Welcome to Bolton Class!

Academic Year 2023 - 2024

This web page is a fantastic way to keep up to date with lessons, activities and events in school.  Please check regularly for exciting updates!

Welcome to Bolton Class! 

We have a great deal of exciting learning planned for this year and this is the place to see what we've been up to. Each week, you will find pictures, children's work, newsletters and much more, sharing our successes. Please keep your eyes peeled for any updates!

Should you wish to contact us, please email:

s.liptrot@wistow.n-yorks.sch.uk or e.banks@wistow.n-yorks.sch.uk

Miss Liptrot and Miss Banks

Newsletters

Academic Year 2022-2023

To finish the last part of our Summer term, we are taking our inspiration from George's Marvellous Medicine. We will be working hard to develop our SPaG knowledge, and write to Entertain and Inform. You can find a pdf version of the book down below! Happy reading!

In PE this week, Bolton class have been continuing with choreographing their gymnastic routines in groups. The challenge this week was to complete a sequence of movements in synchronisation with the rest of the group and after a little practice the children demonstrated some fantastic routines. We realised this week that when moving in sync with others, eye contact and communication is very important to keep you on track and helps make the movements look slick and professional!

Bolton have been investigating Stone Age art this week!

Today, we went to find natural resources that Stone Age people would have used to create their cave art with, such as twigs, leaves and berries. We even used some ash from a fire! (After it had cooled down of course!)

Nextt, we experimented with the different materials in our sketchbooks and  tried transferring the colours on to our page in a range of different ways different ways.

We think that using natural resources was a great idea and we can’t wait to use them again to make our own paints next week!

🐝🧠⭐️🎨

Bolton class have been investigating how to change matter from a solid to a liquid.

Today, we conducted an experiment to observe how water temperature affects the states of matter of a chocolate button.

We made predictions about what we thought might happen, then began the experiment. 

We had 5 bowls with different temperatures of water and timed the melting rate of the chocolate button with stopwatches, then compared each time to come to a conclusion as to which temperature melted the chocolate the fastest.

🐝🧠⭐️🧪🍫🌡⏱

In computing this week, Bolton class have been exploring the versatility of digital devices. Today, we have looked at the best way to create artwork, and had to identify the pros and cons of working both digitally and non-digitally. 

We had 10 minutes to sketch an underwater scene by hand. We then used the iPads to create a digital version of our sketch in the same amount of time.

The class agreed that it was faster to draw digitally and it was good to be able to undo mistakes easily, but we did find it tricky to work on a small scale with just our finger!

🐝⭐️🧠💻🎨

Bolton class have been exploring prehistoric art work this week as part of our Stone Age topic. 

We looked at existing cave paintings and how they were drawn with simple shapes and lines, then had a try at creating our own!⭐️🧠🐝🎨

This week, Bolton class have been composing music based on a story!

We watched a video that had no sound, and we had to think about the action on the screen and how we could represent the emotion of the story using a variety of instruments. We had to consider the tempo, rhythm and dynamics of our piece, in addition to ensuring everyone used their instrument in the right place to create the desired effect.

We worked in small groups to compose music for a short part of the clip, then performed it as one continuous piece.

Video 1 shows the video clip with our composition rehearsal, and video 2 shows the final composition.

We think we did a great job and can’t wait to see what we will be doing next!
🐝🧠⭐️🎼🥁🎷

Bolton Class have had an exciting third week exploring “The Fruits of the Spirit”.

We worked with ladies from Wistow Church, who led us in harvest themed activities that incorporated the values God wants to see in his followers.

We worked our way around five differently themed tables, exploring a different fruit of the spirit through a craft activity, before joining together to reflect on what we had learned. We came away with so many creations, we needed storage boxes to carry them! 

When we returned to school, we explored the fruits more and discussed how we can demonstrate them in our daily lives.

We had such a great time, and look forward to seeing the stations again on Sunday in church! 

⭐️🧠🐝✝️🌾☮️🕊

Bolton class have had an action packed second week back, the timetable has been full and so are our brains! In writing, we’ve been investigating the features of a letter.

In maths, we have been consolidating our place value knowledge by partitioning numbers based on their value.

In science, we have continued investigating states of matter, this week : Gases!
We conducted an experiment which explored how heavy carbon dioxide is. We weighed fizzy drinks when they were sealed,  then compared their weight after they were opened for the first time. We discovered the more you shake a fizzy drink, the more carbon dioxide is released, which makes the drink go flat faster! 

In our first week back, Bolton class have been investigating states of matter in science lessons. 
We have sorted objects based on their physical properties, discussed the definition or each state, learned about particles and how they are distributed and act differently depending which state they are in.

Check out the video below, in which we expertly demonstrate how the particles in a solid, a liquid and a gas would move!

Academic Year 2021-2022

That’s a wrap!

Thank you for a fantastic year Bolton!

You’ve all worked so hard and made so much progress, I am so proud of you all.

Enjoy your summer, get plenty of rest and be ready to return in September to Byland Class!

For our marble jar reward in the last week of term we had a movie day! 
We emptied the classroom, got loads of sweets and enjoyed sitting back and relaxing.

After all of our hard work this year, it was definitely well earned!

This week we have been investigating how to create reflections in our artwork. Using images of the African savannah as a reference, we sketched portraits of elephants standing by water. We then used watercolours to blend together the correct colours for the reflections. It was tricky to sketch a reflection in water as ripples distort the image, but by using watercolours we were able to create the desired effect and our final products were brilliant!

In PE we have continued with our tennis coaching, this week learning how to catch and serve with increasing control. 

In RE, we have explored the origins of religious celebrations and how imagery plays a part in different ceremonies. We looked at the relevance of palm leaves in Easter celebrations, discovered the origin of the Easter story and created posters to welcome others to join in our festivities.

In our final class assembly, we had the chance to show our progress from our time in Year 4. Some children showed their handwriting progression, others showed their Egyptian music videos and some even demonstrated their gymnastic skills learned from PE. 

This week, in Bolton class we have been exploring coding and programming. We experimented with editing code to change the appearance of a character and designed a level of a game to our own specifications. 

This week, we have been exploring African patterns as part of our art lessons, linked to the ancient civilisation of Benin. African patterns often have a repeated design element and can be inspired by natural shapes and colours . We created our own African designs using stamps and paint, testing them out on paper before moving on to different textures and fabrics. 

This week, we have been creating animated stories using Keynote on the iPads. We included voice overs, sound effects, edited images and movement paths to bring our stories to life. When we had practiced our skills by retelling a traditional tale, we got to plan and animate our own ideas! 

This week, we have taken part in lots of different activities as part of sports week! We played cricket with Mrs Griffiths, played rounders in PE lessons and got to take part in a skipping tutorial with Dan the Skipping Man! 

This week, in science we have been exploring the human body. We worked together in groups to construct a skeleton, then using the knowledge we had gained, we labelled each bone. Some of the scientific names of the bones were very tricky to pronounce and spell, but we researched well and found the answers!

This week, we have created Fathers Day cards. We had a range of designs that we could use as references, some of us chose to draw our dads’ favourite things and some challenged themselves to add a 3D element to their design.

Bolton are loving their tennis sessions with Coach Sasha! This week we have learned how to serve correctly and got the chance to play each other in one to one matches to practice our skills.

This week Bolton Class have been investigating coding using kinetic devices in computing lessons. Using a ‘Makey Makey’ device, the children had to create a controller from unconventional materials that could control a game. They then created coding that relayed instructions from the controller to the game, in which they moved a character left to right and made it fire bullets at aliens. 

To celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, each class investigated a different decade And Bolton class were assigned the 90’s! 
 

We have explored important pop culture moments of the 1990’s, such as the rise of the Furby, the formation of the Spice Girls and the Royal Divorce!

On Jubilee day, we got to dress up in our best 90’s outfits - shell suits, clashing patterns and oversized accessories being the trends of the time! We had a great time celebrating and loved our royal outdoor picnic, even if it did rain the whole time we were outside!

In anticipation of sports day, Bolton class have been practicing athletic activities such as; relay race, three legged race and hurdles!

As part of our Jubilee celebrations, we created pencil sketches of The Queen using reference images.

we created a grid on our paper to ensure we drew in the correct proportion and added details to the appropriate areas.

Our sketches will be displayed at the front of school ready for the big day!

This week Bolton class had a very exciting visit to Leeds Museum! 
We started with a workshop where we shared all we knew about Ancient Egyptian history and had a try at mummifying a body - luckily it wasn’t a real one!

Then we got to explore the museums’ Egyptian exhibit and got to see a real life mummy which was nearly 4000 years old! After lunch, we had a look around the rest of the museum and saw lots of interesting artefacts from different eras in history. 

Bolton class have practiced their poetry skills this week in English lessons. We have investigated the rhyming and rhythmic patterns of haikus and limericks and even written some of our own!

This week Bolton class have been exploring food chains, investigating predators, prey and producers of different ecosystems.
 

This week in Bolton class we have been creating Canopic Jars out of clay. We designed our jar with hieroglyphic messages inscribed on them, and carefully decorated them in authentic Egyptian colour schemes.
 

This week in Bolton class, we have filmed music videos! In music lessons we have been writing lyrics for the song “We Are Egyptians!”, set to the tune of “We Will Rock You”. We created Egyptian headdresses to use as costumes as part of our home learning project, then we filmed scenes around school and edited them together using iMovie. 

This week we have been creating Easter cards. We looked a variety of reference images  to influence our designs and used colour washes, layered shapes and negative space to create our final product.

This week, Bolton class have been very busy with lots of learning! In maths we have been exploring finding fractions of quantities using manipulative. Hard work to start with but we soon figured out the method so we could be successful!

We have also had a class assembly to prepare for, where we shared what we have been learning about in our topic lessons. We had to write our own scripts and rehearse in partners. We were excellent at presenting our information clearly and concisely, and loved sharing our Egyptian song at the end of the assembly! 

This week, Bolton Class have been the victim of a crime! Pirates have broken in to the classroom and stolen our marble jar! We are putting our journalist hats back on and will be writing a newspaper article, outlining exactly what has happened so the public know to be vigilant!

This week, Bolton Class have been investigating the Egyptian journey to the afterlife. We found out there were lots of tasks to complete and hurdles to jump to finally get to the afterlife, but the most shocking fact was that the Pharaoh has to complete the same journey every single night!

This week, Bolton Class have been researching imagery in RE, observing artwork of Hindu gods and inferring what their role is in the religion by looking at the objects they are holding.

After returning from half term, Bolton Class have got straight back into their topic work, this time investigating the process of mummification! We had a try at the process ourself, but instead of a body we used a tomato!

In PE this half term, we have been practicing street dance! It was tricky to get our moves synchronised at first but we did such a great job! We practiced our choreography and even got to have a part of the dance to freestyle.

In PHSCE we have had a full day learning about what we can do to maintain a healthy lifestyle. We used the iPads and our new ‘Keynote’ skills to create an informative poster which outlines the many ways people can keep their mind and body healthy.

In Science this week, Bolton Class have been investigating air resistance through an exciting experiment, in which we ensured our test was fair and we had a range of variables to compile our results from. 
In PE, we have been exploring gymnastic movements, worked hard in small groups to choreograph a short, synchronised routine.

This week in RE, Bolton Class have been learning about gratitude, linking it to how Muslim’s show gratitude to Allah in different ways. We created a gratitude tree to share what we are individually grateful for.

In literacy, we have been inventing some ‘Cracking Contraptions’ for Wallace and Gromit. We brainstormed some machines that could solve every day problems and drew out blueprints of our design. We will be writing an explanation text to explain exactly what our machines do, so watch this space for the final product.

This week in Science, Bolton Class have been investigating friction through a series of experiments.

In literacy, we used iPads to create a final product of our newspaper articles. It was tricky to start with but we quickly got used to using ‘Keynote’ and produced some fantastic work.

This week, Bolton Class have been looking at the River Nile and researching why it was such an important part of Ancient Egyptian civilisation. We also had a closer look at the many Egyptian God’s and Goddesses and found out what their roles were.

This week, Bolton Class have continued exploring their new topic theme!

We started with the history of the Egyptian dynasty and created timelines of key events. We also discussed the concept of hierarchy, applying it to real world situations such as the hierarchy of the country and the hierarchy of our school.

In literacy, we have been investigating the key features of newspaper articles, deconstructing articles and analysing the purpose of each aspect of the text.

Bolton Class have been hooked into their new topic with an exciting session in which they have investigated and had a try at creating pyramids, writing in hieroglyphics and making sarcophagus’ from paper.

We have also begun reading ‘George’s Marvellous Medicine’ and had a try at completing their own rhyming magical medicine recipe!

Skara Brae!!

We have been learning about the Stone Age. Have a look at our videos about Skara Brae (a Stone Age settlement) which was discovered in Scotland, in 1925.