Sherbet making and bubble blowing!

As always year 4 have been busy and the children are rising to every occasion. In Science this week, Birch have been experimenting with the effects of glycerin, fairy liquid and water, when making bubbles! Ash has been experimenting with icing sugar, citric acid and bicarbonate of soda, when making sherbet! The children will then look at the bubbles in chocolate (Aero) and yeast work! This is proving to be a very practical unit so we are all enjoying our Brilliant bubbles unit.

During the last fortnight we have continued and now finished looking at Historical settings in English. On Thursday the children wrote their own Historical stories taking into account everything they had been taught. Here are some examples of the children's work.

Swishing in the wind, Ares's purple robe glimmered in the sunlight. Enjoying the fantastic sunshine, he didn't notice a precious, ancient urn and suddenly, 'crack'! His face reddened.
James E

Rapidly, he sprinted into the old dusty market. There were lots of tall men shouting and bartering. He was scared because his mother had warned him not to go there.
Adam B

Desperate for help, Flavia's palms started sweating as she realised she was lost! Like a professional mountain climber she went up a tall creme pillar to see if she could see her villa.
Jasleen

As luck would have it, Apollo quickly remembered his mother's words. He made a prayer to the important Gods. Unexpectedly, her words came floating by and he sprinted in the opposite direction.
Ollie S

Outside, Flaudia was playing ball with her friends, the twins, Julia and Julius. Suddenly, the ball smashed into her parents favourite urn. Without a look back, Flaudia sprinted out of the garden.
Amy

Without warning, Paupius, knew he was going to get a beating so he sprinted away into the city. As he walked past the stalls, where he saw people bartering, he smelt all the delicious food, that was being sold.
Kaan

There were many more examples of fantastic expanded noun phrases, powerful verbs, historic clues and fronted adverbials. Well done to all year 4 pupils for a great piece of writing. Why not ask your child at home if they can remember what an expanded noun phrase is? Or what Roman name did their character have, in their story?

In Music both classes have been busy composing their interpretations of different habitats- The Arctic and deserts. This has been linked in with a wonderful, catchy song about the Environment and Polar bears. Why not ask your child to give you a rendition? 

In Maths both classes continue to look at number and how to apply the inverse to our calculations and how to tackle one and two step word problems.

In Creative curriculum we have now moved onto the infamous Boudicca and are hearing how and why she is remembered as such a powerful Roman woman.

In computing we are still really enjoying using Scratch as our coding program and applying new skills learnt to our Maths game. Why not ask your child what their Maths game is about?


Thank you for taking the time to read our Blog, we hope you found it interesting and enjoyed hearing what your children have been up to.

Have a wonderful half term break and we look forward to seeing all the children after the holidays.

The year 4 teachers 

Another busy week

We have had a great week in year four and are thoroughly enjoying learning about the Romans. We have learnt about the Empire, how and why they made roads and lots more. The children produced some great homework last week when they retold their favourite activities from our Big Bang day, we hope you liked the photos.

In English we have just started a new unit called 'Historical settings' and we are linking this to our Roman topic. The children were gripped this week when we started a new book called Gladiator boy. We did some extended writing on Friday where the children wrote a character sketch about Decimus Rex, the main character. Why not ask your child what they thought of Decimus and his friend Gladius? Can they predict where the plot of the story will go?

In Maths in Mrs Gaines and Mrs Mercer's set we have been looking at number. We have been rounding decimal numbers to one and two decimal places, identifying number sequences and calculating different intervals on number lines. In Mrs Doran's set we have been looking partitioning numbers which is a method used to help addition and later on in the week we applied our skills to word problems.

During our computing lessons we have been creating story boards showing our ideas of a maths game. We will be transferring our story boards into a real maths game using the software called Scratch. The game is made by using blocks (which are coded) and putting them in an order to make things happen. The majority of the children used it in three year so we are developing those ideas.

In Science we have started our unit of 'Brilliant bubbles' and this week the children made their own bubble mixture using water, fairy liquid and glycerin in different ratios and we had a competition to create 'the best bubble'! The jury is still out on whether the best bubble is the biggest bubble or the bubble that lasted the longest!!

The home work this week is to write a book review, thinking about character and how to write an effective blurb, plural spellings, number patterns and partitioning in Maths. In addition to the homework, please can you ensure that the children continue to write in their reading records about four times a week. they can record either just the pages numbers of what they read, new words they have learnt, characters they like and why or information about the plot.

We would like to take this opportunity to say well done to Amy K in Ash and Matilda M in Birch for being chosen as Eco club members to represent year 4.

Thank you for your continued support with all aspects of school life. Please do not hesitate to come in and see us if there is anything we can help with.

The year four team

Harmonious homework!

As parents and carers, we would like you to support your children by providing the best learning environment possible at home that suits them.  Every child is different, but here are some of our suggestions for harmonious homework…

•  Sit quietly at a desk, kitchen table, a flat surface to be able to easily write, neatly and with ease.
•  Few distractions, preferably none, background music can be really distracting.
• Some children benefit from reading the task aloud as it will help them to internalise it when hearing it as well as seeing it.
• Encourage your child to write in sentences. Some children may like to rehearse the sentence aloud first before writing it. (We do this in class)
• Encourage your child to sound out challenging words; please do not just tell them. Can they work out the word for themselves?
• If you child is unfamiliar with a word/ concept as they read the task, please do not tell them the answer or meaning.  Can they work the answer out for themselves?
•  Lastly, we are only asking the children to work for 30 minutes on each task set – Maths, English and spelling. If they have not completed the task in the time suggested, please just send it in and we will go over it in class. As we progress into the term, the children’s confidence will develop and their pace of work will get quicker.

We really appreciate your support with homework. Please do not hesitate to come and speak to us if you have any problems with the homework or anything within the classroom.

Year Four team

Didn't we have a fabulous day!

A happy Christmas to everyone

We have had a fantastic first term with the children. You only need to look through the past Blogs, to see how much fun and learning we have all achieved over the last fifteen weeks. However, with tired eyes and exhausted bodies, we are now all ready for a relaxing Christmas break.

We hope you enjoy yourselves with friends and family over the festive period and we look forward to hearing all about the children's adventures on their return to school.

A little reminder that the first Thursday back is our Roman Big bang day so a Roman costume will be required, maybe a folded sheet to replicate a Toga! The costume just helps us all get into role as we learn about this fantastic Civilisation.

Lastly, we would all like to say a huge thank you for your very generous gifts: chocolates, wine, smellies and vouchers they were really appreciated and we felt thoroughly spoilt. Thank you.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS AND A MERRY NEW YEAR

Thank you

As we finally reached the end of our swimming sessions in year 4 this week, we would like to take the opportunity to say a huge THANK YOU to all those parents who have given up many a Monday morning to trek along with us to Aldwickbury pool come (mostly) rain or shine.
We couldn't go without you all.


The Year 4 Team

Christmas Song- homework- learn the words please!

What Christmas means to me.

Ba ba ba ba ba, Oh yeah!

 

Candles burning low
Lots of mistletoe
Lots of snow and ice
Everywhere we go
Choirs singing carols
Right outside my door

 

All these things and more
(All these things and more)
That's what Christmas means to me my love
(That's what Christmas means to me my love) Oh yeah!

 

I see your smiling face
Like I never seen before
Even though I love you madly
It seems I love you more
And little cards you give me
Will touch my heart for sure

 

All these things and more
(All these things and more)
That's what Christmas means to me, my love
(That's what Christmas means to me, my love)

 

I feel like running wild
As anxious as a little child
Greet you ‘neath the mistletoe
Kiss you once and then some more
I wish you a Merry Christmas, baby
(I Wish you a Merry Christmas, baby)
And such happiness in the comin' year
(And such happiness in the comin' year)

 

Let's deck the halls with holly
Sing sweet silent night
Fill the tree with angel hair
And pretty, pretty lights
Go to sleep and wake up
Just before daylight

 

All these things and more
(All these things and more)
That's what Christmas means to me, my love
(That's what Christmas means to me, my love)
All these things and more
(All these things and more)
That's what Christmas means to me, my love
(That's what Christmas means to me, my love)
means to me, means to me,
(Ba ba ba ba ba, Ba ba ba ba ba)
That's what Christmas, Christmas means to me!