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Excalibur Class (Year 4 and 5)
Excalibur – Years 4 & 5
Welcome to Excalibur Class
The adults in Excalibur Class are:
Mrs Helen Trusson – Class Teacher (Monday – Thursday)
Mr Dave Gordon – Class Teacher (Friday)
Mr Jack Bunter – Teaching Assistant
Miss Martha Everest - Student Teacher (Autumn and Summer Term)
Summer Term 2024
'We the Curious' Trip
What an exciting, explorative day Excalibur class have had…from hands on exhibits with parachutes, giant bubbles, sand etc. to an amazing planetarium experience that literally transported us to the solar system. We ended the day with a Sun, Earth, Moon workshop in which the children truly demonstrated their knowledge and interest in this topic and we are so proud of how much information they have consumed during this summer term! A super fun day was had by all!!
The planetarium
The interactive exhibits...
The Sun, Earth and Moon workshop...
The Solar System
We have enjoyed creating posters detailing the facts about the planets in our solar system.
Sports Day
The day started with house sports including football, netball and cross country...
The afternoon started with a carousel of activities beginning with javelin...
Next was the obstacle course...
Followed by Tug of War...
Then the egg and spoon race...
The final activity, and perhaps the most popular, was the water run...
We ended our sports day with the traditional sprints. A fun day was had by all!!
Space Dome
We experienced the space dome exploring star constellations, zodiac star signs and a world map which reinforced many aspects of our learning during the Earth and space topics this term.
Goodbye Miss Everest
Sadly, we have said 'Goodbye' to Miss Everest who has been a trainee teacher in Excalibur for both the Autumn and Summer terms. The children have thoroughly enjoyed Miss Everest being part of the team in our class and have learnt a great deal from her - a particular highlight being the Religious Education (RE) lessons!! We wish her every success as she embarks on her teaching career in a Primary school in September!
The Solar System
In our Space topic we are starting to consider what is in our solar system. We created our own models of the solar system by selecting from spherical shapes (mainly balls) to represent the planets...
We lined up our choices of planets to check we were happy with the selected sizes...
In groups, we calculated the approximate distances from the sun to each planet...
We took our 'planets' onto the playground and using our calculations, we used a roll of toilet paper to help measure the distance for each planet from the sun...Neptune ended up 90 sheets of toilet paper away from the sun!!!
A Guard of Honour to Say Farewell to Shaylah-May
Friday 14th DT - Fresh Melon Lemonade
Summer Term Enrichment - Outdoor Learning Week 1
Childhood Day Mile (NSPCC Charity Run)
Rainbow Run 2024
Dance
Excalibur class are exploring dance in some of their PE sessions this term...and we have been quite impressed with the rhythm of some of our pupils!! They have been very motivated and enthusiastic about some of the music choices which have resulted in some very dynamic movements...
Be internet legends
Sarah Dyke (MP) visited our school and we had a presentation on how to be internet legends. The children learnt all about how to be safe on the internet through a fun and engaging 'computer game'. KS2 children also had the opportunity to ask questions to Sarah Dyke at the end of the session.
Maths Treasure Hunt
Our Year 5 & 6 children were invited to Hazelgrove for a maths themed treasure hunt. The children were mixed with Hazelgrove students into 10 groups and set their first treasure hunt point – before we could blink the children had set off on their tasks. It was lovely to observe our children mixing so politely and sociably amongst both Hazelgrove students and staff, and so engaged in the mathematical problems which they had to solve to progress onto the next stage of the treasure hunt. Many of the 10 groups successfully completed the treasure hunt within the allocated time, however group 2 were announced as the outright winners!
Ukulele
Excalibur are enjoying their second opportunity this year to learn to play the ukulele. We are impressed with how much they are developing and 'fine-tuning' their skills and techniques to play along to a tune.
PSHE SCARF Workshop
We attended a workshop this week based on protecting myself 'Body and Mind'. We helped characters like Gerald the Giraffe and Kiki the kangaroo find solutions to their problems, often identifying in each scenario what areas of the character's well-being needed to be improved. We had a really good time in this workshop discussing, problem-solving and even trying out techniques we were recommending to each character.
Congratulations to Barnaby and Albie being awarded their Blue Peter badges this week!
Reproduction of plants
In science we have been learning about how some plants can reproduce using only the one parent (plant). Using a geranium plant, we carefully took cuttings to attempt to create clones of the plant. We have placed them in water to see if we can grow roots, ready to plant them in soil...fingers crossed!!
Fantastic Plastic Workshop
We had a lovely start to the summer term when Carymoor visited and delivered a 'fantastic plastic' workshop. We were reminded of the 3 'R's; Recycle, Reuse, Reduce with a particular focus on plastic.
We then completed the session by making our very own plastic greenhouses and added some cress seeds.
Spring Term 2024
Anglo Saxon Sutton Hoo Masks
We were thrilled to be able to finish our masks we built successfully with the help of Mr Plumbley.
World Book Day
Excalibur class looked amazing in all the super costumes worn to celebrate world book day.
We started the day with a visit to the book swap...
As well as having plenty of opportunities through the day to read, we also joined a live World book day session with author-illustrator Sarah Bowie based around her recent book called Nina Peanut. Amongst other things, she taught us how to create some of her illustrations from the featured book.
Galliford Try STEM visit
Excalibur class were set a challenge to create something to hold a mobile phone when we were visited by 2 representatives from Galliford Try construction. We had lots of fun creating our models...once we had decided as a team whose ideas to work with!!
And the winning team was.....
We were also invited to try on some of the protective clothing typically used in the construction industry. Excalibur class still enjoy an opportunity for 'dressing up'.
PCSO visit
This week we had two police community support officers (PCSO) visit and talk to us about how to keep ourselves safe. They shared some useful information about what to do when faced with situations we were unsure about. Thank you again to Bea and Martha for their visit and wealth of knowledge.
Mardi Gras 2024
Better late than never, Excalibur and Lancelot children celebrated Mardi Gras this week. The actual date for Mardi Gras is always held on Shrove Tuesday, so unfortunately due to this being in half term this year our festivities had to wait until this week. The children researched what happens on Mardi Gras and why it is celebrated, whilst adorning masks, headdresses and beads. They are looking forward to sampling some King Cake next week to complete their topic.
King cake is traditionally served at Mardi Gras celebrations. A little plastic doll is hidden inside a King cake and tradition dictates that finding the baby in your cake symbolises luck and prosperity. Take a look at the photos to see who found the doll in our cake. It was delicious!
Tooth decay experiment - the results!!
So, a week later we removed the eggs from their liquids and had some very interesting results...
The children are really considering their choice of drink after seeing these results...especially coke and apple juice.
Tooth decay experiment
This week, we have set-up an experiment to investigate the affect of different liquids/drinks on our teeth. We have immersed 5 eggs in a variety of liquids and we are recording our observations on how each of the liquids are affecting the shell of the egg each day... an update to follow next week!
Year 4 Team building
Year 4 children from local schools gathered at Ansford for an afternoon of team building activities. As you can see from the photos, the children had lots of fun and were faced with several challenges which led to some head-scratching!!
Anglo Saxon DT project with Mr P
Our Anglo Saxon helmets are beginning to resemble that of one that would have been worn in battle to to protect the wearer's head from enemy blows. The children have to show that they can work together and of course have patience when attaching the delicate pieces that help build the structure of the helmets.
The Glockenspiel
In our music lessons this term, we are starting to learn to play music using the glockenspiel. This week we have been focusing on playing the notes D, E and F. It took a great deal of concentration to play in time but we actually sounded really good!
Square Numbers
The Year 5's have started exploring square numbers and how they are calculated. We enjoyed using cubes to make representations of cube numbers to deepen our understanding of these special numbers.
Science
This term we are studying the digestive system in science. We have discovered what our digestive system looks like below the surface of our skin, and learnt the correct names for those parts that play a vital part in our digestion of foods and fluids. Recently, we have started to find out the function of each of the organs and body parts in the digestive system and made the diagrams seen in the photo.
Yoga
We are starting every Tuesday morning this term with a yoga session.
The children are really enjoying it, using the opportunity to focus on their health and wellbeing!
Year 5 and 6 Statutory Word List
Art Project
This term, sees Excalibur have the opportunity to work alongside Mr Plumley on an Anglo Saxon project. Children have started to model their Saxon masks using a papier-mâché technique.
Autumn Term 2023
Christingle
We had our Christingle service this week. We bravely lit the candles at the start of the service which set a lovely Christmas atmosphere. Excalibur class contributed some bible readings which related the parts of the Christingle to words spoken by God and Jesus from both Genesis and John's Gospel.
Pantomime
We enjoyed watching the production of Beauty and the Beast at this years visiting pantomime...
Pudsey Visit
We had a surprise visitor this week...we were a little excited!!
Ancient Greek Day
We had an amazing day experiencing first hand what life may have been like during the Ancient Greek civilisation....
We started by learning about the Greek alphabet and attempted to write our name and Greek gods using Greek symbols. We also attempted to solve secret codes which were written using the Greek alphabet.
Next, we sampled foods which would have been typically part of an ancient Greek diet. The children really challenged themselves to taste and explore those foods which were sometimes new experiences...
We spent some time during the day comparing the modern Olympics to that of the Ancient Greek Olympics. At the end of the day, we had our own 'Mini Olympics' including the events discus, javelin, sprinting and standing jump. Blackdown house won the Olympics overall - well done to everyone for taking part in a fun-filled Ancient Greek day!
Children in Need 2023
Y4 Cinema Trip
We had a fun time at cineworld, Yeovil when the Y4 children had the opportunity to watch a special screening of the film 'The railway Children - Returns'. It was a really good film and taught us a lot about the conditions for people in WWII - the whole experience was enjoyed by all! A special thank you to parents and family members for arranging transport to the venue.
Playscripts
We are writing playscripts for a scene from the Ancient Greek myth 'Icarus and Daedalus'. To understand the features of a playscript, we acted out short plays in small groups - everyone was really excited to share their performances with the rest of the class. Well done everybody!
PTFA - Thank you
This week we received our class gift from PTFA funds - these lovely bean bags - which we are making great use of when reading for pleasure in our classroom. They seem to be encouraging the children to enjoy and develop a love of reading even more!
Hello Yellow Day
Excalibur class joined thousands of people wearing yellow across the country to show their support for young people’s mental health.
Excalibur enjoy all the fun of the carnival
Some Little Miss and Mr Men from Excalibur Class, joined Mr Gordon, Mrs Sherry and Mrs Hoddinott at Castle Cary Carnival on Saturday night. The children danced, laughed and interacted with the crowd as they walked through the street of Castle Cary. Well done to everyone who took part. Fingers crossed for the official results!
Downing Street Visit
Year 5 accompanied Lancelot Class to London on Friday where they had the opportunity to visit 10 Downing Street and meet the Prime Ministers wife Mrs Murty.
The children were also able to visit some of the famous landmarks of our capital city before viewing Stonehenge on the way home - the children that were still awake that is!
Harvest Festival
The whole school and community met at the church for our Harvest Festival. Excalibur class shared information about how Harvest is celebrated around the world including; America, Thailand, Portugal, Indonesia, China and Ghana.
European Languages Day
We celebrated European languages day focussing on the country of Greece. We learnt how to say some words in Greek such as 'Yassou' meaning hello and we also continued to research many interesting facts about the country and culture of Greece.
Science
Our topic this term is exploring properties and changes in materials. We have investigated thermal insulators by studying the temperature of water in a variety of materials as well as using a simple circuit to identify which materials make good electrical conductors and insulators.
Ukulele
Excalibur class have started ukulele lessons. We have been learning to play in harmony with all sorts of songs...the 'star wars' theme tune was particularly popular!
Excalibur class have made a fantastic start to this new academic year - we have been really impressed with how they have brought enthusiasm and engagement to their lessons and we are very much looking forward to the year ahead.
