Spring Term 2018

W.C. 19.03.18

Wow, I cannot believe that we are already at the end of week 5! This term is just whizzing past!

In English this week, we have continued to look at newspaper writing and a range of newspaper reports. On Monday, we learnt about the 5Ws (who, what, when, where and why). We found out that newspapers usually cover all of these but that sometimes the why can be tricky to find! Next, we comprehended some more of the story and learnt that the Water Horse was growing and growing! After, we did some research on the Loch Ness Monster (that is what the Water Horse turns into when it's fully grown!) We learnt about the location and times that people has reportedly seen it. On Thursday, we undertook our own investigations for witnesses of the Water Horse - we got to ask them questions and quiz them about what they saw. We then began to plan our newspaper report on this sighting!

In Maths, we have continued to look at the decimals side of fractions. We can now confidently explain decimal equivalents and show what they are as fractions (proper, improper and mixed). We worked on dividing 1 and 2 digit numbers by 100 this time and found out that we have to move 2 columns down the place value chart. Next, we began to compare and order decimals dependent on their place value. We know to always look at the biggest column first and then make our way down if their values are equal. We will be looking at rounding next week and then taking our post-test!

In Science, we completed our big writes all about the Water Cycle. I was very impressed to see the children use so much technical vocabulary within their work as well as remembering to keep the reader interested with features that we have learnt about in English. Fantastic effort guys!

In Topic, we explored the formation of mountains. We looked at four different ways that mountains can be made. 1 - fold mountains (which happen when the tectonic plates hit against each other and crumple up to form a mountain), 2- dome mountains (where magma gets stuck between the crust and the mantle and causes a balloon shape under the ground), 3 - volcanic mountains (which happen after a volcano has erupted and the lava set) and 4 - fault block mountains (which occur when the fault lines push some rocks up and some rocks down). 

On Friday afternoon, we got to have so much fun celebrating Sports Relief! We were allowed to go outside and play with all of our sports equipment (e.g. skipping ropes, hula hoops and balls). The children all set really good examples to the younger years on how to share well and how to play with others!

It's almost Easter Holidays - keep up your hard work.

Reminder: Thursday 29th March - Bingo. Doors open at 6.00pm, eyes down at 6.30pm!

W.C. 12.03.18

In English this week we finished our letters about the discovery of the Water Horse. I was so impressed with the children's work and how much progress they have shown in their writing this year so far! We have since started to explore newspaper writing. First, we explored the features and learnt what a headline was as well as a byline! We can accurately identify these in texts now. We then looked at direct and reported speech. We learnt that reported speech must be written in the third person and is different to direct speech as it doesn't need inverted commas! After this, we looked at the importance of a good newspaper headline in order for the reader to want to read on. We used alliteration, rhymes and puns to engage the reader to read more of our stories!

In Maths, we have moved on to the decimal side of our fractions work. We can now write decimals for tenths (and some hundredths) as well as putting these accurately on a number line. We were able to spot sequences and could judge what the intervals were to fill in the missing numbers! For the last part of the week, we explored what happens to a number when we divide it by 10. We found that a 1 or a 2 digit number will produce a decimal number. We could use our place value knowledge to explain how each digit gets ten times smaller. We even had some visitors in who were VERY impressed with our explanations!

In Geography, we looked at how mountains are formed and the different features that we would find on them. There is: the face, the foot, the summit, the tree line, the snow line, the plateau and the valley. Next, we designed our own mountain ranges and labelled them correctly. Most of us could explain what each feature was and what it's purpose was.

In Science, we have begun to write an explanation text to inform people about how the Water Cycle works. We have started to explain how the four different stages: evaporation, condensation, precipitation and collection. We are getting used to using formal language to explain properly as well as using our facts!

In Art/RE, we have started our RE project. We have been given Day 6 of the Creation Story - the Garden of Eden & Adam and Eve. We are currently creating our own banner to explore the story of the forbidden fruit. We are working in small groups to design: animals, trees, the snake, the apple, Adam & Eve and much more! We can't wait to show you!

W.C. 05.03.18

Another busy week for us in Year Four! Because of the snow days, we've spent this week working super hard to catch up with work we missed out on. 

In English, we explored how to use a different type of sentence within our writing. We used our knowledge of subordinate clauses and independent clauses to consider how we could arrange them in our writing. We have been able to make these into embedded clauses! Most of the children were able to use these well - especially after we thought of it like a sandwich with our dependent clause as the filling! The rest of the week was spent planning, writing and editing our letters from Kirstie telling her Dad all about the discovery she found! The children will be writing these up neat next week and I can't wait to read them!

In Maths, we have continued to look at improper and mixed fractions. We are now becoming much more confident in converting between them and placing them on a number line (despite this being very tricky at first). We have also been able to add and subtract fractions too (some which were bigger than one whole!) I have been extremely proud of how the children have perserved through this tricky part of fractions! We are moving onto decimals next week!

In Science, we explored the Water Cycle in detail - we were able to explain that it would go on and on and on forever! We might even be using water today that dinosaurs drank millions of years ago! The children created some beautiful diagrams to show the ways water can change state. This will help us with our explanation writing next week!

Next week we will be looking at our Lincolnshire Show Project a little more in detail as well as more Geography work!

W.C. 26.02.18

What an interesting week this has been with all the snow we've had!

Despite only being in for 2 days this week and having the snow fall heavily outside, the children still managed to maintain concentration and worked well.

In English, we explored the physical structure of a letter and what parts it was made up of. We knew that it had an address, date, greeting, introduction, main paragraph, conclusion, sign off and a name or signature. The children were then given a skeleton letter which they had to complete by working out which parts were missing and then filling them in. On Tuesday, we read more the story and were able to visualise what the Water Horse would have looked like by the descriptions given by the writer. We drew a picture that we labelled which showed us how we each thought the creature looked!

In Maths, we have been extremely busy looking at mixed fractions and improper fractions and how to convert between them. We are all very confident in reading and writing improper fractions as well as counting in them (we just have to work out the jumps between to find the patterns!). The mixed fractions was a little trickier for us as we had to work out how many wholes we had an what fraction extra there was. To do this, we used cubes to design bar models as well as part and whole models too. 

In R.E., we have been continuing to look at the Islamic faith but this term we will be focusing on its similarities and differences to the Christian faith. Mrs Copson has set us a project to explore the Christian creation story (specifically the Garden of Eden) so first we thought about comparing the Islamic creation story to the Christians'. We found that there were lots of similiarities in people's beliefs of how the world was made but there was also some interesting differences too including the order in which things were created.

Reminder: Parents' Evening is on Wednesday starting from 3.10. Your slots will be given out on Monday. If you couldn't arrange a time, please can you let me know so that we can arrange a meeting another time.

W.C. 19.02.18

We are back and you wouldn't have realised that we had been off!

In English we have begun to look at our new novel by Dick King-Smith called the Water Horse. We have read the first chapter and learnt of a discovery! We will be reading this alongside looking at writing letters. This week, we have understood the key features of a letter, explored expanded noun phrases and looked at the differences between informal and formal letter types. This is all in preparation for writing our own letters!

In Maths, we are starting our new topic of fractions and decimals. On Monday we took our pre-test and I'm really pleased to say that all the children tried extremely hard. On Tuesday, we started to look at what a fraction is and explored how we could group them. We recapped key words such as numerator and denominator too. For the next part of the week, we looked at equivalent fractions and how they can be found using diagrams, objects and through multiplication.

In Science, we finished our topic of states of matter which we will then be applying to our topic of the Water Cycle. We looked at key words that we could use when looking at changing state including evaporation, condensation, melting, freezing and solidifying. To do this, we looked at 3 mini experiments to visualise the changes. 

In Topic, we have started to look at mountains. For the first part, we looked at the difference between a single summit, a mountain range and a mountain chain. We then used atlases to locate mountain ranges around then world and next we used iPads to find each range's highest peak. 

In Art, we have been continuing to use pastels to colour our painting in which we have used perspective and proportion correctly! They are almost ready and are looking very good!

Reminder: Please return your Parent's Evening slips as times are filling up fast!

W.C. 05.02.18

It's finally half term and this week the children have really shown how hard they have worked all term.

In English, we first looked at different rhyming schemes that we could find in a poem. We looked at AABB and ABAB and were able to compare them. We could explain the similiarities and differences and which we liked best - we then wrote examples of both and our partner had to guess which was which! We then began to plan our own rhyming poems all about the four main characters in The Wind in the Willows. Our final pieces were enjoyable to read and the children thought of lots of good rhymes.

In Maths, we finished our topic of Multiplication and Division. We continued to look at short division with and without remainders to begin the week and slowly made our way to our post-tests! We all did really well and made good progress which every child should be proud of!

In Topic, we created our own fact files all about a local river - the River Trent. We did our own research to find out key information such as its length, where its mouth is and where its source is. The children also found out some really interesting facts to go with this including that it is the 3rd longest river in the United Kingdom! 

In Art, we have continued to work on our own pictures. This week we have begun adding to our sketches by using pastels. We know not to colour in the whole picture using the pastel crayon but to smudge them using our finger to create a good effect. We were also able to add tone and shade to our pictures by adding different coloured pastels such as light blue and dark blue so that our rivers shone.

Have a really lovely break Year Four and come back refreshed and ready to learn!

Reminder: Year Four begin swimming lessons on Wednesdays from February 21st.

W.C. 29.1.18

In English this week we have been busy looking at rhyming poems. On Monday we spent the lesson thinking of creative words that we could rhyme with descriptions of the Wild Woods- this was harder than it looked! We then used these rhymes to write our own rhyming couplets to describe Mole's journey through the Wild Woods. After, we looked at how we could make our poems better. The children were given a basic poem which they were able to develop by using their creative language that they've learnt. We then spent a little while looking at how to use apostrophes correctly - most of us have got this!

In Maths, we have looked at formal written methods. We are now all capable at using expanded multiplication and short multiplication to calculate 3 numbers times by 1 digit numbers. We can explain how we exchange and carry well too. We then proceeded to looking at short division, which we are still mastering! We will be taking our post-tests next week.

In Science, we looked at how objects change through states of matter. We started off with a bag of blue ice cubes and a bag of yellow ice cubes. The children had to make their predictions about what they thought would happen by the end of the lesson. They were all able to say that it would turn into a liquid because of the heat of the classroom. We sped up the process by using our hands too!

In Art, we have been using the perspective and proportion skills that we have learnt to create our own pieces of art. We are replicating a piece of Monet's work which involves a person overlooking a river bank. This week we sketched and next week we will be using pastels!

W.C. 22.1.18

For the first part of the week in English, we were busy drafting, editing and presenting our own shape poems based on a raindrop. The children were very keen to make sure that they were including a range of figurative language such as similes, metaphors, personification and onomatopoeia. I was really pleased with what they produced. Some of them have even made it to our 'Wonderful Water Work' display in the corridor! We spent the last half of the week doing some more skills based work. On Thursday, we read 'The Wild Woods' and were able to answer a range of comprehension questions. On Friday, we had a lesson where we were working on our perfomance skills. We each choose a water based poem, spent a while practicing them and then presented them to the class.

In Maths this week, we have been continuing to work on our times tables and understand the patterns we may see in them. We firstly practiced our 7s and then moved on to our 11 and 12s. The children are getting much more confident in answering quick fire questions about them as well as using them in different contexts. We then looked at using distributive and associative law to multiple 3 numbers together.

In Topic, we learnt all about the course of a river. We explored where a river starts and where it ends as well as all the points in between. We learnt about the upper course, middle course and lower course and were able to identify key features in each part. We knew that the speed of the river changes throughout it's course, starting off slow, then gaining speed and then getting less as it travels into the lower course as it was flat.

In RE, the children completed their Big Writes about the Islamic Creation Story. Each children worked really hard to retell the events but also to use their narrative writing skills to improve it. They were able to use adjectives and adverbials and some even used the figuaritive language that we have been looking at in poetry. 

In Art, we have continued to practice our sketching skills. We are now much more confident in using proportion for the whole body. We have practiced sideways views and frontal perspectives. We will be using these skills to plan our Monet-inspired paintings next week.

Amazing work Year Four! Well done!

W.C. 15.1.18

In English this week, we have been looking at some more poetry. On Monday, we worked at comprehending the character of Mr Toad and what people thought of him - we were able to discuss what he was like as a character and if others enjoyed his company. We then moved on to looking at Calligrams. We thought about the different authors and writers that use them in their writing to emphasise the words they are using. For a different type of lesson, we used ICT to then design our own ones with words that we had thought of to describe Mr. Toad. On Wednesday, we began to look at shape poems, again working with the characters from Wind in the Willows. To follow this, we looked at figurative language a little bit more in depth. We will be continuing this on next week when we write our own shape poem about raindrops. 

In Maths, we have been very busy getting to grips with more of our times tables. We have spent the week practicing our 6 and 9 times tables and understanding the tricks and patterns that there is to them that will help us learn. We spent a while using whiteboards to develop our fluency of them and have since been practicing our reasoning and problem solving! We are getting more comfortable with using our thinking stems to begin our explanations. Next week, we shall be continuing this and learning our 7s, 11s and 12s so that by the end of the week, we should be able to do all of the multiplication calculations up to 12 x 12. 

In Science this week, we have learnt about what properties make a gas. We firstly began by thinking about how the particles behave and act in the three different states. The children were confident in explaining how the particles changed from solids to liquids and then gases. We learnt that particles in gases had much more energy than those in solids. We then looked at whether gas es weighed anything and if we could crush them!

In Topic, we looked a little more at geographical features of the UK. We were able to explain and located the key rivers in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as well as the seas that surround the country. 

In RE, we began to work our Topic big write for the term. This big write is about the Islamic Creation Story. We discussed what the differences and similarities were between the Christian beliefs and Islamic beliefs and we also discussed our own beliefs too.

In Art, we have started our next piece inspired by Monet. This time, we are focussing on our sketching skills and looking at proportion of people in full. We will be continuing this over the next few weeks until we produce a new painting. 

W.C. 8.1.18

Another busy week in Year Four!

 In English, we have continued to work hard to understand descriptive writing - this time, we have looked at poems! On Monday and Tuesday, we learnt about Haikus (which are a 3 line Japanese poem). We know that the syllables go in a 5,7,5 pattern. We wrote a haiku about the different characters from the Wind in the Willows and then our partners had to guess who they were about! In the last half of the week, we looked at a different kind of Japanese poem this time it was called a Tanka which had a similar structure to a Haiku but had 2 extra lines!

In Maths, we have looked closely at multiplying and dividing by 1 and 0. We are now very confident in explaining this clearly and can use concrete objects to show our understanding too. I have been very impressed with how the children have applied their knowledge of bar modelling to this as well. 

In Science, we began to explore our new topic of Changing States. This week we looked at what a liquid was and how it was different from a solid. We started with the question, ‘I can pour sugar, does that make it a liquid?’, this encouraged the children to think more deeply about what makes a liquid a liquid. We thought about the properties and how we could explain why they were different from solids. Great scientific talk was seen across the class! 

In RE, we continued to look at how Muslims practice their faith and explored the way they express themselves. We looked at how Arabic letters are formed and the difference between our alphabet and theirs. The children then took this and experimented with the Arabic language themselves.

In Art, we have continued with our work on Monet. We are almost all finished with our first piece of work where we have shown a clear understanding of blending of colours and a use of different painting techniques.

Fantastic work, Year Four. 

W.C. 1.1.18

We may have only had 3 days this week, but the children have come back with a clear determination to learn!

In English, we have started to look at our new novel called 'The Wind in The Willows' which links with our topic of Rivers and Mountains. We began by helping Mole to understand more about what a river is. To do this, we brainstormed some adjectives and verbs to describe a river and thought about the 5 senses. We then wrote Mole a descriptive passage to read to him about what a river was like! The children were able to use personification, alliteration and similes for this. We will continue this next week when we look at poetry!

In Maths, we have begun to look at multiplication and division. This week we focused on looking at the place value changes when we multiply and divide by 10 and 100. We could explain how the value of the digits change when they move columns and how we knew if the number got bigger or smaller. 

In Topic, we started to explore cities in the UK. The children were told about what a city was and were then given the task of locating different cities by using an atlas. I was impressed by the children's resilence in this as they all tried extremely hard to place them in the correct areas! We will continue this by looking at counties!

In Art, we are looking at the work of Claude Monet. We first learnt about his life and the paintings that he was famous for and then started to replicate his work with our own interpretations! We have been using finger painting to create some pointiliism to replicate his famous 'The Water Lilly Pond'. I am really excited to see what they look like when they are finished!

Keep up your great effort, Year Four!