Category: Year 4 – St Alban

It has been another action-packed week for Year 4 and the children have been fantastic throughout.

In English, we have begun the last of the books that we will share together – Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky. This blend of real words and nonsense has really made us think about the clues we use when reading and how different word classes work.

The children have worked really hard all year and enjoyed getting our classroom ready this week to welcome our families to our open evening.

Our wonderful PTA organised a sponsored ‘Bounce’ for us too and we had a great time on Wednesday afternoon being put through our paces on the inflatables. Thanks to everyone who sponsored us and helped raise funds for our school.

Thursday brought our sports day and we all did our best, cheered on by our parents. We ended the day with a much-deserved ice lolly.

Last week, we had a fabulous day at the Royla Botanic Gardens, Kew – It was our first school trip in ages and we reallyu enjoyed ourselves! Thanks to Mrs Coupland and Mrs Pickering for helping us to have a great time.

We also enjoyed learning about the Jewish faith as parts of our ‘Other Faith’ learning in RE. We learnt about the Jewish Holy text, The Torah.

Too hot or too cool to join in with my Dad-dancing in today’s assembly, the children were less reserved in Thursday’s rehearsal and threw some amazing shapes. Relive the magic this weekend with our video…

We are looking forward to our class trip on Tuesday to the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. The forecast is currently for sunny intervals and a high of 23 – much more bearable than today’s temperatures, but the children will still need to dress for the weather – sun screen and school caps are a must, as well as comfortable shoes or trainers for all the walking we will do. The children should wear school uniform.

It would be a good idea to pack an extra drink or two for our trip in addition to that included as part of our packed lunch. A small, draw-string style backpack would be a handy way to carry this around, if you already have one.

Please make sure that you have given your child any medication needed – such as travel or hay fever – in plenty of time to ensure that they enjoy the day. Our journey to Kew will take about an hour.

I hope the sun continues to shine over the weekend and that you all have a Happy Father’s Day.

We’ve had another busy week together in Year 4 and the children have enjoyed the start of our new design and technology topic, learning about structures and designing pavilions. We’re looking forward to getting some ideas for our own designs when we visit the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in the coming weeks. In the meantime, here are some photos of our first investigation of structures where we experimented with the strength of different shapes.

We are also hoping that our trip to Kew will provide inspiration for our new art topic where we are learning about the art and landscapes of Henri Rousseau. Watch this space in the weeks ahead to see our evolving artwork.

Finally, you can forget the jubilee concert: Year 4 have shown themselves to be true rockstars as they have worked so hard to improve their rapid recall of multiplication tables facts. They will get the chance to try out this knowledge next week when we take part in the national multiplication tables check.

Have a lovely weekend!

We have had a great week at school learning about the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. The children have brought home a gift of a special souvenir book that commemorates this special event.

Thank you to all the parents who joined us for our jubilee picnic. It was lovely to see so many of you.

I look forward to the start of the final half-term on Tuesday, 7th June. Until then, keep safe and have a great holiday.

Our art topic, looking and learning about the work of William Morris, is heading towards its conclusion and this week the children printed their own repeated designs, combining textures and colours to explore ideas from nature. I would like to think the children will remember this learning in years to come, but it is more likely they will remember the exploding tube of printing ink that turned most of me green.

As we get ready to celebrate the platinum jubilee of Her Majesty the Queen, the children have been full of ideas for our hall display. Sadly, the real fireworks and band that played the National Anthem whenever anyone passed have not been possible (yet), but we have all enjoyed making flags and bunting.

We are hoping for fine weather and that you can join us for our Jubilee picnic on Friday.

Wow! All the children in Year 4 have really impressed, this week. We marked the start of May with a ceremony to crown Mary. May is the month of Mary and it is also the month that traditionally marks the beginning of summer. Year 4 entertained our visiting parents and the rest of the school with two maypole dances. It was lovely to see them enjoying themselves and thinking on their feet.

The second ‘Wow!’ is for all the Year 4 families, who raised a fantastic £274 at the Year 4 cake sale. I am pretty sure that this is a record total for a cake sale and I know how much difference this will make to the children in Year 4. We have already spent the money and ordered bean bags for our reading area and some fantastic new books to support our guided reading – I know that the children will really enjoy them. Thank you so much for your hard work supporting the children and the work of our school.

Have a lovely weekend!

We’ve had another busy week learning together at school.

We were excited to meet Kate Gray, the paralympic athlete and broadcaster, who inspired us with her story and determination. After leading us in a warm-up, we ran the ‘golden mile’ (eight laps of the field) with Kate.

We are enjoying starting to learn May pole dances as part of our PE this half-term. Even though we have only just started, we have taken a crash course so that we might be ready to give our first performance on Tuesday, following the crowning of Mary.

We have made banners to honour Mary as we mark the month of Mary with our crowning ceremony on Tuesday, 3rd May. We have chosen to honour Mary as Queen, assumed into Heaven.

Thank you to all of the families who have supported our Year 4 cake sale today. The children have lots of exciting ideas about how we can spend the funds raised. Many of these are linked to making our book corner more comfortable and inviting.

It’s not too late to get involved in supporting our 50 Books. You can click on the banner below to check out our Amazon wish-list and see what fantastic books we are hoping to read next.

Have a lovely weekend and enjoy the bank holiday!