In geography, we are preparing for our field trip next week to look at the changes happening around us. This week we investigated maps - first of all describing part of a map to a partner and then finding others in the class who had pieces of the same map and putting it back together. After that we looked at what the numbers along the edges of the maps meant and used them to pin point particular places on a map. 

Can anyone remember what those numbers are called? Which way around do we have to read and write them?

Today in literacy we have been using thesaurus' to help us find powerful alternatives to some boring verbs. We looked at the words 'walked', 'looked' and 'talked'.

The children came up with some great alternatives. Are there any boring words you could look up in a thesaurus at home? Perhaps 'nice' or 'pretty'?

We've made a great start to our science unit already this year. We have looked at the different types of teeth humans and different animals have and discussed how animal's teeth are specially adapted for what they eat.



Can you name the 3 main types of teeth and what each is used for?



We then went on to discuss how to keep teeth healthy. Most of the children opted to make a poster to show the important things to remember. One group decided to write a script for a video advert instead. Have a look at some of the posters and their video.



We then decided to carry out an investigation looking at what different liquids would do to an eggshell. Eggshells have a similar composition to human teeth, so we thought the results might let us make some inferences about what different liquids might do to our teeth. We are going to leave the eggs for a week then we will post our results!



That's all our science news for now!

I can't believe we have already been back at school for over 2 weeks. The children of Simmonds are settling in really well to year 4, rising to the new challenges we are giving them. 

Our DT topic is already in full swing and this week the class needed to taste some food, to decide what flavours they would like to put in to their quiches, and also turn their hands to making pastry. The food tasting went down very well (I'm yet to meet children who don't like to eat!) and they put their science knowledge from year 3 to good use when thinking about the ingredients they would add to make more of a healthy balanced quiche. The class also did very well making pastry, they listened and watched the demonstration carefully and very quickly each pair had created a ball of shortcrust pastry. Well done Simmonds!