World Book Day... Coming Soon!

Source: worldbookday.com

We have a very exciting week ahead of us next week!

Source: kiasuparents.com

Every morning before school next week (from 8:30- 8:50am) we will be setting up the hall for you to come in and read with your dad (or brother, uncle, grandfather, or mum!) You can bring in your favourite book, or there will be some books and magazines available for you to read. There will be lots of comfy cushions and chairs for you to settle in and read together!

Source: getnyc

On Thursday, you can come into school dressed as a character from a book. Everyone at school (including the adults!) will be in costume. It will be a fun day with a special assembly, so we can all see your fabulous costumes! We have suggested that you could donate £1 to a wonderful charity called 'Book Aid International'.

Source: Chaucer Junior School

Remember to bring in a book from home that you have read and are finished with. Don't buy a new book, just bring in an old one. We will then put them in our special box and swap them, so you will get to take home a different book, to keep! If you don't have a book at home that you can bring in, come and talk to us about it- we have lots spare! You can bring your book in anytime before Thursday.

Source: criscros

Thank you to all of you who have entered the Extreme Reading competition! If you haven't entered yet, you have until Monday to bring in your photos. There is a super prize available for the best photo from each phase group.

Here are some wonderful examples from other schools for inspiration:

Source: Mullion School

 Source: Wardenhill Junior

 Source: flickr

Source: ashs.norfolk.sch

Source: Oakham Rutland

Animoto Trailers 2

 Source: Epic Citadel, Epic Games Inc.

Here are links to everyone's fantastic Epic Citadel trailers.
Click each link to see the videos!

Mia and Erhun:
http://video214.com/play/lqFlXFakw34s7Zfqtz6QqA/s/dark

Sean and Louis:
http://video214.com/play/zbKj495POxqGGWZp5MCIbQ/s/dark

Jack G.:
http://video214.com/play/NKiUVmCazOIsd8owfMlCug/s/dark

Justin S.:
http://video214.com/play/FzSeq7m0oYehF2Kjfx00wA/s/dark

D:
http://video214.com/play/JLmJnSNkxPOGqGy47pLTmQ/s/dark

Sophia and Bella:
http://video214.com/play/v68DgTJEhlsVZB4k4hHogQ/s/dark

Chidera:
http://video214.com/play/5Eh6yni5KOblli3X0TIHug/s/dark

Isaac:
http://video214.com/play/hBdb6qmz7gzgqX2Z8M8TRw/s/dark

Esther:
http://video214.com/play/KlTU0X4mA69JjBbnaYf20A/s/dark

Daniella:
http://video214.com/play/CHXZXJhgS7wIt8MeWdugIw/s/dark

Venus and Christopher:
http://video214.com/play/FFXzJ1nw0tfl02nw0KsHJA/s/dark

Emily:
http://video214.com/play/90NqE1L0RRiLlnp2h1jpDw/s/dark

Nabi:
http://video214.com/play/77bvOlTsfwRlVQnp7aGfRA/s/dark

Dexter:
http://video214.com/play/EoFw3afSEokmc0QTlo2vZQ/s/dark

Lily:
http://video214.com/play/dSDjD0be3ht1njWkER1XzA/s/dark

Kiara:
http://video214.com/play/DF4xdAH1LE74X1n10QBjZQ/s/dark

Cesar and Ace:
http://video214.com/play/AeQaNt11yWySZYJYiY4jAQ/s/dark

Maria:
http://video214.com/play/2ou1wBrKLZK2VpxxbUZWxw/s/dark

Jack N:
http://video214.com/play/LRfe0j897RfOA49AGBGeaA/s/dark

Vanessa:
http://video214.com/play/vCBegod04H7Az15Ur601gw/s/dark

Blessie:
http://video214.com/play/qaCg159Xzplif3XLmf71xw/s/dark

Animoto Trailers

This week, we started our new topics. We have started to learn about Electricity, the Anglo Saxons and Epic Citadel- a brilliant game that will be inspiring our writing this half term.

Today, we used a fantastic app called 'Animoto' to make these wonderful persuasive trailers for Epic Citadel. It will take lots of posts for me to share them all- the blog can only do two at a time!

Here are two great examples to start us off:

By Darcy

By Justin M

500 Words Story Competition!

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00rfvk1

This week you are working on a 500 word story for your homework.

When you have written a draft (and you must do this first!!), you need to enter your story on the Radio 2 website.

Click this link below to find the form that you need to fill in.
https://500words.external.bbc.co.uk/opportunity/1

You will need to fill in this form with an adult, who will need to enter an email address.


Here are some top tips for your story:

Remember your structure- it needs a beginning, middle and end. Draw yourself a story mountain to help you plan this, or look at the picture below.

Source: communication4all

Choose your words carefully. You only have 500 words, so pick them wisely! Don't waste your 500 words on boring words like happy, sad, nice, said, then or walk. You can do better! Use powerful adjectives and verbs.

Create an interesting hero/main character. You only have 500 words, so you don't want to include too many characters. Keep it simple but entertaining!


There are some great examples on the Radio 2 website- click the picture below to read the winning entries in your category for the last few years. Don't copy them though- the judges will remember them! You can do even better!

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/KNWsKPrg7stQ54tTbcf6P7/500-words-2014

Shrove Tuesday

Happy Shrove Tuesday! Did you have pancakes today?

animatedgifs.eu

Tomorrow many of us will be marking the beginning of Lent with a special Ash Wednesday mass.

Our Aliens!

On Friday, St. George's Class were set the challenge of creating a 3D sculpture of an alien. They could choose an alien from Doctor Who, or create one of their own! Firstly, in teams, they drew their designs and labelled the diagrams with the materials they would need. Then, I opened my 'shop' and each group had to negotiate for the materials they needed, then get to work! Here are the fantastic final alien sculptures: 

Well done everyone! Have a wonderful safe half term!

TARDIS Lands at School!

Friday was a very bizarre day at our school! Not only were the children wearing their own clothes, but also we had a visit from the Doctor!

At 11:15, a TARDIS landed in the small playground, just outside St. George's Class. We rushed outside to investigate.

As journalists, we knew that we would need some eye-witness statements. We politely interviewed some children from Years 3 and 4, Mrs Meaden, Miss Boyle, Mr Croft and even Mrs Day! They told us what they had seen, heard or smelled as the TARDIS arrived. Mr Croft had noticed a strong smell of fish fingers and custard!

Following our interviews, when we were hard at work on our newspaper articles, something even more fantastic occurred! We had a visit from the Doctor himself! We were lucky enough to hold a press conference with him. We found out that he had rushed to our school because he had received a distress call from the School Office. He was worried that we had been invaded by aliens!

Our Quiet Critters accompanied us as we worked!

The Selfish Giant

Today, we held the auditions for our Easter Play! We were blown away by the talent we saw today- everyone put in so much effort and performed wonderfully! Well done. At the end of the day today, we told you which part you would be playing and handed out the scripts.

Over half term, we would like you to learn your lines. Make sure you know the lines you will be speaking, and also the words to the songs- we will be teaching you the music in the first week back.

Remember, the script may not include lots of lines for you, as there are 60 children in Year 4 and everyone needed a part to play! However, there will be lots of extra acting, singing and dancing, as you will see when we start to rehearse. The script does not include all of the things that will happen in the play! You will have lots of opportunities to show off your wonderful talents!

The Doctor and the Dalek Coding

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/games/doctor-who-game 

This half term we have been learning to code... and saving the universe! We have been developing our programming skills, by playing a fantastic game called 'The Doctor and The Dalek' from the BBC.

We have been learning that coding is how we tell computers what we want them to do. We have learned to put together sequences of commands, use repetition and 'if' or 'when' commands. There have been some very tricky challenges, which have taken a lot of patience and concentration, but we are becoming great programmers!

Here are some pictures of us, hard at work coding:

Here are some screen shots of the game, can you remember what you had to do to pass these tasks?

Source of both pictures above: drwho-online

We will be completing our Doctor Who coding next week, but we'll come back to programming soon. In the meantime, if you would like to play at home, click the link below:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/games/doctor-who-game 

Habitats

St. George's Class have been working hard with Mrs Herrera to learn all about habitats, particularly in the UK. This week, you even held a debate and had to imagine that Southwark Council had decided that they were going to close Dulwich Park to build a road. Mrs Herrera was very impressed with how you were able to discuss your ideas and think about the animals that might be affected by losing their habitats.

You also made these wonderful habitat models, using folded paper and plasticine. Can you leave a comment to tell us about your model?

Weeping Angels

This week, we completed our Weeping Angel statues. 

On Wednesday, we painted them with a base coat of white paint (mixed with PVA glue), then on Friday we mixed a stone-coloured paint and finished them off. 

Next week, we might add some extra details to make them look more crumbly and realistic!