Dear Parents and Carers,
Hope you are all well. This half term has flown by and amazingly we now only have three
weeks to go before the (whisper it) Christmas Holidays.
We've had a few visitors over the past two weeks and we have continued to make excellent
progress.
In English we have written, edited and published our short narrative based on the short film
Ruin. There was some incredible descriptive language as well as suspenseful cliff hangers.
In Maths we have completed our work on fractions and have nearly completed our work on
shape after looking at symmetry and the triangle family. We still have to look at perimeter in
shapes.
In Geography we had Hannah from OSES visit to work with us on our geographical skills of
orienteering. The course involved following a map of the school grounds and finding various
facts about the amazing rainforest or a deciduous forest as we have in England. The children
had to learn these facts before being quizzed by Hannah. In the second session we looked at
Rainforest survival skills by working in teams to build dens. The children did brilliantly in
some very windy conditions.
For careers day we learnt about the career of being an optician or optometrist. We were
visited by Dr Peter Frampton, Sam and Debbie from Aaron Optometrists. They told us all
about what it's like to be an optician, how they trained and how opticians pay relates to the
average wage in Britain.
In Computing, we have been looking at programming using the programme Logo. This is a step
on from the previous unit on Scratch Jr and Beebots that the children learnt about in previous
years.
Finally, in RE we have been looking at the Hindu festival of Diwali. We looked at the story of
Rama and Sita as well as why Hindu people pray to the goddess Lakshmi.
First, I just wanted to say a huge thank you to all parents that attended the Parent Teacher
Interviews on Wednesday. It was fantastic to get the chance to tell you how well your children
have settled into life in Year 4. Also, thank you to everyone who attended the Harvest
Performance. All the children did a fantastic job of learning their lines at home, it made
everything run so much easier in the classroom. I have to say how impressed I have been by
children taking responsibility for their learning. Finally, before I recap our learning over the
past two weeks, I just wanted to wish you all a very happy and restful half term break.
In English, the children have been looking at the performance poetry of Joseph Coelho. We
have performed a variety of his poems including ‘A Little Bit of Food’ and ‘The Gingerbread
Man’. We have also identified some of the vivid imagery that Joseph Coelho included in his
poem Miss Flotsam we then used this to create some artwork based on the images we could
imagine. In reading, the children also completed reading The Witches by Roald Dahl. It was a
hefty 320 words, so the children have done brilliantly to get through it in a half term and they
thoroughly enjoyed it.
In Maths, the children have continued to make very pleasing progress in their CLIC sessions.
The main parts of the lesson have focussed on the introduction of column multiplication and
short division.
In Art, the children really enjoyed our ‘Art Day’ on Thursday and Friday afternoon. The
children used different grades of pencil to investigate tone and how tone can be used to
create 3D shapes. They drew sketches of ribbon to practice this skill. We also used charcoal to
create a picture focussing on using tone as well as proportion. Finally, we ‘drew with scissors’
by creating collages.
In Science, the children have learnt to apply their knowledge of classification keys and closed
questions to plants. We also completed our end of unit assessment.
In History we have been studying leisure time for children in the Tudor and Victorian era and
how this compared to the modern era. This included looking at how Tudor fairs compared to
Victorian fairs.
Week Beginning 9th October
This week…
Dear Parents and Carers,
I hope you are all well. I can’t believe Year 4 are now approaching the last couple of weeks of our first half term. The time is flying by. I just wanted to say a huge thank you to all parents who have either attended the parent information sessions over the past two Fridays or they came to the reading session on Wednesday.
In English, the children have been making great progress in writing a persuasive leaflet with conjunctive adverbs. As we are reading Roald Dahl’s The Witches, we have been writing a leaflet to try and persuade young witches to sign up for the Grand High Witch’s Academy.
In Maths, the children have been making excellent progress in their CLIC sessions and the main part of the lessons have been focussing on column addition and subtraction. The children have shown some good resilience especially when faced with the prospect of making exchanges. Homework this week is based around this. The 2d-2d work is non-negotiable but I have also included a bonus homework sheet of 3d-2d questions if the children want to complete extra work. The children are also really getting into Times Table Rockstars and we are already seeing some real improvement in their heatmaps.
In Science we have started to look at grouping plants. We looked at the differences between flowering and non-flowering plants. We discussed the difference between evergreen and deciduous trees and then found examples of these along with ferns and conifers in our school grounds.
In French the children have been learning to read and say sentences about the different seasons.
In History we have been studying why Lord Shaftsbury was such a significant individual in helping to improve the lives and working conditions that children had to experience in the Victorian Era.
Finally, in Computing, the children have been practicing their basic skills including playing typing games to help improve how easily they can use a QWERTY keyboard.
I hope you are all well. It has been, as usual, a very busy couple of weeks in Year 4. The
children have continued to make a fantastic first impression on myself and Mrs Mallaburn. I
wanted to start by talking about the visit we had from Pearl of Africa Choir. The choir came to
school to teach the children some traditional African songs and how to play a drum. It was
amazing to see how quickly our class started to sing these songs and play some very catchy
beats.
In English, we have now written, edited and published our first big write of the year. The
children wrote a very pleasing recount of The Present and they looked at how they could
incorporate rhetorical questions and sentences that show, not tell the reader how they are
feeling.
In Maths, we have been continuing with our Big Maths CLIC sessions to start each lesson. We
have also been completing work on place value including finding numbers to 10,000 on a
numberline and finding 1, 10, 100 and 1,000 more and less of a given number.
In Science we have looked at using classification keys to sort animals. Children had to come
up with closed questions to separate a variety of different animals. This year our Science
work has been informed by White Rose Science materials to help support the planning and
delivery of Science across school. After only a few weeks, we are really seeing the benefit of
this in class.
In History we have been looking into how childhoods have changed over time. We have looked
at the concepts of continuity and change and looked what had changed and what had stayed
the same in schooling in Ancient Rome and the Victorian times. In our last lesson, we looked
at what it was like to be a child in Tudor times. We learnt why Tudor children would take on
apprenticeships and some of the different types of apprenticeships available to Tudor children
including glovers, fletchers and blacksmiths.
Finally, in PSHE we looked at how we can show good manners. The children worked in teams
to read through different scenarios and write down a list of tips on how they could show good
manners in each situation. The children then presented this to the class.
Year 4 News
This week beginning...11th September 2023
Dear Parents and Carers,
As this is the first newsletter of the academic year, I would just like to say Welcome to Year 4! It has been a brilliant start to the Autumn Term. We have been very busy getting to grips with our learning. The children’s behaviour so far has been impeccable and I am incredibly excited for all the learning opportunities the children have coming their way this year. As always, any questions or problems, don’t hesitate to catch me at the start or end of a day or send me a message on Class Dojo.
In English, to get back into the swing of writing, we have started to work towards writing a diary entry based on the short animation The Present by Jacob Fray. The children have explored the story by making predictions and summations. They have also used drama activities to get into the mind of the character and think about their thoughts and feelings.
In Maths, we have introduced Big Maths to the children which is our new scheme of work. The children are currently learning about place value of thousands including where to find these numbers on a number line.
In Science we have looked at what makes vertebrates including why mammals are different from birds and fish etc. We have also looked at invertebrates and the differences between insects, spiders and soft bodied invertebrates.
In PE the children had an excellent first swimming lesson as well completing a Commando Joe session based on the explorer Levison Wood. This session aims to build the children’s resilience and ability to work in a team (Ellington Champion Values). The children had to use pipes and other materials to transport water from one bucket to another.
A great start to the year. Well done, everyone!