Category: Year 4 – St Alban

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!

We marked the end of the first week back with a double celebration. Firstly, the children were resplendent in red and white to mark St George’s Day on 23rd April. We learnt about this early Christian martyr and tried to separate some of the facts from the fiction.

Secondly, we marked Earth Day 2022 by learning about the importance of protecting our planet. If each of us invests in small changes, we can make a difference to preserving our planet for future generations. We wrote poems as we reflected on the importance of trees.

We are looking forward to hosting our cake sale next Friday to raise money for our classroom. The children have grand plans for making our book corner more comfortable! They continue to love sharing the books that you have donated to our class library and I thank you for your continued generosity.

Have a lovely weekend!

In the first theme of our RE learning for the Summer term, Pentecost – New life, we learn how each of us, by the way we live our lives, the way we treat others, and by our words and actions, show if we have an attitude of service. Often, we are especially influenced by those whose actions speak powerfully of a life of service.

Christians believe that the Spirit of God is active in each person and, in a special way, in the community of believers, which is the Church.  It is the work of the Spirit to enable people to hear God’s message and to live Jesus’ way of service.

We are reminded of this Gospel call by Luke,  

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”

Luke 4: 18-19

Our share in this Pentecostal gift is further emphasised by the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

“Those, who with God’s help, have welcomed Christ’s call and freely responded to it, are urged on by love of Christ to proclaim the Good News everywhere in the world.  This treasure, received from the apostles, has been faithfully guarded by their successors.  All Christ’s faithful are called to hand it on from generation to generation, by professing the faith, by living it in fraternal sharing, and by celebrating it in liturgy and prayer.”

(CCC Prologue 3)

Home learning

Make a good news board.  Collect some good news from everyone in your family and record it in some way, why it was good news and how it made them feel. Take time and care with your work. Make your good news board something that you can be proud of.

Prayer and Reflection

Father, pour out your Spirit
upon your people,
and grant us
a new vision of your glory,
a new faithfulness to your Word
and a new consecration to your service,
that your love may grow among us,
and your kingdom come:
through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

(Prayer of preparation for Vatican II)

Our last day of term has been full of colour and fun as the children have enjoyed ‘Break the Rules’ day and raised money to support our fantastic PTA. The morning was punctuated by impromptu renditions of various songs the children know, including our Mother’s Day spectacular and Spring Chicken – I need to make sure I watch Encanto over the holidays after the children’s very impressive version of We don’t talk about Bruno!

It was lovely to see our friend in the choir singing as part of our Easter celebration and I was very impressed by the children who joined with the Chaplaincy team to lead us in our Holy Week liturgy.

So many of you contributed posters to the Easter art competition – well done to Rukksika and Tadhg – and your ‘Growth’ posters very excellent – once again, the children’s creativity and effort are something of which they should be proud. Take a look at the posters in our Gallery.

Thanks to all the children for their enthusiasm and learning across this term. I hope that you all enjoy a happy, healthy, and blessed Easter and I look forward to seeing you for the start of the Summer Term on Wednesday, 20th April 2022.

We’ve enjoyed getting ready this week for our Mother’s Day Assembly. For those of you who couldn’t make it, or would like an encore, we’ve added our song to our school YouTube channel. Catch it whilst you can, as I will take it down after the weekend.

https://youtu.be/sYf1NdMsrWQ

It is hard to underestimate just how much our children are enjoying the new books that you’ve so kindly donated to our class library. This is what some of the children would like to say:

Oscar:
The Boy at the Back of the Class is a very fun book. I’m not going to spoil it too much because I want you to enjoy it.

Phoebe:
I just read James and the Giant Peach and it was really good. I like it because it’s a really adventurous book. It is also really interesting. Thank you for donating all the books to our class. We really appreciate it.

Katie:
I just read a book from the year 4 library. It is called the brilliant world of Tom Gates. This is really good because it is funny, odd and really good to read. The author is Tom Gates. He has written lots more books that you might like to read.

Danny:
I love reading Amazing Adventures of Dog Man. It is practically the second-best book I’ve ever read. It is really funny. so please buy some more books for our class.

Beth:
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis is a really, really good book. It is magical and adventurous. They speak like people from World War Two so you can see how they spoke. Lucy and Edmund, Peter and Susan were so brave. I would love it if someone would donate some more books so I can read them again and enjoy them.

If you would like to donate a book, you can click on the banner to see our Year 4 wishlist.

Have a lovely Mothering Sunday!

Today, children in Year 4 have come to school dressed in yellow and blue in support, not only of children and families in Ukraine, but of all people in the world who are seeking refuge.

We wrote prayers, asking God to help for those who face such danger in their lives that they must flee to seek safety elsewhere. We also gave thanks for those who keep us safe and protect us from harm.

Lily’s prayer:

Dear God,
Thank you for reminding us about the good and bad in this world. Make sure we know about the unseen as well as the people we can see.
Help us to not be selfish and let us recognise what is happening in the world. We have all been selfish before, but please forgive us and change us into good people of the world who care and share.
We all know what’s happening in Ukraine, but help us to remember the others in the world who have no choice to flee their home country.
Forgive us for forgetting but then let us see the right path. You can help us to change our ways through your Holy Spirit.
Amen

Jessica’s prayer:

Dear God,
Help the people who are in need in Ukraine to find a lovely and nice place to stay. Sorry, God, for when I have not given safety or love to people who need it. I wish everyone could have the same safety as I do so nobody gets hurt or harassed.
Amen

It’s been another exciting week in Year 4 with the class a riot of colour as we dressed in green for St Patrick’s Day, followed by wearing red in support of Red Nose Day.

This week is British Science Week. As part of our science learning we found out that if you’re infected with a virus, your body is ready to fight using antibodies which stick to a virus and encourage immune cells to attack and destroy. We grow specific antibodies during an infection or after vaccination. We then had a go at making antibody and virus origami – It was really tricky!

On Friday, we had a workshop from Rock Steady. We all played our virtual drums and air guitars and some of us got to try out the instruments and form an impromptu band. The children have letters about this in their book bags if you would like to sign them up on line to take part in these in-school lessons.

Our new class library books continue to be really popular and it is lovely to see the children so keen to read. Thank you all for your support with this. I have marked each book with a special sticker to show that it is one of our ’50’ top books to read in Year 4. My next step is to make each child a book mark so they can tick of their progress towards reading them all.

Currently, you have donated an amazing 22 books from our ‘wish list’ – Thank you! If anyone else would like to donate a book to the class, the children really would love it. You can click on the link to see our amazon wish list. Books disappear from the list once they have been purchased, so there is no need to worry about duplicates.