Year 4 showed their passion and understanding of what makes a good community today in their class assembly. It was a reflection on what we have been learning the past weeks, including our trips to Young Voices and the cathedral. The children took on board all the advice and encouragement from our practises – to say what they needed to say with meaning, with the precise choice of words down to them. I was particularly proud of the confidence they showed, owning the floor and looking out for each other with the “props” and microphone. It was a fantastic start to the week and created a warm glow of pride in year 4 to counterbalance the below freezing temperatures in the morning.
We also enjoyed marking the Lunar New Year, with children sharing their excitement at receiving their red envelopes and explaining traditions to us
Year 4 have had a great day out. As well as the learning, the walks to and from the cathedral were energising and beautiful, in the frost. We were pushed for time on the way home and everyone strode out, making it back to school more quickly than we’ve ever done before. Thanks, as always, to the fantastic parents who came and helped and without whom we couldn’t do these trips. The day included exploring the cathedral; finding out about St Alban, the first British Christian martyr; making and tasting typical Roman food; learning about Roman soldiers and their equipment; and finding out about the sorts of objects which are found in archeological digs. Oh – and a Roman soldier came to see us! He wasn’t very polite about us British, especially girls with long red hair for some reason. He seemed to me missing Rome, with it’s warm weather, elegant buildings and good food… fighting Celts painted blue isn’t as good as being at home, apparently…Here are some images from the day.
.. was postponed by a day this year, but was enjoyed just as much as usual – including the ever-popular Arctic roll. Here are a few “action shots”.
We have been finishing off topics this week and we can all look forward to new topics next half-term. We are loving our reading book – “The Wild Robot”, which has echoes of “Iron Man” . I hope you all have a lovely weekend.
This week we saw the amazing talents of our budding pop stars, with the fantastic “Rock Steady” concert on Monday.
We have been very busy practising words for the parts and songs in the carol concert. Well done to everyone who is making a huge effort to deliver their lines slowly, clearly and loudly and to those children who suddenly became understudies, due to the original actors being stricken by one of the nasty bugs going around just now.
Thank you for the RE home learning. The children have thought carefully about the qualities needed to be a prophet today – people who follow God’s path and emulate Jesus, such as Marcus Rashford, David Attenborough or parents.
I hope you all have a bug-free, relaxing and healthy weekend!
With Advent, carol concert practice and classroom decorations, Christmas is really on its way. The children have their names for their Kriskringles. We have been talking about what we can do during Advent, the period of preparation for Christmas; and the children suggested that doing small daily acts of daily kindness is one way of showing love for one another, in the way that God showed his love for people by sending Jesus. We are practising songs for the carol concert in earnest and looking forward to seeing you at the concert on Monday 12th. We are learning this fantastic Christmas song. Please could you practise it at home. Thank you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lnYDohCNSM
The classroom looks very festive.
The children’s fantastic explanation writing is on display – either on the or in one of two books. This week they completed a very different piece of writing, retelling “FaRther” with a different ending, when they used personification, similes, expanded noun phrases and fronted adverbials to write figuratively. In both cases every child focused and wrote incredibly well.
In Maths we’ve moved onto applying multiplication and division facts. The children are using the correct terminology for division; and used practice of the facts using manipulatives to make generalisations about division. For example, the class worked out that if the dividend and the quotient are the same, then the divisor has to be one. Or, if the dividend and divisor are the same, then the quotient must one 1. Today they have been constructing sentences like “The product of 8 x 4 is 32” or “6 x 3 is the same as 3 x 6 because of the commutative rule in multiplication.” Can your child explain these terms to you, in different contexts?
Please remember the deadline for the Called RE home learning which is 8th December.
Today was the last session of Gaelic Football which the children really loved. I will send a thank you email to Rory of Herts GAA for providing this first-class coaching to the school.
The children are getting to know their way round the library and are very much enjoying their time there. The beautiful books there, both fiction and non-fiction, complement the “reading scheme” books. As with the class reading books, the children have completely free choice with the library books. The reading scheme books are carefully matched to their reading age and are to be read independently and fluently (which means with 95% accuracy). The class and library books can be read independently by the children, or shared with adults, or can be read by the adults to the children.
The reading stars sheets have been added to the children’s books and are ready for signatures to be added, which will be converted into housepoints.
Thank you for the beautiful birthday books which have been bought for the library, by Darragh and Gabriel. Children over the years will love reading them.
This week, the children worked hard at making their torches, using their understanding of circuits from their science learning. Some of the work was fiddly and tricky and there was lots of excellent and co-operation and perseverance.
This week the children learnt about the 9, 11 and 12 times tables and different ways of working out the products to equations. The children are improving at representing the calculations in different ways.
At assembly today, the children shared what they had learnt about The Qu’ran with the rest of the school. They have also completed writing fantastic explanation texts about the lifecycle of a flowering plant. This used their knowledge about pollination, fertilization and the growth of plants from year 3 to write detailed explanation texts with features like causal conjunctions, subheadings and lots of correctly-spelt technical language.
Everyone is making good progress in swimming. It was decidedly nippy when we set off this morning! As the weather gets colder, you might want to send your child with a woolly hat for when we leave Westminster Lodge.
Well done to the children who remembered their library books today. We will go to the library every Thursday.
Year 4 explored this today. The Land of the monks is St Albans Cathedral and its surrounding area – nowadays a parkland, the stamping ground of squirrels, dogs and their owners, cathedral visitors and worshippers and people en route to somewhere in town or walking to enjoy the scenery. Several centuries ago it was the site of a bustling, crowded complex of buildings where the various Abbey activities took place. Apart from some walls, nothing remains of the life led by the monks above ground. Today, the year 4 children used topographical (map) evidence and compasses to find where some of these activities took place, and also to find out a bit about the lives of the monks and the Abbot. Everyone found out really interesting things about Medieval monastic life. We also used found the cathedral, the school and local towns on Ordnance Survey maps. Our local knowledge was also enhanced by our walk to the cathedral, when the children walked smartly, showing manners to any members of the public and enjoyed seeing the sights and sounds of St Albans on a typical Friday morning.
Can your children tell you how to use a compass? And can they explain what happened in a scriptorium, Chapter House, refectory or dormitory? What other parts of the abbey can they name?
A massive thank you to the Mums – Mrs Miller, Mrs Watson and Mrs Worsley – who accompanied us and helped with the learning inside and outside. It wouldn’t be possible to do these valuable enrichment activities without this voluntary support. Thank you for offers of help from other parents and I will let you know of other trips later in the year.
Every child in year 4 was a credit to themselves and their school at Wednesday’s Mercy Mass. Along with the rest of the school, their singing was beautiful and rousing and they participated fully and respectfully in the service.
After Mass there were some celebrations inside and out. The children planted violas round the commemorative tree which had been planted earlier in the day. They then chose activities in the classroom, with many children deciding to play “Interland”, the game where the children learn how to be safe online. We also started our learning about Black History Month, learning about Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King from “Horrible Histories” and sharing what we already know about these famous icons.
The classroom is looking bright and interesting with the children’s learning on the wall, including the home learning about Joseph. The paintings were done – carefully – in acrylic paints, throughout the week. Thank you for the painting aprons, at short notice.
The children have been fantastic this week – it’s been such a busy week with demonstration assemblies by our wrap-around clubs, a concert by Rock-Steady Music School, the Year 6 production, the amazing choir sharing their performance with so many of our class taking part and finally, our school talent show. All this, whilst coping with the sweltering conditions – the children have been amazing, treating each other with kindness and patience throoughout the week.
Next week is due to be even hotter and we will do all we can to make the end of term calm and cool. Please help by remembering to send your child in to school with plenty to drink.
