15th July 2022
What a wonderful and sunny week we’ve had in Year 4!
This week marked the end of our Year 4 course of swimming lessons and it was an absolute pleasure to see how far the children have come in terms of skills and confidence. We ended our final session with some free pool time, which was so very welcome to combat the rising heat outside!
We have started our new Design and Technology project and are designing and making nightlights to support children who feel the comfort of a soft glow in their bedrooms at night. Our designs have been really well considered; the children have selected features and materials consciously to ensure functionality and so that they are appealing to their users.
Hot off the heels of our school trip to Museum in the Park last week, we have been delving deeper into domestic life for Romans in Gloucestershire. After looking at the different types of houses for town and country living, we are now focussing on the luxurious and spacious country villas, inspired by local Woodchester and Chedworth Villas.
We had our final Montagu sports session of the year where we focussed on our tennis skills and capped it all off with a thrilling game of tennis rounders!
Mrs Le Templier
8th July 2022
Well, what an incredibly exciting week Year 4 have had during Enrichment Week!
Orienteering on Monday launched our Enrichment Week, where we visited Robinswood Hill Park and took part in an Orienteering festival. We split into groups, armed with maps and navigated our way around to find all of the stations. After that, we completed a mini athletic obstacle time challenge before embarking upon a mindful nature trail walk, locating different sculptures on the way around. Upon return to school, we found an air ambulance helicopter had landed in our field and the pilot kindly gave us a good look at the helicopter and mini-talk about their roles and purpose. Year 4 were amazed and inspired to see real-life heroes in action and such a majestic machine!
We bounced our way to fun and fitness during our Rikadee mini-trampolining session, where we bounced, jumped, danced, pumped and waved to some of our favourite songs for a full 30 minutes! There were a few red faces but they were loaded with smiles.
On Thursday, we kick-started our Local History unit by visiting The Museum in the Park in Stroud where we had a Romans-filled day of activities. We did a workshop on Roman villas and mosaics, during which we even had the pleasure of handling real remnants of wall, mosaic pieces and roof tile actually crafted and used by the Romans 2000 years ago! Incredible! We also did a museum tour with an array of Roman-related challenges and we saw so many real artefacts found locally from the Roman era. We learned how Romans used to make their own flour in our ‘flour and power’ workshop, made our own mosaics during a Roman craft workshop and then tried our hand at games Roman children would have played. It got very competitive and the children had an absolute blast!
1st July 2022
Well, what a wonderfully exciting week we’ve had in Year 4!
We kick-started the week by welcoming world-renowned education consultant Shirley Clarke into our classroom and Year 4 were absolutely incredible. Throughout the day, they perfectly modelled their wonderful learning behaviour by demonstrating that they have a growth mindset, showcasing our Learning Powers and engaging in rich and thoughtful discussion using our oracy guidelines with their talk partners.
This week we have written our Big Writes and have written a persuasive letter to world leaders to do more to save the polar bears! The children were incredibly persuasive and the letters were beautifully written.
In maths, we have looked at both finding the area of 2D shapes and finding co-ordinates in a quadrant. All children were hands-on and worked so well together to find the solution to a range of problems.
We had a dynamic end to the week by having a Sports Day bursting with sporting activities. We all took part in competitive races; a circuit of balance, accuracy, throwing and running activities, took part in a mini-rounders game and had a footballing masterclass. In class, we looked at the inspirational case study of Paralympic Gold Medallist Andy Lewis and the struggles and successes he has encountered on his incredible journey. We also followed the story of Olivia Hancock, who started playing football at age 5 when she encountered challenge merely based on the fact that she was a girl!
I am so very proud of Year 4 after their tremendous week!
Mrs Le Templier
24th June 2022
This week, Year 4 have had a wonderful week of learning and smiles. During swimming, there was a tangible shift in the children’s confidence and our Learning Powers were being splashed about all over the place! There was so much ‘having a go’, ‘keep your cool concentration’ and ‘not giving up’. A huge well done – I am proud of you all.
In maths, we have begun to learn all about perimeter – what it is and how to measure and calculate it. The children worked methodically with their learning partners to solve a range of challenges – more challenges on this next week!
We are absolutely loving The Last Bear by Hannah Gold. All of our reading and writing lessons are inspired by the book and this week, Year 4 have conducted their own research on polar bears and have written some excellent non-chronological reports about this magnificent animal and the devastating threats that they face in today’s world.
This week saw our class book and our science learning align as we delved into the world of climate change. What is it and how does each impact our world’s animals? We learned about adaptation and reflected on how giraffes are able to reach leaves from trees and why a polar bear’s foot is almost as wide as it is long!
17th June 2022
This week, Year 4 have worked so hard, all while embodying our Learning Powers. We have starting to unpick the trickiness of telling the time using a 24-clock in maths and we have all completed the Year 4 Multiplication Check. I am hugely proud of every single child as they all showed a great ‘have a go’ attitude, they kept their cool concentration and many people did it with a smile on their face! Amazing!
In PE, we have been perfecting our techniques in swimming, during which there has been an incredible buzz of courage and not giving up when it feels challenging. Back at school, we have been practicing races and events, ready for our Sports Day in a couple of weeks. The children were exceptional at cheering each other on and supporting each other.
We were very lucky to attend a performance of ‘In the Net’, an internet-safety performance, which followed the mistakes and lessons of a young girl, using social media for the first time. It was laugh-a–minute and an extremely informative afternoon. We had a super time!
Mrs Le Templier
10th June 2022
Wow – we can’t believe we are now entering our final term of Year 4. What a lovely start to it we’ve had, too!
This week, Year 4 have jumped into the world of The Last Bear, by Hannah Gold and found out all about protagonists April’s life, character and how her adventure has begun on Bear Island. We were particularly excited to be able to locate Bear Island (Arctic Circle) on Google Earth, based on our recent geography learning on the Earth’s zones and lines of latitude. In writing, we are learning all about the differences between the plural and possessive apostrophe and have made a great start at applying it to their writing. We even took on the oracy challenge of teaching each other the rules and differences of these apostrophes, where we articulated the learning beautifully!
In maths, we have been leaning on our prior learning of addition and subtraction to apply it to adding and subtracting decimal numbers up to 2 decimal places. We have also continued to have a laser sharp focus on our multiplication tables through our MOT sessions.
We have embarked upon our new RE unit ‘What does the idea of the journey of life mean to us?’ by looking at important milestones in our own lives so far, our hopes for the future and by engaging in rich discussion around what order might key events happen is someone’s life and which events are more or less important?
In computing, we have been building upon our coding knowledge by generating code to create shapes using Scratch. We determined which code blocks were required to build certain shapes.
Mrs Le Templier
20th May 2022
What a super week we’ve had in Year 4 this week! The children have been showing our ‘Learning Powers’ in action throughout their classes this week and grappling in the challenge of learning.
On Wednesday, it was National Numeracy Day and we looked at different jobs and how numbers and maths are often used every day in certain professions. We thought about our own aspirations for the future and how will need to use numbers in those roles and then drew a mini-poster to demonstrate how maths is used in such jobs and roles.
We are beginning to come to the end of our class text ‘How to Train Your Dragon‘ and, this week, we took inspiration from the main characters Hiccup and Toothless and have started to plan our own story of when a human meets a creature.
The mathematical themes have been endless this term as even our art is centred around tessellating shapes. We have been looking at Escher’s captivating and intriguing artwork and we found that we always need to study the pieces carefully before we see the whole story!
Mrs Le Templier
13th May 2022
Year 4 have had yet another wonderful and busy week of learning as this term seems to be whizzing by before our very eyes!
In Science, we have been acting as Naturalists and have been observing invertebrates in close detail and then we learned how to scale the images into intricate sketches. We were completely wowed by the incredible work of Levon Biss and couldn’t believe how complicated and detailed these tiny animals are. There is so much we don’t see with the naked eye! Do treat yourself to his work by visiting this website – http://microsculpture.net/.
In Literacy, it has been a laugh-a-minute as we dive deeper into the world of How to Train Your Dragon. As we are focussing on writing accurately in different tenses, we have written a profile of protagonist Hiccup, and we are certainly learning more and more about his strength of character as the story unfolds…
We experimented with colour in art this week and created a perfect setting for our sleeping dragons by washing a scene using watercolours. We looked at how to create different shades of colour and suggested a beach/sea/cliff background using colour alone.
Hot off the heels of Hiccup being judged by the others’ as ‘forgettable’ and ‘unheroic’, purely by the way he looks, we have been engaging in rich discussions about stereotyping in PSHCE- how limiting it can be, how society send messages about expectations around our gender from the day we’re born and how easily we can fall into the trap!
Mrs Le Templier
6th May 2022
What a dynamic week we’ve had in Year 4. Tuesday saw Year 4 become Clearwater’s first ever cohort to go swimming and the children were absolutely fantastic. The children were unsurprisingly impeccable at embodying our school values and showed wonderful resilience and a ‘can-do’ response to challenge. In PE in school, we have continued with our cricket sessions, coached by experts from Montagu Sports. The children were throwing, bowling, catching and batting. showcasing a range of skills they’d learned the previous week.
In computing this week, the children created algorithms (a precise set of ordered instructions, which can be turned into code) for their initials. They then implemented these algorithms by writing them into Logo commands.
We have begun to learn about the Platinum Jubilee by reflecting on the length of Queen Elizabeth R’s reign and have designed some bunting flags to contribute to a community display in Quedgeley Library.
We are always talking about our school values in class and this week was no different. We were shining a light on ‘courage’ through our Collective and Reflective Worships this week and have thought about how it takes courage to make changes to our lives and habits. We heard the story of Greta and the Giants and saw how Greta’s small step of courage made a huge impact on the whole world. We pledged small changes we could make that could help to combat climate change – the responses were thoughtful and wide-ranging.
Mrs Le Templier
29th April 2022
What a wonderful start to the Summer Term we’ve had this week!
Year 4 had the absolute pleasure of taking part in an online live author event – with the multi award-winning Hannah Gold, author of The Last Bear and her new title, The Lost Whale. We were all incredibly inspired by her ideas, journey and attitude to life.
A new term, a new text! We have begun our new class book, How to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell and it’s safe to say we are amused, challenged and we can’t wait to see what will happen next for Hiccup and the other recruits. At this moment in time, we predict that capturing these dragons could be full of challenges. We are now writing our own descriptions of Hiccup, based on how Cressida Cowell has presented him in the story, while focussing about writing accurately in different tenses.
In maths, we have successfully delved into the world of decimals and, this week, we have learned all about the value of tenths, hundredths and have even started to count up and down in hundredths!
In Science, we have been thinking all about what makes something ‘living’ and have looked at the 7 life processes – the characteristics of life. We came up with some excellent questions like, ‘If tree bark is alive, what about the wood chippings it makes when it’s on the floor?’ and ‘Is a vase of picked flowers alive?’
Have a lovely weekend,
Mrs Le Templier
1st April 2022
Year 4 have been very busy this past week learning all about our own digestive system. We simply couldn’t believe that it only takes 6 seconds from swallowing food for it to reach your stomach and it remains the same even if you’re upside down! It also amazed us that our small intestines can measure up to 7 metres long – it is packed in very tightly indeed!
In geography, we have been exploring our local environment and looked at the features and uses of the land behind our school. We did some geographical sketches and some annotations based on our observations. We look forward to comparing it to another local spot and collecting some data on how these areas are used next week.
We have sadly come to the end of our wonderful text, Madame Badobedah. Through our discussions and reflections, we made so many wonderful connections to what we have previously read and we are hoping Sophie Dahl writes a sequel so that we can find out what happens next for Irene and Mabel.
In RE, we have been thinking about Holy Week and we are currently in the planning stages of a non-chronological report about the traditions and importance of Easter for Christians.
Mrs Le Templier
18th March 2022
Year 4 have been immersing themselves in STEM activities for our Science Week at Clearwater!
We have designed and built our own boats to partake in the water race; taken part in the ‘Road to Riat’ Royal Air Force Glider challenge, where we looked at key elements of glider design and created our own; quizzed members of our own Clearwater community on their STEM-related jobs to find out what they do and learned all about how the water we drink is clean, building on our learning about the water cycle in science.
In writing, we have been writing a diary from the perspective of Mabel after discovering that Madame Badobedah is not all we assumed her to be at the start. We have reached a point in the story where her mysterious character is unravelling vividly and we cant wait to see what else Mabel discovers about her!
This week in maths, we have been applying all of our multiplication and division knowledge into more complex problems – such as finding remainder where there are near-multiples and understanding how to divide 8800 by 11 mentally!
Mrs Le Templier
11th March 2022
This week in RE, Year 4 have been bringing the events of Holy Week to life by thinking about which emotion is often associated with Palm Sunday (joy), Good Friday (sadness) and Easter Sunday (hope) and then bringing each to life through expressive freeze-framing. The children were fantastic at conveying the story and the associated emotion.
In writing, we have been applying our new writing skill (to use subordinating conjunctions) and have written a character description of the striking Madame Badobedah, including all of her mysterious quirks and curiosities.
In PE, we learned lots of new skills in gymnastics, focussing on our attention on holding and moving our bodies consciously and with control. At the end, we even learned how to safely do a forward roll and many challenging variations of it!
All week, we have been reflecting upon our value in ‘respect’ and it has been an absolute pleasure to see it in action in and out of the classroom. We have ended the week reflecting on what we can personally and specifically do to show respect and discussed the ripples of effect that those actions may have on others around us.
Mrs Le Templier
4th March 2022
What a wonderful start to the term we’ve had!
We have unveiled our new class text, ‘Madame Badobedah‘ and the children have already got to know the protagonist (and self-confessed adventurer), Mabel and the curious life she has. In writing, we have started to focus on our next skill – to use a wider range of subordinating conjunctions to make complex sentences. The children have been superb at recalling previously-taught skills to build to this new skill.
For World Book Day, we have looked at Cressida Cowell’s reading charter, outlining 10 things that all children should have the right to as a reader. We then partook in an Author and Illustrator Masterclass with Sibeal Pounder about her tantalising tale, Bad Mermaids. We dived deep into the realm of ‘World Building’ and then, using the setting of the book as inspiration, designed our own worlds in pairs for the mermaids to live in.
We have begun to deepen our understanding about Holy Week and the Easter Story in RE and have so far read some exacts from the Bible by Matthew and Luke, describing the events of Palm Sunday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday.
In maths, we are now starting to learn lots of exciting things like how to use different written methods to solve core complex multiplications. As always, we continue to practice our times table base knowledge, which is proving very handy for this new unit!
Mrs Le Templier
11th February 2022
Year 4 have had a jam-packed week!
We have all been completely captured by our ‘Coding Masterclasses’ that we have done – we created our own stages, avatars and even did some brilliant Minecraft coding!
As it is ‘Children’s Mental Health Week’, we have been thinking, talking and having a go at activities that can help us keep our minds and bodies healthy. We looked at some inspirational stories and talked about what we can do when we’re not feeling so great, as well as how we can support others around us too. We practically melted into the floor as we did some Ninja guided meditation and then some candle-focused mindfulness (no real flames this time!). The class were so peaceful that we stayed on the floor for end-of-the-day story to find out what happened next in ‘The Boy at the Back of the Class’.
For Safer Internet Day, we delved into the gaming world, completing a course to collect coins, gain special powers and consider lots of internet-safety scenarios along the way. The children loved it so much, they asked for the link to go on Class Dojo so they can do more at home!
In Science, we have been building on our knowledge of how an electrical current flows through a complete circuit and we have created electrical circuits and testing to see what makes a good electrical conductor. Some us were even discovered that they could make their own switches by moving the materials that were good conductors!
Mrs Le Templier
28th January 2022
This week in Year 4, we have been lighting up our learning in our science unit by exploring different electrical components and trialling whether certain combinations can make the bulb light up! We made predictions for each ‘circuit’ before we constructed them and then tested to see if it worked.
In History, we delved deeper into the world of the Anglo-Saxons by using pictures and artefacts to make inferences about what these can tell us about life back then. We were amazed to discover how resourceful they were – that they gathered and made all of their own food from the environment, made their own clothes, lived very simply and still made wonderful broaches and pieces of jewellery themselves. Even children did their part by collecting eggs from the hens or scaring away the birds from newly-planted seeds!
We listened to some Hindu ‘bhajans’ (songs of worship) in RE this week and discovered that there are many different types. We spoke about the differences between modern and relaxing bhajans, explained how the music made us feel and thought about its place during Puja (Hindu worship).
In Literacy, we continue to be absolutely gripped by ‘The Boy at the Back of the Class’ and we have written a diary entry from the storyteller’s perspective and are now creating an image on Ms Hemsi based on Onjali’s words to do our own character description.
Mrs Le Templier
21st January 2022
What a wonderful week we’ve had in Year 4!
We have kick-started our history unit of the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings by finding out when these groups arrived, where they came from and where they settled. We even recognised some of the names of the Saxon’s seven kingdoms (Essex and Kent!) as we were surprised to learn that we still call those regions by the same name the Saxon’s gave them!
In Literacy, we have been delving further into ‘The Boy at the Back of the Class‘ and we now have some clear predictions about Ahmet’s situation, based on what we have learned so far. Our protagonist storyteller thinks Ahmet may be a refugee so, as a class, we looked at what a refugee is and then retold the part of the book where the main character asks their mum ‘What is a refuge?’ in our writing.
In Science, we explored electrical safety at home and realised how many dangers there potentially are. We then made safety poster to warn others of the dangers, sharing what we had learned. We are all going to be thinking twice about where we put our drinks down if there is electrical equipment around!
There were lots of jolly hockey sticks in our PE session this week as we continue to learn to control the ball while moving and making safe interceptions to steal the ball from the opposition!
Mrs Le Templier
14th January 2022
This week, Year 4 built on our learning from our COP26 project last term and focussed on our world and the environment through an RE Day. We thought about how we can look after the world around us and how people from different religions are actively encouraged through their various faiths to treat the world in a responsible way.
We then looked at ‘God’s Good Earth’ and recapped the story of Creation. We set up a ‘Conscious Alley’ oracy activity where one side of the alley represented ‘good’ – the people on the ‘good’ side told a person walking through the alley, lots of good things about our world. The people on the ‘bad’ side, said bad things about our word today. We collated our ideas onto a whole-class good and bad board and then created a drawing of the earth showing both good and bad elements of life today as an artistic response.
We looked at the Jewish phrase ‘tikkun olam’ which means mending the world. We read Hannah’s story to look at examples of how she was trying to ‘mend the world’. We also looked at the Jewish New Year (Tu B’shevat) and learned how individuals or whole synagogues often go to plant trees as part of this festival.
Mrs Le Templier
17th December 2021
What a wonderfully festive and busy week we have had in Year 4!
Linked to our school values of Joy, Compassion, Community and Responsibility, we have completed our Soup Kitchen project. We have enjoyed every stage of this process, from researching the purpose and value of community kitchens, to learning all about healthy food and how we can ensure a meal is balanced to making our soup! We peeled, chopped, combined, cooked, blitzed and served – Mrs Moss and Mrs McEwan even managed to have a taste!
We had many ‘wow’ moments this week in our learning. The most memorable being when Mrs Le Templier lifted the lid on the soup and we saw our science learning in action – the steam (water vapour) was evaporating in front of our eyes and there was so much condensation on the pans lid!
Another was when we were practically poised tentatively on the edge of our seats as we came to the end of the stunning Kensuke’s Kingdom. We have immensely enjoyed reading, discussing, inferring, predicting, explaining and writing about it. I think it will stick as one of the favourites!
Mrs Le Templier would like to congratulate all children on their fantastic effort, focus and smiles over the term. It has been a triumph, and that is of great credit to the children.
10th December 2021
What a magical and festive week we’ve had in Year 4!
Perfectly embodying our value of Joy, the entire class delivered a sterling performance for our KS2 Carol Concert – the singing was excellent and warmed the audience to the core; the story of Christmas was told with clarity, enthusiasm and light-touch humour and the spirit of Christmas shone through from the children’s faces. A huge well done to everyone involved.
In literacy, we have been preparing for our Big Write by planning what we want to include in our Witness Statements. In doing so, we have come to realise that there is so much that can be said regarding Kensuke and Michael’s interactions and relationship and that we are feeling sad that we will soon have finished the book completely! Year 4 have been eager to explore more stories written by Michael Morpurgo now!
In Collective Worship this week, we have been thinking about our value of Respect and how closely linked it is to all of our other values. Year 4 have been keen to express how giving respect can spark joy, show responsibility, and show compassion.
From reflecting on how we can help to make others’ lives more colourful, we have literally been learning about the colours in French! It is safe to say that our confidence and pronunciation has developed brilliantly.
Mrs Le Templier
3rd December 2021
This week, Year 4 were excited to notice that, due to the temperature plummet, there was ice everywhere outside. It was gathered on chairs, it clung to blades of grass and it made the ground rather slippery in places! The enthusiastic scientists that we are, the children immediately made the link to their states of matter learning in science, following on from our ‘changing states’ lesson last week.
We have launched our Design and Technology project this week and are focussing on food and healthy eating. We have learned all about the importance and impact of food kitchens in the UK and we are now going to design a recipe and make soup fit for a soup kitchen. Year 4 were forthcoming in linking all of our school values to this project too!
In our writing lessons, we have been learning all about how we can ensure paragraphs are cohesive using noun and pronoun chains and we have reflected that it makes our writing flow beautifully. Building towards our Big Write, we have been focusing on recounts – this week we have recounting the first time Michael saw Kensuke’s cave.
The reading culture in Year 4 is buzzing! In addition to all of the lovely reading we do in school, the children have decided to have a ‘class book borrow’. After talking about our favourite authors and reading at home, the children expressed their wish to share some of these books with other children in the class. In class, we have been thinking all about our ‘likes’, ‘dislikes’, ‘puzzles’ and ‘connections’ regarding all things Kensuke’s Kingdom – ask the children all about it!
Mrs Le Templier
26th November 2021
What a week it has been for Year 4! I have been immensely impressed by how hard everyone has been working and we have all shown great enthusiasm for our learning!
This week in science we saw with our very own eyes just how particles behave when an ice cube changes state from ice (a solid) to water (a liquid). By removing the blue and yellow ice cubes from the freezer and placing them in our classroom, we effectively heated the ice cubes because the classroom is significantly warmer. We observed that the yellow and green water particles flowed freely when in liquid state and made a green puddle! We also exemplified how particles move through becoming particles ourselves and moving according to what state we were representing.
In PE, we have been honing our basketball skills by practicing receiving the ball – where we need to be and when to stop – and our passing skills so that the ball less likely to be intercepted by any defenders.
In maths, we have been exploring how to use mental methods of addition. We have been exercising our brains well and have found that some previously-learned skills (such as rounding) can help us to add in our heads.
19th November 2021
This week, during Anti-Bullying Week, we have been shining a light on kindness and how the smallest of gestures can change the lives of everyone around us. We thought about a time when someone shared an act of kindness with us – however big or small – and described what effect it had on us.
In Geography, we have delved further into our study of different maps and have been focusing in Kasulu in Tanzania, which is our link school. We used our knowledge of map features to describe what we could find out about Kasulu from maps and we also used 8 points of the compass to describe where certain places are.
We have started to focus on mental methods of addition in maths and, in writing, we are conducting laser focus on how we group our writing into different paragraphs. So far, in preparation for our Newspaper Report unit at the end of the term, we have written a witness account of when Michael met Kensuke and what he did to his fire, in Kensuke’s Kingdom.
Our learning about Kasulu led us beautifully into our RE Day where we replied to the letter we received from Kasulu School. During RE Day, we also retold the Story of the Mustard Seed by creating our own audio book using iMovie.
Mrs Le Templier
12th November 2021
To commemorate Remembrance this year, children in Year 4 have each made origami poppies to add to our wreath, we even included a purple one to represent the animals whose lives were sacrificed when serving our country.
There was an audible gasp from the class when we reached a critical point this week in Kensuke’s Kingdom. The entire class were on the edge of their seats as we found clues that Michael’s disappearance was about to happen. We have now reached the island that is Kensuke’s Kingdom and we are describing it in our writing through Michael’s eyes from the evidence provided in the book.
In RE this term, we are asking ourselves ‘What is the Trinity?’. After introducing the theme of water and its symbolism last week, we have we have continued exploring its use by looking at its the importance and symbolism of baptism to Christians and compared the differences between a baby’s christening and an adult’s baptism. As always, the children applied all that they have learned before – in RE and through our knowledge of the Trinity through Collective Worship – and engaged in thoughtful conversation around baptism.
After learning all about solids and liquids last week, this week we have been learning all about gas. We found evidence of its existence by weighing a deflated balloon vs an inflated one, smelling aromatherapy scents without our noses touching the cloths and squeezing a balloon underwater. We observed that all of the gas that was in the small pores of the sponge escaped through the water via bubbles and rose to the surface.
5th November 2021
What a wonderful start to Term 2 we’ve had in Year 4!
We have started to explore our new class text, Kensuke’s Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo and we can’t wait to find out what happens next! The whole class have been gripped by Michael’s account of what happened around his disappearance many years ago and there are so many things we want to know.
In literacy, we have used Kensuke’s Kingdom to inspire our writing which, this week, has included fronted adverbials to show where or how something happened in Michael’s diary reflecting on the day that ‘the letter’ arrived.
This week, we launched into space to view Earth from above, using real satellite images. We began our Geography unit by slowly coming to land in Quedgeley and then we further explored may different types and scales of map of our local, and wider area. After learning eight points of the compass, we used the maps of our wider area to describe places in relation to each other.
In Computing, we have begun our unit on audio editing, where we have been familiarising ourselves with digital devices capable of recording sound and playing audio. We learned all about inputs (microphones) and outputs (speakers) to devices and we have considered copyright and ownership issues relating to the recording of audio.
Throughout the week, we have been reflecting on our world and the climate crisis we face on Earth. A huge well done to all of the children who have contributed some excellent COP26 homework competition entries – we have an impressive array of imaginative and informative pieces!
Mrs Le Templier
15th October 2021
What a wonderfully busy week we’ve had in Year 4! On Monday, we welcomed Gloucester MP Richard Graham into our classroom where we shared our knowledge of the British Values and how we use them in school. For example, we shared how we used Democracy and Rule of Law to create our own classroom rules, while abiding to the value of ‘Respect’ and ‘Tolerance’. Our inquisitive panel of journalists then asked Mr Graham questions about his role in relation to our area and the British Values we hold – it led to wide and interesting discussion!
This week in Science, we have been thinking all about how we hear sounds and what helps some animals to hear even better than we do. We conducted a mini-experiment, by creating a variety of size cones to see if they help us to hear any better, building upon our previously-taught knowledge of how sound travels through the air.
In Literacy, we were sad yet excited to reach the end of The Iron Man by Ted Hughes. We unpicked the final pages of the book in great detail in our reading lesson and we are now planning our own alternative endings for our Big Writes next week!
8th October 2021
We have been getting into the community spirit by preparing for our Harvest service. In doing so, we have been analysing, learning and performing a poem ‘When We See the Harvest’ which conveys a strong link between physically harvesting and sharing food and the compassion that is also important to share within a community. We looked at the poem’s rhythm, rhyming couplets, intonation and how the children could adjust their tone of voice to convey meaning.
In Art, we have refined our sketching skills by looking at cross-hatching to show depth and shading. We recreated the setting description from our writing where Iron Man is in the scrap metal yard, eating anything he can lay his hands on!
During History we have been focussing on the importance and purpose of Hadrian’s Wall and what life might have been like on and around it. We have linked our writing to this and we are now writing home, Vindolanda Tablet- style.
In French, we enjoyed singing a conversation about asking people ‘How are you?’ with various responses. Year 4’s enthusiasm is ‘trés bien’!
1st October 2021
This week, we were delighted when doing our music lesson on ‘Mamma Mia’, there was a giant sound wave at the bottom of the screen. Because of our recent learning in Science about pitch and volume, we are able to ‘read’ the soundwave, looking at the amplitude to determine when the music would become louder and quieter and knowing that the length of the waves would determine the pitch of the sound. We made some wonderful and accurate predictions about what the song would do next just from looking at the soundwave!
As we have been working hard to gain further independence in our learning, it seemed appropriate that, in PSHCE, we have been learning about decisions that we can make for ourselves and those that others need to make for us. We differentiated between the two, reasoning why certain decisions are safe and good for us to make, while others are made by people who are responsible for caring for us.
In Maths, we have deepened our understanding of place value, and have been ordering 4-digit numbers in ascending and descending order. So many children were brilliant at explaining their reasoning when presented with somebody else’s misconception.
Mrs Le Templier
24th September 2021
This week Year 4 have been busy finding out why the Roman Army were so successful. After exploring what life was life in the Roman Army, and seeing what weapons and protection they had, it was no wonder they were master conquerors!
In RE, we have delved deeper into our unit on Hinduism and learned about how God (Brahman) is represented through an array of deities. Year 4 looked closely at what each of the deities represented and how they were all different sides of Brahman.
We are still completely engrossed in The Iron Man by Ted Hughes and it is showing in all of the detailed descriptions, letters and diaries from Hogarth’s perspective.
We are gearing up for our Harvest Festival by preparing our poetry recital. To do this, we are looking closely at our tone, pitch and rhythm of voice, volume and clear enunciation to reflect and clearly communicate the poem’s message.
Mrs Le Templier
17th September 2021
What a wonderful start Year 4 have had to the year!
Year 4 have calmly settled in their new classroom and are keen to explore their learning.
We have immersed ourselves in The Iron Man by Ted Hughes and have used what we have unveiled as a stimulus for our writing and reading. In our writing we are learning how to deepen our descriptions using expanded nouns phrases – so far we have written character and setting descriptions and have now moved onto our second writing skill.
In Maths, we have been deep-diving into the nitty-gritty of place value, looking at 4-digit numbers and the value of each digit.
In History, we are focussing on the Roman Invasion of Britain and we have begun to explore when and why the Romans invaded. In RE, we have begun our unit on Hinduism and have looked at how Hindu stories and symbols show a Hindu’s belief in Brahman (God). We have began our Science unit with gusto as we have explored how sound travels and the mediums through which it travels.
Well done Year 4 for starting the Year with such enthusiasm and focus!
Mrs Le Templier