3/4Elm   Learning Update

Central idea: History has changed the distribution of resources and ideas.

Our first line of inquiry has been focused on ancient civilisations. Specifically, the class has been learning about the Shang dynasty of ancient China. We have learnt about how the Shang used bronze to make tools and weapons and jade for jewellery. They lived along the Yellow River, which allowed them to grow crops and build bigger settlements, and used the river for trade.

In maths, the class has been working on measurement and perimeter. This has come in handy for the Year 3s in particular during science, when they measured the distance a car could move along different surfaces; they had to use rulers to measure the distance.

Our class reader, Tilly and the Time Machine, has proved extremely popular and we are already nearer the end than the beginning. So far, Tilly has blown up her garden shed with fireworks, met Admiral Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar, scored a goal in the 1966 World Cup final, and made friends with a young chimney sweep in Victorian London.

Our art this module is about painting. We are investigating the American artist Jim Dine, who uses motifs and a wide variety of colours to produce his art. We looked at some of his work and explained what we liked or disliked about it, the mood it produced and the style of the brushstrokes. We then used water colours to produce a colour wash. We will be using skills learnt in lessons and inspiration from Jim Dine's work to create our own paintings - watch this space!