Category: Year 4 – St Alban

The children have concluded this half-term with some fantastic writing, particularly their diary entries based on “Cinnamon”. This book really sparked their imaginations and the children still managed to find new things in the book which I hadn’t noticed. ~They have all really enjoyed the netball sessions with some fantastic, fast passing. The Roman topic has been great fun I’ve reminded the children there is still more Roman learning to do in St Albans – for example, visiting the theatre, which I just found out today is the only one now in Britain!

Below are the children with the learning resources we have bought with the very generous cake sale money. Fortunately, the children have positioned all the components of the digestive system correctly! It’s very good to revisit learning from previous topics, to check that the knowledge and understanding have been embedded.

The children also have this model of the ear to help with their understanding of hearing.

The child-friendly map of the Roman Empire has helped the children understand its size and the countries it ruled over.

I have also ordered some more Thesauruses so there is one between two for whenever the children choose to refer to them.

Altogether, these selection of learning resources will help the children learn independently and are things they enjoy using.

There were some quiet sessions in year 4 this week, with the choir members at Young Voices. We had lots of fun outside on a bright Wednesday afternoon, with just about half the class playing netball. The passing was fast and accurate!

The children played a dice game to practise their times tables, as the choir children arrived on Thursday morning.

children are really enjoying our current book “Cinnamon”. During the hot-seating on Thursday, they thought of excellent questions such as “How did you feel when the tiger ate your aunty?” and “Before you felt the emotions with the tiger, had you experienced them before?” and “Why did you go into the jungle?”. The question “Why didn’t you talk?” was answered with, “Because I didn’t have anything to talk about”, which was a thoughtful answer considering the context of the book.

As part of understanding the Eucharist, the children “interviewed” Mrs Gallaher about how going to mass helps her. The children were keen to understand what part of mass she enjoyed most and Mrs Gallaher talked about how she liked to try and apply something from the homily into her daily routine the next week.

The children looked great with crazy hair today!

This is what the original, artistic children in year 4 have created! Well done to each one of these fantastic creations.

Today, the children came as animals. Here is the marvellous year 4 menagerie.

Our recent RE topic was Community. Here is the display about St Barts the children made.

The children have been enjoying learning about the Romans very much, including Julius Caesar. I hope you all have a lovely weekend.

The children are enjoying the trim trail. They had their trial on Monday but I’m sorry that no photos were taken.

We have come to the end of “Escape from Pompeii” and I have really enjoyed reading the children’s writing. They are using adventurous and appropriate adjectives and verbs to make their writing detailed and interesting. Keep it up, year 4!

We already have some fantastic entries to the “animal drawing” competition, with the deadline on Wednesday.

In RHE, the children have been learning that we are all different and unique, made that that way by God. One bright, breezy day – without the help of Storm Eowyn – we used the space outside to play a variation of “fruit salad” where we celebrated our similarities and differences – no two children are the same and each is unique, and loved by God.

The RHE learning involves role-play and the children enjoy playing the parts of Sophie and Aidan as we unpick the religious, health and social learning in the topics.

The children love technology and here they are using “data loggers”. In these photos they are recording different levels of sound around the school, as part of the Science topic Sound.

Have a great weekend!

Happy New Year! It was great to see everyone back in school, raring to go. We’ve dived straight into the next Maths unit, continuing with multiplication and division. There is still a big emphasis on learning ALL times-tables facts instantly. There will be a statutory, straightforward online times tables assessment in May, call the Multiplication Tables Check (MTC). I will send home the government’s information about it. By using TTRS, the children will be well prepared for it and when they do it, it will hold no surprises in terms of content or format. Over the next week or so we will do a practice MTC on TTRS and I will let you know how the children get on.

In Maths the children are learning how to manipulate times-tables facts. The calculations don’t involve large numbers, but the children need to apply number sense and fluency in knowing TT facts to understand it properly. Here they are using counters to prove how to use factor pairs in two-digit numbers.

We have kicked off several new topics. Here are the children enjoying getting to grips with data-loggers.

We started our new book in English – “Escape From Pompeii” -which links with our History topic of the Romans perfectly. The children role-played and then “freeze-framed” the initial scene in the book to understand daily live in Pompeii.

The children were excellent Archaeologists when they were given (clean, modern replicas!) of Roman artefacts and made very sensible suggestions about what they were. “I saw there are Roman numerals so I think this is from the Roman times.” was one comment. Someone else recognised the clay lamp being similar to the artefacts we saw in the Fitzwilliam Musuem so concluded these were also Greek. Other children saw the word “Caesar” on an item so decided it was Roman. Another idea was the jewellery, some of which looked like a torque and others were decorated with snakes, were Celtic.

Spelling of the year 3/4 statutory spellings is improving. I have sent home copies of the check of all of them which we did just before the holidays. The number of correct words has increased, as has the presentation of the words which is also very good to see.

We’re all looking forward to the trip to Verulamium Museum next Wednesday, where we will see real Roman artefacts. Unfortunately, the weather forecast just now is not great, but as long as everyone wears warm, waterproof coats and clothes (tights, trousers, etc) and sensible shoes we should be fine. Nearer the time, if it looks like it will be very wet then the office will send a message asking for children to wear wellies and bring their shoes to get changed into.

I hope you all have a lovely first weekend back. It’s always tiring coming back after Christmas but the good news is that it will start getting lighter, bit by bit, in the mornings and evenings which makes things a bit cheeries.

The baubles the children have decorated and brought in look stunning on the Advent promises display. The Kris Kringles are accumulating at the Christmas tree and it’s very tempting to have a squeeze and try to guess what is in each one. It’s also a time for showing little acts of kindness which can cheer up the chilly, damp days.

In RHE the children have been learning about how they are all unique and that God is always there for them. Everyone is born to love, to be loved and to make a difference. Here the children are singing to song for this topic.

We have also been practising carols for the grandparents’ tea next week. We’re looking forward to seeing grandparents and any other relatives on that day.

The children all looked amazing and festive in their Christmas jumpers – every one was different!

Thank you very much to Luisa, Serena’s Mum, who came into class in her capacity as a dentist to share knowledge of teeth cleaning and hygiene. The children crunched a blue “plaque reveal” tablet to show where old and new plaque was on their teeth; and then cleaned it off. Luisa shared lots of important information about how to avoid sugar and how to keep teeth strong throughout a lifetime. What she told us married with what we found out in our investigation this week – Coca-cola erodes the layers of teeth and so does orange juice, because of the sugar and acids in them.

Well done to everyone in year 4 for the huge collection of cakes last Friday. The children enjoyed their doughnut or muffin on Monday morning. I have ordered a set of model teeth and a cloth version of the digestive system to help with our current science learning.

After learning lines for the class assembly, it’s time to learn more for the carol concert – songs and some narrator parts. The children have been reciting both sets very well and we look forward to performing to you next Thursday, 5th December.

Thank you for writing beautiful prayers and presenting them beautifully in the class prayer book. This will go home to one family on Friday, to be brought back in the following Wednesday please. There are suggestions for writing prayers and examples of prayers for children in the little bag.

Names for Christingle will go home next week. Please use the £3 limit for the gift you buy, so everyone receives something similar.

The children all wrote very clear, well-thought out explanation texts about how an electric sharpener works. I never knew there was so much to it! The class has also been learning about teeth in science – a particularly fascinating topic when you are 8 or 9 and losing and gaining teeth!

I hope you have a lovely weekend and look forward to seeing the children again next week, with the start of Advent!

It’s been a very varied week!

The children have learnt about Hindu books and stories and this week they experienced aspects of Hinduism and Indian culture. The children loved dressing in saris, prayer shawls and turbans – some of us helpers had our folding skills pushed to the limit! The children picked up the “stick dancing” patterns brilliantly.

The highlight of the week was the year 4 assembly and I will be proud all year for the children’s achievements. I was impressed when, by the day after handing people’s words, the majority of the lines were already learnt. The children’s commitment was total and their teamwork outstanding.

The children and Mrs Newman have all worked together brilliantly well with the ukelele playing. She pointed out that they have only had eight lessons to learn the instrument from scratch. On Thursday they performed the pieces very well with no music to hand (because of space constraints due to the stage being up already)

Thank you for coming and supporting your children in this and also the cake sale. I shall ask the children what they would like to improve their classroom, once we know how much we have to spend.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend in spite of the miserable weather which is forecast.

It’s been quite a different week this week. On Tuesday we all looked very individualistic in our odd socks, to remind everyone that we are all different and it’s important to respect the wonderful variety in people.

On Tuesday and Wednesday we took the opportunity to boost our accuracy in TTRS by participating in the “England Rocks” sessions. Soon it’ll be time to learn the 6, 7 and 9 times tables in class so being secure in the 2, 3 and 4 TTs is really important.

We have been practising our class assembly which we are looking forward to next Thursday the twenty-first. While the rest of the class continued with swimming on Thursday afternoon, the choir went to sing at Trinity Church. I’m sure it sounded as beautiful as the choir sessions on Tuesday afternoons do.

Year 4 go to Cambridge

…and visited The Fitzwilliam Museum to learn about the Ancient Greeks. The children were extremely well-behaved and responsible amongst artefacts which are thousands of years old. We examined coffins, statues, pots and other archaeological remains to determine the lifestyle and habits of the Ancient Greeks. We also marvelled at the splendour of the building itself and the children played chicken hero on the lawn outside the building. In the afternoon they each made a clay pot using slip and decorating it any way they chose, inspired by what they had seen and learnt at the museum.

The children coped with the long return journey very well and were all credits to their families and school.

The children are all looking forward to the class assembly which will be on Thursday 21st November at 9.00.

In the rush at the end of day, after returning from the museum, I forgot to give out the prayer bag for the second week. I will do so on Monday. Thank you for the prayer from the first week/

Have a wonderful weekend.

Katharine Gibbons