Category: Year 4 – St Alban

This week, year 4 found out how sound is made. They also started to understand that sound travels well through solids, as the string transmitted the sound of the coathangers against the tables very well.

The children carried out other investigations to see which medium is the best to transmit sound waves to the ear.

Can the children explain how the brain hears sound?

This week, the children developed expanded noun phrases to describe the characters in “Cinnamon”. They collaborated in groups, to share their ideas.

A few weeks ago, The children were excited and proud to see their “Iron Man” writing on the wall.

The empty purple board is ready for the children’s own Jesse trees.

The Roman soldier was not very complimentary about the Britons he came across…

The children really enjoyed acting out the St Albans story at the cathedral.

The children learnt what it was like to be a monk in a scriptorium at the Abbey

We had wonderful weather to walk to and from the cathedral on Wednesday. I was very impressed by the children’s fast walking up and down hills and good listening for crossing the roads etc. The cathedral visit was a brilliant way to both get to know the cathedral a bit as we walked round parts most visitors don’t see and were lucky enough to see the pillars illuminated so we could see what they would have looked like before the Reformation in England and the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII.

The children learnt about St Alban by visiting his tomb, the tomb of Amphibalus and role-playing to story of St Alban, the first British martyr, including his martyrdom.

The afternoon was spent in a calm session when the children decorated their own illuminated letters.

Thank you very much to Mrs Simpson who accompanied us. The children were all a credit to you and represented the school very well.

I do have some photos at school and will post them next week (as long as there is space on the website).

The children “published” their own versions of “The Iron Man” on Thursday. They have worked very hard on sentence structure and presentation and they were, rightly proud, of their finished pieces. They loved seeing their work on display.

Well done to everyone in year 4 for stepping up and taking on the challenges of a new year so well. We’ve started the Maths learning, building on place value and Number understanding and the English learning which writing in the style of the clear writing in “Varmints” (a beautiful, creative picture book). The home learning builds on the work we have been doing on recapping those important word classes. In RE the children learnt and wrote about Catherine McAuley, whose religious community, The Sisters of Mercy, built St Adrian’s School. They have also started to plan their own class worships. Mrs Newman started ukelele lessons on Friday, Mrs Gallaher started French on Thursday and Mr Creaton continued with Art learning on Friday.

Well done to the children who completed the summer Reading Challenge and to those who are reading regularly so they complete their star charts which earns their houses points. I’ve enjoyed giving out some TTRS certificates for those children who have practised their times tables and so made progress.

After such a busy week, I hope you all have a relaxing weekend together.

Year 4 have had a very musical week. On Tuesday, we all participated in the wonderful celebration of diversity and life that is the Electric Umbrella Orchestra. The concert at the cathedral was uplifting and lots of fun. The children loved welcoming the musicians and joined in very well. A huge thank you to the four fantastic parents who turned up at school and then afterwards at the cathedral to cheerfully accompany us there and back.

Sadly, today was our last ukelele session with Mrs Newman. She was full of praise of the children, who have amazingly learnt ten chords, with four being the curriculum expectation. The children played a “greatest hits” of the tracks they have learnt. As well as providing some foundations in musical notation, hopefully the experience has given the children the confidence to try different instruments when older and to enjoy playing in a band or orchestra. We will miss our music on the last three Fridays of year 4.

We have been learning about William Morris’s Art this year. This afternoon the children used his famous wallpapers as inspiration to create their own drawing. I was blown away by the children’s focus, commitment and care using sketching pencils. It was a lovely, calm activity on a hot, sticky afternoon!

We also have spent time practising the songs for “Shine A Light” on Tuesday. Please could you learn the words more over the weekend, so the songs sound great. If anyone is available to walk to and /or from the cathedral on Tuesday, as per Mrs Porter’s message, please do let the school know. We also have spent time practising the songs for “Shine A Light” on Tuesday. Please could you learn the words more over the weekend, so the songs sound great. If anyone is available to walk to and /or from the cathedral on Tuesday, as per Mrs Porter’s message, please do let the school know.

In class, we said a prayer to Alban today:

Saint Alban, you gave us an example of hospitality by opening your home to one in need and, as a result of this encounter, were completely changed. We ask that through your intercession we may be given the courage to offer help to those who are in trouble.

Have a lovely weekend.

Although it was wetter than we would’ve liked, Kew still looked amazing. Year 4 had a fun, interesting day learning about Marianne North and exploring the fascinating and beautiful Gardens. It was a good day for steps total! A huge thank you to the parent volunteers. Having so many adults with the children makes the day much more interesting and relaxing for everyone and the pupils can be properly supported when away from school which makes it more enjoyable for them.

The children should sleep well tonight! They were all a credit to the school and I hope they enjoy sharing the details of the day with you. I’m not suggesting that you hire the venue out!, but this link takes you to images of the Marianne North Gallery – https://www.kew.org/venue-hire/marianne-north-gallery

The children have all worked very hard, writing their versions of “Weslandia”. They had great ideas and wrote some fantastic sentences to express these.

We have come to the end of learning about decimals for year. 4. The next topic is money, which can be very tricky as not many people use cash very often any more! Any learning you can do at home – recognising the coins and notes, understand the equivalent amounts and add and subtract amounts of pounds and pennies – in advance would help.

On the Tuesday after half-term – the 3rd of June – we will all go to Kew Gardens for the day. The journey is long but well worth it, to see the world-famous World Heritage site. Hopefully the weather will be a bit warmer than the last few days. Thank you for offers of help: the coach is now full!

It has been a very short half-term. I hope you all have a lovely week off with your families, whatever you do. I look forward to seeing you all for the last, long half-term of year 4.

We started reading “The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe” today and the children were very excited to be able to say exactly what “…they were sent away from London during the war…” meant, and when. They looked very colourful in their red, white and blue; and enjoyed the celebration in the morning.

We are starting to plan our version of “Weslandia”, a book full of creativity which the children have really got immersed in. They are also continuing to enjoy “The Firework Maker’s Daughter” which is great for vocabulary development and is a great adventure to follow. “The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe” is our new class reader. We have a set of 15 books so the children can follow my reading out loud. If your child would like to bring a copy of their own, too , so more children have an individual copy to follow along with, then that would be fine. This is just an option, if your child would like to.

Mrs Newman is teaching the children some lovely cheerful summer songs on the ukelele; and this morning they were “shaking it off” in Taylor Swift style. The children have also been told to look out for the Electric Umbrella choir on “Britain’s Got Talent”. In June we will be joining Electric Umbrella at St Albans Cathedral for a special school concert (during the school day) and we have got lots of words to learn, which I will soon send home.

I hope you all have a relaxing weekend and that there is more sun than recently!