Spring 2 – A UK Travel Adventure

We have continued to focus on our learning our times tables this half term and are getting much quicker and more accurate at recalling the facts. We have also worked hard to develop our knowledge of fractions of numbers.

In English, we have been reading Race to the Frozen North, which tells the story of Matthew Henson, the first explorer to ever set foot in the North Pole. Using this as inspiration, we have written letters to one of the characters and have also acted out written an interview.

In our Geography lessons, we have been finding out about different counties, towns, cities and landmarks across the UK. Using OS mapping, we have designed our own trip around the UK for a tourist.

Our Science lessons have allowed the children to build upon their knowledge about changing states of matter from previous years. We have spoken about solids, liquids and gasses and the processes of melting, freezing, condensing and evaporating. As well as this, the children have also recapped their knowledge of the water cycle and have even made their own mini water cycle experiment in zippy wallets which are they observe each day.

Our Art lessons have been inspired by David Hockney. We have studied his art work and created our own versions of his very colourful Garrowby Hill. To do this, we have used acrylic paint and marker pen. We have also created a photo ‘Joiner’ montage using PicCollage.

In our French lessons, we have been learning to count to 40 and how to say what the weather is like. We have enjoyed learning through lots of practical and interactive games.

The Treehouse Theatre - Saxons and Viking Raiders Day!

The Saxons and Viking Raiders Day was a huge success and it was wonderful to see the children come into school dressed up! During the day they took part in a range of activities, which included: using runic writing to write their names and decipher codes, they then used their creative skills to make their own Rune stones and shields.

Throughout the day we had Ben from the Treehouse Theatre to work with us and the children loved taking part in their very own performance which went through the history of the Saxons and Vikings and every child took part! The performance was great fun and we were so proud of each and everyone of them!

Spring 1 – The Vikings

The end of this half term marks us officially at half way through Year 4. Where has the time gone? Time flies when you are busy learning and that certainly has been the case for Ash and Pine Class.

We have had a real focus on times tables this half term and have been playing lots of fun games in school, learning tips and tricks for that speedy recall. We also had a big 2 week TTRS tournament, with Pine class JUST taking the lead but huge, huge efforts and scores all round.

In English, we took on the role of dragon researchers and trainers, in honour of the Viking connection to dragons used to scare off bad sea spirits and enemies. We first designed our own dragons that were unique to us. A vast range of species were created, ranging from sea based dragons, those that had poisonous skin, those that had hypnotic powers and so much more. This project really tested our knowledge of organisational devices fit for the purpose. We used this project to inform our dragon training manuals, where we wrote instructions informing our audience to take great care of their dragon (aka without getting burnt!).

History has been a true joy this half term, bought to life with a visit from TreeHouse Theatre. We learnt all about the Vikings, figuring out what was a stereotype and what appears more historically accurate. We were inspired by the Longships incredible power and used this as inspiration in our Art work. The sketches of our Longships showed off our amazing tone skills that we have been working.

Collecting and presenting data was our Computing theme. We had to get deep into the learning pit when it came to using Excel but actually, we surprised ourselves with how confident we became. We explored using a formula to group our data and were so proud to see it working.

Things got exciting in PE this half term. Our 360 coach has commented how far our team work skills have come in outdoor PE and in indoor PE, we have been showing the value of creativity in our 007 dancing. We also rounded the half term of with a fun game of Dodgeball which we all absolutely loved.

Time to head into the second half of Year 4, I am sure it will bring as much fun and even more learning.

Autumn 2 – The Northern Lights

Another first ‘brand new topic’ here in Year 4 and it has transported us to Norway. We have been travelling to magical folk tale lands in our Blended Reading sessions, as we have listened to a range of Scandinavian tales, all of which have a theme of icy, magical adventure. Linking beautifully to this has been our own English writing where we have taken inspiration from the Snow Queen herself! We read several versions of the story and really pulled them apart in order to create our own stories, complete with trolls, reindeers and icy mazes. To round this off, we also compared an animated version of the Snow Queen to see how it different to the stories we had read. This allowed us to write a great film review.

Our Geography allowed us to further explore the continent of Europe. We had a great session walking around our classroom looking at a range of different fact files, photos and information all about Europe. We had questions to find the answer to, linked to population, landmarks and more. We then repeated the process learning all about Norway. We have also explored compass direction, mapping travel routes and plotting countries that can see the Northern Lights. We have gained a lot of new knowledge about these locations and look forward to our next Geography topic.

Maths has definitely tested our skills this half term. An example of challenging Maths has been time telling. We moved from analogue time, to 12 hour time to 24 hour time. We had to think carefully about the positioning of hands, am or pm as well as how to convert between times. It definitely got us into the learning pit! But our resilience and hard work has paid off.

Our Art work this half term has been absolutely spectacular, using chalks and water colour to create the Northern Lights. We even took this inspiration into our Home Learning, where we had to choose how we wanted to present the lights. The results were wonderful and we loved having the unique pieces up in our classroom display.

What have our Y4s thought about this topic?

"In English, I have enjoyed creating our own story because it's really creative." - Archie 

"I really liked making the Northern Lights with chalk because we got to go outside and it was different drawing out there." - Lucy 

"I have enjoyed working on Scratch. I love going on the computers. I am trying to work hard on my Maths Quiz on Scratch, it has been hard but fun at the same time." - Albie

"Music has been good this half term because we have been playing the musical instruments. It has been really good every week and I have learnt a lot about about Music." - Fearne

As we enter the final festive week of the half term and begin to draw 2023 to a close, we feel very proud of all the progress made by Y4 already. They are maturing, working hard and making good choices to support their learning across the board. Bring on 2024!

Autumn 1 - The Saxons!

We have reached the end of our first half term in Year 4 and what a blast it has been. The children have certainly made a great first impression and we have loved getting to know them all. As ever, we have been working on demonstrating the school values throughout our learning and this half term has had a real focus on 'respect'. They have formed great class teams and we are looking forward to what the rest of the year brings.

In English, we have been writing battle speeches in the role of the great Beowulf. He needed a strong army of warriors to join him on his mission to slay the dragon and the children really took on this role in all it's gory and graphic detail! The speeches were up on our classroom windows and the rest of the school couldn't resist but have a read. We then begun writing diaries from the perspective of Grendel (a beast that Beowulf has already encountered). These ended up having quite a humorous twist and it was great seeing the children explore this.

In Maths, we have been covering many of our key number skills - place value, addition, subtraction and multiplication. We have been working to improve our mental maths speed as it will make a huge difference when we move into further challenges. The children have had to work on their systematic thinking and logical layouts when it came to using written methods - a real challenge for us all.

History has been a guiding area for this half term as we delved deeper into the Anglo Saxons and the mark they left on the country. We recreated our own Sutton Hoo style dig, read different perspectives on the Saxons and even mapped where and when they lived. 

DT was a huge hit this half term as we made our delicious granola bars. We first followed a simple recipe with taste testing at the end of course. After this, we evaluated the success of that recipe and began to suggest our own amendments to flavour, texture and quantity of ingredients. Finally, we re-made our granola bars, using our own suggestions and most of us found huge improvements in taste and texture. I wonder if anyone will be brave enough to make them at home?

We have worked hard in so many areas this half term, it would be impossible to capture all that learning here, but do have a look at the pictures to see us in action.

Welcome to Year 4.

The staff working in Year 4 are (L-R) Mrs Taylor, Mrs Byrne, Mrs Teasdale, Mrs Osborne, Miss Hanafin and Miss Bowden.

Mrs Osborne is the Pine Class teacher and Miss Hanafin and Mrs Byrne teach Ash Class. Mrs Taylor, Mrs Teasdale and Miss Bowden work across both classrooms.