A highlight of this week was the transformation of Gold and Saffron classrooms into a Gurdwara and then inviting the Year 3 children to have a tour. The Year 4s were the perfect hosts, showing the Y3s around, making sure they told them about the significance of each room for Sikh people. Everybody took off their shoes, covered their heads and washed their hands before entering the Diwan Hall (Saffron class) where the Guru Granth Sahib (Holy Book) was placed under the canopy. There was a box for donations. The tour then led into the Sach Khand (middle room) which was used as the room where the Guru Granth Sahib was put to bed at night. Sikh people believe that the Guru Granth Sahib should be treated like a living person. Following this, the Y3s were guided into the Langar (Gold Classroom), where volunteers served them food. Sikh people believe that everyone should be treated equally and everyone would sit on the floor to eat. It was a lovely way for our work on the Gurdwara to finish and our Year 4 guides were very knowledgeable.
We have also started our next topic of The Vikings. We learnt about Viking longships and how they were so useful for attack due to their sleek design. It also made them good seafaring boats. Year 4 have enjoyed drawing a longship, thinking about shield designs and figureheads to look as menacing as possible.
In English, we have watched a short Viking film as inspiration for our Viking story which we will be telling. It is the story of a young Viking we have named Erik who sets out on a quest to find a missing sword, which is precious to his village. The children will be challenged to write this story and create a suitable climax and conclusion to the story.
In maths we have started work on decimal place value. We have looked at the value of ones, tenths and hundredths and done some work on regrouping to understand that there are ten tenths in a one and ten hundredths in a tenth.
In science we have been looking at some animal skulls and predicting whether the animal was a carnivore, herbivore or omnivore just by looking at its teeth. It was fantastic to see real life skulls of animals, including a crocodile to help us with this. If you would like to see them, they are on display outside Gold classroom but we ask you to please not touch them as they are very delicate.
We hope you enjoy your weekend,
Year 4 team
