Mrs Gibbons

Trying to keep cool in year 4 this week!!

To say it was “a hot one” this week in year 4 would be the understatement of the year. But we took it easy and completed lots of essential settling-in and assessment tasks. Thank you for sending in favourite books on Tuesday. The children have made the classroom much more “their own”, as you’ll see on Thursday, at “meet the teacher”. They are rising to the year 4 expectations very well, moving round the school responsibly and engaging in conversations about figurative language, for example, with interest.

Hopefully, Westminster Lodge will have sorted out the floor problem next week and swimming will resume on Thursday.

We are reading a powerful book, which is in the form of a poem, called “the Undefeated”. The children worked in groups to present the poem to the class, choosing their own techniques. Some photos of them should be below.

This week’s home learning has been posted. It focuses on key skills and providing opportunities for your child to get into good routines to master these.

Happy summer year 4!

I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing the learning your children have done in their books which they brought home this week. This week started with their final biscuits and continued with finishing off: they particularly enjoyed the science learning about habitats.

Today was a very relaxing day. The children chose to use various computing packages they’ve been learning and had fun doing this. After play they had ice-creams outside, actually in the sunshine which was lovely. It was a sticky, sweet mess which everyone enjoyed. It was great seeing the children playing and chatting with their friends.

Year 4 and I have been together for four full terms, including a day a week for a term and a half before that. This included the unusual transition from the remaining Covid restrictions back to normal school life. It has been a privilege and a pleasure to help your children learn and see them mature and enjoy the normal routine of the school year. Your bag of presents is really amazing – creative, thoughtful and with some delicious treats. You are very generous and I really appreciate the time and effort you all put into that. To say that I will miss the children is an understatement, but more than that I am very proud of their achievements and the fact that they are moving onto year 5 confident and eager for the learning there.

Wishing you all a very happy, safe summer, with very best wishes

Katharine Gibbons

Penultimate week in year 4

This has been another week with exciting changes to the timetable. Year 4 was an excellent audience for the year 6’s production of “Ali Baba and The Bongo Bandits”, when they loved the songs. Mr Creaton was very impressed with them on their “transition morning” to his classroom and thinks that they will make an excellent year 5.

The children are taking their fantastic learning home with them and I hope that you enjoying seeing the fruits of their labours. We are currently focusing on the Science topic of animals and habitats which contains lots of fascinating knowledge.

We are taking in all school books – library books, class books and reading books (so the next book will be ready for each child on the first day back at school). Please check under the bed, sofas, car seats for any school books which may be lurking there so we don’t need to issue any fines.

Please remember the library reading challenge to keep holiday reading up. https://summerreadingchallenge.org.uk/

Today, the children followed a recipe to make biscuits with various flavours. Next week they will decide, as a group, which combination of flavours to use and make their own biscuits.

There are just 3.5 days left with the lovely children of year 4 and then they can have a very well-deserved break.

Sports Day in Year 4

The children all competed brilliantly in sports day. They gave their all and showed great sportmanship. Here are some action shots.

Building Kew

Last week we painted Kew and this week we built it – at least part of it. Inspired by “The Hive ” pavilion, Year 4 designed and built their own pavilions. As preparation, the children worked in groups of 3 to see who could build the tallest tower using spaghetti and marshmallows. This led to discussions about strong shapes, structure, stability and reinforcement. The children collaborated very well and came up with different solutions to the problem.

Wonderful workshop week

Year 4 threw themselves into this week’s activities. They really enjoyed the wheelchair basketball/handball session on Monday, learning some new skills. On Tuesday we learnt some dance moves and on Wednesday had a very creative time playing percussion instruments and dancing to “jazz with Johnny”.

On Friday some children from year 4 attended the “World Games” at Oaklands College. We were part of the “Netherlands” team and did a great selection of sports and sporting activities. All the children showed great perseverance – really needed in the “slackrope” challenge! – and good sports skills. (Photos to follow).

We were sorry to miss “St Adrians Got Talent”, but have heard how fantastic the perfomers – Aiden & Jeremy and Sofia – from year 4 were. We also heard the other perfomers who auditioned, at lunchtime; and they were also excellent, putting a lot of preparation into their acts. Well done to everyone who participated.

Sketching and Science at Kew

Year 4 had glorious weather for their trip to Kew. The question was, on a day like Thursday, was the weather more tropical in Kew or the rainforest habitat in The Palm House? I was pleased to see the children remembered the geographical knowledge from the last two years, telling Katie – the Kew education leader – about the equator, why countries there were hotter, naming the Amazon Forest and the countries it covers. The children used specialist equipment to measure humidity, soil temperature, soil moisture and air temperature. We then explored The Palm House to find out how animals and plants co-exist in rainforest eco-systems. Can your child tell you some of the examples? The children also enjoyed sketching in the Temperate House – which was cooler than it was outside – and had lovely picnics sitting in the shade on the botannical garden’s beautiful lawns.

The lily pond house was stunning and the children enjoyed seeing, and some sketched, the enormous lilies. Wel also visited the hive which is an amazing structure – a type of pavilion – which “hums” the hotter it is.

A huge thank you to the very kind parents who gave up a day to help out on the trip. These events would not go nearly as well without your support. And apologies for the mix-up about collecting at the end of the day. I didn’t realise adults would wait at the front of the school and then thought we could dismiss children from the car park, but the children went through to the classroom first. Thank you for coming round to the playground where we could see everyone safely to their adults.

After the father’s day assembly, the children will be painting based on what they saw and experienced on Thursday.

First week back in year 4

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.