Year 4- Focusing on natural disasters

Year 4 have been busy becoming Geologists and have thoroughly enjoyed their time learning about a range of Natural Disasters. They have planned, investigated and carried out a range of controlled disasters that have captured their imaginations and encouraged them to continue their learning at home.

In English, the theme continues and Year 4 was thrown into a world of avalanches, earthquakes and tsunamis. We have been grabbed by devastating waves hiding themselves as blue ballerinas with strength greater than an army. Along the way, we have developed our knowledge of personification, similes and metaphors enabling us to write captivating and powerful tsunami poems that capture the reader's imagination.

The Hotel Rigopiano avalanche intrigued us so much, we just had to find out more. We researched how an avalanche occurs and the two different names for the snow fall. Luckily for us, we had the opportunity to read a real life diary extract from an avalanche survivor. We identified their emotions and the key features of a diary entry. This inspired us to write our own diary entries imagining we were either trapped inside Hotel Rigopiano or rescuing someone trapped. Year 4 have worked so hard in their English this half term and they should be incredibly proud of themselves. Keep up the good work!

In Humanities, we have been exploring Natural Disasters in a practical way. A highlight of the term was creating our own tsunamis complete with model houses and boats. We had great fun building a shoreline with newspaper and mud before going outside and creating huge tsunami waves which had devastating consequences. We also challenged the children to design and create an earthquake proof building using spaghetti and marshmallows which we then analysed to identify which buildings were stronger and why. This practical learning really helps to embed their learning at a deeper level as well as being enormous fun !!