This week was fun splash at swimming. We had partners and different groups. One of the activities Abigail and Molly liked the best was when they had to swim with a float on their heads. Emily P thought the hardest activity was when she had to hold the foam noodle and she had to cooperate with her partner Milly R otherwise the noodle became uneven. We have learned about why early settlers chose their sites, thinking about wood, food and water supplies. In our Varjak story we met a funny character called Cludge, (a dog) who may help rescue Varjak’s family. We wrote amazing choral poems about the evil Sally Bones, she lost an eye in a fight. In maths we learned about ratio and probability, we di lots of investigation using coins and dice. On Thursday we did our Easter assembly, all the year 4s sang ‘Let It Be’ and lots more songs like ‘He has got the whole world in his hands’. 4T were very lucky, they won four Easter raffle prizes!

We started the week after our break by beginning our science experiment about liquids and evaporation. We used different types of liquids and beakers to see if we could observe and measure any differences. We used water, salt water, honey and milk. It’s been difficult some days to tell the difference between the water and salt water. Aaron said “It’s been fun checking to see which liquid has evaporated the most each morning!” Also this week we have begun rehearsals in the hall for our performance with the Year 3’s. Mrs Cope has been helping us with the actions for the songs and it won’t be long till we get to perform it to the rest of the school. Ellie said “It’s been fun because we get to sing the songs we have been practising with the other classes. I’m really looking forward to showing the rest of the school the play.” In numeracy with Mrs Thomson we did an investigation using prison cells. We had to work out the numbers so that the corners added up to 22.Olivia said it was a little tricky but she enjoyed the challenge. Mr Hamilton taught us Netball as our new topic in outdoor PE. Miles said “I really enjoyed the netball, we learnt all of the different types of passes and some of us got to be defenders”. This week 3M performed a super assembly about the Henry VIII. They taught us all about how he had six wives. We really enjoyed watching their performance.

At the year 4 Hilltop residential: Miles’ favourite bit was the high bridges because you could go on a zip wire at the end onto a net. It was really good on the high ropes (even though some of us cried with nerves) because Molly pushed herself to the top, conquering her fear. Maia liked the climbing because even though she was scared of heights she did not give up. Thomas liked the residential because the rooms were near the games room. Theo thought his room was better than his room at home! Ishmael loved the bikes because we got muddy on the racing track and the tigger bumps made you go faster. Freya enjoyed the coastal erosion activity on the beach because the town we made from sandcastles was washed away, when the water got to the road it went around the hill we had made. Emily P was proud of herself because most of the activities she went first and she achieved the highest level of each part of the course. William thought the low bridges because it made him feel more confident on the high obstacles later. Alex enjoyed the rock climbing wall because it was really high and the hand holds were quite challenging. Lewis loved the rooms because he got on really well with his friends.  Jack enjoyed the Owls and Mice night games because he worked as a team and won the game, finding everyone first time. Luana enjoyed working out he clues after dark on the team because her team worked nicely together to get to the end of he maps. Jake liked the residential because he liked the gams room especially the football table. Perry liked Hilltop because everyone took something new away from the holiday, like conquering their fear of heights. Ollie enjoyed the beach because he worked with his team to make a town and to break it all up before the next team arrived. Daniel thought it was good fun because everything was exciting and everyone took part. Aaron like having the hot chocolate before bedtime…it was early good. The children who worked with Mrs Whitehead had fun too.  Jayden enjoyed the marshmallow activity. He made a tower of marshmallows and spaghetti, they were a bit wobbly but Imogen said she worked hard to make them stable. Abigail liked it when we had nice snacks and drink, Alicia made us cakes. Ellie liked it when Mrs Whitehead gave us optical illusions, they were fun. Catherine liked the money game to help people in Africa. Rohan enjoyed thinking how to spend one million pounds he would spend it on his family, including games and toys.

Welcome to the start of a new school year whether you are already part of The Hills family, or new the school. We value strong home-school cooperation and we appreciate having such supportive parents and guardians who are interested and involved in the life of the school in so many ways. We value open communication among parents, pupils and teachers, and we believe the opportunity to work closely together enables our pupils to thrive and maximise their achievement. September’s  value - cooperation Over the next few weeks staff will explore the value of cooperation in lessons and assemblies. Please highlight good cooperation when you see it at home too. Once upon a time there was a little drop of water who dreamed of becoming a snowflake and turning the landscape white. Years passed, and then there was a great drought which evaporated the little drop from the lake where he lived. When he reached the sky, he became part of a small cloud. As soon as the weather turned cold, the little drop looked for a nice bit of countryside where he could fall, and help cover the place in snow. But only a little bit of snow fell, and as soon as it touched the ground, it melted. And there the little drop had to remain, waiting for the sun's rays to shine again, and send him back up to the clouds. When the sun shone, the little drop drifted back into the sky once more, turned to snow again, and down he fell. Again, just after landing, he melted. This happened several times. Finally, the little drop went and joined a great big cloud, where millions of other drops had crowded together. Despite being gigantic, conditions in that cloud were rather uncomfortable. A few of the drops were ordering everyone else around, making them squash up together. A friendly drop explained they were preparing for a big snowfall. "All of us love being snow and covering the land for days; that's why we've all gathered together. Years ago I tried doing it on my own, but I learned I couldn't manage it without help. I found this nice cloud, where we all help each other a little. And thanks to our teamwork, we've made some of the best snowfalls ever!" A little later, both drops were flying down through the sky, surrounded by millions and millions of other beautiful snowflakes, turning the green fields white. And with great joy, our little drop realised that when everyone worked together they could achieve what had at first seemed impossible.

Another busy week! On Monday we were looking at persuasive writing in our literacy lesson. We had to plan and write a letter to year three pupils who may be a little bit worried about starting year 4. The letter we wrote was trying to persuade the children that year 4 is awesome by telling them some of the cool stuff that we have had a go at this year. Tuesday we went swimming for our survival skills Holly said that we had to wear our pyjamas and use a four pint milk bottle as a float which seemed a bit strange in the pool, we also had to shout for help which was noisy but great fun! Wednesday was a massive day for us as it was our Transfer Day.  We went to our new middle schools; we met our new teachers and our classmates. Durell said they made name cards so that the teacher could learn their names. Everyone challenged the teacher to learn all their names by the end of the day.” At lunchtime we had the chance to make new friends and we played with lots of new people” said Mohammad. On Thursday we were learning to try and improve our skills and techniques in athletics which was fun. Tyrel’s favourite event was javelin and he said that he threw it miles and miles! The class also had to perform their Africa, Africa dance which they had performed so superbly during the Grandparents’ Afternoon. Friday was mega busy as we have started to rehearse for the Leaver’s Assembly which is less than two weeks away ‘aahh’. It was hard work but great fun; we need more work but will be ready come the ‘big day’.

On Monday we took a step back in time, we travelled back to the 1940’s to learn more about the lives of the evacuees in World War 2, we even dressed as 1940’s children.  We met an air raid warden who guided us through the day.  The warden put us into evacuee groups,  one was for children who had a brother or sister over the age of 16, another was for if you had a brother or sister that were not old enough for school, there was an only child group and a school age brother and sister group.  Durell explained that this would have really happened in the war, he would have been in the group with the young children as he has a four year old brother.  He would have been responsible for his younger brothers and sisters if he’d been alive at this time; this made him feel very grown up.  Esmehan liked it when the warden showed the water pump that was used to put out the fires, at the end of the day  the class got to take the pump outside to test it out.  One person had to pump the lever up and down while the other person aimed the hose.  Lara said ‘it was super cool!’ Elliot explained that we even got to look at bombs, luckily they were not live! We had a science afternoon on Wednesday.  Charley particularly liked the experiment when we had to mix together water, PVA glue, food colouring and borax… when we mixed all the ingredients together the chemical reaction made slime!!  We also spent some time with some hovercrafts.  Our challenge was to sit on the machines one at a time, someone then had to push us and we had to turn of the hovercraft so we stopped as close to the line as possible.  Lewis had an amazing time; he managed to stop the machine right on the line! Thursday was art day in 4T, we made our own animation clip in the style of ‘Morph’.  Our challenge was to design an animation strip with 15 pictures then we got to make the actual people and furniture, out of plasticine. We then made our background out of card.  After we had made the scenery and characters we filmed our animation.  Oliver D’s animation was about a koala singing in a hot tub!!! 4T really enjoyed performing a dance at Grandparents Afternoon; it was so lovely to see so many Grandparents at The Hills! After such a busy week 4T are looking forward to a nice relaxing weekend.  See you next week.