The End

Today is the last day of term and this is the last post on our Year 4 blog.

It's been an amazing project and I want to thank all of the children in Year 4 for their hard work, effort and enthusiasm whilst learning about the Titanic. We've had so much fun and learned a lot too. I am really, really proud of you all :)

Big thank you as well to Mrs Smith and Mrs Riaz for their help. Good luck in Year 5, children and keep working hard in your new class!

Super Homework

Have a little look at what Iman has made at home:

It's a cabin she made all by herself. It includes furniture, decoration a doll and a mini book called 'The Terrified Ship.' What do you think, don't you think she's worked hard?

Well done Iman, I know you've really enjoyed this project!

Our next mission . . .

Anyway, Year 4 had been learning a lot more about the Titanic and making their posters, small hall display and postcards. BUT . . . we hadn't had another mission! It had been a few days and we hadn't had another envelope of instructions delivered. Mrs Hilton said we had to be patient (something we're not always great at!) and keep our eyes open.

Sure enough, on Tuesday we had another envelope delivered to our classroom. We were so excited, this is what it said:

The Titanic is one of the many tragedies that have happened at sea.

Your Special Mission - should you choose to accept it - is to write a story about a disaster at sea. The story could be based on a true story or it could be one you have created.

The story should be presented in an exciting way for others to read.

The work you produce must be of a very high standard.

Good Luck.

Our imaginations were on fire straight away! We are really good at story writing and we had lots of ideas. Mrs Hilton said we could write about a real disaster or we could use mythical creatures like pirates and sea monsters. We got to work straight away, using all we have learned about what makes good writing. By Wednesday we had finished our books. Some of us even drew on a blurb, prices and bar codes to make them look realistic. What do you think?

Titanic Challenges

Year 4 have been hard at work for the last few days, learning more about the Titanic and creating lots of interest areas around the class room. Our biggest challenge so far this week was when Mrs Cunningham asked all classes to decorate the small hall in school with some work. Of course, we chose Titanic! Mrs Hilton said we could make another small Titanic and use the netbooks to publish some of our poems and newspaper reports. Here are some pictures:

This week we have also been doing lots of other Titanic activities. We made postcards, persuasive posters and we've been reading lots more about some opf the Titanic characters like Molly Brown, Mr Astor and the Duff Gordons.

Why not visit our class room next week to have a look?

Thank you!

A huge thank you to everyone who has posted positive comments on our blog. The children in Year 4 have worked exceptionally hard so far and we have all enjoyed checking up on our blog every morning and reading your work. We are so proud of you all, children. Keep going!

Our target for website hits this week was 500. As I type, it's now 4pm and we have 627! WELL DONE! Let's see if we can set a new target for next Friday. What should we aim for do you think?

Mission 3 Complete!!

Year 4 have been working extremely hard this week - as they had another mission delivered! This time it came in 2 parts for security reasons . . .

On Monday, we received instructions to make a poster showing life aboard the Titanic for the different passengers. They split into 5 teams and each team was responsible for researching and making a poster for: 1st class, 2nd class, 3rd class, officers and lower deck crew. Here are our posters - can you believe how much information we found out? Even Mrs Hilton was astounded by some of the fascinating facts we uncovered! -

Then on Thursday something even better happened. We received a set of activity cards, delivered in a secret envelope, asking us to use our knowledge to make a cabin for a real passenger on Titanic! We were amazed but we knew we could do after raising the Titanic on the wall by ourselves!

We stayed in our teams and used shoeboxes and collage materials to design and furnish the cabin. We all wanted things like gold paint and silky material but we knew we had to use our research and make them as accurate as possible. We made a huge mess but Mrs Hilton said it was ok as we had our painting aprons on!

Here are our cabins. What do you think?

Second class cabin, belonging to Mrs Ade Ball, a real life survivor of the Titanic:

Cabin of Mr and Mrs John Jacob Astor in First class:

The cabin of an officer, Captain Smith (who came from the Midlands!):

 Cabin for a lower deck crew member:

A third class cabin for Mr Jacob, Mr Ristuto and Mr Peter Edwin Andreasson, real life third class passengers:

Another Mission delivered!

Year 4 were on top of the world - they had completed mission one and raised the Titanic! Then on Thursday, there was another strange delivery! We knew what it was immediately, another mission!

In it we were asked to think of ways we could show some of the facts we were starting to know (and we already know A LOT!) about the Titanic. Most of us agreed we should make a fact file or book of some kind. We got into groups straight away. This was great as we got to work with children we normally wouldn't sit by in Literacy. Some of us were good drawing, writing or researching on the net books. We had a great time looking on the Internet and in books to see what we could find.

By Friday afternoon our fact files were finished. We thought the covers looked fantastic and really eye catching. We even managed to find out about other ships like the Lusitania, the Olympic and the Britannic. Do you know anything about these ships? If not, come to our room and read our fact files!

Here are some pictures of us doing our research. Mission 2 - accomplished!!

PS Our role play area has been turned into the White Star ticket office. We are open during school hours if you want to buy a ticket for Titanic. But remember, it leaves port at midday!!



11th June 2012: Our first mission!

Year 4 came back to school today, really happy after their half term holiday! We had fun learning some new songs in violins and cellos. Then, when they came back in after morning break, something strange had happened in the classroom . . .

On their desks were a notebook and a file. There was also a Secret Agent badge for each of them. We were all so excited but also a little confused. Who sent us these things? And did it have something to do with the mysterious mission?

Then the girls noticed something else. There was ANOTHER LETTER on Mrs Hilton's chair!!

Inside was a letter and this is what it said:

"Your Special Mission - should you choose to accept it - is to rewind history and raise an unsinkable ship from her watery grave. The Titanic must be somehow be rebuilt in all her splendour and your classroom should be transformed into a place where her story comes back to life.

For your mission to be successful, agents will:

-work together
-share resources
-complete tasks to a high standard

This mission is top secret.

Good luck."

We all immediately started chatting and it turns out we already knew a little about the Titanic. Some of the boys remembered that it sank in 1912 - that's 100 years ago or a century! Some of us knew that the Titanic hit an iceberg as well. We wrote down all the things we already knew.

In the afternoon, we split into 4 teams and began to complete our mission. Group 1 made the sea, group 2 made the hull, group 3 made the windows and rigging and group 4 made the funnels. It took us 3 hours altogether and we were so proud when it was finished. Mrs Hilton, Mrs Riaz and Mrs Smith let us work out what to do and how to use the resources ourselves. We made sure everyone had a job in our team and that we all listened to each other. By Tuesday afternoon we had raised the Titanic in our classroom! What do you think of our work?

We had so much fun working together and helping each other and Mrs Hilton is really impressed at how much we did by ourselves! At the moment we are so proud as this is all our own work. All of the problems were solved and all of the decisions were made by us. Can you believe it?

1st June 2012: A mysterious delivery . . .

On Friday 1st June, Year 4 were celebrating the end of term, when there was a mysterious knock at the door It was Miss Fox, saying there was an urgent parcel Mrs Hilton had to sign for at the office. When Mrs Hilton returned to the classroom, this was what she had in her hands:

It was a a package asking them to join in a secret Mission!!! The letter said:

"You are formally invited on a Special Mission starting on Monday and lasting exactly 6 weeks. The details of the mission remain Top Secret and will only be revealed to the agents in Year 4 when the mission is launched.

The launch of this mission will be messy, involving lots of paint and glie. Agents should therefore come to school with an apron or painting shirt.

This mission is only assigned to Year 4.

All agents will be issued with equipment to help you complete the secret mission successfully.

No other information can be provided at this time.

Good luck. "

We were so excited and talked about who could have sent the letter (we wondered if it was from the Queen as we were celebrating the Jubilee that day!) We couldn't wait to hear more about our amazing mission. Mrs Hilton told us to keep our eyes and ears open when we came back after the half term holiday . . .