Autumn Term 2019
WC 9.12.19
Another super busy week in year 4!
This week in year 4 we have been putting our newspaper skills to the test and have become journalists reporting on the immortality of one of Warwickshire’s newest residents. Alongside our English we have also been finishing off our statistics work in Maths, looking at Venn Diagrams.
Not only have we been busy with Maths and English but we have also been working hard in our topic, finishing our diary entries.
As well as this we have been sorting out the mischief that our naughty elf has caused; watching the reception nativity; tucking into our Christmas dinner; designed and made our own vinyl pots; as well as playing games and eating chocolate at the Christmas fair.
REMEMBER:
Friday 20th is Pantomime and Carols around the tree. Parents are invited to Carols around the tree which will begin at 1:30 (children can be collected after carols).
WC: 02/12/19
This week in year 4 we have been busy, busy, busy!
In English we have been looking at newspaper reports ready to become journalists of our very own newspaper next week. To help us with this we have been reading some more of our novel- Who Let the Gods Out. The Children have been learning all the skill they need to be journalists such as how to report direct speech and use quotes as well as how to write their article in chronological to keep readers interested.
In maths we have started our new topic of statistics. This week we have been exploring the topic and creating our own statistics on the class, we have made graphs and tables to represent the class’s favourite colours as well as pets and animals. This is our last topic before Christmas and then we can complete some Christmas maths to help us get into the festive spirit.
History has been full of discussions and debates about Ancient Greek gods and goddesses and the roles they played in society. We have also been discovering the role of the Trojan horse within the Trojan War and how the warriors managed to destroy Troy! Next week we will be using the information we have gathered to write our own diary entries about the infamous Greek battle.
We have also welcomed a new addition to our classroom….. Snowflake the Naught Elf! He has been in causing some mischief but also leaving us some nice surprises along the way.
Not only have we welcomed Snowflake, we have also received a very exciting email from Santa! Santa has informed us that his elves have made too many presents this year. He has left the spare presents under the Christmas tree in the foyer and has said that if we can get 6 gold cards before the end of term that we will get one of the presents from under the tree!!
We have got so many exciting g festive treats coming up so don’t forget:
- Christmas jumper day is on Wednesday 11th December
- Christmas dinner is on Wednesday 11th December
- Christmas Fayre is on Friday 13th December
WC: 18/11/19
Another busy wee/k in Year 4, we have been working on lots of key skills in English to create a setting description of Elliot's run-down farmhouse. We focused on similes, alliteration, adverbs, conjunctions and fronted adverbials. This has prepared us ready for our big write next week.
In Maths, we have continued to work on our formal methods to add and subtract. We worked on estimating answers when adding and subtracting and then moved onto checking strategies. This is a really important skill to have so that we go back and check our answers using the inverse operation and also when we find an answer, is it a sensible one?
In Music, Mr Clay came in to teach us a new musical instrument 'Ocarina'. This instrument originated in China over 12,000 years ago. It is a small instrument with holes that you cover to play different sounds and pitches either high or low. We learnt lots of chords: E, A, B, G, C# and F# and had a go at playing them. Next we looked at some other music symbols such as the treble clef (where the music starts) and a croquet (what note we have to play). After learning these skills, we had a go at playing London’s burning focusing on our tempo (speed) - as we kept playing it too fast! Some of us even had a go individually in front of the class! Finally, as a 30 second challenge, we had a go at practising Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and performing individually again to the whole class.
WC: 11/11/19
This week in English we have started our new novel 'Who let the gods out'. We have read chapter 1 and chapter 2 and found out about Elliot (main character) and have been given a little bit of information about his home life. We know he is always in trouble at school as he is in the head teachers office every day! There is also a nasty deputy head teacher- Mr Boil- who really doesn't like Elliot. We have completed a range of inference activities and even used dictionaries to find out tricky words that we don't understand.
In Maths this week, we have continued to work on our addition and subtraction skills using mental methods to add and subtract 1s, 10s, 100s and 1000s. We then moved onto formal methods (column method) for adding looking at exchanging in particular and why we exchange and what happens as we exchange.
In Art this week, we have started our paper mache Greek Vases- we got very messy and sticky! We will be continuing this all term and can't wait to bring them home very soon.
We also celebrated Remembrance Day on Monday. We talked about what Remembrance day was and why we remember the fallen. We used a range of DT and Art skills to create poppies- we measured out and drew poppies, used printing of sponges to apply the colour, then used a curling technique to add a 3D effect to their poppies.
WC: 04/11/19
Back to the grind after two lovely weeks off school. But my, haven't we come back superbly! We have had to start the term off with a few assessment in Maths, English and Science- we have really impressed Mrs Barratt with our scores!
In Maths this term, we are going to be learning all about addition and subtraction and developing on from Year 3. This means larger numbers (4 digit numbers!) and lots of problem solving too.
In English, we are continuing with the Ancient Greek theme but reading a new book 'Who let the gods out' by Maz Evans. We recognised this book title as it is a pun on the song 'Who let the dogs out'. We are looking forward to reading this book and finding out all the adventures the gods go on and whether they get up to mischief!
In Topic, we are continuing learning about the Ancient Greeks. We now know about the Battle of Marathon and how Sparta and Athens are two very different places and follow different rules even though they are both Greek cities. In Art, we are bringing our Greek vase designs to life and have started our paper mache, so hopefully by the end of the term we will have completed Greek vases.
WC: 14/10/19
A term in Year 4 has been and gone already!
We have been busy yet again finishing off our non-chronological report all about Greece both modern and ancient and comparing the two. In Maths, we have wrapped up our Place Value and completed our post-test too.
In Ict this week, we learnt all about Micro:bit in ICT. The BBC Micro:bit is a handheld, programmable micro-computer that can be used for all sorts of cool creations, from robots to musical instruments – the possibilities are endless. We used the MakeCode editor provided by Microsoft to make it easy to program our Micro:bit with blocks and JavaScript. We used our coding skills to make flashing hearts, smiley faces and even wrote our name in them!
In Music, we are starting to recognise the basic style indicators of ABBA’s music. We listened to Dancing Queen by Abba and used our body to find the pulse. We then compared this to Abba’s other song Mamma Mia and discussed how the songs are different and similar.
Secondly, we looked at vocal warm-ups and then performed the song- Mamma Mia. We also used a range of instruments to find the pulse to the song too. We then performed the song with the musical instruments and singing too.
Also, we competed in our Interschool competition. Year 4 did sit down volleyball! We love this sport and even mamnaged to show our Sport values too. Check out the sports page for our photos!
Have a lovely two week break and see you all back in November!
WC: 07/10/19
Week 5 done and dusted already!
In Maths this week, we have continued to work on our Roman Numerals- we have really enjoyed working on these! We have also been working on rounding to the nearest 1,000 and finding 1,000 more and less.
In English, we have been looking at comparative reports. We have used some of the key features to help form sentences too, such as: complex and compound sentences. We have then focused on pulling apart texts to understand how comparative reports are written.
The PCSO was in this week to talk about FATAL 4. This was all about road safety. The FATAL 4 stands for speed, seatbelts, phone use and drink or drug driving. We learnt about different danger zones both inside a vehicle and also as a pedestrian. Did you know, if a pedestrian is hit at 40mph they are less likely to survive than being hit by 30mph- a scary fact there! Next we looked at the positives and negatives of walking, cycling and travelling by car or by bus.
WC: 30/09/19
This week we have been learning lot of new things! In Maths, we have continued working on our Roman numeral skills, then moved onto comparing and ordering numbers up to 10,000! We have been focusing on our explanations and reasoning why the numbers are either larger or smaller than the others using our new key term 'highest valued column'.
In English, we have created a mind map using verbs, nouns and adjectives to describe our Greek mythical creature 'The Minotaur' and then used these skills to create prepositional phrases. This was all then applied into our big writes- character and setting description of the Minotaur in the Labyrinth.
In Topic this week, the class focused on Ancient Greek democracy but compared it to our democracy system today in the UK. We discussed which was fairer and why and then created a comparative report comparing the two systems against one another and which system we would rather be a part of!
We started our RE this week too, Christian beliefs. We focused on the Ten Commandments and freeze framed one of these and our friends had to work out which one we were freeze framing! In PSHE, we have been working on decision making. We have talked about decisions made in different ways e.g. sometimes one person had the authority to make the decision, sometimes there is an agreed system in place and sometimes there is a democratic process.
Also this week, it has been Sleaford week. In small groups throughout the week, we visited the Navigation House in Sleaford to look at and understand how Sleaford has changed in History through time. Did you know, Sleaford means 'Slimy, muddy crossing over the river'? This was new to us!
WC: 23/09/19
This week has been lots of fun! We have had Roald Dahl Day where we came dressed up as one of his characters. We even rein acted out George's Marvellous Medicine too. We picked 6 household items to make our own medicine and then decided if we drank the medicine, what would happen to you...
Would you dare try our medicines???
In PSHE this week, we were learning about rewards and sanctions. We discussed whether we would do something to help out because we just would, would we do it for a reward or would we just not do it. We freeze-framed scenarios and thought of the consequences that go with them...
In Maths this week, we have been focusing on understanding Roman Numerals up to 100. This has been tough but we are trying really hard to understand the method behind the madness! Remember: I = 1, V = 5, X = 10, L = 50 and C = 100.
In English this week, we have been working hard punctuating speech accurately. We completed speech bubbles thinking about what the two character in our Greek Myth might be saying to one another, then using the four rules to write these into a text piece.
Rule 1= Inverted commas/ speech marks.
Rule 2 = Capital letter.
Rule 3 = Punctuation , ? !
Rule 4 = New speaker- New line.
WC: 16/09/19
In English this week, we have learnt about conjunctions. We know that conjunctions join two clauses together. We practised using finding them, adding them into clauses and then writing our own sentences with conjunctions. After conjunctions, we read Theseus and the Minotaur and summarised the main points and placed them on a time line.
In Maths, we have been rounding the nearest 100 with a four-digit number, counting up and down in thousands and even partitioning numbers up to 10,000. We have tried really hard to understand Place Value for four-digit number- it's tricky, but we are getting there!
In Topic, we looked at events that happened during the Greek era and sorted them onto a number line. Did you know, Ancient Greeks invented the Olympic Games and held their first one in 726BC?
In Jigsaw, we looked at our rights and responsibilities particularly Article 12 and 28. We focused on our Right to learn in the classroom and discussed why it is important. We discussed why on one image a young girl was working instead of going to school and what her right and why she should have that right.
WC: 09/09/19
What a fun filled busy week we have had getting back into full swing.
This week in Maths, we have been learning all about Place Value up to 10,000. We have focused on finding the value of a number, partitioning all four digits and rounding to 10. This has been tough but we have taken on the challenge.
In English, we have started our new novel 'Greek Myths'. We have looked at fact files of Zeus and Hera - they are husband and wife- did you know, they were also brother and sister!! We have used these fact files and taken notes to help us write a powerful description about both these characters.
In Topic, we learnt about Alexander the Great and why he is so great! He took over lots of land when he was in power duirng the Greek era. We used maps and atlases to help locate the countries he ruled before he was poisoned- we presume because he wouldn't let the men go home to his wife and children!
Also this week, we looked at our new song 'Mamma Mia' by ABBA. We know this is a pop song and learnt about the History of the song. We know what musical instruments that played in the song and we even had a go at finding the pulse and following a beat.
Welcome back Year 4!
I hope you all had a fantastic 6 weeks off and ready to learn lots of new exciting things, because I sure am!
To start off the academic year, Year 4 have spent the first three days practising the key skills needed in order to achieve our full potential.
We have been working on our school values, these include; Honesty, Courage, Respect, Kindness, Happiness, Resilience, Humility
The skills have included cutting and sticking accurately, practising our reading and comprehension skills. We have also practised using a dictionary to find the definitions too.
We have worked on our presentation and expectations as moving into Year 4 has progressed, we are also working on our team work skills and solving problems with our class mates and individually. Another value we have focused on is being part of a class ‘team’ this has involved solving problems ensuring our friends are all feeling included rather than excluded.
A great 3 day week from all of us in Year 4!
