26/10/18

Hello Year 4!

I cannot believe that we have reached the end of the first half term! I am so incredibly proud of each and every one of you, you have worked so hard and have settled into Year 4 fantastically! It was really lovely to be able to meet with all of your parents this week and share the amazing learning that you have been doing, and tell them how much you have amazed me.

Highlights of the week:

This week the children have drafted, edited, published and performed their onomatopoeia poems. I have been really impressed at how well the children have been able to independently reflect on their targets to improve their writing and produce fantastic pieces of poetry. The children have also been consolidating their understanding of all of our learning from this half term in maths. I was really proud of the resilience and ‘can do’ attitude the children showed when we completed some practise test questions. This week we also conducted our teeth experiment. We used eggs to represent teeth and placed them in lots of different liquids to see what contributes to tooth decay. The children chose to place the eggs in, Dr Pepper, tea, coffee, apple juice, Fruit Shoot, chocolate milk, and hot sauce. We have observed the effect over 10 hours and lots of the children were really shocked to see the effect of the liquids that they considered healthy, like apple juice, which actually produced holes in the egg shell! We have also begun practising for our class assembly and the children have chosen to perform their favourite feel good song from this half term ‘This is me!’ Please continue to practise this over the holiday so we are ready to perform this in our assembly.

Home learning over half term:

Children must be reading at home and completing learning on Mathletics. The children also need to be practising their times tables. I have sent each child home with a post it of which times tables they are focusing on. I have added a times table tab onto the blog page which will direct you to a really good website that you can use to practise. I have also sent children home with the list of spellings that they are expected to know by the end of Year 4. Please look through this with your children and choose some to focus on.

Below are some suggestions of mini tasks you can complete over half term to help your children become more independent. It would be great if you could photograph your children completing some of these tasks so we can create a display in the classroom. You do not have to complete all of these, choose the ones you think would be most beneficial and interesting to you.

-          - Learn how to tie a tie.

-         -  Learn how to tie your laces.

-          - Getting undressed and dressed with clothes folded in under 2 minutes.

-          - Take a walk outside and complete an observation drawing of nature.

-         -  Learn or practise riding a bike.

-         -  Practise swimming.

-          - Write a letter to me (Miss Bradford) with the correct address of Little Heath and either bring it in on the first day back, or you can actually post it! It can be about anything you like!

-          -Visit the local library.

-          -Practise telling the time.

-         -Research the festival of Diwali.

What we are learning in the first week back after half term:

Maths:
Telling the time. Any pre learning you can do over the half term will be really helpful as this is a very abstract concept.

English:
Myth and quest stories.

Science:
Living things and their habitats.

D&T:
Linkages and levers.

ICT:
Mindfulness photography.

Geography: 
Volcanoes.

RE:
Diwali.

PSHCE:
Anti-bullying.

I am finalising our trip to the Potters Bar Museum over half term so you will receive information on this in the first week back.


Have a lovely rest and I look forward to seeing you after the half term.

Miss Bradford