This week year 4 used their creative skills to design a pavilion based on what we saw at Kew Gardens. They had fantastic ideas and showed outstanding teamwork when working in pairs to build their pavilions. Joining “lolly sticks” together to make a design a reality is quite a challenge and the children rose to the challenge.
We have started reading a new, wonderful book called “The Mermaid of Zennor” and the children wrote some beautiful, original descriptions of the scene in the church with the mysterious lady sitting at the back.
Racing through the Maths topics now, the children are calculating with money. We all use cash very little these days. If you are out and about near shops this weekend, it would be useful to buy some things using cash (if the shop will let you!) Also, just looking carefully at how prices are set out on the shelves would be useful.
Sadly, the weather isn’t forecast to improve much but I hope the chilly weather doesn’t stop you all having a lovely weekend with your family, whatever you do.
We all had a fantastic day at Kew Gardens, learning about plants and exploring a fraction of the many beautiful and amazing things at this world-famous site. The children were enthusiastic, energetic and represented the school very well. Emma, the teacher, said how much she enjoyed their sense of fun and excitement. She led sessions where we learnt about plant explorers from the past and today and the equipment they need : can your child tell you why you need a trowel when you go looking for plants? The children practised describing plants, using knowledge from their time at primary school such as the names for parts of a plant. They also classified leaves using a key where they thought of the yes/no questions themselves. The children became acquainted with the resident geese, young and old, who appreciated some left-over breadstick and would have happily shared the rest of the children’s lunches, too. The weather was perfect and thank you for sending the children so well-prepared, with everything you were asked to provide. We were all amazed by The Hive, which will give us some insight into what a “pavilion” is in our D&T learning. The plants in the Temperate House and outside the Palm House provided opportunities for the children to practise their sketching skills which they have been learning with Mrs Bartley. The children will use what they did and learnt today in learning back in class.
A huge thank you, as ever, to the parent helpers. Wednesday is not an easy day to get time away from work and we really appreciate the effort made in coming and having to make up for the lost time in either work or jobs at home. Thank you also to Miss Jilly, from the office, who came with us – there aren’t any photos of her, unfortunately. Again, I am sorry for the high cost of the event but we did have a great day, and a full one as they journey there was completed in just under an hour.
We have learnt more about Anglo-Saxon life this week, focusing on the justice system. Some children recommended a very severe punishment for a misdemeanour in school, so I think they understand the general principle! Our RE topic is “Building bridges” and the children showed good insight into the “bridges” which act as bonds between children and how these need to be strong for relationships to flourish. The children have really enjoyed the beautiful book called “Cinnamon”. They have been putting themselves in the position of the lead character and are writing a diary entry by her.
I have been impressed by the children’s understanding of decimal fractions this week. Some more children have “gone green” on TTRS and all are making progress in learning the TT facts. Please keep this up.
All our learning was school-based this week, with a visit to church halfway through. For a short week, the children have completed a lot of learning. In the last term of year 4, they are showing the maturity and stamina for learning and writing which are good to see.
The sunshine was welcomed by everyone, with playing on the field at playtime and learning cricket skills on the field for PE very much enjoyed.
I am convinced there will be many doctors, surgeons and dentists from this class in the future, going by the great interest the children have in acquiring knowledge about the body. They loved following the progress of food through the body and this week were fascinated in the functions and structure of teeth. There will also be some CTOs, I am sure, going from the way that the class is enjoying learning about computer networks and the internet. They are all doing very well understanding decimals. Please keep up practice and progress in times-table fact learning. A few more children have “gone green” now and we need to see more children doing this.
The week was finished with a trip to the library, always a highlight. The children are ready for their weekend with you and I hope you all have a great time together. I look forward to seeing them again on Monday.
As geographers, this is what year 4 have been doing this week. Geography is about the interaction of humans with their physical environment, local and global. Year 4 has considered the global perspective through exploring “Plastic vs Planet” and the local one by doing field-survey on litter – plastic and non-plastic – round the school. The children found out that the amount of plastic litter really affects the environmental quality of an area. We discussed how the quantity of plastic we use on a daily basis can be reduced. There was some shock at the quantity and type of litter left in the area, particularly as some of it came from a very popular local fast food outlet! This led to an interesting discussion about how necessary fast food is. Due to the children’s loathing of cigarette butt litter, the conversations took in the piece of news that this generation of children will not be able to purchase cigarettes legally. Such is the range of discussion in human geography when cross-curricular discussion is encouraged and we step outside the school gates. The children’s behaviour was excellent on our journey round the school and they loved seeing the school from different perspectives, piecing together their various memories of different walks over time.
The children chose images of the local area to represent what they saw. The photos are realistic rather than clasically pretty!
Back at school, the children worked well together to present the data using Google Charts. They wrote reports on what they had done, what they found out, their conclusions and recommendations.
We had a wonderful time at the cathedral on Wednesday. The children’s behaviour was excellent, they listened very well and really enjoyed the practical map reading activities, outdoors. They created some beautiful illuminated letters, each one different and individual.
It’s been a short but packed week. We finished reading “Odd And The Frost Giant”, which we all loved. The children wrote some great writing in the adventure story genre and when asked what they’d learnt from this, said:
“I’ve learnt how to write similes.”
“how to use dialogue”
“how to tell a story from a different point of view- from the “baddy’s” point of view”
One technique to get children talking and sharing ideas is hot-seating and we enjoyed using strategy to get closer to the characters in the story this week:
The children also really enjoyed experimenting with “Chrome Music Lab”, a fantastic piece of software to write melodies with lots of different apps which the children can use at home, if they choose to.
It was lovely to see parents at both the assemblies this week – the Stations of the Cross on Tuesday and Easter celebration on Wednesday. Well done to the children who won prizes for their careful, beautiful artwork. All the entries were stunning.
We are all sad to say good-bye to Miss Cartwright. In year 4, she has been more than the PE teacher as she has listened to readers, accompanied us on trips and generally supported the children in the school day. We will really miss her, but wish her well as she starts her degree. She has a brilliant future ahead of her and many other children will benefit from her teaching.
The office will inform all parents the details of netball club after we return from the holiday. It will start a few weeks into the summer term, with the start date and the day yet to be confirmed. When it does start any interested year 4s are very welcome to join. There are no more league games or tournaments now so the focus will be on playing together as a team and skill practice. I know that there are some very keen netball players which is fantastic there is a brilliant opportunity to build new, confident school team next year!
I hope you all have a lovely two-week break together, starting with celebrating the Good News of the Resurrection and then enjoying relaxing, seeing family, going on holiday or whatever plans you have to have a good time. I look forward to seeing everyone in April. Happy Easter!
… which was the theme of Friday afternoon, to mark Science Week. Year 4 was investigating whether people with the longest legs run the fastest. This involved measuring leg length, timing each other running sprints and then recording the data. We had to wait till the rain and stopped and dried up before we could go outside, so the final recording and analysis will wait till next week.
We’ve also been considering evaporating water as we measured the amounts of water in containers in different locations. We were surprised at how much effect on evaporation heat actually has!
In RHE, we have been learning about how we are all created in God’s image. In particular, we’ve considered how what we see on social media frequently isn’t real and doesn’t represent reality. However, reality is what matters and we should all respect and love each other in our “real forms”, like God does.
Here three children are reading the story which formed the basis of the RHE lesson. The children really enjoy reading the scenarios and role-plays for the sessions. They are great public speakers and actors!
The home learning has posted at the right time this week, so the children can share the learning they’ve been doing about perimeter and length, which included shape which they have enjoyed. It’s nice to have a change from straight number work. Let’s hope there is some sun this weekend and I hope that you all have a relaxing time together.
As Mrs Porter mentioned in the bulletin, the birthday traditions at St Adrians include buying a book for the school library, from the year group’s wishlist on Amazon. Here is year 4’s: https://amzn.eu/cP4l70U
Buying a book for the school library is a wonderful way to contribute to the joy of learning and pleasure of reading for current and future pupils. When a child goes to the library, s/he may see his/her book on the shelves and s/he can recommend it to friends. It will have a bookplate on the front cover so readers can see which kind person shared a favourite read with them.
