Year 4

Year 4 Blog up to Week 5

English

This term, the children have been reading the book, Leon and the Place Between by Grahame Baker-Smith.  From this, the children have imagined themselves to be Leon and have written their own diaries about the experience they had within a magic show.  They are currently editing and re-drafting their work.

In Year 4 we are now completing whole-class reading sessions. The book we are reading for this called The Train to Impossible Places by P.G. Bell. Children read sections of the book and then complete tasks, for example to use dictionaries to find word definitions of key words.They might also summarise the text or complete read and retrieve questions.

Maths

The children have been learning times tables.  We started by learning the 3 times tables and then looked at how these relate to the multiples of 6. We have also looked at how we can use known facts (such as 5x) to derive other times tables.

PE

Our current unit is Dance.  The children have been using their bodies to create shapes and circular movements.  They have then started to put these together to form a sequence of flowing movements.

Science

This half term, the children have been learning all about sound.  We have looked at the human ear and how it works; the children have learnt that sources of sound create vibrations and that sound travels in waves to our ears.  The children have used instruments to investigate how to alter the pitch and volume.

Forest School

This half-term, at Forest School, the children have been learning about fruits (like apples) which grows on trees.  They have prepared apples to develop peeling and cutting skills.  Next week, they will be using their apples to create fruit crumbles. 

For Remembrance Day, children created poppy crosses and we placed these in the centre circle.

English

The children have finished their own fables and they are now  copying  them up into mini-books.  They have worked hard to include description by adding noun phrases.

Maths

We have moved onto our next unit – to understand place value within thousands.  The children enjoyed getting outside, measuring a circuit in metres and then calculating how much further to get to 1km.  Within school, the children converted lengths measured in centimetres into metres.

History

The children have enjoyed learning about the Roman Republic and about some of the battles that took place involving Rome.  They enjoyed role-playing Hannibal’s Attack on Rome. 

PE 

This week in PE, the children worked at improving their core strength whilst balancing on one leg.  Some children managed to hold this balance with their eyes closed for 55 seconds!  Very impressive.  Each week, the children reflect on their successes and areas for development and share these with each other.

Science

This week, the children learnt about food chains and food webs.  They worked together in groups to understand terms like predator, consumer, prey and producer.  They then created different types of food chain.

English

The children have continued to listen to stories from Aesop’s Fables or from A World full of Animal Stories and have started to plan out their own stories, using a story mountain approach.  Over the next week, we will be starting to write these up, using fronted adverbials to help build description of characters and setting

Maths

The children have continued with their work adding and subtracting numbers.  This week, we have learnt new terms: minuend, subtrahend and difference.

For example:   52 – 37 = 15

52 is the minuend, 37 is the subtrahend, 15 is the difference.

Please check by asking your children what these words mean!

The children use a range of manipulatives to support their learning, including place value counters.

Science

Our unit is about types of teeth, diet and human digestion.  The children were carrying out an experiment to understand the steps involved in the digestion of food.  This week, we identified the organs involved in this process and explained what happened at each step.        

Computing

The children have continued to learn about the internet and how the Worldwide Web (www) is only one part of the internet.  The children logged onto the computers in the main part of our school and used given websites to identify what they might use the websites for. 

PE

Much of what we do in the early stages of physical development is to develop skills that the children will use later.  Our focus has been on developing different stepping patterns, working independently and with a partner.  Good coordination and balance are key, as are being able to change direction quickly.  

The children have all settled back into school really well.  Children are working hard and making great progress with their learning.

English

This half term, we will be writing stories with a moral, similar to ones in Aesop’s Fables.  We are reading example stories from that book and also from A World Full of Animal Stories by Angela McAllister.

This week, the children have been role-playing the characters in one of the story to help build descriptions and to write noun phrases. 

Maths

The children have learnt about different methods of adding, including using the base ten equipment and pictorial representations, including bar models.  They have also been reminded to stop and think about which approach to use – a mental or a written strategy- depending on which method is the most efficient.

PE

The children have enjoyed the start of our new unit- based on improving their coordination and balance.  The children have developed their footwork patterns, practising hopscotch, skipping and side stepping.  They have worked independently and with a partner, focusing on what their strengths are and areas for development.

Art

In Art, the children have started to create their own Christmas card design using water colours. They have also been learning about pattern and design and later, they will be creating blocks to print their designs with.