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Excalibur – Year 4 & 5
Excalibur – Years 4 & 5
Welcome to Excalibur Class
The adults in Excalibur Class are:
Mrs Helen Trusson – Class Teacher (Monday – Thursday)
Mrs Sarah Atkin – Class Teacher (Friday)
Mrs Bridgett Spiller/Mr Jack Bunter – Teaching Assistant (Monday – Thursday)
Mrs Nicki Collins - Teaching Assistant (Friday)
Mrs Cae Hills - 1:1
Week beginning the 11th July 2022
We had a super Tuesday this week with our fun sports day. The weather was kind...not too sunny and we had lots of activities to complete including javelin, relay race, tunnel ball and the water run. We finished off the sports events with sprints and hurdles - a good, fun day was had by all! The ice cream we all got at the end of the events was also an lovely, added bonus!!
Week beginning the 4th July 2022
To celebrate well being week, we have completed various activities during the week. Firstly, we had a dietician session with Mrs Faulkner, where we considered the journey of food throughout the body...this was a practical session where we modelled the mixing of food in our stomachs and then travelling through the intestines...those children without queasy stomachs even managed to create a a waste product at the end!
We also had a first aid session with Mrs Sherry, where we learnt about the basics of first aid and also had the opportunity to practise CPR.
Week beginning the 27th June 2022
We had a lot of fun this week playing house matches in netball, football and cricket. The children played incredibly well, and showed some wonderful support for their house mates in their team along with a good mix of competitiveness.
Week beginning the 20th June 2022
We have been learning about the Egyptian pyramids in History this week. We were set a group challenge to make a 3D square-based pyramid in 10 minutes...
...here are some of the successful outcomes...
Week beginning the 13th June 2022
We have completed our investigation this week into the effect which various liquids have on our teeth (using an egg in replace of teeth!).
The children have concluded that orange and apple juice are the drinks which are most likely to cause tooth decay based on our results. The evidence which the children based this conclusion on can be seen in the photos below. As a result of our findings, the children have considered how this may change their choice of drink or the amount of certain drinks they have and even when it is best to clean our teeth...definitely food for thought!!!
Week Beginning the 6th June 2022
This week, we have set-up an experiment to investigate the affect of different liquids/drinks on our teeth. We all had to develop a scientific question such as 'Which liquid will cause the most tooth decay?' or 'Is water the best liquid to prevent tooth decay?'. We have set up the experiment and 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.
Week Beginning the 23rd May 2022
This week we have been busy with preparations for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations. We worked hard researching each of the 7 decades of the Queen's reign to create a timeline of interesting events, inventions, music etc. for each decade.
In case you missed our Jubilee celebrations on Friday, here is Excalibur's work below...
Week Beginning the 16th May 2022
We have been very excited this week as we had our first school trip since before covid '19. The Tutankhamen exhibition was everything we hoped it would be. The recreations of the antechamber, and burial chambers being a particular highlight. We completed a quiz sheet on our tour through the museum; we also completed sketches and drawings of the many artefacts on display - particularly in Tutankhamun’s treasury room. Those of us who were feeling brave visited the ‘mummy’ exhibition although this was not for the ‘faint hearted’!! We ended the trip with a picnic and play in the local park. The children were superbly behaved and represented the school in a fantastic way. Well done Excalibur Class!
Week Beginning the 9th May 2022
To celebrate 'Somerset Week' we had a fantastic willow performance and willow workshop this week. The performance was very 'powerful' - not one word was spoken by the actors during the 45 minute performance and we were all totally fixated!!
We followed up the performance by creating a willow crown and playing games related to the performance we had watched.
We have also being transforming ourselves into Egyptian Pharaohs this week...not literally, just in the pictorial sense. We have written our names in hieroglyphs to accompany our pictures. Excalibur class certainly look very regal as Pharaohs!!
Week Beginning the 2nd May 2022
Take a look at the photos below, it may have been a shorter week with the bank holiday Monday, however we have continued to make strides in our learning this week. We have been developing our knowledge about the Ancient Egyptians by writing our names in hieroglyphs to create a cartouche and learning about the 'gifts' of the River Nile. In addition this week, we have learnt the names of all the body parts of the digestive system and their functions.
Week beginning the 25th April 2022
Congratulations and a massive 'well done' to all those children who took part in the bookman Easter challenge...there were definitely some very creative places found to read your books over the holidays!!
We also had our first drumming workshop this week, which was lots of fun!!
Week beginning the 4th April 2022
We have finished the Spring term completing our science and art projects. We have made orreries (models of the solar system)...
...created futuristic paintings in the style of the artist Peter Thorpe...
...and created batiks inspired by our space topic.
Week beginning 28th March 2022
Today was Crazy Hair Mufti Day and Excalibur Class were amazing. There had been so much effort made and here are some of the brilliant hairstyles.
To start the week, we had a 'Space Odyssey' dome visit the school to enhance our learning about space. It was an amazing experience which consolidated our learning about the Apollo 11 mission and the first astronauts on the moon. We saw in 3D how the moon phases develop over the period of 28 days as well as developing our concept of the size of planets and how they are spread out across our solar system. A truly exciting and educational experience!
Linking with the Space Odyssey dome experience, we set ourselves the task of further developing our understanding of the planets and the distances between them in our solar system. Using a variety of spherical objects ranging from a peppercorn and marble to as large as a basketball, we set about creating our own scaled model of the solar system. We hope you enjoy our efforts below! In case you were wondering what the white on the floor is - we used toilet paper to help measure the scaled distances between planets!!
Week Beginning the 21st March
On Friday the awesome Rich Parker and Liz his Sportivator visited us and Excalibur class were amazing at all the exercises they set. The children worked so hard and fast that the photos were not very good but hopefully you can get the idea!
We have been finding out about the lives of significant figures in the history of space travel this week. Did you know...that Valentina Tereshkova passed out when she nearly crash landed descending back to Earth? Did you know...that Edwin (Buzz) Aldrin was not only the second man to step on the moon, but was also the first man to spacewalk? Excalibur class have taken all the interesting things they have discovered and written a biography based on their chosen astronaut. Below are some extracts from their biographies.
Week Beginning the 14th March
British Science Week has been another exciting and fun week at school. We have had fun chemistry demonstrations, parent workshops as well as CPR training (for Year 5 and 6 pupils). And to top off the week we had comic relief on Friday which involved everyone coming dressed in a red theme as well as participating in a circus skills workshop. Enjoy all the photos below!!!
Chemistry Workshop
Year 5 CPR
Parent Science Workshop
Comic Relief 2022
Circus Skills
Week beginning the 7th March
We have been trying to keep a moon diary this month to plot the various moon phases...keep going Excalibur class we are half way! Try to take a glance out of the window each evening and see if the moon is visible. If so plot it on your diary; it should look something like mine below...
We have been focussing on our poetry writing over the last fortnight and the children have really impressed us with their use of figurative language in their poetry. Here are a few examples below.
Week beginning the 28th February
What a super first week back – as you will see from all the photos below it has been a very busy first week back!!! We had pancake making on Tuesday along with experiencing Mardi Gras King cake; Elosie and Dexter discovered the baby dolls inside which should hopefully bring them luck! Fingers crossed.
Then, on Thursday, it was World Book Day and the costumes children wore were nothing short of amazing! During the day we had opportunities to read for pleasure, we explored and discovered features in a range of books during the day and we had a live reading session where we chose a book which a staff member was reading listened to our staff read a book of their choice. In addition to all this, we joined a live world book day stream, where we joined Amy Kim Kibuishi who creates manga-inspired graphic novels. During the session, we had the opportunity to attempt our own ‘anime’ illustrations.
Week Beginning the 14th February
This week, we have started to study the artist 'Peter Thorpe' which links with our history and science topic on 'Space'. He creates amazing artwork based on the theme of space which is abstract and futuristic in style. Later in the term, we shall be creating our own versions of this style of artwork... watch this space!
Week Beginning the 7th February
Friday was Wear Your Scarf to School Day! This was to raise awareness of the importance of looking after our mental health. In Excalibur class we talked about our scarves and feelings in PSHE lessons. We also looked at how reading can help our mental health and discussed our favourite books with each other. In RE we talked about new starts in Judaism and how they have Challah bread and other sweet foods such as apple with honey to pray for a sweet new year. We all bravely tried the Challah bread Mrs Atkin had attempted to make and also the delicious apple with honey.
Tuesday was Safer Internet Day. We had a visit from the community police who spoke to us about how to keep safe and make sensible choices when playing games and communicating with friends on the internet. Excalibur class also focused on gaming safely related to age-ratings, why we need to create an avatar and a username. The children clearly have a firm understanding of how to be safe on the internet and we will continue to revise and reinforce these key points throughout the year.
...and here is some work we produced on our internet safety day...
Week Beginning the 31st January
This year, we are having a focus on reading in our school. To achieve this we feel it is fundamental that children have the opportunity to develop a 'love' of reading. Each week, in Excalibur class we are having a session where we 'Read for pleasure'. Children select a book (of any type) to read and share in the classroom. The children select from our class reading book shelf, our topic books - currently Earth and Space, bring a book from home or their school reading book. It really is whatever they most enjoy!!
Celebrating Chinese New Year
Week beginning the 24th January
This term, we have been finding out about Earth using globes, maps and atlases. We have focused on the polar regions this week, using maps of the Arctic circle to name countries which are part of this region and developing an understanding of the length of daylight hours in these regions compared to the UK!
On Friday, we also looked at weather forecasts and wrote our own scripts to perform to the rest of the class. Sadly we had to manage without an autocue but the children did really well.
Week beginning the 17th January
This week we have continued to learn more about the science behind sound. We explored pitch through a range of instruments (ukulele, recorder and xylophone) and then attempted to explain how the instrument created both high and low pitches. We did discover during this lesson that we have some promising musicians.
Week beginning the 10th January
We have certainly started off the year focussing on our health and wellbeing as this week, Excalibur class started their first Yoga session. The children really enjoyed it!
Week Beginning the 3rd January
Welcome back to 2022! It has been lovely to see the children excitedly returning to school this term. We have an exciting term ahead which has already seen the children wasting no time in settling into their work and familiar routines established in the Autumn term. Over the term we will be encouraging you to ‘dust off’ your telescopes and share the exciting journey with your child as we explore the fascinating and intriguing darkest depths of Space.
Well done to all those children who embarked on the reading challenge set over Christmas!
Week beginning the 13th December
We had lots of fun and festive cheer at our Christmas lunch this week.
Week of the 6th December
We had a special, surprise visitor this week...
Week of the 22nd November
On Friday, we had a special Christingle service. Excalibur had made Christingles on Wednesday and they looked beautiful lit in the village church. Some of our class helped in the talk at the front and some were in the wonderful choir. Five did their bible readings so clearly and confidently. I was very proud. I'm sorry there aren't more photos of everyone but it was quite tricky to get a good angle with all the pews.
Excalibur at the Christingle Church Service
On Wednesday we had the pleasurable job of making Christingles with the local church people. We learnt about each part of the Christingle and what they represented in relation to the special celebration of Christmas. Although many were tempted, all the children ensured the sweets went on the cocktail sticks and not in their mouths!!
We have been writing playscripts this week linked to the Stone Age film 'The Croods'. To experience and understand what features were important in a playscript, we acted out some prepared plays; some children really embraced their roles and characters they portrayed in their chosen play....I think we have some stars in the making!!
Celebrating Children in Need with Pudsey
Today the children wore their best spotty, dotty and yellow outfits to school today in order to raise money for Children in Need. We had an exciting day which was completed by a surprise visit from a special and well known guest - Pudsey Bear! We couldn't resist having a class photo with Pudsey!
Now with extra photos!!
Week of the 15th November
This week we have been fortunate enough to have an award winning immersive audio experience called 'Now Press Play'. I am sure your children have already shared with you the fun, enjoyment and learning experience they had through wearing headphones and engaging with a topic through sound, story and movement. So far we have been transported back to the Stone Age where we had to fend off wolves from our hunting party, explored a bullying dilemma reflecting on the decisions of the characters in the story and solved a crime using mental maths skills!
Week of the 8th of November
This week, the Year 4 children have been working really hard practising mental maths skills in multiplication and division. We have been chanting times tables, making arrays using cubes to understand the relationship between multiplication and division and playing games on the i-pad, and some more traditional games such as battleships! We have made our teachers super proud!
The Year 5 Children have also had an exciting time spending a day exploring 'Cool Aeronautics'. This years event, run by Leonardo in Yeovil, set the challenge to not only plan and build a life raft, but also design their own wind turbine to power a pulley system. It was clear to see, that all the children thoroughly enjoyed the day and showed that teamwork was vital, to ensure the best possible outcome was reached.
Finally this week, we placed our poppies at the front of the school to complete the school display and participated in a 2 minute silence at 11am in our Remembrance commemorations.
Thursday 21st October
Today, we have been studying ‘Stone Age’ Cave paintings. We explored how it may have felt to create drawings on cave walls as Stone Age people experienced. Then, using mixed media, we created our own style of cave art.
PTFA Fundraising ‘What I want to be when I grow up!”
Week of the 11th of October
Excalibur class have been working hard in PE this week creating gymnastic sequences which mirror their partner. We are rehearsing them in preparation for performing them in next week's PE lesson.
We have also been busy this week in science testing materials to discover which are soluble (dissolve to make a solution) and which are insoluble. The children really enjoy carrying out experiments each week including testing materials to see which make good insulators and also which materials are good conductors of electricity.
Étudiant Français de la Semaine
Well done to Lola, this week. Lola worked well throughout her French lesson and completed all her written work independently. Using her oral skills learnt this week she enjoyed joining in with the singing of songs and saying the register. Great work Lola, keep it up!
Friday 8th October - Willow Lantern Making
The children were amazing today in their yellow outfits and in caring for each other.
The winner of the book token was Indie for her wonderful yellow outfit and for the way she gave away her emotion faces she had prepared at home to share with others today. Well done Indie.
We had a very busy afternoon making willow lanterns for the parade in Castle Cary. Just the tissue paper to be done next week. They look wonderful and the children worked really hard on them.
Thank you to our kind helpers too.
Étudiant Français de la Semaine
Congratulations to Amelia who is our ‘ Étudiant Français de la Semaine’ . During French, Amelia showed great confidence and recall of knowledge and vocabulary from last weeks sessions. Well done Amelia!
Excalibur enjoying #Hello Yellow Day!
Monday 27th September - European Languages Day
Ola!
Today we have celebrated European Languages Day - in our class we have focused on the European language of Portuguese. We have each learnt a word in Portuguese and using 'Google translate' have practised our speaking and listening in this language.
We have created a Portuguese flag displaying all the Portuguese we have learnt!
Adeus!
Congratulations Georgia!
Georgia was the ‘ Étudiant Français de la Semaine’ ( French Student of the week!).Georgia gets to wear an enamel badge for a week and also take home a bag of activities, that she can share with her family. Hopefully, she will make a record of these in the journal inside the bag and then we can share what she has been up to with the class next week.
Week of the 20th September
Excalibur class have been finding out all about Archaeologists this week...we have even been practising to spell archaeology correctly!
We role-played the different stages of archaeology and then practised our skills by investigating artefacts from the Stone Ages and wrote an explanation text on 'How to be an Archaeologist'.
Monday 13th September - Pete the Poet
This afternoon, we had a fun time exploring poetry, song, role-play and musicality with Pete the Poet. You can see from the photos we let go of all our inhibitions and embraced the experience fully!!
Welcome Back!
We are so proud of how this year's Excalibur class have settled into the new academic year. In Year 4 & 5 we are continuing to develop skills which will make us become even greater independent and resilient learners.
EXCALIBUR CLASS 2021-2022
