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.
Two chapters in and everyone in class 4 is desperate to know who the creatures are and what adventure is going to happen next in “Odd and The Frost Giants”. We have travelled to a different time and place to meet some very interesting characters… More will be revealed next week…
The book is by Neil Gaiman, an author I’ve been mentioning at consultations. He writes fantastic books – novels and picture books – for children which appeal to many ages and girls and boys. If your child enjoys this book, or even if s/he wouldn’t choose reading as the first thing to do, this author could be for them. Your child doesn’t have to read every word – you could read a page each, or you could chip in when it gets tricky. Any way into reading is really worth it, for so many reasons, not the least being as inspiration for writing. There are Neil Gaiman books in the school library for anyone to borrow. This website is American and shows some of the titles, for all ages he has written- https://www.mousecircus.com/books
Have a great weekend and I look forward to seeing the parents I haven’t seen yet on Monday morning.
Both were studied this week – logic in the form of data which the children saved using data loggers, when they worked well in small groups. They were also inspired by Lewis Carroll in “The Jabberwocky” and wrote their own fantastic versions of the nonsense poem which will be made into an anthology. They also made good progress with multiplication, moving onto formal multiplication. It’s been a packed five weeks and I hope everyone has a really good break and rest. I look forward to seeing everyone after the half-term break.
