We finished the very interesting book “Letters from the Lighthouse” this week and several mysteries were cleared up. Next week will we start reading “The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe”.
It was very exciting to see the works of art on display in the hall. If you purchased one, I’m sure it has pride of place in your home.
The season for athletics has arrived and the children had a great time running holding their arms in different positions – by their sides, for example – to understand the benefit of the pumping arm action when trying to run as fast as you can.
We are nearly at the end of our learning about the Anglo-Saxons and we are evaluating what remains of Anglo-Saxon culture and society today.
Our Maths topic is now money, which has become nearly redundant for lots of people! So any opportunity to use and count would really help your child’s Maths development.
I’m attaching the photos which I didn’t do before the half-term holiday.
I hope you have an enjoyable – and sunny! – weekend.
With best wishes
Katharine Gibbons
Sunshine at last!
Year 4 really enjoyed being outdoors this week – to bounce, on Wednesday. Thank you for your generosity in sponsoring the children. They all loved the activities, moreso for remembering them from last year so they looked forward to them with anticipation. The teamwork was improved from last year, as they guided each other across the chequer board. I took lots of photos of this and other activities this week, but forgot to upload them when at school (and to post this). Apologies for this: I’ll put them up next time I’m at school, where the i-pad is.
Year 4 loves their science and this week were fascinated to see what effect water, milk, coca-cola and orange juice had on an egg, which was a stand-in for a tooth. Can they tell you what they observed happened to the egg; and what conclusions they drew from this, in terms of the effects on teeth? And also the successful and less successful aspects of using an egg instead of a tooth.
I’ve been very impressed with the children’s understanding of the digestive system and their memory for the parts of the system – spelling oesophagus is a bit harder than saying it! But everyone could do the latter and had very good goes at achieving the former.
Rounders is a fantastic outdoor summer sport and this week the children were developing their tactics – when is it best to run and when to stop at a base, for example. We were a spectator sport for the nursery children and parents at the Pentecost party who looked like they were having a great time.
I can’t post any pictures of the careful paintings the children have done as these need to be a surprise straight after school on Wednesday 7th June. The children focused very well, following the style of the painter.
We have a little more of “Letters From the Lighthouse” to finish before starting “The Lion, the Witch and The Wardrobe”. The children have been doing a lot of individual reading out loud and so their confidence and expression have improved. It’s a riveting story and we’re all very keen to find out what happens.
I hope you all have a very relaxing, enjoyable half-term break whether it’s at home or away and look forward to seeing everyone again for the last 6 weeks of the school year.
This week in year 4
As we’re well into this half-term, the children have really got to grips with learning in lots of different areas. They have really enjoyed planning and sketching their works of art for the art display after May half-term and learning more about Anglo-Saxon England. They have a passion for the detail involved in the digestive system so I think there are many budding doctors in the class! And also some journalists, judging by the informative articles about Howard Carter’s discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb which the children wrote. We are nearly there with correct direct speech punctuation. We attended a lovely Ascension Day service yesterday, where the children were impeccably behaved and sang beautifully. It was lovely to step out into what finally felt like spring, to worship at church. Sorry for no photos this week – the mini i-pad went to PGL.
Wishing you all a relaxing weekend and good luck with the various sports tournaments and competitions taking place.
Coronation preparations!
Year 4 and school is ready for the big day tomorrow. The children looked stunning, and very cheerful, in their red, white and blue. They drew beautiful illustrations for their display and today designed coins for King Charles and created flags. It was a shame that the weather wasn’t good enough for a proper picnic, but no-body wants a “soggy bottom” and the children enjoyed chatting and having their packed lunches together in the classroom.
As you’ll see from the home learning, one of the ways to help learn how to use apostrophes correctly is by using a “fortune-teller” activity, Some year 4 members show you how below.
We have finished reading “Weslandia” and will start “The Story of Tutankhamun” next week. We will also start learning about decimals.
I hope you all have a wonderful bank holiday weekend with your friends and families.
A creative week
Year 4 have been reusing their sewing skills learnt last year and have really enjoyed making book covers, with fasteners. They look beautiful and I was very proud of the independence and co-operation with which the children completed the task.
The class has also been very creative with their writing, as they started writing a brochure to inform the reader about the lands they have created, inspired by the fantastic book “Weslandia”. The children are now confident, writing interesting noun phrases and starting to use adventurous words from their own reading.
The children have prepared artwork for two different coronations next week – for the Crowning of Mary and for the coronation of King Charles III on Friday.
We have completed the learning about the duration of time and will begin decimals next week.
I hope you all have a very happy May Bank Holiday!
Year 4’s first week’s round-up
Welcome back and to the summer term! Year 4 were outside in the sun yesterday, starting the rounders which is one of this half-term’s PE topics. It’s been a short week, during which we started our new History topic “The Anglo-Saxons and Scots”, our new book “Weslandia” and are getting into the plot of “Letters From The Lighthouse”.
The new home learning grid is now on Google Classroom. One of the possible activities is to draw aspects of Anglo-Saxon life. It would be fantastic to have these ready for our History display as it always looks so much better with original artwork.
The TTRS leaderboard is looking amazing – year 4 pupils up at the top, where they should be! Keep up the practice.
Let’s hope the sun stays out this weekend and I hope you all have a great few days.
Happy Easter from Year 4
We’ve had a great week in year 4. Our Lent learning culminated in this week’s reflection and celebration today and the children’s understanding of the Lent season has deepened. Their contributions to the Liturgical Art competition were varied and stunning.
We very much enjoyed reading “Matchbox Diary” and will start “Weslandia” when we return. “The Lighthouse Letters” is already intriguing and we’re looking forward to continuing that after the holiday.
The “Rock Steady” children gave fantastic performances on Tuesday and the choir gave a rousing, beautiful performance today. A few more members of year 4 joined the choir recently and it would be wonderful to see more children doing the same. Joining in a song with a large group of people is a brilliant feeling.
Thank you for your support of your children this term, whether it be by buying cakes or helping with home learning or all the other positive, supportive things you do for your children and families. I wish you all a relaxing, enjoyable holiday whether at home or abroad and look forward to seeing you all again in late April.
Rocking the times-tables – and other learning in year 4
A wave of excitement rolled over year 4 this morning when we saw our classmates’ names topping the leader board in TTRS! And more names are appearing further down the leader board. Great job, year 4 – let’s give years 5 and 6 a run for their money. Keep playing Garage to improve your recall. Then, when your accuracy is there, play Studio and your status will improve.
This was after a lovely mass at St Barts, with years 3 and 4. Behaviour was impeccable and the children were a credit to all their adults.
Thank you to the original works of art which are coming in for the home learning/art competition. Each one is unique and, as a class, we are enjoying celebrating each creation.
The children also used their creativity to illustrate one station of the cross in watercolours, as part of our understanding of Good Friday.
As it’s the end of term, we’re finishing off the learning in topics. We have finished the chapter about fractions and next week will be learning about time, in particular the number of minutes in an hour, weeks in a year, etc. We will have lots of absorbing problems to get stuck into. We’ve all found learning about physical features of the earth such as volcanoes and rivers very interesting. We will start “Letters from the Lighthouse” next week, as our reading book.
Have a lovely weekend and let’s hope the rain stays away.
Fantastic Friday in Year Four!
We all hope you enjoyed year 4’s tribute to their wonderful grannies, aunties, mums, great-grandmas and other significant women in their lives. The words were created collectively and the children loved filling the room with happy voices in recognition of all that is done for them.
We are moving on with our learning in Lent. We have been thinking about the role of self-sacrifice in our lives, particularly during Lent but also in general. I haven’t sent a specific piece of Lent homework in the spring home learning grid, but please remember the Easter art competition. I’ve included some suggested scripture on Google Classroom.
The children’s understanding of fractions is developing very well, in little stages. I’ve been reminding them about the importance of pictures – diagrams – to show and develop understanding in Maths. Drawing the fractions as pizza/pie or as a bar model are very effective ways to problem-solve and also prove your answer.
We marked Science Week with an investigation involving carbon dioxide, leading on from the learning on states of matter. We found out that the hotter the water the more carbon dioxide is produced in a mixture of yeast and sugar. It was very exciting, as you can see. In one batch, the balloon split and so the gaseous liquid spread everywhere. Can your child explain this, thinking about how molecules in different states behave?
I hope you all have a lovely weekend. With the longer days (if not the temperatures) it’s starting to feel a bit springlike.
Year 4 week ending 10th March
Year 4 finished learning about “The Lion and The Unicorn” by writing their own versions of the story and used creative noun phrases to describe the scary night scene when their main character tried to run away. “Jack felt crushed, he made a decision. Stealthily, he packed his bags and snuck out the back door. Through the garden he weaved through the branches from the dead tree. After that, he scampered through the arch …”
Understanding about fractions is going well and the children are using complex terminology such as “improper fraction”.
The children supported Mrs Porter in her sponsored walk, not letting a bit of rain put them off.
Have a great weekend everyone.