Year 4

Year 4 Blog up to week 4, Spring 1^st half term

Science

This week we have been finding out about electrical insulators and conductors.  The children worked in groups to test a range of materials within a circuit and then decided if they were conductors or insulators based on whether they lit up the bulb.  The children have loved the practical elements of this unit!

Computing

In our work on programming, the children have become very whizzy at using the program: FMS Logo!  This week, they were creating procedures in order to draw a range of shapes.  Some children went further and were able to use the ‘Penup’ function to link shapes together.

History

The children have learnt about sources, such as the remains of a Roman fort on Hadrian’s Wall called Vindolanda.  They have drawn diagrams of the wall and found out about life in the garrison – such as the clothes the soldiers might have worn and how they wrote home (to Rome) about their life – including what the beer was like!

PE

The children have enjoyed working competitively in teams to complete short sprinting circuits.  They have also started to develop ball control by rolling a ball around or up and down their body.

Year 4 Blog

Up to week 2, Spring 1 2026

Happy New Year! The children have all settled back in really well.

Computing

Our new unit is all about programming. The children have been learning how to program using Logo and so far, we have used the repeat command to create different shapes using the onscreen turtle.

Art

The children have been learning about the artist, Henri Matisse.  They have started to create collages of flowers and will be creating their own pictures as part of a display in Chatteris Parish church.

Music

This term, the children will learn to play the recorder. So far, they have accompanied short pieces of music, playing the notes, B and A.

English

Our book for this half term is Escape from Pompeii by Christina Balit.  The children have enjoyed role-playing the parts of the characters in the story and finding out about the historical events that took place in 79AD. They have enjoyed looking at some Roman artefacts to broaden their understanding about life during the Roman Empire.

PE

The children have been building on their earlier work to develop their core strength so that they are now able to perform dynamic balances.  They are working in pairs to complete races, where they have to synchronise their movements with their partners.  The children are also practising throwing and catching skills during warm up activities, our initial focus is on rapid chest passes.

Science

Our topic is about electricity. The children have learned about where electricity comes from and thought about how to be safe when using electrical appliances. We have started to build simple circuits using electrical components.

History

This week the children have enjoyed learning about Boudicca’s defeat by the Romans. The children were very keen to show their ‘inner Roman’!

Year 4 Blog up to week 7

English

The children have now completed their diaries, writing as the character Leon in the book, Leon and the place Between.  Some parents/carers came in on Tuesday to read their child’s diary.  There were some marvellous pieces of creative writing and the children should feel very proud of their work.

Mathematics

This half term, we have concentrated on times tables in the threes, sixes and nines.  The children have learnt how to make connections between them and a nifty way of working out their nine times tables.  It is vitally important that children continue to practise their times tables over the holidays in order to retain this information.  Please encourage them to play on TTRS and Hit the Button to keep this knowledge fresh in their mind.

Forest School

The children loved making the apple crumbles today, joining in with making the crumble topping and using their apples that they prepared and cooked last week.  Most of the children enjoyed tasting it, one child even had 4 helpings!

Science

In our last Science experiment, the children carried out an experiment to find out how far sounds could travel.  We learnt about the principles of carrying out a fair test and thought about which our controlled variables would be (what we’d keep the same) and what our independent variable was (in this case, the distance).  We used a datalogger to measure the volume of sound and the children recorded this information. 

PE

The children have continued to work on their dance sequences and last week, they created a routine with their partner which included circular movements, shapes, turns and jumps.  The teamwork and focus was outstanding!

Festivities

At the end of term, the children have enjoyed festive crafts and singing to the residents in a local care home.  Merry Christmas!

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.