Welcome to our Year 4 page. Have a scroll down to find our newsletters and to see what we have been up to as a year group and school!
Spring Term – Ancient Egypt in Year 4
English
During the Spring term we have been using our history topic on Ancient Egypt as the basis for a range of cross-curricular writing. As the term began, we used our research in to the new topic to write an information text about different areas of Ancient Egyptian society, detailing how pyramids were built, and some of the different gods and goddesses that were worshipped in ancient times. We then created our own Egyptian gods and used these as the basis for a creation myth set thousands of years ago. Finally, we learnt in great detail how mummies were made – including all of the horrible bits – and used this information to write an explanation text. We read a range of texts together in class linked to our topic during the spring term, and learnt a great deal about the ancient civilization.
Design & Technology
Towards the end of term we began to investigate Ancient Egyptian diet, and we researched some of the different foods that would have been eaten by the people of Egypt that lived thousands of years ago. One of the most commonly eaten foods was bread – specifically, flatbreads – so we followed a recipe together in class and made our own updated version! We also used some basic cutting and chopping techniques to create a simple, fresh salsa that we could eat along with the flatbreads. Happily, our flatbreads had one major difference from those cooked thousands of years ago – ours did not contain traces of desert sand or grit to grind our teeth down!
Geography
Through studying maps found in a number of atlases, and looking at satellite images of the country on Google Earth, we learnt a little about the physical geography of the country of Egypt. We investigated where notable landmarks were situated, and used this information to complete our own map of the country. As we continued to learn more about the country, we learnt how important the River Nile is in regards to farming, commerce and transport, and we linked this back to our historical research. This culminated in us creating a farming calendar with which we could decide the best times of year to plant and harvest crops, dependent on whether the Nile had flooded or not.
Art
As artists we studied some of the headdresses and burial masks worn by Pharaohs and other important Egyptian officials, and used this information to design our own burial mask, looking at the use of colour and thinking a little about self-portraiture. Linking back to our work on burial customs and the process of mummification, we also designed our own Canopic jars and lids, thinking about how these could be turned in to a sculpted version, and using our existing knowledge of the importance of Egyptian gods and goddesses.
Science
Across the course of the spring term we investigated the different physical changes which can occur in matter, and we thought about the three different states: solid, liquid and gas. Through scientific investigation, we learnt a little about melting points, evaporation and condensation, and we began to use thermometers in a more precise manner to take readings and draw conclusions about different scientific processes.
