Thursday 30th June'22

Haven Banks Outdoor 

The children had an amazing day with three different activities at Haven Banks, Exeter. They were quickly put to the test by the challenge of scaling the climbing walls. Despite some initial nervous moments, many children reached the top of different parts of the wall. There was great excitement as they explored the caving systems. They were able to experience the tight areas where they had to navigate the different ups and downs of the artificial cave system. Following lunch, it was on to the kayaking. Some children paired up and made sure they kept in time with each other when rowing! Others ventured out onto the water by themselves and certainly caused a splash! Lots of smiles and some wet children but they certainly learnt lots and had great fun!

Monday 27th June '22

Anglo-Saxon and Viking Day

To complete their work on the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings in Britain, the children enjoyed different workshops during the day. They were able to handle different tools, weapons and even feel different animal fur that people would have had during that period. Everyone was able to examine different weapons including arrows and swords, feeling the weight of them. They were particularly surprised by the weight of a soldier's chainmail. The children were able to experience blowing through large cow horns to signal signs of battle or orders to their soldiers. They did particularly enjoy reenacting the Battle of Stamford Bridge, an event they had recently written a newspaper report on. 

Term 5

It's been a busy term! The children have really enjoyed learning all about how the Anglo-Saxons came to Britain and the many different challenges to power during this period. The particular thing that I think the children found interesting has been how Britain has evolved with many different cultures and influences from different groups of people such as the Vikings. The children certainly enjoyed reading 'Arthur and the Golden Rope' and have written some wonderful quest stories of their own.

To mark the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, the children have explored Kurt Schwitters, who is well-known for his different artworks using Collage. Using his ideas, the children then explored Collage by collaging the Union Flag by using variations of the three colours and royal images. This culminated in producing a whole-class flag using different fabric pieces to create the Union Flag. 

For our Science this term, the children have been focussing on Electricity. To begin with the children investigated different appliances. They explored how electrical circuits can be made; identifying the different components and finding complete and incomplete circuits. Using their predictions skills, the investigated different everyday objects to see whether they were conductors or insulators. 

Wednesday 6th March '22

We have had a busy few weeks learning all about the Romans. We have spent some time exploring life in Ancient Rome including the way the houses were built and how they decorated their houses with beautiful mosaics using tesserae tiles. As well as this, we have focussed on the two failed attempts made by Julius Caesar to invade Britain in 55BC and 54BC. The children then wrote their own biography on Julius Caesar.

When looking at mosaics, the children designed their, which they then created using a printing technique. We then went on to use their prints for page borders and a border to our display. 

In our Science work, the children have been learning about the digestive system. They have enjoyed learning how each part has a vital role in processing the food we eat. I think they particularly enjoyed making Roman poo and dissecting it, where they found olive stones, stones, fish bones and worms! I addition to this, the children examined how sugar from sugary drinks can damage our teeth and cause decay. They used egg shells and different drinks in a comparative test to observe the effect over a week.

Term 3

It has been a very exciting term in 4JS. Our topic, 'Can we change life on Earth?' has really ignited our enthusiasm to make a difference to help reduce Climate Change. Our work on flooding, both locally and internationally, has shown that the world is increasing in temperature all the time and if we can make a small difference to how we live our lives, we can preserve the world for future generations. 

In our learning, we have recapped our knowledge on rivers including the River Exe. Then we have studied how coastal erosion and how flooded has affected Starcross. We discovered that our school is at a low risk of flooding mainly from surface flooding. We have since planned how we can prepare for a flood and how we could manage our local environment to prevent flooding from damaging houses. 

Looking into our local environment further, we set about recording different living things on our school site. With this knowledge, we have created our own data branches through classification. Does it have wings? Does it have a trunk? Does it have two legs?

On Monday 31st January, we were lucky to welcome 'Planet and People' to work with us for the morning. We explored how our voice against Climate Change can really make a difference. We able to identify different ways we could have an impact on reducing Climate Change and how we could encourage others to live more environmentally friendly. This culminated in writing a letter to a world letter urging them to support everyone's efforts in reducing Climate Change. 

Friday 17th December '21

What a wonderful term we have had in 4JS! I think the children have particularly enjoyed all our work on volcanoes. When the children sculpted their on volcanoes, it was lovely to hear them discussing the different features of their chosen volcano; being able to name location, height and tectonic plate position!

The children sang beautifully during our church service on Friday 10th December, which was wonderfully introduced by our team of Year 4 readers. It was lovely to hear Christmas carols inside a church again after all this time. 

In other areas, the children have been learning how to play a series of pieces using the glockenspiels, which has sounded beautifully, even more so at this time of year. Throughout this term, the children have developed their understanding of the internet including the use of routers, data bases and web browsers. We also celebrated our recent work on Italy by developing our cutting and chopping skills by making salsa for bruschetta bread. 

Well done to all the children of 4JS.

I would like to wish everyone a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

See you all in January,

Mr Souch

We are getting closer to Christmas everyday and we have still been learning lots of different things.  As you will have heard from your children, we are looking forward to our church service and have even recorded our own version of Silent Night.

Alongside all this, we are continuing with our learning on Volcanoes. Our focus has been on Mount Vesuvius and Mount Etna - as part of our Autumn Term learning on U.K. v Italy.  This week we have finished our stories on "Escape from Mascali" inspired by the historical story Escape from Pompeii by Christina Balit.  We will then focus our learning on creating a chronological report of the events in Pompeii from 24th-25th August 79AD.

In our Maths work, we are continuing our learning to calculate the perimeter using our understanding of the properties of shape and mental addition to help us.  Our computing learning is about the internet and computer networks as well as staying safe on the internet.

We look forward to sharing some more photos of our learning soon!

Wednesday 20th October 2021

Over the last few weeks, 4JS have been learning all about different Italian rivers to support our understanding of comparing the UK with Italy. The children firstly explored our local river, The River Exe and were excited to learn about its source in Simonsbath on Exmoor. and where its mouth was. They also were able to identify different tributaries along its course. Following that, the children explored different rivers across the United Kingdom. 

The children were excited to examine the map of Italy and discover lots of different rivers, mapping them on their map of Italy. The Po River is the largest river and runs through many major cities and towns. The children found that many smaller rivers were in fact tributaries of the Po River. 

Whilst looking at rivers this term, we are reading The Wind in the Willows as our class text, which the children are loving hearing all about the adventures of Rat, Mole and others.

This week during our RE session, the children enjoyed exploring artwork related to our learning. 

4JS have been focussing on States of Matter for Science. We have discovered all about particle formation for solids, liquids and gases. Our investigation into the weight of gas in different fizzy drinks saw us making predictions and carefully recording our results. I think all the children particularly enjoyed learning about the reversible changes involved in melting chocolate finding the optimum temperature for this. We have now moved on to understanding the processes involved with the states of water. 

Our story writing is improving all the time with a particular focus on magical words. We have been engaging the reader with using high level expanded noun phrases and appropriate prepositional phrases. 

In our Maths work, we have been focussing on understanding the place value of 4 digit numbers, which has extended into numbers up 10,000! We are now exploring negative numbers including temperature and sea level.

In our French work we are becoming great at recalling numbers. In our Music work, we are particularly enjoying learning different dance moves to 'Mamma Mia!'

Welcome to 4JS Class!

Friday 10th September 2021

My name is Mr Souch and I am teaching 4JS this year. I am a new teacher to Castle Primary School and I am very much looking forward to the year ahead.  I originally grew up in Devon, living locally to Exeter and following some time living and teaching in Wiltshire, I have returned to this wonderful county!

I love teaching and inspiring young minds, believing learning is a life-long process. Learning can truly take us places! My favourite subjects are History and Maths. Life can be full of adventures and many challenges. The current challenge I have set myself is to complete the London Marathon in October for a charity called Whizz Kids.  

Our class has 21 pupils and we are very lucky to have the support of both Mrs Davies and Mrs Croaker as our teaching assistants. We have a fun-packed year ahead with all the different topics we have planned. We have had a great start to the new year with the children settling well on their return to school. It is wonderful to be able to get back to some kind of normality. As well as some getting to each other activities, this week we have been recapping some areas of Place Value in Maths and been covering some story telling activities in our English work. We have also starting learning some of the dance moves and lyrics to ABBA’s ‘Mammia Mia!

Our PE days will be Monday and Thursday but we would encourage the children to leave their PE kits in school.

Please visit our class page on the school website for regular updates.

If you have any questions, you can use our class email below:

y4-js@the-castle-primary.devon.sch.uk

Mr Souch