Year 4: Toothtastic!

Our History lessons were great fun this week as we continued our exploration of Highgate Cemetery. The children used their research skills to find answers to a range of questions which will give them a good foundation for understanding why Highgate Cemetery was built. For example, ‘Why was the “London Cemetery Company” developed’ and ‘Who was the first burial at Highgate Cemetery?’. They presented their brilliant answers to their peers.

Our next lesson focused on the range of symbols which can be found in the cemetery and why these were chosen for specific gravestones. The children went into our hall and were asked to match the names and meanings of symbols to the pictures around our room. Then they drew their own in their books, thinking about why people might have chosen specific symbols according to their jobs, interests or achievements.

In Science this week, Year 4 have been learning about the different types of teeth and their functions. We learned the names of our teeth using the mnemonic ‘I Can Pour My Water’; Incisors, Canines, Premolars, Molars and Wisdom teeth. The children used mirrors to find these in their mouths. Then, we explored why we have these 5 different types of teeth using bread. We created an imprint in our bread to see the shapes our teeth made; recognising that our incisors created thin lines while molars created thick dents on the bread. Next, we tore off a piece and ate it; discussing the different teeth we used to do this.

In our next lesson, we began to think about how we could answer the question ‘what causes tooth decay?’. The shells of eggs are made from calcium so we used these to represent our teeth. We planned fair tests to compare the effect of five different liquids on the eggs. In three days we will check these liquids to see if the eggs have changed.