Year 4 – Bowie Class

Welcome to Bowie Class 2024/2025

Term 1

The first term has got off to a flying start, all children have settled in well and learning is in full swing!  In maths lessons we are focussing on place value and our TTRockstars times table challenges are also underway (make sure you are practising everyday so you can move up the chart!)  We are reading Beowulf in English which links with our history topic, the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings.  We are busy learning about how to compose detailed setting and character descriptions in preparation for writing our very own version of the story!  Science is all about living things and their habitats.  We are also very lucky to be learning how to play the djembe drum this term - once we are all pros (fingers crossed!) we look forward to welcoming you later on in the year to watch our performance :-) It is busy, busy, busy in Bowie Class!

Welcome to Bowie Class 2023-2024

Year 4 Camp

What a fantastic end to the year. Year 4 visited Magdalene Farm near Chard and had a brilliant time! We were really proud of how everyone took part in all the activities, their fantastic manners and behaviour and how many of them stayed away from home for two nights for the first time and organised themselves and their belongings so well! We had so much fun with you Year 4 and your Parents should be very proud of you just as we are ! Well Done. We will definitely miss you next year !

Sports Day

Today we took part in Sports from 9:30am til 3:15pm ! In the morning, we worked in our Colour Teams with our friends from the other classes to earn points for our team. We took part in lots of different activities including golf, archery, obstacle races and speed bounce. In the afternoon, we raced on the track. Even though we couldn't all win we all took part in the races and congratulated those who did come in 1st,2nd or 3rd!

Term 6

How have we arrived at Term 6 already?! Here we are in our final term in Year 4 and what a busy one it is going to be !

We have a very exciting geography topic in Term 6 called 'Extreme Earth' where we will be learning about Volcanoes, Earthquakes, Tsunamis and Tornadoes! It's going to be wild !

We also have lots of exciting activities to look forward to- Forest Schools, Sports Day, Year 4 Camp and hopefully more learning outside if the sun continues to shine !

Ancient Egyptian Projects

Wow ! Year 4 have been working so hard at home on their Ancient Egyptian projects and as you will see below the results are fantastic ! Everyone used their imagination and produced really original models and presentations! It was great to see such a variety of different materials used...some we could even eat ! Well done Bowie Class and Supporters- the Projects were outstanding this term !

Coco Chanel Hats

In our Art lesson today we learnt about the fashion designer Chanel. After studying some of her designs we were inspired to attempt our own designs. We had to design and make a hat out of paper that we could wear on the catwalk! Here are the results ! We are sure Chanel would have been very impressed !

Ancient Egyptian Mummies

As part of our History topic we played the Mummification Challenge! Have a look at the results below! Who do you think is the best Ancient Egyptian Mummy ?

Term 5

We hope you've had a great holiday, eaten loads of chocolate and are ready to be wowed by the Ancient Egyptians as that is this terms History topic in Bowie Class ! We know that you'll find them really interesting ...so interesting that you'll want to do a Home Learning Project all about them this term ! Details to follow !

Science Day

Today we took part in a whole school Science challenge . We were put into teams and had to plan, make and test a marble run. The winning run was the one that made the marble run to the bottom in the slowest time. We worked really well in our teams and put a lot of effort into our marble runs. We all successfully made a working marble run with the resources we were given and enjoyed timing how long our marble took to get to the bottom of our runs!

World Book Day

Today we celebrated World Book Day by dressing up as our favourite book characters. We had a special assembly where we could see everyone's costumes. We all agreed everyone's costumes were brilliant ! We also took part in a Book Swap and were really pleased with our new books. In the afternoon we were invited to a WBD Tea Party where we played lots of fun book related games !

Visit to the Hindu Temple

After our studying the religion of Hinduism last term it was wonderful to make a Class visit to the Hindu Temple in St George. A Priest showed us round the Temple and was very welcoming. We were able to ask lots of questions and it was fantastic to see in person some of the facts and ideas we had learnt in our RE lessons in the classroom.

Term 4

Welcome to Term 4 ! This term we have a very busy timetable ! Our topic work will be geography based and we have a brand new topic called Settlements to study. We will be finding all about why people settle where they do from the past to the present. In Literacy , we have a new Class book called Big Blue Whale by Nicola Davies and we will be writing non- chronological reports about ....Blue Whales of course !

In Science and DT we will be looking at all things to do with Electricity...sound electrifying !!

We also have this term Literacy Week including Bedtime Stories, Spelling Bee, World Book Day and a trip to Henbury Library ! We are also having a whole school Marble Run competition and celebrating International Day too. Plus, we will be holding Parent's Evenings ! 

Before we know it Easter will be upon us !

Mental Health Day

On Wednesday it was Children's Mental Health Day and to celebrate this fact the Key Stage 2 Classes mixed up into 4 new groups of children for the afternoon. In each Classroom were different activities run by the Teachers. These included mindfulness, art and craft, physical exercise and meditation/ calming activities. We really enjoyed working with our friends from the other year groups and really loved making dream catchers !

String Telephones

As part of our Science topic of Sound we made string telephones. We used 2 paper cups and 20 metres of string ! Some of us were successful in making our voices vibrate down the string and our friends at the other end were able to hear our very faint voices ! We had to pull the string tightly and keep it off the ground. Fun as it was we don't think we will be swapping our mobile phones for the string ones any time soon !!!

I Rock Concert

Anneke, Sydney, Abby and Blake have been taking part in I Rock lessons over the last few weeks and were involved in a whole School performance on Friday.

They certainly looked like rock stars with Anneke and Sydney on drums and Blake and Abby strumming their guitars. It was a great performance and we think you'll agree they have definitely started their journey to stardom. We look forward to hearing them on Radio One soon !

Term 3

HAPPY NEW YEAR !

We hope you have all had a fantastic holiday and are ready for our new term. We have lots of exciting activities planned to get us through January! This term we have a History topic called 'Riotous Royalty' and we will be finding out about some famous Royals including William the Conqueror, Henry the 8th and Queen Victoria. Sounds like a riot !

This term's Monday PE lesson will be Yoga with our fantastic yoga teacher, Vicky. Get ready to Sausage Roll !

In Art, we will be studying Insects which will lead to us making some insect sculptures. We will find out more about Hinduism in RE and learn about Sound in Science. Our new Class book is called 'I was a Rat!' by Phillip Pullman. It's a great story ...we know you will love it !

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It's Christmas Time!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas in Bowie Class this week ! We have been busy making Christmas cards and Christmas decorations...a lot of glitter has been sprinkled ! We have taken part in Carols by Candlelight and entertained our audience with songs and readings. Dressed in our Christmas jumpers, we have enjoyed a delicious Christmas dinner. Finally, we had a special treat on Thursday afternoon and played laser tag with Coach Roach and Coach Ollie. We had loads of fun running around. One more day of Christmas fun and then we will be ready for our holidays. 

Merry Christmas Everyone !

See you in 2024 !

A Trip to the Hippodrome !

Last Tuesday we went on an amazing trip to the Bristol Hippodrome to watch the Panto ! It was fantastic to be in the beautiful theatre and watch a performance on the stage. It was the story of Peter Pan and we all really enjoyed it !

Our 'All Around the World' Projects

During Term 2 we have been studying a topic called 'All Around the World' in Geography. As part of these studies we took part in a home learning project. We could either make a model of the World or research a country and give a presentation about it. Mrs Collins and Mrs Roberts were really impressed with the variety of different projects that we brought into School

Drumming

Over the past ten weeks Bowie Class have been lucky enough to have 10 weeks of lessons in Djembe Drumming. Silas, our drumming teacher, was fantastic at teaching us how to play these drums as well as teaching us about where in Africa these drums are played, teaching us African songs and playing some of his own African instruments to us. After 10 weeks of lessons we felt confident enough to perform to an audience !

The Hindu Festival of Diwali

As part of our RE lessons this term we have been studying the festival of Diwali. We read the Hindu story of Rama and Sita and saw how good overcame evil and how light overcame darkness. We learnt about the goddess Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and success and learnt how Hindus celebrate Diwali. We made Diva Lamps to bring light into our own homes.

Literacy

The Wolf's Footprint by Susan Price

We read Chapter one of our new Class book - The Wolf's Footprint -. We met the four main characters; Mother, Father, Daw and Elka. We took on the roles of those characters and thought about how they were feeling during the events of Chapter One. We made Freeze Frames and then unfroze and explained how we were feeling.

Spooktacular Event !

To kick off Term 2 we had great fun dressing up in our spooky clothes ready for our Spooktacular Event later in the evening. Everyone looked amazing and very scary !

Forest Schools

To end Term 1 it was our turn to go to Forest Schools. We had a wonderful time searching for plants, animals and anything else we could find in the Wild Area. We were able to find lots and have fun in the fresh air before the heavy rain started at the end of our session ! 

Swimming

Bowie Class have just finished three weeks of daily 45 minute swimming lessons and wow what progress they have made ! Everyone has managed to learn new skills. It was a fantastic opportunity and so wonderful to have our very own pool right on our doorstep...well, on our very own playground ! We were even interviewed about it all by ITV News !

A big thank you to Mrs Jack for organising it all, to Georgie our swimming teacher for teaching us so patiently and to Katie our lifeguard for keeping us all safe. Bowie Class absolutely loved it !

National Poetry Day

As part of National Poetry Day we learnt a poem to perform as a class. We learnt a kenning poem. A kenning is a two word phrase that describes a noun. Kennings originate from Anglo Saxon times. After learning a kenning about The Sun by James Carter we wrote some of our own kennings.

Anglo Saxon Shields

This week we were introduced to our new History topic - Anglo Saxons and Vikings ! We then had a fun lesson making our own Anglo Saxon shield and then decorating it by weaving wool around it. The Anglo Saxons made their cloth by weaving and then made the cloth into clothes. It was quite tricky and we are relieved that we today are able to go to the shops to buy our clothes ready made! We will continue with our shields next week.

Welcome to Year 4 ! 

We hope you all had a fantastic holiday and have lots of news to tell us !

We are really looking forward to working with you this year. We have lots of exciting activities planned and we know that you will be a brilliant Bowie Class. One of the first activities ,of course ,will be finding out more about David Bowie, the colourful musician, who our Class is named after.

Our first main topic will be a History one and we will be learning all about the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings.It's going to be exciting!

Mrs Roberts will be teaching Year 4 on  Mondays and Tuesdays.

Mrs Collins will be teaching Year 4 on Thursdays and Fridays.

We will share Wednesdays!

Don't forget to bring a water bottle and a healthy snack. Learning is thirsty work.

Apart from that all we ask of you is that you come to School every day ready to learn , to have fun and to try your best !

2022-2023

Year 4 Camp to Magdalene Farm

What a brilliant way to end our time in Year 4. We spent three days at the beautiful Magdalene Farm. We packed so much into our stay; orienteering,making camp fires,exploring the farm,playing on the outdoor equipment, eating new foods, exploring the allotments, feeding the animals, holding the chickens and collecting their eggs,making arts and crafts from nature, pizza and smoothie making, making our own potions from herbs and flowers and having lots and lots of fun !

A big thank you to Mr Clarke, Mrs Jack, Mrs Vallis-Ridler and Mrs Thomas for coming on our trip with us. Also a big thank you to our parents for paying for us to go and making sure we had everything that we needed. We can't wait for the Camps in Year 5 and 6 now !

Happy Holidays everyone !

Sports Day

We had a great day at Sports Day. In the morning we worked with other children from different classes in our colour teams. We took part in 7 different team games and earned points for our team. In the afternoon we did the track races : sprint, relay,obstacle course and egg and spoon. Although some of us felt a bit nervous about taking part we all did what we could and tried our best. We were all proud of what we achieved and all got a sticker for taking part.

Forest Schools

Today we had a wonderful time at Forest Schools. Not only did we toast marshmallows on the fire and drink hot chocolate but we learnt how to finger knit !! It was quite difficult and tricky to begin with but we persevered and kept trying until we were successful. We used the knitted wool to make a necklace. We added a wooden disc to our wool which we decorated. We used a hand drill to drill a hole in the disc to thread the wool through. It was great to be learning outside !

Monica's Trip to Israel

Monica, our reading volunteer, went on holiday to Israel so we asked her if she would come and share her adventures. Thank you Monica for showing us your photos and telling us more about this really interesting country. Thank you too Monica and all our reading volunteers who give up their time to come and listen to us read and talk about the stories we have read.

Term 6

Wow ! It's Term 6 already ! We can't believe how quickly the year has gone ! But don't worry there's still lots of fun to be had ! In fact we have got lots of amazing activities lined up during our last term as Bowie Class. Our topic is Art based again and this time we will be studying Insects and the works of Louise Bourgeois and Jennifer Angus to inspire our artworks.

We also have Forest Schools, Sports Day, Our Year 4 Camp to Magdalen Farm, Brentry's Got Talent, a whole school trip to Noah's Ark Farm and our Brentry Fest Summer Fayre !! It's going to be a busy one !

End of Term Treat

Bowie Class have been working so hard this term that they have managed to get all their marbles in the Class jar! This ,of course, means a treat. They chose to watch a film in their PJ's but with the weather so warm we just had to go outside and enjoy an ice cream too !

Reading Outside

The weather this week has been beautiful so we took our reading books outside today. We found a comfy spot and lost ourselves in some great stories !

Art 

As part of our European Artists topic this term we studied the surrealist artist Salvador Dali. We found out that he wasn't just famous for his art work but for the way he dressed and his flamboyant moustache !

We drew our own self portraits and designed a Dali style moustache to add to them ! Here is our work:

Coronation Party

We celebrated the King's Coronation by making crowns which we wore on Friday at our Coronation picnic ! We came dressed in red, white and blue.The whole school had a picnic on the field followed by games organised by Coach Jake and S4K. We had lots of fun with our friends and brothers and sisters. 

Term 5

We hope you all had a great Easter Holiday and are ready for the Summer Term ! Hopefully, the sun will shine this term and we will be able to spend more time learning outside.

During Terms 5 and 6 our topic will be art and design based so get those paintbrushes out ! We will start off by studying the works of European Artists and Designers including Kiefer, Michelangelo, Le Corbusier, Rembrandt, Chanel and Dali. We can't wait to see your own masterpieces !

We will continue learning about Fractions and Decimals in Maths along with topics about Money and Time as well of course continuing practising our times tables ( all of them!).

In Literacy, we will be writing instructions and our class book will be 'The Iron Man' by Ted Hughes. We know you'll enjoy this classic novel !

In Science, we will be learning about our digestive systems,teeth and food chains in our topic about Animals including Humans.

A reminder that Spelling Tests are back to Wednesdays and PE days are now Mondays and Wednesdays 

We'll also have time to celebrate the King's Coronation! Hurray !!

Poetry Slam

Today, we performed a class poem to our friends in Years 3,5 and 6 as part of the Brentry Poetry Slam.

We learnt the poem off by heart and thought carefully about how to perform it to our audience using expression in our voices and faces, body language and actions to enhance our performance.The feedback from the audience was great and we were proud of our performance. Here are a few photos of us practising our performance and the art work that some of us made after reading the poem.

All Around the World

Well done to everyone who completed a project for our 'All Around the World' topic in geography! We have seen some wonderful globe constructions, creative fact files as well as fascinating presentations. Everyone has worked so hard.

Our Visit From Longleat

Today, we were very lucky to have some visitors in from Longleat! They brought one or two friends with them... Take a look at the children meeting some of the residents of Longleat Safari Park.

_{International Day}

As part of International Day, we sampled foods from around the World. We gave the foods taste scores out of 5 and tried to guess which countries they originated from. When we had tried all the foods we looked at their packaging to find out if we were correct. The foods were from, India, Spain, France, Netherlands, Korea, Mexico, Poland and Greece. We think you can tell from our expressions whether we liked the taste or not !

We also came to School dressed as a country. We enjoyed sharing where in the World our costumes came from.

Electricity

Our science unit this term has been 'Electricity'. All term we have been investigating electrical circuits and today the children had a go at making their own switches using just a piece of card, two split pins and a paper clip.

World Book Day

Bowie Class looked like they had just stepped out the pages of their favourite books on World Book Day! They all looked fantastic. Thank you to all that helped them with their amazing costumes. We really enjoyed sharing with each other our favourite characters and books and talking about our costumes. We did lots of fun activities about books including playing book charades and having to act or describe book characters for our friends to guess ! Mr Lawrence ( Robin Hood) came to read us a story during the teacher's story swap and we really enjoyed seeing the whole school's costumes during Mrs Stinson's World Book Day Assembly. See if you can guess who we dressed up as...

Big Blue Whale

Over the next few weeks in literacy, we will be learning about, and then writing, reports on blue whales. Today, we read the non-fiction book 'Big Blue Whale' and then used practical resources to explore some of the facts that we learnt. We went outside and measure the length of baby blue whales when they're born (7m) and adult blue whales (30m!). This also tied in nicely with our maths lesson which was all about measuring distance.

Term 4

This term our topic is again Geography based. It is called 'All Around the World' and we will travelling around the World finding out about different regions and climates and understanding terms like equator, prime meridian, hemisphere and longitude and latitude. We can't wait to go exploring !

We have a wonderful new class book to read called 'Big Blue Whale'. This will lead us to writing non chronological reports about ...yes you've guessed it ...Whales !!

Science is going to be electrifying this term as we are going to be finding out about Electricity !

We will be Swimming every Tuesday during Term 4 too so don't forget your kit !

Don't forget during Term 4 our Spelling Test will take place on a Tuesday so you will need to bring in your Homework Books every Tuesday.

Hope you all have a great holiday !

Tsunamis and Tornadoes

To end our topic of Extreme Earth we tried to create a model tsunami and tornado in our class room. The experiments weren't that successful but they were messy and great fun !

Our volcano art in the style of Margaret Godfrey

We used coloured tissue paper to make volcano pictures in the style of the artist Margaret Godfrey. They took a while to make but we persevered and we think they look quite effective!

Erupting Volcanoes !

Today we made our own erupting volcanoes. We used some household ingredients ( washing up liquid, vinegar and bicarbonate of soda). The vinegar ( acid) and the bicarbonate of soda ( alkali) when mixed together caused a chemical reaction. This reaction produced a gas called carbon dioxide which made the mixture bubble up. The bubbling liquid looked just like lava coming out of the crater of our cone shaped volcanoes. It was great fun too!

WOW it's Geography !

To start our Geography topic , Extreme Earth, we invited Wicked Weather Watch to come and do a workshop with us about the Arctic and Antarctica. Rhianna from Wicked Weather Watch taught us about the landscape, wildlife and climate of these areas and the differences that can be found in these extreme parts of the World.We took part in lots of fun activities and then learnt about Climate Change and ways that we can reduce our own Carbon Footprint. We came away with lots of ideas to help save energy.

In the afternoon, we learnt more about the Arctic and Antarctica when Hazel ( one of our supply T.A's ) came and gave us and Year 2 a talk about her amazing expeditions to the North and South Pole. It was fascinating to hear from first hand experience about the wildlife, weather and environment here and the extreme conditions that Hazel endured when exploring. Hazel experienced - 55 degree centigrade temperatures and suffered from frostbite on her nose. Not surprisingly, she didn't change her clothes during her whole 17 day stay at the South Pole!

Happy New Year !

We hope you all had a wonderful holiday and wish you all a very happy 2023!

We are off to an exciting start in Term 3 with a new topic called 'Extreme Earth'. It's a geography based topic and we will be finding out about volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunamis and tornadoes! Sounds like we are going to be blown away by this topic ! 

We are looking forward to hearing all your holiday news when we return to School on Wednesday 4th January.

Mrs Collins and Mrs Holland

Christmas Jumper Day

We raised over £40 today by wearing our Christmas jumpers to School. The money will go to the charity Save the Children to help children in the UK and around the World who may be having a difficult time. We had lots of fun as well as raising money for a good cause !

Virtual Museum

Check out the Virtual Museum tab at the top of this page to see photos of all our fantastic pyramid projects! 

Light in the Nativity story

To round off our RE unit on Diwali - the festival of light - we looked at how light appears in the Christmas story as well as comparing the festivals of Diwali and Christmas. The pupils used art as a medium to reflect light in the Christmas story. Take a look at their creative work below:

Ancient Egyptian Projects

Thank you so much for all the brilliant Egyptian Projects we have received this week. The time , effort , care and creativity that we have seen has been amazing.  Bowie Class are currently presenting their projects to the rest of the Class. When everyone has had a turn doing this we will put the photos of the projects in our Virtual Museum at the top of this page so you can be wowed too !

Drumming

As part of our Music lessons we had 10 lessons of drumming. Silas,our drumming teacher,worked us hard so that we would be the best drummers we possibly could be at the end of the sessions. We found it really hard to begin with and some of us wanted to give up but we persevered and in the end we became so good that we did a performance in front of the Parents and Year 3 and Year 5. We were brilliant and were proud of what we had managed to achieve ! 

Diya Lamps

In RE this term, we have been learning about the Hindu festival of Diwali: the festival of light. During Diwali, Hindus light special oil lamps called 'diyas'. In Year 4 we made our own diya lamps, which you can see below.

Firework Spooktacular Fancy Dress

We all looked slightly different today before the Firework Spooktacular evening! 

Ancient Egypt Projects

The project options for this term were sent home today and can also be found under the 'Homework' tab above. We look forward to seeing all your creative ideas!

Term 2

We hope you've all had a great half term holiday and are refreshed and ready for an exciting Term 2 and the lead up to Christmas !

This term we are travelling even further back into History and our main topic of the term will be the 'Ancient Egyptians'. This is a really interesting period of history and we are sure you will really enjoy finding out about how the Ancient Egyptians lived. 

In Numeracy,we will continue with our work on addition and subtraction before moving on to length, perimeter and multiplication and division. Keep practising those times tables too!

We start our Literacy work on Fairy Stories by studying the books of Anthony Browne and link this to writing our own diary entries. We will then read 'The Wolf's Footprint' by Susan Price and prepare to write our own stories!

We continue with Drumming in Music and have PE on a Wednesday and Thursday.In Science, our new topic is States of Matter.

Towards the end of term there will be lots of Christmas activities to look forward to as well!

Looking forward to seeing you all tomorrow ( Remember the photographer will be in so practise those smiles !)

Mrs Holland and Mrs Collins

Cinquain Poetry Performances

This week we have been writing poetry. We have been writing Cinquain Poems. This type of poem has 5 lines. The first line has one word.The second line has two words and the third line has three words. The fourth line has four words and the final line has one word. We wrote a Class poem about a Thunderstorm and then in groups created a performance of the poem. We practised, gave each other feedback, reviewed and improved our performances until we finally performed them in front of the rest of the Class. Joseph, Thomas and Finlay's group were lucky enough to perform their poem in front of Miss Ransom, Dave and Tully ! Here is our poem and some photos of our performances !

Thunderstorm

Furious, mysterious,

Demolishing,exploding,flickering,

Hurricane swirling and spinning,

Terrifying!

Invertebrate Hunt

After our wonderful bee talk we went into our local environment to search for our own invertebrates ! We walked up to the Wildlife Area and searched for specimens ! The Bug Hotel, that Oscar's Mum helped us to build last year, was a great place to look ! We recorded what we found and then brought back a few specimens to have a closer look at in the Classroom. We closely observed our animals, did a detailed drawing and recorded information about them. We found earwigs,ants,bees,worms,spiders,earwigs and Joseph even found a Devil's Coach Horse Beetle that curled it's abdomen up like a scorpion when it felt threatened.We,of course , returned our new 'friends' back to the wild as soon as we had finished our Science lesson.

Bee Talk

As part of our Science Topic on Living Things and Habitats Monica, our Reading Volunteer came into Class to tell us all about her bees. It was fascinating learning about these invertebrates and we really enjoyed Monica's slide show and talk. We were able to try on some bee keeping hats and look at some equipment Monica uses to look after her 40,000 bees !! Thank you Monica !

Djembe Drumming

We started to learn to play the djembe drums today in Music. We are having a ten week course with our Music Teacher, Silas. We will be drumming every Thursday afternoon. We really enjoyed our first lesson and have started to learn some basic rhythms ( Tea,Tea,Coffee,Coffee,Cake!).By the end we hope to be expert drummers ...we may even ask for a set of drums for Christmas !!

Anglo-Saxon Shields

The Anglo-Saxons and Vikings were often at war with each other. Year 4 had a go at making their own Anglo-Saxon shields and we also had a go at some weaving which was a technique used back then to make clothes etc.

Look at those fearsome warrior faces! 

Back to School Meeting

It was great to meet some of you at the Year 4 Back-to-School meeting last week. The PPT used can be found below. Do feel free to come and see us if you have any further questions.

Welcome

We hope you have had a brilliant Summer Holiday and have lots of news to share with us this week !

We are really looking forward to seeing you all again and are excited about all the new learning, adventures and activities we have in store for you this year.

We are, of course, now Bowie Class so we will be finding out a bit more about this colourful musician we are named after during the first week back. Our History topic in Term 1 is all about the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings. We know you will find them fascinating !  Can you find any  facts about these groups of people to WOW us with ?

We have an Inservice Day on Monday so Mrs Holland is looking forward to seeing you on Tuesday ! Mrs Collins will be teaching you on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday this week. Our PE days will be on Wednesdays and Thursdays in Term 1. We will start PE this week so you can come to school on Wednesday and Thursday in your kits !

Don't forget to bring a healthy snack and a water bottle each day as learning is thirsty work !

Enjoy your last day of the holidays and we'll see you at 8:55 am in the playground on Tuesday !

Mrs Collins and Mrs Holland

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PE: Dance
Our topic theme in Art and PE, this term, has been insects. We have studied insects, their shapes and their movements, to inspire our choreography. Check out our performance of Rocks, Worms, Dirt  inspired by a bug hunt!

Literacy: Modern Folk Tale Oracy Project
This term, Year 4 have studied folk tales from different cultures. We then created modern (and local!) versions of the traditional English tale, The Pedlar of Swaffham. Click the link below to find spectacular video performances from the class: not to be missed!

T4 Class Reward: Class Picnic
We have reached the end of term once more! Following a democratic vote - keeping those British Values in mind, as ever - the class agreed upon a picnic. Some dashed about the field in a daring Nerf battle, while our skilled chefs prepared their classmates a feast of pizza, cookies and fruit salad. Later, an 'island of blankets' was set out for us to enjoy a talent show from our brave and talented volunteers.

Science: Tree Day
Here at Brentry we are passionate about trees. Spearheaded by Mrs Fennel and her band of inspiring Tree Champions, we were lead in a day of activities focusing on the environment and how to conserve it. Volunteers from Tree Bristol and Forestry England taught us how to build insect hotels, as well as how to care for our fledgling grove of trees planted by pupils in 2021. 

Literacy: Big Blue Whale
We have been conducting research to inform our latest Literacy project: non-chronological reports. Inspired by Nicola Davies' book Big Blue Whale, we have been investigating facts related to these enormous mammals.

Music and Science: Glockenspiel Pitch Exploration
In Science, we have been exploring sound: how it travels and how to adjust pitch and amplitude. We put our theories to the test using glockenspiels, concluding the longer/thicker the thing the lower the sound and the shorter/thinner the thing the higher the sound. We controlled amplitude by hitting the chimes harder or more softly.

RE: Who inspires you?
In our RE unit this term, we will be reflecting on who inspires us and what influence this has on our world view. We shared stories of family members, people in our community and celebrities, who have each surprised us and motivated us. Our very own Miss Rose spoke of how she is inspired by the NHS and the assistive technology created by scientists around the world, which meant she could be fitted with a robotic arm. The class agreed that we are in turn inspired by Miss Rose!

Science: National Science Week
We kicked off Science Week with a day of fun-filled experiments. We grew rainbows, repelled colours and created bunches of chromatography carnations! We continued the Science theme all week with this term’s topic: investigating sound. Check out our DIY amplifiers!

Literacy: World Book Day
We celebrated World Book Day by dressing up as some of our favourite characters, swapping stories (and teachers!), spectating at the Year 6 Spelling Bee and even rejoining each other out of school hours for a bedtime story! Can you recognise us from our fabulous costumes?

Science and DT: Battery Operated Torches
In term 3, our Science and DT topics over-lapped culminating in the creation of 30 unique torches, each fit for purpose according to its design criteria. Can you spot which were designed to entertain young children, which were intended to support families in the event of a natural disaster and which were designed for sneakily reading in the dark?

Oracy: Poetry Slam and Gallery Event
This brave bunch hosted a Poetry Slam and Gallery Event. The class's poetry was displayed in the hall and evaluated by those lucky children across KS2 who were fortunate enough to receive a ticket to our exclusive event! Our guests were then treated to a live performance of the class' favourite poems from across our poetry unit. All were agreed on the talent and bravery of our spectacular Year 4s.

Oracy: Class Poetry Recital
Bowie class will be ending this term with a focus on poetry. We kicked off our new project with a class recital. Inspired by Valerie Bloom’s performance of ‘Kisko Pop’, we used dynamics, actions and intonation to bring to life her rap: ‘I Am Not A Kid’.

SMSC: Forest Schools
Bowie Class are so excited to have Forest Schools this term! Each week, we work together to build a fire, toast marshmallows and make stick-flavoured hot chocolate. The outdoor classroom encourages us to act on our own ideas, using creativity and teamwork to build insect habitats, carry logs, make a den or even start a gym!

Merry Christmas from Bowie Class
With the winter break just around the corner, Bowie Class have been enjoying the festivities … and, of course, working hard as always!

PE: Sequencing jumps and balances
In PE this term, we have been exploring jumps and balances. We have learned gymnastic terms – such as tuck, pike and straddle – and even invented some of our own! In our final sessions, we were challenged to sequence and rehearse our group’s jumps and balances to create a routine with smooth transitions.

Science: Changing states of matter
In Science, we have been learning about states of matter and how some materials are able to change state. Here we are pretending to be water particles! We began as solid particles, vibrating on the spot, before melting into loose liquid particles and finally evaporating into free particles of gas.

History: Ancient Symbols Theme Day
Today, we were taught by the most famous Egyptologist of the 1920s, Howard Carter. He explained how to recognise and decode the ancient numeral systems of Egypt and Rome and use this to decipher a recipe for Egyptian flatbread. In the afternoon, we used hieroglyphics and colour theory to create Pharaoh headdresses with personalised cartouches.

Maths: NW24 Maths Bee
This year, Brentry have entered the NW24 Maths Bee. Eight finalists from each class were asked to compete in a mental arithmetic challenge in front of the class. Representing Bowie Class, Fatima, Szymon P, Zaid, Szymon K, Yara, Massi and Emrys, showed HUGE courage and incredible, arithmetical talent! Congratulations to our final three: Yara 3^rd, Szymon K 2^nd and Szymon P, who came first.

SPaG: NW24 Spelling Bee
A huge well done to Bowie Class for taking part in this year’s NW24 Spelling Bee. An additional round of applause to our finalists: Alia 3^rd, Fatima 2^nd and Szymon P, who came first!

PSHE: Anti-Bullying Week
This week we have raised awareness of what bullying is, how to report it and how to work together to stand up against it. This year’s campaign taught us that sometimes this can take as little as One Kind Word. We showed our support for Anti-Bullying week by wearing odd socks and celebrating our differences.

History: Ancient Egypt
This week we have compared primary and secondary sources about life in Ancient Egypt and considered what we can learn from each. Here we are posing questions (as well as posing for the camera)!

Brentry’s Spooktacular Event: Here are Bowie Class’ entries to the frightening fancy dress competition. What a terrifying bunch!

National Poetry Day: We wrote and performed cinquains.

This week, Year 4 have been learning about cinquains invented by the Victorian poet Adelaide Crapsey. Cinquains do not rhyme, but follow a strict syllable pattern: 2, 4, 6, 8, 2. We hope you enjoy our performance and poetry below.

HELLO YELLOW: We celebrated Mental Health Awareness.

Literacy: Summarise the legend of Beowulf

This term, Year 4 have been exploring the story of Beowulf, the Geatish prince who battled Grendel to rescue the kingdom of Denmark. Check out our improvised retellings.

History Theme Day: Anglo-Saxons and Vikings

Year 4 kicked off this term’s History topic with an Anglo-Saxon and Viking theme day. We minted coins, wrote in runes, wove shields and feasted on roasted parsnips, rye bread and mead.

Feeling uncertain about Year 4? Well, as Bowie says, I promise it won't be boring!

If you ever have any questions, please email me at rtrotman@brentryprimaryschool.org.uk

In term 5, Bowie Class enjoyed whipping up some healthy muffins using seasonal ingredients. We adapted recipes for existing products to create our own instructions for tasty treats to share with our families. Here we are baking:

In Bowie Class, we cheer when we see Maths on the timetable and would like to share some of the fun we have been having. Here, we are using Dienes to create Place Value Towers and Geoboards to explore area. Oh, and ask us about commutativity and the Teeny Weeny 'Wounding Bunny Wabbit...

Bowie Class have been studying art involving insects. Like Louise Bourgeois and Jennifer Angus - artists who have inspired us this term - our artwork has been influenced by colours, patterns and textures which appear in nature. A key fact we have learned is that all insects have 6 legs and 3 boy parts: head, thorax and abdomen. Can you spot these features in our models?

Congratulations, Bowie Class, on earning your CREST Superstar Awards!

To kick off our return from remote learning, Bowie Class celebrated British Science Week by attempting to earn our CREST Superstar awards in just one week! We were challenged to complete eight experiments across five days. We created and tested rafts, developed an outdoor gym, recycled our own paper, created a fingerprint database and even investigated a crime using chromatography! Our favourite activity involved making bug hotels (or bird restaurants!) using recycled water bottles and bamboo. We sent our findings to the scientists at CREST and have been awarded our Superstar certificates and badges.