Autumn 2 - The Northern Lights!

Autumn 2 has seen us venture off to Norway in our topic focus! We have travelled off to magical folk tale lands in our Blended Reading sessions, as we have listened to a range of Scandinavian tales. Linking beautifully to this, in English, we have taken inspiration from the Snow Queen herself! We read several versions of the story and analysed them in great detail to create our own stories, complete with trolls, reindeers and icy mazes. The children were lucky enough to then watch the Snow Queen (2013) film as part of their Golden Trail treat and subsequently wrote fantastic film reviews, comparing the book to the film.

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 and discussed countries where the Northern Lights are visible. 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 converting units of measure and beginning to understand fractions in more detail. As we look ahead to the Spring term, we will continue to push our children with their times table knowledge, ensuring that they have lots of opportunities to practise in school, but also encouraging them to practise LOTS at home too. In Science this half term, we have explored electricity and creating circuits. The children loved testing various circuits which included a range of cells, bulbs and wires; they also created their own switches and discussed how and why these are effective but not practical on a larger scale. Feel free to encourage the children to use this website link to explore circuits further in their own time.

Our Art work this half term has been absolutely spectacular, using chalks and water colour to create the Northern Lights. We explored a range of skills and applied this to our final pieces. The results were wonderful and we loved having the unique pieces up in our classroom display. Computing has been a real highlight for us this half term as we got to know how to use Micro:bits. They really tested our coding knowledge and allowed us to show our creativity in a brand new way.

As we enter the final festive week of the half term and begin to draw 2025 to a close, we are pleased with how Year 4 are beginning to show us more determined learning attitudes. They have been working hard and enjoying their learning across the curriculum. Bring on 2025!

Autumn 1 - The Saxons!

We have had a fantastic first half term in Year 4 and the children have enjoyed settling into new routines and challenging themselves with their learning.  

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. We have seen countless examples of the children’s creativity, cooperation, aspirations and resilience, alongside moments of real honesty and respect.

In English, we have been writing battle speeches in the role of 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 are displayed in our classroom windows for all to enjoy so make sure you come and take a look if you haven’t already! We then begun writing diaries from the perspective of Grendel (a beast from the Beowulf story). These ended up having quite a humorous twist and it was great seeing the children explore this in a chatty diary style.

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.

Our History focus, the Anglo-Saxons, has been an over-arching theme across our learning this half term as we delved deeper into how this historic time left its mark on the country. We recreated our own Sutton Hoo style masks, read different perspectives on the Saxons and even mapped where and when they lived. In Art we have enjoyed creating Anglo-Saxon themed brooches but also studied Hokusai’s Great Wave. The children created some stunning artwork which they will love showing you at the end of the year when bringing their sketchbooks home.

DT was a huge hit this half term as we made our delicious granola bars. We first followed a simple recipe, taste tested and evaluated our creations. Following the success of this, we 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.

The Saxon Day and Treehouse Theatre

The children had an amazing day and looked fabulous in their Saxon outfits! Throughout the day they made Saxon brooches, helmets and did some rune writing. Moreover, they loved participating in the Treehouse workshop and gave a super performance at the end of the day.

Welcome to Year 4!

The Year 4 children have settled brilliantly into their new classes and we are very proud of the school values we have seen them displaying during our first few weeks of the Autumn term. The children have enjoyed the start of our Saxons topic and have engaged brilliantly with the learning we have completed so far. 

Just to inform you, Year 4 PE will be on a Wednesday (Indoor) and Friday (Outdoor) this year. The children will need to wear their PE kit into school to worn for the duration of the day.

Please feel free to drop us an email or call via the office if you have any queries or concerns; we are always willing to help where we can. 

Our current Year 4 staff team.

Left to right: Mrs Lowe (LSA and HLTA), Mrs Teasedale (LSA and ELSA), Mrs Byrne (Pine Class Teacher), Mrs Roberts (Pine Class Teacher) and Miss Chave (Ash Class Teacher). Miss Howard has also joined our team and is working alongside Year 4 throughout the week. In Pine Class, Mrs Byrne will teach the class Monday-Wednesday and Mrs Roberts will teach the class Wednesday-Friday.