Autumn 1 2024

Our topic this half term is Trouble at t'mill. Our Bible quote for this is Job 7:6 My life is swifter than a weaver's shuttle.

 Our class novel has been Street Child by Berlie Doherty. This book has linked well to both our literacy and history topics. 

Class 4 news, activities and photos

Summer Term

Whilst exploring our spirituality on our special 'Spirituality Day', we had a wonderful session with one of our governors and school piano teacher Mrs Tomlinson.  We joined in with songs of praise.  Here is a video showing us singing about God's wonderful world.

On our Spirituality Day, we were inspired by Antony Gormley and his incredible sculptures including ‘The Angel of The North’.  We sketched, sculpted and explored the big questions that Gormley wants us to ask ourselves about our world. 

Bikeability!  We have had loads of fun learning to be safe on our bikes this term.  we were really lucky with the weather (mostly) and got to develop our road safety whilst mastering an active skill.  It was great fun.  Check out our pictures below.

Autumn 2:  Cosmic!

Job Fair:

We have been treated to a wonderful Job Fair this week.  Parents, carers and other volunteers came into school to tell us about their jobs.  We got to try out some of the equipment, learn about what their roles entail and learnt about career paths.  Thank you so much to all of our volunteers for making this such an exciting and memorable experience.  There are a few photos of our afternoon below: 

Orienteering:

We have been looking at map skills in geography and had a go at orienteering around our school site.  It was fast, frantic and fun!  Here are some photos showing what we got up to:

Planetarium:  

This half term, we have been lucky enough to have a mobile planetarium visit us.  We have learnt about the planets, our solar system and galaxy and about some famous astronauts.  The children were wowed by the experience and asked some amazing questions.  This was 'out of this world'!  

Lego design technology:

We had a fabulous time designing our LEGO Mission to Mars projects.  We got to create our own martian designs and then build them.  Check out the photos of us in action below and also an awesome explanation by Teddy on how his contraption works!

Orienteering:

We are looking at mapping in geography this half term.  This is us having a taste of 'orienteering' in the hall.

Autumn 1:  Our Finest Hour!

This has been an exciting half term looking at World War Two.  We have combined our history topic with some amazing artwork, music and been inspired by the novel 'Goodnight Mr Tom'.  To finish off our topic, we held a WW2 V.E. celebration.  Check out the pictures of us in costume below and the amazing video of our class singing a traditional song from the time.  Keep calm and carry on!

Summer 1: Mountaineers!

This has been an action packed half term with our KS2 SATs, two trips, visitors and some really exciting learning.  Our class novel, geography and parts of science have linked together nicely too.  Look below to find out more about what we have been up to.

Mountain Rescue:

We were visited by an officer from Pendle's Mountain Rescue Team to look at their role in the community and to get some advice on equipment needed when out on the mountains.  As you can see from these pictures, we had a great time trying out different equipment.

DT:

We have had a super time looking at tents and shelters this half term.  We have explored existing tents including putting some up, designed structures and built them.  There are some photos below showing some of the stages.  Enjoy!

Exploring:

Designing:

Running on the Roof of the world:

We have really enjoyed our class novel 'Running on the roof of the world' by Jess Butterworth.  We have used this to inspire our writing and created our own suspenseful chapters using show not tell feelings and action packed -ing openers to create mood.

Spring 2: About to explode!

What a super half term we are having.  Out theme is all about our Earth and we are making links between many of our subjects.  Our class novel, science project and of course geography link in wonderfully.  Some further details on what we have been up to are below.

Super Science!

We have been looking at forces this half term.  We got practical by looking at the how the shape of an object will impact on the water resistance it experiences.  Here are a few photos.

Holes (English)

We have been inspired by the beautifully written 'Holes' by Louis Sachar and we are writing some exciting chapters containing flashbacks.  We have been challenged to explore the structure of a flashback and we are becoming more confident in using this awesome author technique in our own writing.  Watch this space for an excerpt from one of our chapters!

Marvelous Music!

We have been singing songs linked to our topic.  Check out this video of a volcanic tongue-twister!

Parliamentary Visitor.

We were visited by one of the Education & Engagement Team from parliament who led an assembly with KS2 and then gave Class 4 a workshop on parliamentary debate.  We learnt some amazing information about the House of Commons, the House of Lords, our local MP and how our government works.  We also practicsed our oracy skills by holding our own debate.  Here is a picture of us in action (Here Here)!

Spring 1:  It's all Chinese!

We have had a super half term learning about lots of things with a Chinese theme in recognition of Chinese New Year.  We have welcomed in 'The Year of The Rabbit' with lots of fun activities.  Here are some of the most exciting things we have been up to:

Chinese New Year!

We had a super time celebrating the Chinese New Year.  We were lucky enough to be visited by a local musician who is an expert on Chinese music.  He demonstrated several traditional Chinese musical instruments, led us in a drumming workshop and taught us a traditional dragon dance.  Pictures and videos are below.

Exciting English:

This half term, we have been inspired by our class novel, the beautiful 'Where the Mountain Meets the Moon', to write traditional Chinese myths and creation stories.  We have also linked in to our exciting history topic on the Shang Dynasty to write some information texts.  Our writing this half term has been full of advanced punctuation including colons and semicolons and we have explored using relative clauses and parenthesis to add information.

Super Shang:

This half term, we have learnt about the fascinating Shang Dynasty and now know lots of amazing facts.  Did you know that they lived during the Bronze Age, that they lived beside the Yellow River or that the first ever discovered forms of writing come from this time?  We have had great fun thinking like historians and learning about there amazing culture.

Magnificent Music:

We have recently purchased a set of keyboards in school and Class 4 have been using these to explore and create beautiful music.  We have used pentatonic scales to ensure that our music has a Chinese feel.  Here are some snaps of us busy practising!

Autumn 2: Waterworld!

We have had a super half term learning about all things water themed.  From our class novel to our geography topic, it has been wall to wall water.  Here are some of the highlights of our topic:

Shakespearean Supremos!  

In English, we have looked at the play 'The Tempest' by William Shakespeare and compared and contrasted it with a more modern novel 'The Stormkeeper's Island' by Catherine Doyle.  We had great fun planning and writing our own narrative versions of Shakespeare's famous play.

The Canal Trust:

We were lucky to be visited by the Canal Trust for a session learning about how canals were built.  We even had a go at making our own.  Check out our photos below.

Brilliant Batik!

We have been learning about the fabric based art style batik and we have created some amazing water themed designs.  Check out our final images below.

Super Science:

We were lucky enough to be visited by super scientist Adrian Bowden who put on a light themed science show for all of KS2.  We learnt about how light works and even how to make a rainbow.  Check out the action below:

Cracking Computing:

We have linked our geography topic on the water cycle with our computing learning on animation and video.  We created some amazing video presentations and stop motion animations explaining how the water cycle works.  I hope you enjoy looking at the example below that was created by Flynn and Kai.

Autumn 1:  Trouble at t'Mill!

We have had a really bust half term with lots of fantastic activities.  All of our topics have linked to a Victorian theme and, where possible, we have linked to our local mill studies.  Here are some of the highlights of our topic:

Awesome English:

We have really enjoyed reading 'Street Child' by Berlie Doherty.  We wrote our own alternative endings to the story and used it as inspiration to write poetry based on 'Timothy Winters' by Charles Causley.  We were also inspired in our writing by the amazing ideas of local mill worker turned inventor James Hargreaves.  We wrote biographies exploring Hargreaves' life and learnt about the impact of the 'Spinning Jenny'.

Traditional Clog Dancing:

As part of our topic, we took part in some traditional Lancashire clog dancing.  Check out the videos below:

Folk Musician visit:

As part of our autumn 1 topic, we were lucky enough to be visited by Richard Moss a local folk musician.  Richard performed some traditional songs from the Mills, helped us to unpick the meanings behind some of the lyrics and encouraged us to join in with a good old sing song!  Please take a look at the photos and especially the videos below.

2021-22:

Our Leavers' Service was a very special moment for us all.  We looked back on out time at St Thomas' fondly and shared some of our favourite memories.  We also handed out awards for achievement and effort in all subjects, for friendship, Christian Values and progress.  Well done to everyone!

Our lovely Year 6 children took a special Leavers' Trip to 'Flip Out!' in Preston and has a sunshine-filled picnic afterwards.  We all had a great time!  

Hoodwinked:

We had a terrific time performing our end of year production: Hoodwinked!  All of the children worked hard to learn their lines and sing some fantastic songs.  We even had a surprise cream pie for the wicked Sheriff and his deputy!  Here are some photos of the event. 

Park Life:

On Wednesday, our year 6 children took a trip down to Barrowford Park as a special treat.  We had an awesome game of 'Ambush' and got an ice cream.  Here are a few photos of the event.

We have been learning about the Amazon Rainforest in our Geography and we have made some wonderful PowerPoint presentations in Computing.  We have even made hyperlinks so that you can navigate the slides (you'll need to download the document to use the hyperlinks)!  Check out some of the examples below:

We had some special visitors from Animal Club this week.  The children had the chance to stroke, handle and learn about a wide variety of animals including a leopard gecko, a corn snake, a giant millipede and a bearded dragon.  Here are some photos of some brave animal handlers in training! 

Titanic Day was a blast!  We have been exploring the fateful maiden voyage of the world's most famous ship by exploring the identities of different passengers, learning Morse Code, conducting a trial to see who was to blame for the sinking and enjoying an afternoon tea!  Check our the pictures of our day!

We held a sponsored silence in Class 4.  I am immensely proud of their commitment to this.  Check out our video of a silent break time!

Ahoy there!  We have just set sail on our trip to Liverpool Maritime Museum for a 'Titanic' experience.  We had a great time and learnt loads about the magnificent ship and its fateful maiden voyage.  Take a look at our pictures below.

In science, we are exploring the properties of materials using a 'Titanic' theme.  This week, we explored the best materials to use for curtains on the Titanic using the idea of transparent, translucent or opaque.  Here are some pictures of us in action!

Ash Wednesday:

These are the pictures of our class visit to Liverpool World Museum.  We had a great time viewing all of the exhibits and learning about space in the Planetarium!

Take a look our our exciting DT project designing and building moon buggies.

We have been looking at measurement in maths by measuring each other!