Welcome to Year 4, our teachers are Mrs Haywood, and our classroom support is Mrs Southwick-Williams, Mrs Lakin and Mrs Cliff.  Please find below our classroom!

Key information for Year 4 parents:

• Year 4 children are to arrive at school at 8:45 am through the Year 3/4 door at the front of the school and exit at 3:15 pm.
• On a Monday and Wednesday please can all Year 4 children attend school in their P.E kit (earrings removed before school please) as these are the days they will have sessions of P.E.
• Reading books in Year 4 will be changed and diaries will be checked each Monday.

**IMPORTANT NEWS**

YEAR 4 MULTIPLICATION TIMES TABLE CHECK - JUNE 2024

Click the below link for more information

Year 4 Multiplication Tables Check | Hugo Meynell CofE (VC) Primary School (secure-primarysite.net)

24.02.2024

Multiplication club fun and games! This week we restarted the Year 4 multiplication club and it went done very well! The children had lots of different activities to take part in and test their times-table knowledge. Here are a few pictures of some things they got up to.

30.01.2024

A fun day with our ancient Egyptian experts!

20.12.2023

This week in DT, Year 4 have been practising their sewing skills and have been extremely resilient and patient in their projects. They had to make a little pouch by sewing up the sides using a running stitch, sew on a button securely, and even put their initials on the front. They really concentrated and created some beautiful pouches. 

01.12.2023

Year 4 have had the opportunity to taste and scrutinise different kinds of biscuits to help them design their own delicious snack! After they had thought about the various textures, flavours and appearances, they got their baking aprons on and made their own versions. The class worked well as a team, used measuring, sieving and mixing skills and here are a few pictures of their baking adventures. 

29.09.2023 Back in the swing!

Well, Year 4 have a busy first few weeks back at school with starting their new book for the half term by Anthony Browne called 'Gorilla', practising their throwing and catching skills in P.E and getting to know their violins for the year. Here are some pictures of our second lesson with Mrs Hughes who taught the children how to hold their violins, the names of the different parts and how to pluck the strings. The class enjoyed it very much!

28.06.2023 All things Egyptian

Year 4 had a great day with their Ancient Egyptian visitor! They learned so much about mummification, writing on papyrus and how to play games that the Ancient Egyptians used to play! Watch the video of some of the children having a go at the game, and see if you can figure out the rules!

12.05.2023

Art Attack!

This week in Art, Year 4 have been using their perseverance and inventiveness skills. They were asked to create a model of a bird's nest using random materials after they had recently been sketching them. The children showed great teamwork and resilience completing the task. Here a few photos of their process and final product. 

31.03.2023

Well , here we are .. the end of our spring term!

We have had such a busy but fun week with Geography fieldwork on the school grounds reading 4 digit reference grids, a visit to church with lots of crafting and singing, and not forgetting our multiplication club! Year 4 are making great progress with their times-table and division knowledge. Here are a few pictures of some of the activities the children get up to in the club.

We have worked extremely hard this term and I look forward to sharing all our new learning that will happen in the summer term.

Happy Easter everyone! 

14.03.2023 - Maya Workshop

^{_{Today, we had 2 very knowledgeable specialists come and deliver our Maya workshop. We had a great day doing so many activities!}}

_{^{We looked at the importance of weaving to the Maya and made a little colourful, woollen basket of our own using a backstrap loom. We also made our own Guatemalan worry doll.}}

_{^{We explored replica artefacts such as the Dresden Codex, cocoa beans and masks, and wrote our names in glyphs using traditional ink.}}

_{^{We learnt about the Maya number system, Maya calendars and found out what our Nahual name is and created a Nahual hieroglyph.}}

_{^{The best part was the virtual reality session where we explored the sites of the Maya world including Chichen Itza and Tikal. It was a lot of fun!}}  

_{^{As you can see, Year 4 have moved on to using the apparatus in their gymnastics lesson this week. Until now, they have been practising their shapes, balancing, jumping and travelling both individually and working in groups creating routines to perform. The class have become very good audience members listening and watching their classmates' performances respectfully.}} 

Multiplication table learning 13.01.23

Year 4 have been spending a lot of time learning their times-tables in Maths and they are finding all sorts of ways to practise using them. This includes in a quick game of bingo or would you rather, in our weekly 'Magic 96' activity, in division tasks, as well as songs.

Would you rather 8 x 6 minutes for a lunchtime or 7 x 9 minutes? 

To watch the most requested song in our class please click here

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! 02.12.2022

This week we have had the Open the Book Team in talking to us about the meaning and importance of Christingle, and we got to make one to take home which was a lot of fun! Then, we got to finish our week off by going to the pantomime .. oh, no we didn't! 

Overall, lot's of fun to get us ready and in the mood for Christmas!

A very busy week indeed! 19.11.2022

This week has been extremely busy with Road Safety Week, Anti- Bullying Week and Children in Need. The children have really enjoyed taking part in different activities across the week from wearing and designing odd socks, being a part of a live anti-bullying lesson and going outside to see the impact of bright colours versus darker colours. 

The children also took part in a class survey where they discovered the most popular coat colour worn in our class was a black coat. In addition, they talked about and identified ways we can stay safe on the roads and be seen by wearing bright, fluorescent material in the day, and reflective material at night. 

Minibeasts in our school garden - 14.10.22

At the beginning of the week, Year 4 went outside for their Science lesson and explored the gardens searching for minibeasts. We identified different habitats, a range of minibeasts and types of trees before collating and recording our findings. Here a few of our action shots...

Geography - The children's turn to be teacher - 7.10.22

This week in Geography we have been locating different climate zones on our planet. The children worked together and researched a climate zone using the classroom's topic books, information leaflets and their exercise books. They then became the teachers and presented their new learning to the rest of their class before a quick question and answer session about their climate zone. They all did a great job of researching information, working as a team and using presenting skills.

Art - Storytelling through drawing - 30.09.22

This half term, Year 4's art unit is called 'Storytelling through Drawing'.

This week, we have read and watched clips of the poem 'The Jabberwocky' by Lewis Carrol and discussed the narrative running throughout. The children will work each week to create their own accordian book using illustrations to tell the story. We experimented today using pastels, pencils, charcoal and other mediums to create movement and atmosphere in our sketches. Below are some examples of the work produced and, I think you'll agree, they look fantastic!

Harvest LIVE - 30.09.22

Year 4 took part in a Harvest LIVE lesson this week and went on an adventure through the countryside to explore the fascinating journey their food takes to reach their plates. We went behind the scenes of real British farms and met the people responsible for producing their food. We discovered how carrots are grown, processed and packed, and how farmers are using cutting-edge science and technology to fight climate change. We learnt about nematodes and how they help yields by eating the slugs!

Finally, we had the opportunity to ask the farmers questions and take part in an online live quiz which we did very well at!

A Busy Week of Learning - 22.09.22

Well, even though it has been a shorter week this week, we have been working extremely hard practising our suffixes in spelling, expanded noun phrases in English and working with numbers to 10,000 in Maths. Well done to everyone for their achievements. Let’s keep up the good work and see what next week brings!  

Finding Our Inner Musician - 16.09.22

This week in year 4, we have been really busy! We had our first P.E. lesson this year, as well as our very first violin lesson with Mrs Hughes. She taught the class how to hold a violin, how to care for our violins and how to pluck a string. We had time to explore our violins and have a go at plucking 4 strings (G, D, A and E). The children really enjoyed learning their new musical skills!

First Week Back - 09.09.22

Welcome to Year 4!

The children have all have returned to school full of enthusiasm after a restful summer break and most of this week has been spent getting ourselves back into routine and settled into school life once again. The children have all made a great first impression and we have had lots of fun getting to know each other and starting to look further at the new topics and skills we will be learning more about together this term. What a great start!

**IMPORTANT NEWS**

YEAR 4 MULTIPLICATION TIMES TABLE CHECK - JUNE 2022

Click the below link for more information

Year 4 Multiplication Tables Check | Hugo Meynell CofE (VC) Primary School (secure-primarysite.net)

To design and make a shaduf 

Year 4 were set a challenge to design and make the ancient irrigation system that they learnt about during their History learning about the Egyptians. 

What is a shaduf?

• A shaduf is a hand operated device used for lifting water out of a well or reservoir. It was invented by the Ancient Egyptians and is still used today, in Egypt, India and other countries.
• The device is extremely efficient and easy to use. It is estimated that it can easily and with little effort lift more than 2,500 litres per day.
• The shaduf (or shadoof) consisted of a long wooden pole balanced on a beam. The pole had a bucket attached by a rope to one end and a heavy weight acting as a counterweight on the other end.

The children followed the design and technology process of researching, designing, making and evaluating. They also practiced the skill of sawing, taking it in turns to use the wooden bench to place the wood pieces into the vice and carefully crafting their technique of sawing. Take a look at our structures below. 

Our Egyptian Workshop

In History the children took part in an Egyptian workshop, the children learnt about the life (and death) of a Pharaoh including Mummification where the children met Empa, the embalmer. They met an Egyptian scribe and using hieroglyphic stencils, black paint and authentic reed pens and papyrus, the children became Egyptian scribes!  They played Egyptian games - the children got to play two of the most popular Egyptian board games as well as become Egyptian City Builders.  During their session, the children worked together to design their very old Egyptian city!  Finally, the children undertook an artefact Investigation - Ari showed the children various replica Ancient Egyptian artefacts and talked about their significance. Many of the artefacts had been made in modern-day Egypt so were extremely authentic, the children were great and naming the artefacts and also understanding what they were used for.

Our Platinum Jubilee Celebrations

Today Year 4 took part in our Jubilee day to celebrate the Queens Platinum’s Jubilee🇬🇧. They completed a number of activities that included writing their own proclamation of what they would do if they were King or Queen 👑 for the day as well as completing a number of problem solving activities in Maths which asked the children to become the queens stylist and figure out how many outfit choices they could make using the items provided. They also made and decorated crown shortbread and created repeated imagery in the style of Andy Warhol using their chosen image of our queen 💙🤍❤️. At lunchtime Year 4 enjoyed a street party lunch out on the playground and completed the afternoon with PE and decorating the silhouette of the queen using decoupage of the Union Jack 🇬🇧 
 

To mark the occasion the children also received a memento of the day  - a coin with the queens emblem and our school logo 🪙 
 

The Ancient Egyptians

During the last couple of weeks, Year 4 have been learning all about the Egyptians- their new History unit.  They have learned where Egypt is and using and applying their geography skills understood that Egypt was near the equator, an imaginary line that splits the north and south. Countries on or near this line usually have the highest temperatures. Egypt is quite close to the Equator so has higher temperatures than the UK.  We discussed the similarities and differences between the UK and Egypt discussing that the temperature in Egypt can be as hot as 40˚C in the summer months and in the winter months it can be anything from 0˚C in the open desert areas to 20˚C in towns and cities.  A very different climate than in the UK.  It hardly rains in Egypt. The children found out that Egypt has an average yearly rainfall of 20cm whereas the UK has an average yearly rainfall of 89cm!

They also learned what currency they use, what their flag looks like and that around 90% of Egypt is covered by desert.  They know that there are two main deserts in Egypt – the Libyan desert and the Arabian desert.  However, there are also lots of populated cities
and villages, especially near the River Nile.  Year 4 have learned that the River Nile is the longest river in the world.  It is 4160 miles long and travels through 9 countries.  They learned why the River Nile was so important and that most Egyptians lived near the River Nile because it provided water, food, and transport and it was good ground for growing crops. 

Finally, the children have investigated the different gods and goddesses the Ancient Egyptians worshipped.  They have learned that the Ancient Egyptians didn’t just have one God.  They had lots of different Gods that they would pray to at different times of their lives and there were over 2,000 names of gods in Ancient Egypt. Many pictures of gods and goddesses show them with animal heads. Animals were chosen to represent the powers of the god which the children found fascinating.  

'Where the forest meets the sea' - our new text!

This week Year 4 have started to learn about their new text.  They discussed the mastery keys which include the key concepts for the unit and also recapped the gateway keys - the areas which they are familiar with and are already using independently in their writing.  They made predictions about the book and they discussed the key vocabulary for the unit and what each word meant.  They also wrote their own paragraph to describe their chosen setting in the form of 'close your eyes and imagine...'

 WELCOME BACK!!! 

Wow...how are we already in Summer term?  Year 4 have come back to school after their Easter break with great enthusiasm and with a fantastic learning attitude.  This week they started their 'Chance to shine' session, improving their skills of catching.  They needed to carefully watch the ball and create a good area to catch it, they also needed to watch the ball all the way into their hands.  Once some of us had mastered a two-handed catch we were set a challenge of catching one-handed.  This was particularly tricky and many children said this was what they wanted to improve on.  The children have been given their own individual booklet to track their learning and progress during their 'Chance to Shine' sessions, these will be brought home each week.  The booklets contain great next steps the children can do at home and a QR code where you can watch each of the sessions the children will have been taught.  

This week the children said a farewell and happy retirement to Netty.  The children along with Mrs. Forrest worked their magic and wrote her a farewell song.  Click the audio below to hear them in action :)

What a half term!

We have had a very busy half term jam-packed with excitement, learning, and performing.  With the Manchester Camerata as a class, we performed a song to portray the book 'The Twits, some of us took part in the Recorder festival at the Victoria Hall and yesterday we all went on our educational visit to Cadbury World to learn more about the Mayan civilisation, the cacao bean and how it is transformed from tree to chocolate.  The children have been continuing to work hard during their Maths session combatting tricky fractions including finding quantities of fractions and completed their unit in Science investigating sound and how it is made.  Well done Year 4 what a fabulous term, have a lovely Easter!

Our Escape from Pompeii

This week Year 4 have been busy writing their own version of an 'Escape from Pompeii'.  They wrote their own story based on Livia and Tranio's experience but wrote it in first person, from their point of view.  We used many visuals to help us become our characters and to really feel what it would have been really like to go through such a terrifying ordeal.

During this week children have written a sequence of events to follow the structure of the model story.  They have written an opening paragraph and further paragraphs for each stage of their story and create a dialogue between characters that shows their relationship with each other.  Many children can now use the 3rd or 1st person consistently and write using the correct tenses appropriately.  We also added historical detail to characters and settings to add depth to their story.

National Poetry Week

This week Year 4 have learned about the poem 'Windrush Child' by John Agard.  It is about when Britain was just starting to recover from World War Two and thousands of buildings had been bombed, lots of houses had been destroyed and it all needed to be rebuilt.

In the Caribbean, lots of young men and women had served in the British armed forces because at the time, many Caribbean countries were still under British rule and not yet independent.  After the war, some of these people answered an advert to come to Britain where there were lots of different jobs to do.   Other people just wanted to see Britain, which they had heard so much about.  They set sail on the Empire Windrush for London...

Science Week 2022 - ‘Growth’

Year 4 have discussed how growth affects them both personally and the in the wider world. We have also made links with past units of work this year and discussed what elements of those were linked to ‘growth’ - The Digestive system, Teeth, Classification keys and so on. Children also designed their own pot and planted sunflower seeds, stay tuned to see whose will grow to be the biggest! Finally they took part in the British Science poster competition, let’s hope one of our talented learners wins! 🤞🏼 

Year 4 - performance at The Stafford Gatehouse Theatre

On Monday Year 4 performed their fantastic song about Roald Dahl book ‘The Twits’ with the Manchester Camerata Orchestra. Each and everyone of the children behaved impeccably and were a credit to our school. Well done you were superstars 🌟

Fractions - White Rose Maths

This week Year 4 have been showing fantastic resilience this week when solving tricky fraction questions. They have now moved on to using proportional reasoning to find equivalent fractions and worked on methods of multiplying the numerators and denominators by the same number to ensure that fractions are equivalent.  Next week they will use manipulatives and diagrams to show that a fraction can be split into wholes and parts. They will focus on how many equal parts make a whole dependent on the number of equal parts altogether. This learning will lead on to Year 5 where children learn about improper fractions and mixed numbers.

Key questions

- What other equivalent fractions can you find using the diagram?

- What relationships can you see between the fractions?

- If I multiply the numerator by a number, what do I have to do to the denominator to keep it equivalent? Is this always true?

- What relationships can you see between the numerator and denominator?

World Book 📚 Day

This year it was the 25th anniversary of World Book Day, this year's theme was marked by the message: “You are a reader”.  Year 4 had a wonderful day dressing up as a chosen word as, to become a reader - or to read - you need words 👍😁

Rather than coming as a character from a book, the children came into school dressed up either as a word or wearing words. They took part in a word parade in our classroom where the children didn’t tell anyone what their word was and the class needed to guess what they were. Mrs Forrest and Mrs Adcock also came dressed to impress and the children worked together to work out their words. As the children guessed they built and generated a fantastic word wall from the day. They went on to use this when creating their own word graffiti to designs that will be displayed in school. 
 

In the afternoon Year 4 visited the school library to choose their new library book and took part in a book challenge set by the MC Grammar who produced this year's song 🎶 (see below).  We then finished out day off by learning and singing the World Book Day rap!

DT - Switches 💡

This week Year 4 have planned, designed and made their very own switches to complete a simple circuit. They have used their learning in Science about electricity ⚡️ to help them to decide which materials they would need to make switches that would conduct electricity and allow the flow of current through it. 
Once they had tested each kind of switch they then designed their own. They planned how they would make their switch and then used this when constructing and making it using their instructions as a guidance. After they made their switch they then tested it out and so did two of their friends, they then evaluated their design and thought of ways they could improve it. 

Children's Mental Health Week

This year's theme is "Growing Together" and the focus is on encouraging children to consider how they've grown, and how they can help others to grow.  Year 4 took part in many different activities to think about what they had achieved as well as what they wanted to improve and work towards in the future.  They also discussed who was there for them to help them along the way and why talking about how they feel is so important 

Safer Internet Day 

Year 4 can describe strategies for safe and fun experiences in a range of online social environments (e.g. livestreaming, gaming platforms) as well as give examples of how to be respectful to others online and describe how to recognise healthy and unhealthy online behaviours. They have learnt some of the ways people may be involved in online communities and can describe how they might collaborate constructively with others and make positive contributions (e.g. gaming communities or social media groups). They also demonstrated how to support others (including those who are having difficulties) online.  They took part in a range of interactive and thought provoking activities including quizzes, information retrieval and class discussions.

Year 4 - Music makers 🎶

In March, Year 4 will be performing with the Manchester Camerata at the Gatehouse theatre in Stafford. However, before this they had to compose their very own song drawing on inspiration from Roald Dahl’s ‘The Twits’. We’ve been blown away by their lyric writing and can’t wait to see them perform on the stage along the Camerata ensemble 🎶 ✍🏼 👏🏻 🎹 🎻


 

Number Day

We have had a great day doing everything number and maths.  The children followed step by step instructions to complete their amazing Waldorf stars. Waldorf window stars are typically made during the winter months to brighten up the winter landscape. The children used patterned paper to add texture and depth to their stars and used glue to piece each spike together.  The children also played lots of maths games to promote their rapid recall of operations along with a number of challenges linked to their timetables as well as all four operations.  This week the children took part in a Teeth workshop in partnership with Stoke City FC.  The children discussed how to keep their teeth healthy, how to brush their teeth as well as how important it was to visit the dentist.  Take at look at us in action... #keepstokesmiling

The power we are supplying...it's electrifying!

This half term year 4 have been learning all about Electricity.  They have identified common appliances that run on electricity and constructed a number of simple series circuits identifying and naming the basic parts such as cells, wires, bulbs, buzzers, switches and motors.  They can now identify whether or not a lamp will light up in a simple series circuit based on how the circuit is constructed and also understand and recognise common conductors and insulators - testing various materials to see which were good conductors.  

The children also took part in a CPR session where they learnt how to save a life and visited the helipod to see what a real life helicopter was like inside and where and how patients would be transported.

Henri Matisse - Art

This half term Year 4 have been focusing on the artist Henri Matisse who was born on 31st December 1869, and died in 1954. He was 84.  He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is best known as a painter.  Matisse also started to create large scale cut paper collages. Matisse was in a wheel chair during his later years; which resulted in him creating some of his most well known cut-out pieces. After he could no longer stand for extended periods of time, Matisse began creating works using a pair of scissors and paper. He used a long stick to assemble them on his walls until he was happy with the arrangement. He called the technique - ‘painting with scissors’.  The children have used his work as a stimulus to create their own piece of work and used only paper and scissors to do it- no drawing allowed!  Take a look at our wonderful pieces so far...

This week Year 4 have completed also completed lots of activities to improve their grammar, they have been improving their understanding of adverbs, determiners and fronted adverbials and used these successfully within a complex sentence when writing a setting description and diary entry.  They also had a fantastic time on Monday perfecting their Hula Hooping skills!

English - Escape to Pompeii

Since returning Year 4 have started to read their new text in English.  This half term they are reading the historical narrative - Escape to Pompeii.  This week they have been diving deep into different technical vocabulary related to the text and used this in varying sentences to give it context.  They have developed many adjectives and adverbs to describe and later use in their setting descriptions as well as thinking about how they use their punctuation correctly (full stops, capital letters -including for proper nouns, exclamation marks, question marks, commas in a list, apostrophes for contraction and singular noun possession).  They have also remembered to use a range of conjunctions, adverbs and prepositions to express time, place and cause.  Later this half term they will create characters, further describe settings and develop their own plot in a narrative, once again this will develop their understanding and structure of their text, grouping related ideas into paragraphs.

Welcome to 2022!

Although we have only been in school for three days, the children in Year 4 have worked hard in all areas of the curriculum after their well deserved Christmas break!  

In Geography this week we have started to learn about 'The Americas' which include North, Central and South America.  We have learnt about the different countries within these areas of the world and now know the physical features of these places such as the mountains, rivers and seas in which surround them.

Next week we will use this learning to compare human and physical features of these countries and discuss some of the key places to visit in these places.

Friday 17th December

What a wonderful end to a brilliant first term in Year 4.  The children enjoyed a week full of fun Christmas and winter activities, had a visi from Santa and also his little helpers.

The children have worked so hard this term and their diary entries they wrote from Leon's point of view from our book was proof of that.  Well done Year 4! Here's to a new year, wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy 2022!

DT project - Making our sandwiches

This week the children made their sandwiches which they had designed based on the brief they received from Marks and Spencer's.  They needed to design a sandwich that was healthy, that was suitable for a picnic and that had nutritional value.

The children after making their sandwich then evaluated their design tasting it using the criteria.  Two other testers then tasted their sandwich and again evaluated it.   The children then thought about what they would do next time if they made the sandwich again.  Some would make modifications to the filling - including more or less, some would include less butter and others said they would remove some of the ingredients such as including just ham instead of both ham and salami.

Panto performance of Dick Whittington!

Year 4 enjoyed a wonderful performance of 'Dick Whittington' at the Festival Drayton centre in Market Drayton this week.  They witnessed spectacular sets, sensational costumes and a side splitting script! 

They represented our school beautifully and Mrs Forrest and myself were very proud of each and everyone of them.

Design & Technology - Healthy sandwich

We have been asked by Marks and Spencer's to design and make a healthy sandwich fit for a Summer picnic.  The children needed to remember - it wasn't just a sandwich, it needed to be a Marks' and Spencer's sandwich!  We discussed the sandwich needed to be fit for purpose ad therefore withstand a journey and even heat to ensure it was still editable during the Summer months.

Year 4 had great fun conducting market research about people's favourite fillings (see picture) and also enjoyed tasting lots of different sandwiches.  These included smoked ham, ham and cheese, BLT, chicken salad, tuna and mayonnaise, cheese ploughman's and tuna and sweetcorn.  

The children also used the knowledge of the importance of nutrition to answer why we needed a good balanced diet every day to stay healthy and how we could include different ingredients to improve the nutritional value of our sandwiches.  Stay tuned to see what sandwich designs they come up with!

English - Leon and the place between

This half term we are reading the book 'Leon and the place between' - about a boy who visits a mysterious circus.  We have been using our text to improve our descriptive writing and have been using a range of grammar to do this.  We have continued to use our expanded noun phrases, prepositions and fronted adverbials along with learning more about conjunctions and sentence clauses.  We have learnt that a main cause can stand on its own and makes sense.  Whereas a subordinating clause can not stand alone and needs the main clause for it to make sense.  They also contain a subordinating conjunctions and we have learnt a song to make sure we remember them- see Youtube link!  

Subordinating clauses and subordinate conjunctions - AWHITEBUS is coming!

Can you spot the main clause and the subordinate clause in these multi clause sentences?

• The man struggled to cross the road because he had broken his leg.
• Even though Longfield was busy, Sharon enjoyed her trip to the shops.
• When the guitarist began to play, the shoppers ran towards the fountain to listen
• Mr Jones shouted for help as his dog quickly ran away.

Remembrance - 11th November 2021

Remembrance honours those who serve to defend our democratic freedoms and way of life.

Today we united across faiths, cultures and backgrounds to remember the service and sacrifice of the Armed Forces community from Britain and the Commonwealth.  Year 4 used a range of medium to reflect the mood of the soldiers.

Physical Education in Year 4

In P.E this term Year 4 are working on their throwing and catching skills, particularly their aiming, their accuracy and their dodging.  They are also working as a class to build up their resilience, not giving up when things get a little tough!

They have also been thinking about their values and how these can be expressed during their sport.  They have been taking turns (being fair and respectful) as well as counting their own scores (being honest). 

Sportsmanship has also been a focus and children worked in groups to record their discussions:-

• Group 1: Tommy V, Ruben, Isla, Luke

To cheer on your team mates, say 'good game' to your opponents and don't call the other teams names or tease others

• Group 2: Joseph, Josh, Olivia and Bruce

Be fair and respect the rules for example not crossing the line in Dodgeball, show respect to the officials and congratulate your opponents

• Group 3: Zach, Heidi, Alfie, Emelia

Treat others the way you want to be treated, don't laugh if someone fails, be careful and safe when competing, if you're out, admit that you're out and be honest

• Group 4: Sophie, Cameron, Tom, Tommy M

Give everyone a turn so it is fair, focus on the game, be respectful to other players, be honest when you're scoring and follow the rules of the game

• Group 5: Seb, Ollie, Cody, Eleanor, Ryan

Never put down other players, show good sportsmanship, always be honest, play fairly, respect your opponents and play safely

• Group 6: Brooke, Alarna, Harvey, Lucas, Jayden

Give everyone a turn, be respectful to others in the game, be honest, help other players and your team mates and take turns

National Poetry Day 2021 Performance

Last term, the children celebrated National Poetry Day.  This year’s theme was ‘Choice’.  Each year group read a range of poems and chose their favourite to learn and perform to other year groups.  Please listen to our performances of  'Gorilla' by Martin Honeysett - we hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed learning and performing it.

Maths - Subtraction

Building upon our experiences in Year 3, the children have been using their knowledge of subtracting using formal column methods to subtract both two 3-digit and 4-digit numbers.  We have focused on calculations with no exchanges, firstly concentrating on the value of each digit in each column.  Later on in the week, we have completed calculations with one or more exchange.  We have used place value grids to support our learning as well as other manipulatives such as counters.

We have completed a series of problem solving and reasoning questions to apply our learning and considered questions such as:-

• When do we need to exchange with a column subtraction? 
• What happens if there is a zero in the next column?  How do we exchange?
• How can you find the missing 4-digit number?  Are you going to add or subtract?

Here are some questions for you.  How would you solve them?

Music - Mama Mia

This half term Year 4 have worked tirelessly to master their performance of Mama Mia.  They have not only learnt the lyrics but have learnt the melody or chord structure to perform the song as an ensemble.

Children have been practising at home as well as at school and the instruments range from guitars and keyboards to recorders and glockenspiels.  The performance was executed perfectly and we would like to say how immensely proud we are with their resilience and determination to master such a performance! Have a listen to our performance below 

Geography - Our World

This term Year 4 have been learning about their world.  They have been learning about the different lines of latitude such as the equator, Arctic and Antarctic circles and lines of Cancer and Capricorn.  We have been learning about different climate zones and where these feature in the world as well researching varying temperatures and the rates of precipitation in these regions.  We have researched various biomes and discussed about the varying climates that are there and how this affects the ecosystems present.  Finally, this week we have been answering climate challenge questions such as what if the Tropical rainfall was to fall in the desert and what if the Arid climate appeared in the Arctic?

National Poetry Day 2021

On Thursday, Year 4 took part in National Poetry day.  We chose to work with a poet called Simon Mole who encouraged the children to create a poem about their 'dream day'!  It could be as creative, wacky and unusual as they wanted it to be as it was THEIR dream day.  Some of us had huge T-Rex's made of ice cream, triple magical waffles and triple fudge cake with salted caramel for breakfast.  Some of us spent the day with our heroes, as you can imagine there were a fair few footballers involved as well as pop stars such as Lady Gaga, Liam Gallagher and Nicki Minaj to name but a few.  The children were also encouraged to think of the most outrageous activity they could do with their idols and also think of a soundtrack for their day.  Finally, they ended their poem by describing how they slept.  I know this all sounds a little random, but wait until you hear their poems...they're simply amazing! 

Science - Teeth experiment

Over the last couple of weeks Year 4 have been learning about different types of teeth and their functions.  We  investigated which drink caused the most decay to our teeth.  We couldn't use real teeth for this investigation so we used hard boiled eggs.  We used eggs as the shell of an egg is similar to the enamel on our teeth.  We put each egg in different liquids to see what happened. 

We found out that the vinegar caused most damage as it was was full of acid and the water caused least damage as it is a neutral liquid.

Take a look how each liquid looked after 7days...

Art - A starry, starry night!

Over the last few weeks, Year 4 have been experimenting with different types of line to define and form objects and landscapes. They had to think about the different length, width, distance and direction of the lines they saw. They have used various lines such as vertical, horizontal, thick and thin, spiral and diagonal as well as cross-hatching.  Line is one of the most important elements of art. Imagine trying to draw, design or paint without using lines! Line is often used to show expression or feeling. A short, thick, straight line conveys a different feeling or emotion to one that is long, thin and swirly.  With this in mind, the children used Vincent Van Gogh’s ‘The Starry Night’ as their stimulus when practising their line skills using a variety of media.  We have some real budding artists! J

English - Gorilla by Anthony Browne

This half term Year 4 have started to read a new book called 'Gorilla' by Anthony Browne.  They have made great predictions using the front cover and blurb and have used fantastic expanded noun phrases to describe Hannah, the gorilla and some of the settings that they have seen so far in the book.  They have been researching gorilla's and their habitats ready to write their own fact file about gorilla's next week.  They have also been revisiting parts of their grammar during the last couple of weeks and are becoming experts in the use of prepositions, expanded noun phrases and fronted adverbials.  All of which will be used when writing their own information piece.  Great work Year 4, keep it up!