22/03/19

Hello Year 4! 

Sorry there was no blog post last week due to my illness. However, I am so proud to have heard how well behaved you have been in my absence. The children have been working really hard getting ready for the KS2 production. 

Next week:
Spellings:
This week we are looking at words with the suffix 'tion' and 'sion'
-action
-caution
-protection
-accommodation 
-experimentation
-occasion
-television
-permission 
-decision
-mansion

English:
Performing a play script.

Maths:
Adding and subtracting fractions.

Please could all costumed be in school in a labelled bag by Wednesday 27th March. It would be a good idea to label all individual items too, so there is no mix up.

The production will be on Wednesday (am) 3rd April and Thursday (pm) 4th April. We do expect all children to be in attendance to both performances. Thank you.

Have a lovely weekend. 

Miss Bradford

08/03/19

Hello Year 4!

PARENT VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

On Monday morning the children will be having a science workshop as it is science week. If any of you are happy to volunteer on Monday morning to help run the workshop that would be very helpful. If you are able to help, please email me.

What a lovely week we have had with much approved behaviour. Please make sure it continues! Rehersals for our play ‘Rock Bottom’ are in full swing. The music and lyrics have been posted on the KS2 Production website. This can be found on www.littleheathks2production.blogspot.com. You can also find them on YouTube by typing in Rock Bottom lyrics.

Highlights of the week
It was so lovely to see you all dressed up in your favourite characters for world book day! During world book day the children took part in a Quidditch game which was incredibly entertaining to watch! The children really enjoyed putting lots of their skills together in this game. I was running around dressed as Hagrid trying to keep up with the pace of the game to take some photos!

 The children have been working really well with their maths this week and have been using the column method to add and subtract decimals. The class have been working really hard on their presentation in their maths books and understanding how laying out their work neatly can help with the accuracy of their answers. In English we have been focusing on the book ‘The Black Book of Colours’ for world book day, which is a story about a boy called Thomas who is blind and he describes the colours of the world through his other senses. The class came up with their own poems based on the colours of the rainbow and used their sense of smell, taste, touch and heart to describe the particular colour. I was so impressed with the creativity and beautiful description in their poems.  Also, congratulations are in order for the children whose spooky sagas were chosen from the Young Writers competition for their stories to be published! You should be incredibly proud of yourselves! Please make sure you have replied either online by the 15/03/19 or with the written reply slip to me by Monday 11/03/19 so I can ensure these are sent off on time.

Next week is science week! We will be having maths lessons as normal but our other areas of the curriculum will be based around the theme which is journeys. We will be looking specifically at the journey of the water cycle and researching a mystery famous scientist!

Spellings:

This week we are focusing on words that end is ‘cian’.

musician

magician

optician

physician

politician
clinician
beautician
electrician

paediatrician
technician

Please note, from Monday the children will be dismissed from the main entrance to the school from the infant playground. This is the clear double doors near the garden area. This is to allow more space when the children are leaving. The children will not be allowed out of the building until they have been dismissed with an adult so please make sure you make yourself visible at these doors.

Have a lovely weekend!

Miss Bradford

Rock Bottom

ROCK BOTTOM TRACK 1

Track 1. Back to the Beginning https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zt1TOPgquk

ALL:                             TICK, TOCK!

                                      IT’S TIME TO TRAVEL ON A JOURNEY!

                                      TICK, TOCK!

                                      WE’RE TURNING BACK THE HANDS OF TIME!

                                      THE PAST BECOMING THE FUTURE,

                                      THE FUTURE FADING TO BLACK.

                                      WE’LL TAKE A WALK INTO HISTORY,

                                      SO STOP THE CLOCK ‘COS WE’RE GOING BACK!

                                      TIME TO PACK,

                                      HIT THE TRACK!

                                      GOING BACK TO THE BEGINNING,

                                      REWINDING THE CLOCK,

                                      ‘COS WE’RE SINGING AND WE’RE SPINNING

                                      AROUND ON A ROCK.

                                      GOING BACK TO THE BEGINNING,

                                      WHERE EVIL WAS PRIME.

                                      WE’RE ON A JOURNEY TO THE DAWN OF TIME!

                                      GOING BACK TO THE BEGINNING,

                                      REWINDING THE CLOCK,

                                      ‘COS WE’RE SINGING AND WE’RE SPINNING

                                      AROUND ON A ROCK.

                                      GOING BACK TO THE BEGINNING,

                                      WHERE EVIL WAS PRIME.

                                      WE’RE GOING BACK IN TIME!

                                      GOING BACK, GOING BACK!

(The three Timekeepers rap over the instrumental section as the chorus dance.)

CRATER:                    You know we’re going back in time to where it - all began!

CREVICE:                   And we don’t even need a Tardis or DeLorean!

CREEK:                      Because we’re heading for the Stone Age if you want to be specific!

TIMEKEEPERS:       When man was brave

                                      And lived in caves

                                      And acted Neolithic!

ALL:                             TICK, TOCK!

                                      WE’RE HEADING FOR A NEW HORIZON!

                                      TICK, TOCK!

                                      WE’RE BOUND FOR WHERE IT ALL BEGAN!

                                      WE’LL TURN THE TIDE OF THE SEASONS,

                                      WE’LL MAKE THE CALENDAR CRACK.

                                      WE’LL TAKE A WALK INTO HISTORY,

                                      SO STOP THE CLOCK ‘COS WE’RE GOING BACK!

                                      TIME TO PACK,

                                      HIT THE TRACK!

                                      GOING BACK TO THE BEGINNING,

                                      REWINDING THE CLOCK,

                                      ‘COS WE’RE SINGING AND WE’RE SPINNING

                                      AROUND ON A ROCK.

                                      GOING BACK TO THE BEGINNING,

WHERE EVIL WAS PRIME.

                                      WE’RE ON A JOURNEY TO THE DAWN OF TIME!

                                      GOING BACK TO THE BEGINNING,

                                      REWINDING THE CLOCK,

                                      ‘COS WE’RE SINGING AND WE’RE SPINNING

                                      AROUND ON A ROCK.

                                      GOING BACK TO THE BEGINNING,

                                      WHERE EVIL WAS PRIME.

GROUP 1:

WE’RE GOING BACK IN TIME!

WE’RE GOING BACK IN TIME!

WE’RE GOING BACK IN TIME!

WE’RE GOING BACK IN TIME!

ALL:                             WE’RE GOING BACK!

01/03/19

Good afternoon Year 4 and welcome back! Although it has been lovely to see the class come back to school full of enthusiasm, the children have had to be reminded quite a lot this week about the level of noise disrupting their learning. I am looking forward to you all coming into school a lot more focused next week.

Highlights of the week.
We started the week by making the most of the beautiful sunshine and the children had a maths lesson outside. They practically consolidated their understanding of placing decimal numbers on a human number line. They have worked really hard on this and are now very secure in this topic. The children have also been working really hard on their times tables this week and have been increasing their accuracy and speed. We have now completed our 2s, 10s, 5s,11s,3s,6s,4s,8s and 9s. Next week we will be focusing on our 7s. Please make sure you are practising this times table at home. In English, the children have been using their senses to write spooky stories. I have been really impressed with the huge improvement in the children’s writing since the start of the year. Keep it up Year 4!

Next week:

Maths:
Calculating with decimals.

English:
The children will be writing their own fairy tale stories focusing on story settings.

Spellings:

This week we are going to be focusing on words with the prefix ‘anti’ and ‘inter’. The children need to know the spelling and definition of each word as well as knowing how to use each word in a sentence.

-antihistamine
-anti-climax
-antidote
-antibiotic
-antiseptic
-international
-intervene
-interject
-intercept
-intergalactic

Science:
Extended piece of writing on the water cycle.

Geography:
Identifying layers of vegetation.

RE:
Christian creation story.

Art:
The group at Stormont will be designing their plates and the group with me will be completing some mindfulness photography.

Spanish:
Recap of animals in Spanish.

ICT:
Using google earth to locate The Rainforest.

PSHCE:
Different friendship groups.

I hope you have a restful weekend. Please continue to learn your times tables, read and complete some learning on Mathletics.

I look forward to seeing you on Monday for a more focused calm start to the week.

Miss Bradford

15/02/19

Hello Year 4! We have made it to half term and we are now half way through the year! I cannot believe fast the time is going! 

Highlights of the week:
The children have had a lovely week where they have reflected on their learning so far this year. They produced a whole class cinquan poem based on their learning across all of the subjects. It was really lovely to see so many of you at open afternoon and see the work that the children have produced. We also had a really interesting investigation looking at the melting and cooling process in science. The children melted chocolate and wrote a diary entry in the point of view of the chocolate bar! They generated some really imaginative creative writing examples and used scientific vocabulary to explain what was happening to make the particles break down from a solid to a liquid. The children have been working really hard on decimals and have really consolidated their understanding of place value in decimal numbers. 

After half term: 
Please find below a brief outline of the topics the children will be covering over the next half term.

English: 
Story setting, persuasive writing and performing a play.

Maths:
Calculating with decimals, money and fractions.

Science:
States of matter continued.

Geography:
The Rainforest.

RE:

Different ideas about God and creations and exploring the significance of Good Friday. 

PSHCE:
Healthy me.

Spanish: 
Items in my classroom and pencil case.

ICT: 
Designing a research app. 

Art: 
The group that have not been to Stormont will have the chance to go and the other group will be completing some photography art and using water colours. 

Home learning over the holidays:
-Reading
-Learning your time stables. We have learned the 2, 5, 10, 11, 3, 6, 4, and 9s as a class. Our next focus will be the 8 times tables (which is just double the 4s!) Please make sure you are practising at home! 
-Mathletics
-Try and have at least a few technology free days! If you are going online this holiday, please make sure you are being safe. We have spent a lot of time discussing e-safety this half term, make sure you are making sensible choices online. 

Enjoy the holidays and I am looking forward to seeing you coming back refreshed after the break. 

Miss Bradford

08/02/19

Hello Year 4! 

What another great week of learning. 

Highlights of the week:

We have finished 'Stig of the dump' and the children produced some great alternative endings. They also compared the story with the film version and were able to comment on the differences in narrative and character choices. In maths, the children have been working hard on their understanding of place value in decimals. The children have finally cracked understanding that one hundredth is smaller than one tenth!

Next week:

Spellings:

We will have a spelling test based on the first section of the spellings from the statutory list for year 3 and 4 words. I will test a random selection of these spellings. Please only practise the ones you know. 

accident(ally) 
actual(ly) 
address 
answer 
appear 
arrive 
believe
bicycle 
breath 
breathe
build 
busy/business 
calendar 
caught 
centre
century 
certain 
circle 
complete
consider 
continue 
decide 
describe 
different 
difficult 
disappear 
early 
earth 
eight/eighth 
enough 
exercise
experience 
experiment 
extreme
famous
favourite 
February 
forward(s) 
fruit

English: 

We are creating our own narrative poetry.

Maths:

Continuing our work on decimals. 

Science: 

Continuing changes of state. 

PSHCE:

Recognising achievement. 

RE:

St Valentine comprehension. 

History: 

Planning a non-chronological report about our early civilisation learning.

Spanish:

Revising Spanish food. 

Art: 

Publishing the water colour picture and completing the designs on their pots at Stormont. Please ensure you have the correct sensible footwear for this. 

ICT: 

Researching about St Valentine. 

Can I please remind you that at the end of the day, the children need to be collected from the playground;we can't release them beyond the gate without an adult.  

Have a lovely restful weekend. 

Best regards

Miss Bradford

01/02/19

Hello Year 4!

What a wonderful end to the week we have had. Today was one of the most magical moments I have had as a teacher, as it was an absolute pleasure to have the opportunity to play in the snow with the children. Have a look at some of the pictures below. The snowballs we made were very impressive!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Highlights of the week:
The children have had the opportunity to take part in a lot of outdoor and practical learning this week which they have really enjoyed. The class have been investigating lines of symmetry in maths and they had the chance to look for symmetry in nature and in the playground. Take a look at some of the patters they found!

They also really worked on their teamwork skills in PSHCE where the class had to work together to complete some collaborative activities. Next week, the children will be able to analyse how well they worked together. I can certainly see the children's teamwork skills developing, not only in the classroom, but also on the playground, which is a huge improvement from the start of the year.

The children did not go to Stormont for art this week due to weather conditions, but Stormont came to them! They have been working really hard combining their art and history skills to create plates with numbers and letters from early civilisations. The other half of the class have been experimenting with water colours to add to their photographs.

It was an absolute pleasure to take the choir to the O2 this week. They performed so well and it was something I am sure the children will remember for the rest of their lives. So many children are eager to join choir as a result of hearing about the O2 which is brilliant.

Next week: 

English:
Next week we are going to be writing an alternative ending to our text and then we are looking at different story settings.

Spellings: There are no official spellings for this week as I want to give the class the chance to look over the first half of the statutory spelling list of the words that the children need to know by the end of year 4. Focus on the ones you are not confident with and practise writing these in sentences. Here is the list of the words if you do not have them. Don't panic, you will know a lot of them already.

accident(ally)
actual(ly)
address
answer
appear
arrive
believe
bicycle
breath
breathe
build
busy/business
calendar
caught
centre
century
certain
circle
complete
consider
continue
decide
describe
different
difficult
disappear
early
earth
eight/eighth
enough
exercise
experience
experiment
extreme
famous
favourite
February
forward(s)
fruit

Maths: We are starting a unit of work on decimal numbers. The class now know their 6 times tables and are making excellent progress with this. As a class we have now mastered the know 2,5,10, 11, 3, 6, and 9 times table and we will be moving on to the 4 times table. Please practise this at home. Remember, it is just double your 2 times table!

Science: Investigating melting and cooling and changes of state.

Have a lovely weekend enjoying the snow and remember to keep reading, practising times tables and Mathletics.

Miss Bradford