Computing

This afternoon, we became IT experts!

For our computer session we learned about how computers worked. We looked at the different symbols in a flow chart and how they are used.

  • Start/end – An oval represents a start or end point.
  • Arrows – a line is a connector that shows relationships between the shapes.
  • Decision – a diamond indicates a decision.
  • Process – a rectangle represents a process.

We used our knowledge to put together a flow chart for making a cup of tea… safe to say I will be avoiding some of them in class!

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Circuits Challenge

As you know, we did not get the chance to work practically when we learned about circuits at the end of Year 3.  So, we took the opportunity this afternoon to refresh our know about circuit diagrams, insulators and conductors as well as get our hands on the lovely circuits equipment that Mr Swallow bought.

 

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It’s Arcade Time!!!!

Our machines are built, we’ve wired up the buttons, the paint is dry (almost)…it#s time to open the arcade to the public.

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Work in progress…

Check out how our arcade machines are coming together…

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Welcome To Year 4!!!

Welcome back to school everyone!  Mr. Mathieson and I are very excited to be your teachers for this year.  We have lots of fun in store and know that you guys are going to work really hard for us.  Our first 2 days back are our transition days (these are normally the days you spend getting used to a new teacher and a new classroom).  However, because you already know Mr. Mathieson and me so well and know what we expect of you then we thought it would be a good opportunity instead to finish those arcade game projects we started at the end of Year 3!

 

Our bubble closures at the end of the school year meant that we have already designed and coded our own scratch games, as well as planned you our arcade machines could look.  Basically, we have completed a full topic, EXCEPT FOR THE BEST PART!!!!  Let’s put that right…our 2-day challenge is to have completed arcade machines READY to use, by TOMORROW AFTERNOON!!!!!

Here is one I did with Syd, in the holiday as a test run…

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Check out some of the portraits and even SIMS characters of the teachers we received!

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Lancelot digital artwork

We applied the pencil and ink line drawing techniques we learned in unit 1 to create our own portrait of Sir Lancelot, the heroic knight of the round table.

We let ourselves go crazy with sketching pencil, putting as many lines on the page as we wanted and re-doing lines that were not quite right over and over again.  When we were happy, we switched to ink and picked out only the best of the pencil lines, removing the rest with a rubber.

We used a combination of coloured pencil and coloured ink to create areas of light and shade in the portrait and then added bright highlights by removing patches of colour with the rubber (we wanted Lancelot’s sword and armour to glisten in the sun like it does in our poem!)

Then we got all digital…

Mr Swallow took photos of all of our art using an SLR camera.  We used several steps to then manipulate this image:

  • We imported the image into Paint and masked out any background from the character.
  • We copied the masked out character to the clipboard for use later
  • We used a google search to find a comic style background that complemented what we wanted our image of Lancelot to communicate.
  • We inserted the online image into word and then pasted our Lancelot cut out over the top.
  • We then used our ninja-like word skills to alter the position & colouring and remove any background colours to combine both pictures into our own, digital piece of artwork.
  • FINALLY, we added a direct quote from the poem that had inspired our idea of what Lancelot should look like in our artwork

Phew!  WE ARE GOOD!

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Our Birdwell maps

We used our local walk to redraw the ariel map of Birdwell as it actually is now…

We also learned some 3D drawing techniques to draw some of the places we saw from a ‘Street View’ perspective…Mr Swallow showed us how to use “vanishing points” (thats posh for 2 dots on the paper) and straight lines to draw buildings that got bigger as they got closer or smaller as they got further away.

We tried the technique ourselves and they are amazing for a first go at isometric drawing

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Our local walk

We took to the streets to investigate the differences between the ariel photographs of Birdwell that we have studied and the real Birdwell.  We spotted new houses that have been built, new businesses such as Aldi that have opened as well as the whole new commercial development near the motorway.

We mapped out the changes and took plenty of photographs as we went so we could make our own, up to date ariel maps of the village.

It was a bitterly cold day but we really enjoyed exploring.  We even had time to try our luck for a cup of tea at Charlie’s house!  What we noticed is that there are far more businesses in Birdwell than we realized and also that do live in a wonderfully green and natural location.

 

Stay tuned to see our Birdwell maps…

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Birdwell from above

As part of our topic, we have used a range of maps and atlas.  Next, we are going to see what Birdwell looks like from space using ariel photographs.

Can we use them to find our way around and describe what we can see?  Are the photos and up to date representation of our village?  Can we improve them?

 

Click the link to see BIRDWELL FROM SPACE…

Birdwell sat map

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We visited Year 5 to see what coding they have been learning

Year 5 have coded their own games on Scratch so we went to have a look and learn how to do it for ourselves.

Mr Swallow and his team gave us a crash course in coding basics and in no time at all we were moving characters around the screen, changing them colour and all sorts of clever things.

We then had a go at controlling a sprite on the screen using just a bunch of 🥕 carrots!!!!!! (Ask us about how it worked)

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