Swimming First Day Back

Advance warning!  There will be a swimming lesson on the first Wednesday (9th January) after the holidays.  The year 4 team will meet you at the swimming pool as usual.

Merry Christmas

We have had a wonderful party day and ate lots of lovely food.  We hope you all enjoy your Christmas break and have a much deserved, restful holiday after such a busy term.  Many thanks for all of your lovely Christmas gifts, they are all very much appreciated!  See you all on January 9th 2013!

Today's RE lesson

Year 4 learnt about the Hindu festival of colours, Holi. We watched some extraordinary videos of crowds hurling brightly coloured powders into the air and found out the legend behind the festival. Miss Boyce kindly volunteered to be showered but some of the pots were rather poorly aimed and backfired! The festival celebrates the victory of good over evil.

 

Christmas Party

Please remember to bring your party food in on Friday (21st December) instead of a packed lunch or hot dinner!  If you haven't signed up, the list of food already promised is in the cloakroom.

Top five fun ICT games

The children have been researching their favourite ICT games to play over the Christmas holidays.  The final top 5 were:
1st) Super Santa Kicker

http://www.coolmath-games.com/holiday-Christmas-games-puzzles/super-santa-kicker-2/index.html

2nd) Run

http://www.coolmath-games.com/0-run/index.html

3rd) Balloon Tower Defence

http://www.coolmath-games.com/0-bloons-tower-defense-3/index.html

4th) Fireboy Watergirl

http://www.coolmath-games.com/0-fireboy-watergirl-2-light-temple/index.html

Joint 5th) B-cubed and Papas

http://www.coolmath-games.com/0-b-cubed/index.html

http://www.coolmath-games.com/0-papas-wingeria/index.html


We hope you have fun with these over the holidays!

Wonderful Performance

I would like to thank all of the parents for sending in such wonderful costumes for the children for this year's production of Snow White.  The children looked a picture and their singing and acting was fantastic today.  Don't forget to come and see the show at 11am tomorrow (Wednesday 19th December) or on Thursday 20th December at the same time if you haven't already!  (Or come again to see some different children taking the lead roles).

No Swimming this Wednesday

Due to our Christmas Performances, there will be no swimming this Wednesday 19th December.  Children should be dropped off at school as usual.

Home learning 14th December 2012

I have given the children extra time to complete Mr Farrington's home learning activity on the Kumbh Mela.  Please return your reports to Mr Farrington before Friday.

Christmas Excitement Charts

Can you track your Christmas EXCITEMENT Levels? What about your friends and family's Christmas EXCITEMENT levels? What about Arthur Christmas's EXCITEMENT level?

http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/createagraph/

This website can help you put your data into a graph at the end of a weekend tracking EXCITEMENT Levels. It would be fantastic to see how well you can collect, record, graph and analyse data.

What was the MODE level of excitement on Friday?

How many people did you ask? Total: ?

Which type of graph shows your data best? Bar Chart, Pie Chart, Line Graph?

Home learning for RE

Year 4 have been asked to write a newspaper report on the Hindu festival of Kumbh Mela. To help, they have brought home an article about this amazing festival after watching some short videos in our RE lesson. The newspaper report should include the 5 Ws:
who, where, when, why and what?

I would like to see the completed reports at next week's RE lesson on Tuesday.

Carol Singing at Avenue House

This Thursday afternoon 24 children from year 4 will be walking up to Avenue House Nursing Home to entertain the residents with a number of songs from our Christmas Play and a few Christmas Carols.  Please ensure your child has a warm coat for the walk there and back.

The young apprentice challenge - the results

The results of the challenge are listed below...
Home Guard group made £3.50 for POWSA and had 1 peg left, when costings are taken into account they would have earned £1.64.
Fire Wardens group made £5.00 for POWSA and had 8 pegs left, when costings are taken into account they would have earned £2.70.
ARP Wardens group made £6.30 for POWSA and had 3 pegs left, when costings are taken into account they would have earned £3.19.
Evacuee group made £5.40 for POWSA and had 4 pegs left, when costings are taken into account they would have earned £1.92.
Secret service group made £4.50 for POWSA and had 9 pegs left, when costings are taken into account they would have earned £2.26.
Dig for Victory group made £8.50 for POWSA and had 1 peg left, when costings are taken into account they would have earned £6.46.

In conclusion...
I don't know whether the successful groups earnings were down to pricing strategy or generous parents spending their money on their children's work, but it did mean that year 4 raised over £33 for POWSA!  Well done year 4!
and.....
as a result....
NOBODY IS FIRED!

The Apprentice Challenge

Today the children made their fridge magnet pegs from their designs.  They kept track of the amount of money that they had spent in making each one and decided how much they would sell them for at the Christmas Fayre.  The children worked collaboratively and cooperated well in their teams.  Keep your eyes peeled over the weekend for the winning team.  Who could have made the most profit?

Home Learning 7th December

This week I have included some maths sheets relating to measuring length. These sheets vary in difficulty, the easiest is at the front and the hardest at the back.  Please don't feel your child needs to do them all as the latter ones are quite challenging.

Please could you also remember to learn your lines for the Christmas Play and ensure you have your costume in a named plastic bag by Wednesday?

I have also attached a list of Christmas words for spelling, we will not be checking all of these, but I thought it might be interesting to see which words the could spell.  I've noticed a few suspicious spellings of Christmas already this year!!

Reminder for instrumentalists

 

Children who learn musical instruments are performing in Monday’s assembly beginning at 10am. They need to remember their instrument and music and bring this into assembly with them.

If you would like to come and watch then please enter the school via the school office, you’re more than welcome! Please remember though it is a normal school assembly and not a polished performance!

Mrs Mewett

POWSA Christmas Fair this Friday!

We are desperate for volunteers to help at the fair this Friday! Please let us know if you can help at any time during the afternoon to help setup or after school for running a stall. There is a form on the white board by the school office or you could email us to let us know - powsa@hotmail.co.uk

Thanks - Jon

The right of all children to participate

Today Year 4 have been learning about children whose families make bricks to build the new houses in Bangalore. We have been looking at which rights are denied these children and we have written a letter to Dr Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister of India.

Super class assembly

Well done year 4, as super effort in your class assembly today!  Lots of people have asked me to pass on how good they thought you were!

Nice to be back!

I’ve had a lovely first week back after my maternity leave. The children have actually remembered me (!?) and I’ve enjoyed visiting all classes, getting to know children who have since joined the school.

 Up to Christmas you will see me in school everyday (apart from Tuesday) and I will be working with all classes getting ready for The Prince of Wales School two Christmas performances!

 We are also holding Christmas Carols in the School Hall on Thursday 20^th December at 3pm, all are welcome. If you do play a musical instrument please bring along and join the parent/ staff group for the occasion!

 

My office is in the foyer so if you do wish to come and see me, please do!

 

Mrs Mewett (Deputy Head)

 

Spellings 30th November

We haven't had time this week to do our usual spelling check, so last week's spellings will roll onto next Friday 7th December.

Christmas Play - costume

This year we will be performing Snow White and The Seven Jockeys as our Christmas production.  Each child has a part and will need to learn their words off by heart as well as the songs, of course we will be practicing these in school, but the children are also keen to take the words home to learn. 

In addition to this please can we ask you to help us ensure each child has a costume to wear?  We would need these to be in school no later than Wednesday 12^th December.  Listed below are the roles and some ideas about what your child will need.

The King  - Smart clothes with a sash.  We have a crown and cloak in school.

The Queen – Best dress.  We have a crown and cloak in school.

Palace Attendants – White shirt and dark trousers.  A red sash and sword if possible.

Prospective Queens – Best dresses or a pretty sari.  We will be making masks for the masquerade ball.

Snow-White – A knee length dress or skirt and blouse and an apron.

Mirror – A t-shirt and leggings (light coloured if possible) to wear under the mirror costume we have in school.

Huntsman – Trousers and jacket in brown or green with a country style hat if possible.  A toy or home made dagger for his belt. (Think Ray Mears)

Trees – Costumes in shades of green and brown.  T-shirt and leggings, or leotards are most suitable to allow movement.  You could attach paper leaves.

Jockeys (Seven dwarfs) – Colourful T-shirt with leggings, jodhpurs or tight fitting trousers.  Boots and a riding hat if possible.  We have tunics at school for the Jockeys to wear over the top.

Other Jockeys – Colourful T-shirt with leggings, jodhpurs or tight fitting trousers.  Boots and a riding hat if possible.  Any hobby horses gratefully received.

Race Track Commentators / Bookies – Shirt and fancy tie or a jacket.  Maybe a trilby hat.

Race Goers – Smart clothes with something to wave during the races:  A hat, umbrella or handkerchief.

If you have any problems finding a costume, please let us know as we may be able to borrow something or find something suitable in school. 

Many thanks for your help.

Additionally for children playing:  Snow-White, The Queen, The King, The Mirror and The Huntsman.

As your children have undoubtedly told you, they have been chosen to take on these parts.  There are two children for each of these roles.  Your child will be acting the role for two of the four performances including the dress rehearsal.  I need to know and arrange which days you are able to attend so that your child can be taking the role on that day.  If you are flexible please also let me know.  Unfortunately this will mean that only one of the children chosen for each role will appear in the school produced DVD, but you are more than welcome to video the performance yourselves to use for personal use only.  I will confirm the days for each child as soon as possible. 

Plea to all parents!

 A plea to parents!



On Thursday 20th December at 3pm in the school hall the children invite you to join them to celebrate Christmas and sing carols. Last year it was very successful, particularly as the music was performed by our talented parents!

A couple of parents have offered their musical skills so far for this year; we have a pianist and a recorder player but would LOVE to have more parents playing. PLEASE share your skills and let Mrs Mewett know if you can come and play.


Thank you!

Christmas Play

This year we have finally decided to perform Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs as our Christmas production.  As it is based on Roald Dahl's revolting rhyme it has a little bit of a twist!  Children have been auditioning for parts over the last week and we have been pleasantly surprised at how enthusiastic everyone is!  I have had the difficult job this week of choosing the roles for individual children.  All will be involved with acting and singing and some children will also have narration parts and dances to learn. 

I will be giving out parts by the end of the week once we have got our class assembly out of the way.  Also, please keep your eyes open for blogs and letters about costumes needed.

This week's learning - 26th November

Costume call

Please remember to wear, or bring in your evacuee costume for the last time this Friday 30th November.

Home learning 23rd November

This week I would like you to prepare for our class assembly by reading your lines.  (You don’t have to learn them, but please make sure you can read them fluently).  Collect together your evacuee costume (for the last time!) and bring it into school to wear during our assembly on Friday 30^th November.  Read through the Evacuate song on the back of the sheet and make sure you know the words and last but not least invite as many people as you can to come and watch.  Our assembly is Friday 30^th November 2012 at 9.20am.

POWSA Christmas Fair

It's that time of year already. Here at POWSA HQ we are busy planning and organising this years annual festive family fun evening. So get out your diaries and calenders and put a BIG RED CIRCLE around Friday 7th December, after school onwards. There will be many an opportunity to play games, have your face painted, win at a tombola and buy those last minute gifts, along with your chance to win some amazing raffle prizes (more details to follow). Bring your friends and family for a fantastically fun afternoon, the chance to get in the festive mood and help raise money for our fantastic school.

All things Dorchester WANTED!

Next week, we will be looking at the similarities and difference's between types of text's around our report writing on Dorchester.

On Monday, we will be looking at newspapers, leaflets, websites, stories, poems.... anything Dorchester.

 

Miss Boyce would be very grateful if Year 4's could find and bring in some Dorchester related materials.

 

E.g. Dorset Echo Articles, Roman Town House Leaflets, Poems about Maiden Castle etc.

This week's learning

This week's spellings - 16th November

Compass Directions

This week we are learning all about directions and how we use a compass to help make precise directions.
So far, we have used our compasses to direct us around the playground. 






We used the points :
N NE E SE S SW W NW    to help guide our movements.

Can you use compass directions on your way to school? How else could you use your compass skills?

It's easy to play lots of direction games once you have found North on a compass or a map.

Shapes and Angles - Homelearning

This week in Maths we have been looking at position and symmetry of shape and next week we will be looking at angle and direction.  So this week's homework is some shape worksheets, please return them by next Friday.

Tag Rugby at DRFC

On Wednesday a team of POW Year 3 & 4's headed up to Dorchester RFC to take part in Tag Rugby Skills and Matches against other local first schools.

The team had a fantastic time and looked very promising in the skills. With a rest for the first match the team perfected their Haka.

Here is a video of the All Blacks vs. Tonga showing us how they do the Haka.

Psyched up and ready to go POW played two fantastic games. We lost one match and drew the next but throughout worked very well as a team and represented POW brilliantly!

We even managed to watch Thomas Hardy's score some tries in their Rugby match against Poole Harbour as we returned back to school.

 

We had a great afternoon and are looking forward to playing more Tag Rugby in the future, as well as watching Autumn Internationals and the Six Nation's. Though, Miss Boyce is Welsh so we can look forward to some animated post match analysis in school when England play Wales on  16/03/13.

Spellings 9th November

Class Assembly

We will be presenting our class assembly on Friday 30th November.  We look forward to seeing you all from 9:20 in the school hall.

A great example

I wanted to let everyone know what a wonderful time we had when we visited Dorchester last week.  The children were wonderfully behaved in all the activities we took part in, and believe me we had a very busy day!  From taking part in the church service, including some wonderful reading of the lost sheep parable, to investigating South Street to locate some interesting photos.  From placing our poppy memorial to asking lots of brilliant questions at The Keep Museum.  We had a wonderful, spiritual and educational day.  Well done year 4.

Sporting Events

Over the coming weeks the children in year 4 are involved in taking part in some workshops led by Dorchester Schools Sports Partnership.  Some of the children will be taking part in a Rugby session held at the Rugby club on Wednesday 14th November, others have been involved in marshaling the younger children's multi-skills event held at our school and next week some children will be invited to St Osmunds school to take part in a Basketball workshop on Tuesday 20th October.  Please keep your eyes peeled for letters giving details if your child has been chosen to take part.

Shiva Lord of the dance

Today in RE we have been looking at a statue of Shiva as "Lord of the dance". Why not do a google images search and see what you can find out before next week's lesson when we shall be continuing to look at the symbols in Hindu belief.

Are you wondering how long until Christmas?

Customize Countdown Timer

Trip Reminder

Year 4 are off to look around Dorchester tomorrow ready for our Topic work.

Please remember to bring a packed lunch.

You will need to be in school uniform but with comfy sensible shoes for walking and a coat to keep you warm and dry.

If you haven't returned the permission slip yet please see Miss Johnson in the morning.

Looking forward to the trip. See you in the morning Year 4!

RE Home Learning

Today we learnt about the Hindu belief in astrology and the influence of the stars. I have asked the children to find some horoscopes in newspapers and find out what the stars are saying about them!

Lava Lamp Learning

In Science today we looked at lava lamps and how the materials interacted inside the lamp. Mrs Bourne then showed us how to make a lava lamp.

Here are the instructions so you can make your own:

You will need:

An empty bottle
Vegetable oil
Water
Food colouring (optional)
Alca Seltzer tablets


1) Pour some water into the bottle, add a few drops of food colouring in to give your lamp colour.
2) Fill the rest of the bottle up with the vegetable oil.
3) Add a few Alka Seltzer tablets.
4) Put on the lid.
5) Watch the lava lamp and discuss the science going on inside.

Have fun experimenting!

Fantastic Home Learning

Before the holidays I set the children a challenge of making something new from something old.  I have been amazed by the results!  I think we could open a shop!  Look out young apprentices I think we have some up and coming business stars!

Invitation to Church Service

As you know, part of next week's trip to Dorchester will involve the children taking part in a church service at St Peter's church in Dorchester.  We have been invited by Revd Vicky Thurtell to take part in the service by sitting in the choir stalls to give us a different perspective on a church service.  We will also be involved in doing some readings as well as having some squash and biscuits afterwards.  If there are any parents not helping on the trip, but who would like to take part in the service, you are more than welcome to attend.  The service will run from 10am until 10.40am on Thursday 8th November and you are more than welcome to come for tea / coffee and a biscuit afterwards!

Trip to Dorchester

We will be off to Dorchester on Thursday 8th November.  Please ensure your child has a warm, waterproof coat for the day and brings plenty to eat and drink whilst we are away from school.  We've got lots of interesting and interactive things planned in the day including; taking part in a church service at St Peter's Church, taking part in the South Street Challenge where the children will be identifying locations through photo orienteering and visiting the Keep Military Museum to find evidence of our local military history.  It should be a fun packed day!

Back to school - New Topic

We will be moving away from the theme of world war II this half term and we will begin to look at our new topic of Dorchester.  We will begin by looking at Dorchester's connections to the Second World War and move into Dorchester today.  We will welcome Mr Ray on Friday 9th November who is coming to talk about his historical knowledge of the war and how it relates to our locality.  If there is anybody else who has connections to local history or who has some interesting tales to tell about Dorchester and the surrounding area we would love you to come in and share them.  Please see a member of the year 4 team.

Some research please!

I would like the Year 4 children to see what they can find out about SAFFRON and how it is used by Hindus! Why is it the most expensive thing in the world?

SCHOOL NURSE TOMORROW

The School Nurse will be running a drop in from 8:45am tomorrow morning (Monday 22nd October). Want to know more about what the School Nurse does please see this useful web link from Dorset HealthCare University NHS Trust: http://www.dorsethealthcare.nhs.uk/services/children-and-families/school-nursing-dorset.htm

Spellings 19th October 2012

Home Learning 19th October 2012

Home learning 19^th October 2012

As you know during WW2 people were encouraged to reuse and recycle!  I would like you to get creative, what could you create out of old junk?  During next week and over the holidays use anything that would otherwise be thrown away to make something new.  You can either bring your creation in, or you could take a photo and bring that in instead.  Be as individual as you can!  I look forward to seeing the results.

POWSA Blog - Non ICT Day

I have this little sister Lola, she is small and very funny.  Next Wednesday (the 24^th of October) will be a non-ICT day.  That means all the children, including Lola and all the teachers cannot use computers or other technology in school! There will be no blogging, no typing, no googling, no surfing. There will certainly be no interactive white boarding, no tweeting, no ipadding, no videoing and certainly no tomatoes! Lola is looking forward to catching out her teachers, if they use some ICT, they have to pay a 50p fine!  Hopefully all the children will help Lola and raise funds for the school. Thank you - Charlie (and the POWSA Committee) - PS donations to POWSA for school equipment will be welcomed (as always!!)

POWSA Blog - Book Fair!

Just a quick reminder that the scholastic book fair starts today.  The books are available to browse by both children and parents after school Wed-Mon and at the parents evening tonight. Why not stock up on a few Christmas presents, or introduce your kids to another fantastic author? Once our target has been reached, the school receive 60% of the profit back to spend on books for school.  This has proven a very profitable venture in the past and we hope to replicate the success again this year!

Our morning with Mr. Spracklen

This morning we had the unexpected pleasure of a morning with Mr. Spracklen (I know... how lucky is that!) - We began our morning by playing an iPad game called Futaba. Futaba is a 4 player game designed for children. This outrageously fun word quiz game can be used at home or in the classroom as a entertaining way to build language skills. You can download this for yourself at: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/word-games-for-kids-futaba/id426517722?mt=8. After break, we had a go on Google Sketch-Up in I.C.T. This was the first time Year 4 has used Google Sketch-Up and I was amazed (truly amazed!) with how quickly Year 4 picked up using this professional application. We followed a number of instructional videos (see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqcL-xPC-Ys&feature=relmfu and http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_465005&feature=iv&src_vid=xqcL-xPC-Ys&v=0MXharjbIdY) to get us started and then we were off! We all managed to create something with a focus on furniture and WWII items with some of us making chairs, sofas and even a complete living room! If you want to have a go with Google Sketch-Up at home you can download it for free at: http://www.sketchup.com/intl/en/download/index2.html

Spellings - 12th October 2012