Year 4

Term 1

This term, Year 4 have been learning about The Vikings.

In art we looked at the work of Winslow Homer and experimented with brush techniques to achieve different effects for the sea. This included dragging a stick through wet paint, wax resist with water colour, flicking paint and sprinkling powder paint onto wet paper. We were given the challenge to decorate four different sheets of paper using a mixture of these techniques. We then had to paint a sky for the background, thinking about the type of weather/atmosphere we wanted to portray. Finally we made Viking ships out of coloured paper and then made collages using our work.

Term 2

This term we have been learning about the Tudors. We researched Tudor fashion and found out about the clothes and colours of the clothes that the Tudors wore. Then we developed our drawing skills by experimenting with different drawing pencils to show texture and tone.

We found out that the HB pencils are good for drawing lines and the B pencils are good for shading. We also looked at using a rubber to show highlights.

We then got to choose Henry VIII or one of his wives and had to produce a detailed pencil portrait of them that we could turn into a stamp.  Finally, we photocopied our drawings onto coloured paper and used the zig-zag scissors to create the wavy lines around the edge of the stamp.

We could really see the progress that we made with our drawings throughout the term.

Term 3

This term we were given the challenge to design and build a ship that will hold the most cargo and sail across water without us touching it. We were told that at the end of term we would be testing the boats and would score up to 10 points for the amount of cargo it held, 10 points for how well it sailed and up to 5 points for how much it looked like Sir Francis Drake's ship 'The Golden Hind'. We had the choice of if we wanted to work independently, with a partner or in a small group.

Year 6 worked with us beforehand to teach us how to strengthen, stiffen and reinforce more complex structures during a separate whole school DT project.

At the end of term we got to test out our ships. It was great fun sailing them across the paddling pool and watching some of them sink! Mr Wood scored our ships on how well they sailed and how much cargo they held and Mrs Clarkson scored them on how much they looked like 'The Golden Hind'. Mrs Clarkson was impressed that some children had thought to add extra detail like ropes and rafts for emergencies and some children had noted that they needed three sails. Keep up the great work Year 4!

Term 4

We looked at some photos of ice sculptures made by Matt Chaloner from Glacial Art and thought about who would appreciate his artwork and whether or not we would want the artwork in our homes. As part of STEM week, we talked about the melting Polar Regions and thought about the skills needed to create an ice sculpture. We watched a video about how ice sculptures are created and then chiselled pieces of clay away to make polar bear sculptures. The following week we thought about form and space and used blocks of ice to create our own abstract ice sculptures. We decided that the sculptures would look effective piled up high and Oliver said that they would look good with different coloured lights shining on them. We decided to drip different coloured food dye over the sculpture for a similar effect and left it outside so that we could watch it melting and changing form throughout the day.