Beechwood Primary School

Year 4

2018-2019

May

As part of Growth Mindset month, year 4 had an amazing ‘Growth Mindset Morning.’ We invited parents to come and take part in a lesson promoting the four zones: Love Learning, Concentration, Have a go and Don’t Give Up. In Hawk class, we were given a brief to create the tallest, free standing tower out of just newspaper, paper clips, a limited strip of tape and 20 minutes to complete! The class had a go, whilst showing sheer concentration, we had created our towers. Next, we went on a learning walk to be able to deliver constructive feedback. Finally, we began to improve the towers whilst closely considering the feedback we were given, resulting in a better constructed outcome. It was genuinely a joy to see so many parents take part in the morning and supporting their children to promote a Growth Mindset.

March

Year 4 turned into musicians this half term as they were learning how to create their own piece of music on the app ‘Garage Band’. In pairs, they played around with existing loops of music as well as composing their own with various instruments before putting the pieces together to create a final piece. The children thoroughly enjoyed the day and created some fantastic music!

February

As part of our Science topic, Year 4 have been learning about how food travels through the human digestive system. We created our own version of it to show how the body digests food and the functions of the organs involved. We had great fun, although it was slightly messy, and were able to write a fantastic explanation as a result.

This half term, some of the Year 4 children were lucky enough to go on the residential to Shortenills Environmental Centre in Buckinghamshire. Whilst there, they were able to explore the woods, visit a local working farm and participate in lots of team building activities. Although it was very cold, the children thoroughly enjoyed the experience, made even more magical by the snow!

October

This half term in Year 4, we have enjoyed learning about sound in our Science lessons and have explored Europe in our Topic lessons. The children have carried out lots of research and have participated in investigations to discover new things for themselves and draw their own conclusions. Both Osprey class and Hawk class presented fantastic and informative class assemblies to their phase about the learning they have done in these subjects.

September

The children in Year 4 have got off to a fantastic start and are now settled into their new classes. We started the year with the difficult task of learning about Roman Numerals. The children did very well with this and successfully worked together to complete some quite tricky challenges!

2017-2018

Alice in Wonderland

This half term in English, we are learning a new portal story, Alice in Wonderland, focusing on developing our characterisation. To begin the unit with a hook, the children had the opportunity to make their own hats for a Mad Hatter’s Tea Party. Since then, the children have been working hard to learn the story off my heart and have thoroughly enjoyed it. We are looking forward to seeing the children progress in their writing as a result!

January

In Year 4 we have been studying the Romans and their impact on Britain.  The Romans have influenced our lives in many ways  One of these ways is through Art and Entertainment.  To deepen our understanding of this subject, we have been creating Mosaics during our Topic lessons.

November

Year 4 had an exciting first half term full of learning, new experiences and fun! To celebrate Black History Month, we decided to focus on culture, and had the opportunity to learn African Drumming. The children were taught the history of why African Drumming was used and learnt some of their own ‘call and responses’. In addition, we explored some of the fruits grown in the Caribbean. Finally, we looked at influential people and the differences they have made to history.

October 

Children in Year 4 had a great experience, taking part in an African drumming workshop. Watch the video below to see how well they did and the skills they picked up. 

The new cohort of Year 4 children have settled in well and adapted to the systems and routines in place. With a focus on Place Value, our maths lessons have been extremely successful with children using and applying their learning in a range of problem solving contexts. We have just recently started our new English topic based on the story ‘The Cobbler and the Dragon’ by engaging the children with an exciting hook of creating their own dragons. The children did some fantastic work and we are looking forward to seeing the writing they will produce alongside this.