Year 4

Welcome to Year 4, our teachers are Mrs Mudd and Mrs Carpenter, and our Teaching Assistant is Mrs Lloyd.  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.
• Our P.E days will be Wednesday and Friday. Please can all Year 4 children attend school in their P.E kit (earrings removed before school please).
• Reading books are normally changed on a Tuesday.

Thursday 26^th September

This week, Year 4 have been exploring their artistic side. On Tuesday, the team from Market Drayton Festival Arts Centre came in to help us take part in the calendar competition. All the children created a picture inspired by the month September. We were so impressed with all the wonderful pictures of autumnal trees, harvest and woodland animals and the children did themselves proud.

In Art this term, the children have been learning about telling stories through pictures and this week they learnt about the illustrator Laura Carlin. They then had a go creating their own visual notes.

This week’s violin lesson introduced children to use of the bow, and the class had great fun testing out their new bow skills when they sang and played along to ‘The Hand Jive’.

Wednesday 18th September

We've been very busy in Year 4 over the last week. In Science the children were learning about different enquiry types. They carried out various experiments using sweets to demostrate each of the 5 enquiry types. The children saw what happens when warm water is added to skittles, and tested whether people with bigger hands can pick up more sweets. 

In PE we have started a unit focused on fitness. The children are working on their speed, strength, agility and balance. On Tuesday, members of Eccleshall Rugby club visited the school and put on a range of activities, including tag rugby games. The children really enjoyed learning some new skills. 

In Geography, we have continued learning about the Amazon rainforest, using an atlas to find the location of the Amazon, and identify the countries it stretches in to. 

Keep up the hard work Year 4. 

Wednesday 11th September

We've had a fantastic start to the year in Year 4! It's been great getting to know everybody and getting back into learning. 

In English, we've begun looking at our book for the term, which is focussing on space race and about the crucial role Katherine Johnson played in getting a man on the moon. 

The children were very excited to have their first violin lesson this week. They learnt about where the violin fits in the strings family and about the names of each of the 4 strings. They also began learning about how to hold their violin, when playing and at rest. 

Well done Year 4!

**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)

Summer 2

Week 4

Wow 🤩! What a day Year 4 have had at the Shropshire Discovery Centre. The children were fantastic Hugo ambassadors - inquisitive, polite and engaging learners - what a combination 👏🏻🥇🙌🏻. 

They learnt lots of information and facts about rivers and even ‘banked’ some great key vocabulary to use in their geography learning this half term. They’re now experts on the difference between a V shape and U shape valley, how meanders and dispositions work in a river and what causes an oxbow! They also investigated how quick the Rivvver sonny was by measuring the speed at different stations, they worked amazingly as a team, finding the average and comparing them with the group. Take a look at us in action 📸

Summer 2

Week 3

What a week of fantastic Homework creations as we start our final Geography unit - Rivers. This week we learnt the water 💦 cycle and how that process repeats introducing some key vocabulary - evaporation, condensation, precipitation. We set up an experiment to see this is action. Take a look below…

Summer 2 - Week 1

We are Violin experts 🎻

Summer 1- Week 7

Today, we said a sad farewell but a happy retirement to our Mrs Lakin💕. She’s worked at our school for 32 years, has taught, helped and supported so many children and is simply the definition of what team Hugo is all about. She is irreplaceable and we will miss her dearly, but we wish her a very happy retirement and a well deserved rest! 
 

She will however still be joining us on our Rivers visit next term! So for now, it’s a see you soon rather than a farewell 💓 #teamhugo

Summer 1- week 7

Our church ⛪️ visit 

Today, the children took part in a number of activities including tricky maze problems, word scrambles, colouring as well as a treasure hunt around their church, St John’s in Ashley. 

The children learnt that god is with them always even when they feel uncomfortable, he is by their side giving them courage and reassurance. We’ve also been learning about Jesus ascending into heaven and sending his helper the Holy Spirit to guide us in our daily lives.

The children also located various sacred statues and monuments in and around the church which included the font - used for baptisms, the high altar, the pulpit and where the choir stand to address the congregation. They answered a number of questions to complete the treasure hunt finding out what these important places were and used for.  Take a look at all of us in action 📸

Summer 1 - Week 6

Super Scientists 🧑‍🔬 ⚗️🔬

This week as scientists we have been developing our scientific enquiry and observational skills whilst exploring Changes of State. We used drama, a boiling kettle, a frozen mirror and chocolate to demonstrate and model melting, freezing, evaporation and condensation. The children also developed their technical skills as they practised accurately measuring temperature using a thermometer. Year 4 have been set a vocabulary challenge and Mrs Hollins is very excited to see how many children will earn the maximum 8 Team Points  

Summer 1- Week 5

Art - imitating best using materials🪹🎨 🪵

This week in Art children explored how they can use a variety of media to create observed and expressive drawings of nests. 

The children explored how their drawings might feel relatively “neat” or might feel “messy” – but that both of these are fine! We are all able to express our personality through art!

The children used their sketchbooks to test materials. The children created their own “Experimental Mark Making Tools” to create expressive and personal drawings using paints with feathers, cotton buds, sticks, sponges, tin foil, bubble wrap and foam packaging. 

Summer 1 - Week 4

What a week…💛

This week Year 4 have worked their socks 🧦 off!  They have shown fantastic resilience and perseverance helping Mrs Adcock get back into the swing of Hugo, showing great learning behaviours and how living and caring they can be. What a team! 
 

In Maths, the children have been dividing a 1digit number by 10, resulting in a decimal number with 1 decimal place.  To begin with, they saw that the number was shared into 10 equal parts. This can be shown by exchanging each place value counter worth 1 for ten 0.1 counters.  They recognised that when using a place value chart, they moved all of the digits one place to the right when dividing by 10. Any 
misconceptions around “tricks” that work for this step, such as moving the decimal point to the beginning of the number or adding “zero point” in front of the word was addressed 
at this stage and will help to prevent errors later on. The children then progressed to dividing 2-digit numbers by 10 and then 
move on to dividing by 100. Absolute Mathematical magicians 🪄 ! 
 

In English this week, we have been researching and exploring animals from the Amazon rainforest. Children sorted and recorded their information under different headings and then wrote a series of paragraphs using the appropriate features of a non-fiction text writing their own fact file. 

Summer 1 Homework

Children are to choose one activity a week to complete. This is in addition to a weekly piece of Maths or English.

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 🌟