This half term we will be delving into the deep dark history of the Roman Invasion in 43 AD. During this adventure we meet a friendly storyteller who helps us understand the life of Romans and what their influence was on modern day Britain. 

We went into the hall this morning to launch our new adventure 'Roman Invasion' we met two walkers on a hike in Northumberland. One of them was very unimpressed with the cold, windy weather however when they met an old story teller from Northumberland she was willing to give Northumberland a chance to impress her. The story teller told us all about Hadrian's Wall and how it is a very important part of Roman history.

In our writing this week we have been writing a story about a Roman soldier we had to break it down into paragraphs and think about our build up, problem and solution as when as the conclusion. We've used front adverbial, speech, expanded noun phases and commas in a list as well as many other features. 

Geography - Using atlases and maps to locate Italy.

We used our knowledge of continents to locate which continent Italy was in. We then used the contents page of the atlas to locate Italy. We were then able to use the map of Italy to gather facts.

Science - Understanding the properties of solids and liquids.

In Science today we had to explore different states of matter.  We then sorted the properties of solids and liquids and were then able to use these facts to classify whether an object was a solid or a liquid. 

In guided reading this week we have been reading more chapters of Varjak Paw by S.F Said. We have been visualising and connecting with the text to develop our reading and further understand the text. We've created freeze frames to demonstrate how the authors choice of words helps us build a picture in our mind. We've debated reasons for and against the characters moving out of their current home and we've imagined life in the shoes of the main character Varjak.

Science Week

This week we will be carrying out a lot of scientific investigations as part of our States of Matter topic. Today we explored 'gas'. Everything on earth is either a solid, liquid or gas. Gas exists in the smallest most microscopic spaces. We looked for signs of gas in sponges, sand, rocks and lemonade. 

We started the week by looking at an example of an explanation text and finding the key features before carrying out our own research on life in Ancient Rome. We then started to write our own explanation text with an introductory paragraph, subheadings and technical vocabulary.

We used our understanding of the key features of an explanation text to carry out a short edit.

Science - Changes in states of matter.

We talked about what happens when states of matter change and what causes the change. We carried out investigations including applying heat to liquids and freezing liquids. We concluded that the temperature impacts the state of matter. Changes occur as the temperature changes. We watched a puddle evaporate and ice cubes melt. We recorded the temperature in which changes in state happen in degrees celcius. 

We used role play to imitate the movement of particles in different states of matter. We became tightly packed when acting as a solid. As the temperature increased the solid liquified and the particles stated to move more freely. As the temperature continued to increase the liquid stated to evaporate and turned into a gas. The particles were spread out and moving free.

This week in history we have been learning how the Romans influenced modern day life. One of those influences was the roman road. The children have had a go at using various materials to understand how roman roads were made. We created a cross section of the road starting from the soil foundations and building up to the larger pieces of slate.

In our writing this week we have been looking at the key features of a leaflet. We then made our own leaflets about Roman Baths after carrying out research. Have a look at some of our brilliant work. 

Some of the features we have used include;

- subheadings

- paragraphs

- punctuating speech

- present progressive tense

- expanded noun phrases.

We have been looking at Roman Mosaics and have designed and created our own using Roman patterns and inspired by the work of Gaudi.

Firstly we looked at how mosaics were used and displayed in the Roman Baths. We then research Roman patterns such as flowers and suns. We research the famous artist/architect called Gaudi and learnt that he was inspired by nature. We designed a tile and then used real tiles to create our design. 

We have carried out market research on what Year 4 children's favourite bread is. We have then followed our own recipe to make  bread which is a food brought to us by the Romans and is still a big part of our daily diets.

This week we have been looking at the features of instructions and then written our own instructions to artisan bread.