enjoying the celebrations.

Harold visits school!

 in Class Four / Class One / Class Three / Class Two / SCARF by

We enjoyed a wonderful visit from Harold and Steven yesterday from Coram Life Education who provide our SCARF curriculum. Each class took part in workshops ranging from exploring the brain to managing friendships. Harold made an appearance in each class too! Thank you Steven for a brilliant day!

 

 

Collaborative Writing

 in Class Four / English by

We’ve been trying something new in Class 4 this week. Making use of the collaborative features in Microsoft Word, the entire class has come together to re-write a story inspired by our class novel: “Trash” by Andy Mulligan. Some of us were assigned as writers, others as proof-readers and others as editors. The result was amazing (and a little chaotic) as our story came to life at breakneck speed. Words were appearing from all over the classroom as people wrote, edited and corrected as a whole. Below is the story we ended up with, in full, for you to enjoy at home!

I jumped off the train before it reached the platform. You don’t want to get caught by the station guards so we needed to get off as soon as soon we could. The train must have been moving faster than I thought; as soon as I hit the ground I fell over and rolled in the grass. Gardo almost ran over me! I scrambled to my feet as quickly as I could and noticed some station boys, who looked pretty mean, standing at the far end of the platform.

 When I first saw them, they looked all tough; the kind of boys that would fight a guard but that wouldn’t end well. In the corner of my eye, I saw Rat hand over a 20, then 50, then another 20. I didn’t know how long we had to get the thing in the locker, I hoped it would be at least 15 minutes, or more. It looked like Gardo was getting ready to fight, as he was gripping onto his sharp hook. Rat turned around, steadily walked towards us and started talking to us. He said we had five minutes to get the thing in the locker, and we had to be quick!    

As I was walking through the crowed station, I felt Gardo gripping my wrist extremely hard! Rat was picking up a pace and was giving us a signal. I didn’t know what it meant but Gardo certainly did. I think it meant down here. Then Rat sneaked down some bendy stairs and we were in a grey small room. The pipes were wiggly and I saw Gardo looking around anxiously. Then Rat went round a corner for a while. Then I saw Rat reappear. 

Rat was quick to open the locker and to get the mysterious thing in the black door which we did not recognise. We wanted to find out that’s for sure. Rat turned to see if anyone was looking, without thinking he grabbed the black “mystery thing” and ran. I asked, 

“What were you thinking?! You could have got us caught!” The surprising thing was he just ignored me. Then I started to get angry, I thought if it wasn’t for me we wouldn’t have got the bag! He just ignored me, again.  

Sprinting through the station, Gardo was watching around like a CCTV camera making sure Raphael was safe. There were no cops in this area with this mystery item in this bag in Rats clothes.  Suddenly, lots of cops were covering the crowded station but that didn’t stop Rat slithering through the crowd. They didn’t get caught so they ran home. 

Dragon Eyes

 in Art / Class Four / Whole School by

Class 4 have completed an exciting project inspired by mythical creatures when studying the Ancient Greeks last term.

We created studies of dragon eye details using ink pens, water colours and pencils.  Carefully studying texture, shape, line, tone and pattern.  This led on to creating a 3d eye in clay where we extended our skills using this media previously when we made our clay plaques for the celebration of the Queen’s jubilee last summer.

Elleray Cross Country Event

 in Class Four / Class Three / Sport / Whole School by

What an absolutely brilliant afternoon we all had at Elleray last week, participating in their terrific, challenging and rewarding cross country competition, running against 564 of the best runners that the county has to offer!

As totally expected, our team of 18 did not disappoint, everyone finishing the hilly, stream-ridden course with great personal gratification to be rewarded with a special medal and a burger/hotdog!

For a small school, we provide a terrific punch in cross country running, our Under 10 girls finishing second in the team competition, many children running against much older competitors. The day might have been incredibly cold, but staff and parents were warmed through with pride, appreciating every single effort, they could not have given more or tried harder.

Running Club concludes for the season this week with a celebration run through Levens Park and warming homemade refreshments served at Mrs Mason’s farm. We cannot wait to start again in September already…..

Class 4 Bridges

 in Class Four / Design and Technology by

For our D&T project this term, Class 4 are building bridges. We’ve been exploring different ways to stiffen and reinforce cardboard. A simple flat “beam” of paper can’t support much weight on its own, but add a curved “arch” underneath and suddenly things are much stronger! We’ve also been exploring corrugation and lamination techniques to further reinforce the structures we have been building. Check out some of our prototypes below!

Edinburgh Highlights

 in Class Four / Whole School by

This week, Class 4 enjoyed three amazing days in the incredible city of Edinburgh.

Our trip began bright and early on Monday morning with a meet up at Oxenholme Station for our train journey North.  On arrival, we dropped our bags at the hostel, then set off up Calton Hill for views of the city and the surrounding hills on such a clear, bright day.  In the afternoon, we enjoyed a tour around the Scottish Parliament – an incredible modern building located opposite the historic palace of Holyrood.

Tuesday started with a good breakfast and a walk up the Royal Mile to the Castle and then to Camera Obscura – a fascinating museum and definitely a popular highlight of the entire trip with all our pupils.  We then headed out of town on a local bus to Edinburgh Zoo where we saw koalas, penguins, pandas, sun bears and much much more!

Our final day involved exploring the exhibits at the National Museum of Scotland which included stepping back in time to Ancient Egypt and lots of interactive scientific displays too!

We all enjoyed such a wonderful time and, as always, the children were incredible ambassadors for our school!

Take a look at some of the highlights here:

South Lakes District Cross Country Trials

 in Class Four / Class Three / PE / Sport / Whole School by

What a terrific and successful afternoon was had at the district trails this week and what a muddy delight to be there!

It was ‘touch and go’ for this event to even take place on Wednesday, following torrential rain for several days in the lead up. The ‘go ahead’ was finally given on the morning and our team of 9, excited and full of confidence travelled to the challenging and muddy course at Casterton to compete.

What effort, what support, and what an achievement by everyone, who excelled to run their best, in races against at least 80 of the best district runners.

I am delighted to report that everyone finished in the top 50%, and that 6 pupils qualified for the Cumbria finals on Tuesday 17th January.

We are so very proud!

The fun that is Running Club continues each Friday until the end of March when all runners will compete at the season finale at Elleray, what a team they all are!

The Lord’s Prayer

 in Class Four / Class Two / RE by

The Lord’s Prayer is common to many Christian’s across the globe so we have been thinking more about it including where it came from and what it means.

Class 2 thought praying was talking to God and that people who believed in God might do it. They explained a few varied ways people stand, sit or kneel to pray. We ordered the Lord’s Prayer and discussed what some unusual words like hallowed  and daily bread mean. Here we are drawing pictures around the phrases so show what we understood by them.

Class 4 explored the Lord’s Prayer differently – finding where it comes from and comparing references to the prayer in the Good News Bible in the books of Matthew and Luke. We looked at the 4 types of prayer that Christians might use – Praising, Asking, Saying Sorry and Thanking.

We then considered some deeper questions linked to phrases in the prayer with many thoughtful and honest responses that are recorded in the class reflection book.