Laurel

Welcome to Laurel Class

Laurel Class is taught by Miss Beswick and Mr Smith.

Welcome to Laurel's class page. Keep checking back for regular updates on what we have been up to in class.

We won GOLD! - 27.05.2022
 

This week, Laurel have won the gold attendance cup! What a fantastic way to end the half term. Well done Laurel!

English - week commencing 23.05.2022

Adventure stories

Over the past two weeks, the children in year 4 have been writing their own adventure stories. We have explored adventurous and exciting vocabulary, building tension and suspense and creating atmosphere. ALL of their stories were incredible and they are very rightly proud of their work.

After finishing our drafts, we turned our stories into books, complete with front covers and blurbs!

Science - 09.05.2022

MRS NERG

In science, we have just started our new topic ‘living things and their habitats’. In our first lesson, we have explored living processes using the MRS NERG trick. Have a look at some of our posters below to find out more!

Geography - 06.05.2022

Map of Europe

The children have been working hard as part of a group, this week, in order to create their own maps of Europe. The children had to cut out each of the countries, work out which part each country was and then piece it together to make their maps. As you can imagine, this was really complicated and took a lot of team work and perseverance!

Cricket experience - 28.04.2022

Today, we had a cricket experience session with a cricket coach. The children played some throwing and catching games to warm up, before having a go at a few games of cricket. The children did brilliantly well and they picked up on the rules quickly.

European Explorers - 27.04.2022

Topic Launch Day

Today we have launched our new topic 'European Explorers' with an exciting Topic Launch Day.

The children arrived in the morning with their luggage and were given an envelope containing their passport (complete with passport photo); their own plane ticket and a luggage tag. We then all gathered on the plane (the hall) and flew off to different destinations around Europe. 

During the day, the children visited Spain, where they tried chorizo; Poland where they learnt all about the Polish culture; Germany, where they learnt how to say different colours in German and France, where they built spaghetti Eiffel Towers (and even had the chance to try Escargot!). In the afternoon, we gathered back together to learn about Italy and we finished our day by making pizzas.

We had a fantastic day and the children (and adults) learnt lots of new facts about European countries!

English - 24.03.2022

This week in English, we have been writing our own Kenning poems. Have a look at some examples of out brilliant work below.

Science Week STEM! - 18.03.2022

Today in year 4 we had a very exciting visit from Karen and Kate who are civil engineers. They brought along with them a Lego model of Oxford. The children had to use Lego blocks as sandbags to help protect the buildings and areas that the children considered to be the most important. The city’s river was then flooded and we saw how well the children’s flood defences had worked. They were given points depending on how well they protected the city. 
 

It was a brilliant day and the children worked great as part of a team. Well done!

Science Week, day one! - 14.03.2022

Today marks the start of British Science Week and we began the week by taking part in Mars Hour. This is an hour, celebrated by children across the country, with a focus on all things Mars related.

We started by discovering more about the Red Planet and we watched a video where we learnt that a huge parachute was used to slow the descent of the Mars Curiosity Rover. We were given the challenge of creating a parachute that could carry cubes safely and slowly to the ground.

The children worked brilliantly and we heard lots of technical vocabulary being used, as well as sensible discussions about how to make improvements and modifications.

We did it! - 11.03.2022

After being in 4th place for numerous weeks, Laurel have finally made it to 3rd place and won the bronze attendance cup for the week! Well done to all of the children in Laurel. Next stop...silver!

A debate! - 09.03.2022

In English this week, we have been researching for and planning a debate. We were given the sentence “PE should be taught every day in school” and the children were split into two teams ‘for’ and ‘against’. They used computers to research the benefits of exercising and decided whether each fact supported or opposed their views.

Today, the children took part in a formal debate. We had a group of three opposers and three supporters. Each child shared their views sensibly and with well thought-out ideas. We then “opened to the floor” and other children were given the chance to share their views. 
 

Finally, we held an anonymous vote with the opposing side narrowly winning over the supporters. 

The Digestive System - 07.03.2022

Today in science, we carried out an exciting (and slightly gross) investigation, exploring the main organs in the digestive system and their functions. We used bananas and crackers to represent food and added these to a sandwich bag (acting as a stomach). To this, we added orange juice (stomach acid) and water (saliva). We mushed up the food, just like our stomach does. From here, we poured the mixture into a sock (intestines) to explore how water and nutrients are taken out of the intestines.

The children thoroughly enjoyed creating their own digestive systems and learnt a lot!

World Book Day - 04.03.2022

We have had a brilliant day in school, celebrating World Book Day. We have shared some of our favourite books, designed our own book covers and written a character description. 
 

There were some excellent costumes in Laurel Class too, with everything from dinosaurs to Mary Poppins! 

Topic Launch Day - 02.03.2022

Today, we launched our new topic 'healthy me' with a fun-filled day of cooking. The children prepared and cooked ingredients for their own chicken fajitas. They thought about the different food groups involved in the fajita and what makes something healthy or unhealthy. 

28.02.2022

Science - To identify the main organs in the body

Today, we started our new Science topic 'Animals including humans'. As part of this, we will be exploring the different organs that make up the digestive system, the names and functions of our different teeth and we will create food chains.

In today's lesson, we activated prior learning by getting the children to write the names and draw pictures of the different organs in our body, on to an outline of someone. 

The children did a brilliant job at this and could already name many of the main organs!

Roman banquet! 22.10.2021
 

Today we concluded our topic ‘The Romans in Britain’ with our Roman banquet! We started the day by creating our own bread rolls. We measured the ingredients and worked as a team to mix and knead the dough. After that, we created burgers with meat, herbs and spices. In the afternoon, we got to taste our delicious creations, as well as a few other Roman foods, like figs, dates, grapes, ham and celery. We also had some tasty cranberry juice to finish.

what a brilliant day we’ve had!

Hockey! - 15.10.2021

skill: To refine passing skills

This week in hockey, the children continued to work on their passing skills, they worked as part of a team to see how many passes they could get in a set time. They also used these skills in a game, in order to score goals for their team.

World Space Week - 04.10.2021

This week in year four we have been celebrating World Space Week by taking part in a BBC Teach live lesson. During this, we invented our own Lunar rovers, thought about all of the man made and natural objects in space AND we tested our knowledge of the planets in our solar system. It was lots of fun and great to see real life scientists carrying out experiments. 

The Romans in Britain! - 20.09.2021

Topic Launch afternoon

This afternoon, we have launched our brand new topic called 'The Romans in Britain'. We talked about how the Romans used to create art through mosaics. The children then worked as teams in order to create giant collages of our very own Roman soldier, Girafficus!

Jigsaw PSHE

Skill: To work as a team

This year at KPS, we are learning PSHE through the Jigsaw programme of learning. During these lessons, we will be thinking of ways to work as part of team, as well as thinking about and discussing a range of different topics. We will also be practising moments of meditation in order to keep us calm. 

During our first Jigsaw session, we worked together as a whole Year 4 team in order to pass a ball around a circle, using only our legs. We also couldn't let the ball touch the floor. It involved lots of team work and good communication.