Year 4
2021-2022
This half term has been an extremely exciting time in year 4 and the children have worked extremely well. In science we have been learning all about the different states of matter through a series of experiments. Firstly, the children looked at the properties of a solid and various ways that this could be transformed into a liquid. One experiment (as seen below) involved the children monitoring the temperature of an ice hand and observing the effects of heat.
The second experiment required the children to hold a chocolate button in their hand during which time they were asked to watch a short film. It was only till the film came to an end did they realise that the chocolate had melted, leaving a rather messy hand. When told they could clean their hand by eating the chocolate many of them asked to do the experiment again.
In the last experiment the children learnt about liquid tuning into a gas and back to a liquid, by conducting an experiment to make rain. Using boiling water, the children saw how steam rose and when cooled by ice on a foil tray condensation was formed. This expereiment to help the children work together to understand how the water cycle works.
Finally, the children have been learning about ancient Greeks in history which we then linked to their art. Using the learnt shading techniques of Georgia O'Keeffe, the children firstly, sketched a Greek pot and then observed where the light was coming from. They then applied typical Greek patterns. As seen in the picture we clearly have some great artists in Year 4.
The Year 4 team would like to congratulate the children on working so well this term and wish everyone a happy and safe holiday.
The start of the new academic year has got off to a flying start. The children, in Year 4, have settled into their routines and met the expectations set by their teachers extremely well and all the adults within the year group are very impressed with their attitude to learning. The children are thoroughly enjoying their new Year 4 topics. For example, science they have been learning about sound and understanding how sound waves travel through the air. As you can see from the photograph, the children conducted an experiment outside to see the effects of both distance and wind on sound waves. They also investigated how the length and width of tubes produced different sounds by making Pan Pipes. In geography the children have been learning all about volcanoes, tectonic plates, earthquakes and the composition of our planet. They have also been using atlases to discover where these natural geologies are. This has produced some really interesting discussions and the children are really enjoying the subject. To further understand the planet itself the children made their very own cross section of the planet out of different coloured salt doughs. The maths topic, place value, has been exciting for the children as they start to learn, using concrete resources (as seen in the photograph below), numbers up to ten thousand, Roman numerals and negative numbers.The Year 4 team continues to encourage the children to read, at every opportunity and engage with the accelerated reader programme. Already we are seeing progress being made.
Finally, the children are really looking forward to swimming which will begin in October and continue for the rest of the term. We will update you on how the children are progressing. Thank you to all parents and carers for your continued support and should you have any questions please feel free to talk to your child’s class teacher.
2020-2021
May 2021
Over the past couple of weeks, Year 4 have been studying newspaper reports and their features in their English lessons. They used the book Tuesday by David Wiesner to base their work on. First of all, the children became detectives, gathering evidence such as witness statements from the characters who witnessed the strange events which happened in the book. The following day, the children became reporters, planning and writing a newspaper article about it. The children thoroughly enjoyed this unit of work and the writing produced was frog-tastic!
Autumn 2020
Year 4 have settled in very well and have been working hard across the curriculum. In Maths, we have been practising our times tables and developing our place value knowledge. In English, we recapped some important grammar skills before learning our new text, The Mayor of Hamelin’s Diary Entry, off by heart with actions. We kicked off our new Geography unit by creating our own volcanoes and in DT, we thought about which skills were needed in order to design and create our own clay pots. The children have thoroughly enjoyed the first few weeks of Year 4 and we are looking forward to the weeks ahead!
2019-2020
Science- Spring 1
Year 4 have had a busy half term. We have learnt about and written warning tales in English while in maths we have been developing our multiplication and division knowledge. Science has been interesting (and messy) we have learnt about the different types of teeth we have and what they did. We also got to make a model of the digestive system using a plastic bag, a pair of tights and some food.
Year 4 Residential
Year 4 pupils were able to explore the great outdoors, on their three day residential to Shortenills. On the first the day, the children were very excited to see the dorms and go on a tour of the grounds, learning some valuable map reading skills. During the walk, they found lots of evidence of animals including rabbit and badger holes. Some eagle eyed pupils, even spotted a dear running through a neighbouring field. Lunch was a treat and lots of eyes lit up at the sight of the sticky, chocolate cake. However the calories didn’t stick around for long, as the map reading came into full use and they completed the orienteering challenge. The pupils had a fabulous time and worked amazingly in teams, they were certainly tired by the end but the day didn’t finish then (even though it was home time back at school) unpacking and a bit of relaxation before dinner was in order. The evening was filled with riddles and marshmallow roasting in the yurt, before bed.
Day 2 dawned, with Mr Prior and Mr King arriving at breakfast looking a little bleary eyed, as the boys certainly took longer to get to sleep than the girls. However after a delicious breakfast that perked us all up again, we were ready to go, well almost ready, first we had to make sure all wellies were on the right feet, amazingly some were trying to go out on trek with two right foot wellies on. Finally we were ready: off we set on our trek through the woods. We went through some very muddy bogs , up some very high hills, through a kissing gate (there was much laughter at the name) over a sty and even crossed a field that was home to some horses. The pupils were amazed at the sights we saw and managed to create an A to Z of things we had seen in the woods. After lunch, they finally got to spend their money at the shop, then after using up some more energy on the play equipment they started to learn more about woodland animals. The pupils enjoyed looking at and working out the animals from the skulls and teeth provided. The daytime activities finished with a run around pretending to be rabbits and foxes. A DVD and hot chocolate for the last night was a lovely way to end the day.
The third and final day arrived and many woke with heavy hearts and we heard a lot of grumbles about having to leave. After breakfast and packing we were ready for a morning of team building games. The pupils worked really well despite some feeling rather tired, they made us very proud as they did during lots of the activities. It was a joy to see the pupils learning so much and enjoying the outdoors during the three days and we cannot wait to share the experience with the rest f Year 4 and inspire Year 3 to attend next year.
Year 4 are Musicians!
This half term, in Computing, Year 4 put on their musical hats, and created their own soundtracks for two video clips using different instruments and different pieces of music-making software on the GarageBand app.
At the end of each lesson, we listened to each composition and decided which ones were the most appropriate soundtracks for the two different scenes.
It was really amazing to see the different atmospheres and interpretations of the videos which were created by our talented musicians with their carefully selected instruments and pieces of music.
