Summer Term 2021

Summer Term 2

W.C. 28.6.2021

In English this week we have been reading Lewis Carroll's The Jabberwocky! We started by exploring some of the nonsense words and trying to figure out what word types they were as well as their meaning. We then looked at these in context of their lines before moving onto the poem in full. To end the week, we discussed what we like and dislike about the poem as well as any questions we have and any connections we can make.

In Maths, we have been continuing to look at time. This week we have been focusing on our converting skills between different measurements of time. This meant we had to apply our 7 and 12 times table skills! We have been able to convert between seconds, minutes and hours and days and weeks. On Friday, we recapped converting between analogue and 12 hour digital clocks. Next week is our final assessment week!

In Topic, we were able to imagine ourselves in Britain at the time of Boudicca's rebellion through our Now Press Play equipment! We got to put ourselves in the places of the Romans invading Britannia and their rivals the Celts.

In Art, we have worked on our printing skills. We used celery, apples and potatoes to create our own printing blocks before using foam printing blocks for more detailed designs.

W.C. 21.6.2021

This week in English we have completed our Big Writes all about Hoard Carter's life. It was really great to see how much the children have learnt and to put this into their work. We have also completed a DIRT task on a section of these where we improve it as much as we can including all the key features we can!

In Maths, we have been busy working on time. We can tell the time to the nearest five minutes and some of us are even confident to the nearest minute precisely! We've focused on 12 and 24 digital clocks too. When we use the 12 hour clock, we have to make sure that we use AM or PM to indicate what time of day it is. Keep practicing this at home!!!

In Science, we have completed our unit on Plants. We have explored the life cycle of flowering plants all the way from germination right the way through to seed dispersal before it starts all over again.

We have also had some important conversations about road safety including how we can be sensible when crossing the road and riding our bikes while being safe.

W.C. 14.6.2021

In English this week, we have been busy researching, planning and drafting our big write. This one is a biography all about the life of Howard Carter. We have thought about his childhood, early achievements and the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb! We will be continuing these next week before we edit and write them up neatly!

In Maths, we have finished our money unit by exploring how to subtract money, find change by using equivalent difference and tackling different problems involving money with the four operations! We also completed an assessment before moving onto time!

In Science, our runner bean plants are growing fantastically! We have also looked at water transportation in plants by discovering how food dye can change the colour of our celery! We know that the xylem are responsible for helping water to be absorbed up the plants to replace the loss that happens with transpiration!

We were also very lucky, thanks to Mrs Freeman, to have a visit from Luna the Dragon! This was a great story telling workshop which helped us to imagine ourselves in the role of villagers, heroes and the Luna herself.

W.C. 7.6.2021

I cannot believe we are in our very last term of Year 4! However, this has not stopped the children from wowwing me and trying to up their game ready for Year 5!

In English this week, we have continued with our text of 'The Story of Tutankhamun'. We have worked on using superlatives, written a telegram to Lord Carnarvon, created interesting diary entries explaining the opening of the tomb and a newspaper report to explain the discovery!

In Maths, we are focusing on measures to begin this term. This week we have looked at money - what coins and notes make it up, how to write in pounds and in pence and how to convert between. We have also learnt how to add money using strategies which we have used before.

In Science, we are continuing our topic of plants and have set up our first investigation! We are exploring what plants need to survive. We've considered their need for light, space and water and how if we take one of these elements away, they may not survive. We will keep checking on this over the next few weeks!

In Topic, we have understood why Julius Caesar wanted to invade Britain. We learnt that Britannia had lots of useful resources from wool to silver which helped the Romans to trade and grow further as a civilisation. However, we think the most important reason he invaded was his ambition!!!

At the start of the week, all of the children were told their new teacher and teaching assistant for next year (Mrs Smith and Mrs Freeman). It is very exciting! They have all decided that they are going to prove themselves Year 5 ready this term and I can't wait to see it!

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W.C. 10.5.2021

Well done for another busy week.

We have worked hard on our Big Writes in English this week. As we have come to the end of our unit of Gulliver's Travels, we are now undertaking the challenge of writing our own adventure story. We have made sure to focus on the features we have practiced including: adverbials, modals, conditional, past tense, perspective and different sentence types to keep the reader engaged.

In Maths, we have continued to explore decimals. We have been able to place tenths on number lines (even going beyond wholes!) which included estimating as well as dividing 1 and 2 digit numbers by 10. This meant that we had to think carefully each time about how many columns we moved each digit and which direction to go! We also got to compare the place value charts with Gattegno charts!

In Science, we have considered why animals and plants need to adapt to their environments! We focused closely on camels and tried hard to explain why they have a hump! This was because they need to store water so they are able to survive in the harsh desert environment and go long periods of time. We were also able to apply this knowledge to the Kapok trees which are found in the Rainforest and think about why they have such large roots!

In Geography, we compared the locations of Italy and Britain by thinking about their physical features (like mountains and rivers) and their climates. We really want to know why the Romans decided Britain was a great place to invade and settle! We found that unlike Britain, which is an island, Italy is a peninsula!

W.C. 3.5.2021

We hope you all enjoyed your 3-day weekend - it was much deserved!

This week, we have really appreciated the work that Hayley does for us in our classroom. Miss Brand has been unwell and Hayley stepped straight in and made sure that we all kept learning!

In English, we have read much more of Gulliver's Travels including his journey to Laputa! We have compared all three places he went to and made sure to use comparing and contrasting conjunctions. We have also worked hard to identify different types of nouns - I wonder if the children can remember what these are: concrete nouns, abstract nouns, proper nouns and common nouns?

In Maths, we are continuing to secure our knowledge on fractions and are getting much more confident at converting these into decimals. We can now place tenths in place value grids and read numbers such as 3.4 while explaining the value of each digit! Next week, we will continue this but move onto hundredths too!

We have also spent sometime with Mr Clay and Hayley discussing positive relationships and how to work together as a team.

In Topic, we explored where the Romans settled in Britain! Did you know that Lincoln was once known as Lindum and was a major Roman town?! You can even still see parts of the Roman wall there. For our work, we focused on the cardinal and intercardinal compass points and followed some directions to get a Roman Legion across the country of Britannia!

W.C. 26.4.2021

Another busy week for us in Year 4! In English, we have continued to read Gulliver's Travels and have been able to create our own ship log book to recount his travel. We have compared the islands of Lilliput and Blefuscu and thought about which place would be the most pleasant to live in. We found the disagreement between the two island over how to open an egg very funny! We also wrote a setting description of the new destination of Brobdingnag - a land full of giants!

In Maths, we have worked on understanding how to recognise equivalent fractions. Again, we had to use our multiplication and division skills to find fractions which were worth the same as others even though the denominators and numerators were different.

In Topic, we have looked at how the Roman Empire grew. We had lots of good discussion over the reasons for why the Empire grew including the fact they had more land, a larger army and more money and resources! Next week we will look at the Roman Settlements in Britain and find out if they settled in Lincolnshire!

Enjoy your three day weekend everyone!

W.C. 19.4.2021

Welcome back everyone! We are finally in the Summer Term - let's hope the sunshine greets us!

In English, we have started a new novel, 'Gulliver's Travels'. Our first job is to explore Gulliver's exploration of Lilliput! We have been working on our use of adverbials, predictions and we even wrote a leaflet advertising Gulliver as a fantastic new attraction!

In Maths, we are continuing our work on fractions. This week we have been working out how to calculate fractions of an amount. We began by exploring how to work out unit fractions of amounts by dividing by the denominator. Next, we looked at how we use our multiplication to work out non-unit fractions of amounts. This really tested our times table knowledge!

Our topic this term is the 'Rotten Romans'! As always, we began with our pre-topic mind map to work out what we already know. Lots of us are very interested in this! We next explored how Rome came to be by retelling the story of Romulus and Remus - we found this to be an interesting myth with quite a gruesome ending for Remus! Next, we considered the three different ruling systems in the Roman Empire: the monarchy, the republic and then the empire! We discussed which we thought was the most important and why.

We ended the week by watching 'Rotten Romans' by Horrible Histories - this helped to stimulate a lot of conversations!