Friday, 21st October 2022

It has been another busy week in Year 4. On Monday, the children carried on learning new stances and kicks in Karate, whilst also launching One World Week, where our focus country was the Philippines. The children looked at atlases, satellite images, globes and maps to locate the island country before learning about its major cities, languages, its population and religion.

On Tuesday, we answered our key question, ‘Why do people go to pilgrimage to the Philippines’? We watched video clips about a beautiful church near Manila, The National Shrine of Our Mother of Perpetual Help also known as the Baclaran Church. We researched the special icon of Mary with baby Jesus on her arm that is displayed in the temple and listened to devotees explaining its healing powers. We have later written our own prayers to the Divine Mother.

On Wednesday, we baked Philippine butter biscuits in the morning whilst also looking at local, handcrafted Filipino household objects, ornaments and jewellery, inferring what they tell us about the people and culture of the Philippines.  The children later tried their hands in paper weaving, recreating the national flag.

On Thursday, we went to our first class trip to the Epping Forest District Museum, where we participated in a Roman workshop, using artefacts found in a Roman villa and bathhouse in nearby Abridge. We acted as slaves to ‘Lady Julia’ preparing for a grand party, identifying Roman objects used in everyday life at around 80AD. The children dressed up and offered their objects to her explaining their use and relevance. We also toured the galleries of the museum, tracing Roman coins, playing Roman board games made out of sheep knuckles, digging for treasures on a tiny excavation site and moulding clay to create our own tiles.

Thank you for those of you who came to see me this week; it has been great to celebrate your children’s achievements. I hope you enjoyed visiting our classroom, as well.

I wish you a lovely and restful half term,

Ms Varga

Please keep up your reading during the holiday and update your reading record when possible. Also practice your multiplication tables using your TT Rockstars accounts.