Year 4 News
Dear Parents and Carers,
I hope you are all well, it has been a super busy but very enjoyable March and the children have been making fantastic progress across all areas of the curriculum. It’s all very exciting here as we are building up to our residential that we leave for on Wednesday. We also had a fantastic trip to Lilidorei to celebrate World Book Day.
In Reading, the children have loved reading Varjak Paw. We are now three quarters of the way through the story and things are getting tense. The children have completed lots of comprehension activities in their books but have also worked together to create freeze frames that represent various scenes from the story.
In Writing, we have now planned, written and edited our monologue discussing the thoughts and feelings of Philippe Petit as he tightrope walked between the Twin Towers in April 1974. We re-enacted walking the tightrope to help us get into the mind of Petit as he began his walk hundreds of feet up in the air. We have worked to include interruptions, rhetorical questions, adverbs and subordinating conjunctions in our work. The books were recently moderated by another school and the teacher could not believe how good the standard of children’s writing was so well done everyone!
In Maths, we have learnt to read grid references and coordinates. The children learnt to plot coordinates and even drew their own first quadrant. We have now started to look at amounts where we have converted Kilometres into meters and read thermometers with different scales.
In History, we have now completed our unit on the Anglo-Saxons asking How Hard Was it to Invade and Settle in Britain? As part of this, we learnt about the three Christian Missionaries: St Columba, St Augustine and St Aidan. The children researched each missionary before recording a video podcast all about them. We have also learnt about bias that can be found in sources of evidence.
In PSHE, we have had a brilliant careers week. We have focussed this week on the Emergency Services Sector where we have learnt about the four emergency services and have been visited by Sarah, a very inspirational paramedic. The children loved getting to see the ambulance and all the equipment that Sarah carries with her to different jobs. As part of PSHE we have also learnt about safety near railways and at line crossings through the company Switched On.
Year 4 News
Unbelievably we are now reaching the halfway point in the Year! I wanted to say a big well done to lots of the children who have really been putting the effort into learning their times tables which as we know is a vital piece of learning for year 4. The Multiplication Tables Check in June is fast approaching but we have increased our class average score from 15 to 19 out of 25 which is getting very close to our target of 21 out of 25. Keep up the good work!
In English we have now completed our unit on Arthur and the Golden Rope by Joe Todd Stanton. The children wrote some excellent newspaper reports detailing how Arthur Brownstone saved the day. The children ensured they included a headline, by line, orientation, main body and reorientation. In preparation, the children planned and presented a Newsround style news report which they did brilliantly. Scan the QR codes below to watch some examples.
In Maths, the children have now completed their work on fractions and decimals. The children have been able to add and subtract non-unit fractions, find fractions of amounts, multiply unit fractions by a whole number, count in tenths and round numbers with one decimal place to the nearest whole number.
In Religious Education, we had our RE day focussing on Hinduism. The children looked at the idea of reincarnation and how a good life can allow hindus to reach Moksha. They also looked at what it is like to be a Hindu living in Britain today. This included looking at festivals including Holi and Diwali, we focussed on Diwali by looking at the morals that can be learnt from the story of Rama and Sita finally, we virtually visited a Mandir (the Hindu version of a church).
Finally, on Thursday, we had Art day where children investigated mixing tints and tones and used these in their paintings to create a 3D effect. We also looked at different painting techniques including stippling before creating compositions of objects to then paint using our new skills.
Year 4 News
Dear Parents and Carers,
First of all, I want to wish you all a very happy new year. As always we have been working incredibly hard in all subjects whilst starting some new units of work. We also have our residential coming up in the not too distant future, so please keep an eye out for an email with the date of the parent’s information evening.
In English, we have now completed our first unit of the Spring Term looking at poetry. We were inspired by William Blake’s poem Tyger to write poems about an animal. We identified various features of poems including rhyme scheme, repetition and stanzas before focussing on figurative language. The children helped to plan their poems by writing sets of similes, metaphors and examples of alliteration that they then incorporated into their poem. In Reading, we have started reading Varjak Paw by S.F.Said, the children loved hot seating the role of Elder Paw during a family council meeting.
In Maths, we have completed our work on amounts including measures by looking at converting meters to kilometres. We also worked on measuring mass by reading scales to the nearest 5 grams. This included working with decimal notation which was new for the children with the exception of working with money.
We have completed a good number of science investigations since we returned to complete our unit on States of Matter. The children made close and careful observations to time how long it took ice to melt in warm compared to cold water. The children had to use stop watches and thermometers to see how the ice effected the temperature of the water. In addition, the children planned and conducted a very challenging investigation that looked into how air temperature could affect the rate of the evaporation of water. We found that water evaporated much quicker when the temperature of the air was hotter (above a radiator) compared to when it was at room temperature or in the fridge. We actually found next to no evaporation happened when the water was in the fridge.
To support the school’s efforts to increase the biodiversity of the school grounds, Year 4 were very lucky to work with The Great Northumberland Forest organisation. Kristen, Tin and Tony came into school for two days to plant new hedgerows around the perimeter fence next to the park and new trees to supplement the wooded area next to the MUGA. Year 4 helped to plant part of the new hedgerow that was made up of cherry and willow trees and they placed plastic tubes over the young plants to provide support and protection for the next five years until they can survive without it.
In PSHE we have been looking at celebrating our mistakes and recognising that we can learn from them. In addition, we have been thinking about careers, and how you need to have the necessary skills to be able to complete the role. We thought about roles in school like Peer Mentors and identified the skills required to be successful.
