Later in the week we developed our quick sketching and painting skills, taking inspiration from a selection of Rockwell’s paintings. We planned how the subject of the painting would be positioned (carefully thinking about how body language can show emotions) and the background, exploring our school grounds. Using clay we made models to create our favourite poses.

After planning our poses and backgrounds we took photographs as Rockwell did. We put these images into an AI program which transformed our images into the style of Norman Rockwell’s paintings. We then used these images to paint our own pieces. They looked incredible!

During our English lessons we started the term writing diaries based on the book the Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney.

In our history lessons we learnt about the ancient Maya civilisation and the challenges they faced when they settled in Mesoamerica, the importance of cocoa, how they believed the world was created and what historians think caused their decline using artefacts and evidence.

The second half of our English moved to non-fiction texts. As we had been so engaged in our history learning about the ancient Maya, we made our own mini-books using the facts and information we collected.

In Maths, we have been strengthening our learning of multiplication and division, applying these skills to a range of problems to build fluency. We used a range of strategies, including exchanging using a hundred, tens and ones charts. We have been preparing for the Year 4 multiplication check by completing written multiplication grids at the start of each Maths lesson and daily ‘sound checks’ on TTRockstars.

During our science lessons we investigated how sound travels using vibrations. We completed an investigation to find out how the volume of sound changes depending on distance using decibel readers. We also learnt about pitch and how the speed of sound waves changes the pitch of a sound. 

In DT we moved on to wearable technology and product design, using CAD programmes to represent our designs that met the criteria we set.