24/05/19

Hello Year 4. We have made it to half term! The weeks seem to be flying by and it's hard to believe we will be heading into our last half term before you enter Year 5!

Highlights of the week:
It was great to see the children really enjoy the Oakmere mini-marathon this week. The children really tried their best and all completed the course successfully. The children have also been looking at healthy diet this week by designing and making fruit sculptures. The class put a lot of thought into their designs and the different fruits that they could use. They showed great teamwork building the sculptures together and a had a lot of fun presenting their final piece to the class too.

Half term home learning:
For the next few weeks we are going to be looking at spellings from the statutory spelling list, which is the list of words children should be aiming to know how to spell by the end of Year 4. Below, I have put the remainder of the list that we have not covered yet in previous spelling lessons and tests. Please take the time over the holidays to go through any words you are not sure about. You do not have to learn them all over the holidays, if there are a lot you are unsure of, pick 20 to focus on. However, if the children are not confident on the words listed immediately below, then please focus on these instead.

Please focus on this list only if you are unsure of how to spell the words below:
-because
-they
-used
-going
-were
-where
-there, their, they're
-pretty
-write
-really
-early
-when

Statuotry spellings:
-naughty
-notice
-occasion(ally)
-often
-opposite
-ordinary
-particular
-peculiar
-perhaps
-popular
-position
-possess(ion)
-possible
-potatoes
-pressure
-probably
-promise
-quarter
-question
-recent
-regular
-reign
-remember
-sentence
-separate
-special
-straight
-strange
-strength
-suppose
-surprise
-therefore
-though
-although
-thought
-through
-various
-weight
-woman/women

After the half term:
Please see below for a list of topics that we will be covering when we come back after the holidays:

Maths:
-Telling the time
-Division
-Area
-Problem solving
-Negative numbers
-Co-ordinates, position and direction

English:
-Explanation and discussion text

Science:
-Completing unit on Electricity

Art:
-Picasso and Franz Marc inspired art work

Geography:
-Investigating India

RE:
-Right and wrong in different religions

Spanish:
-Spanish conversations and role play.

ICT:
-Modelling and showcasing work through film

PSHCE:
-Changing me

Have a restful half term, and please make sure you are reading, learning your spellings, revising your times tables and working on Mathletics. I look forward to seeing you when we get back.

16/05/19

Hello Year 4. I cannot believe we are heading into our last week before the May half term! Time is certainly flying! 

IMPORTANT INFORMATION
As part of our D&T, we are looking at healthy eating. We are making fruit salad sculptures on Thursday afternoon. Please can you ensure your child brings in a variety of fruit they would like to use for the sculpture on Thursday. Please see below for an idea of what we are going to make. 

EXCITING NEWS! 
This week you have all received an email about our trip to the Natural History Museum on Friday 6th June. Please make sure you have given consent and paid as soon as possible. We will be going to see an earthquake/volcano workshop to consolidate on our learning about this topic early on in the year. We will then have time to look around parts of the museum before heading back on the coach. The children are very excited and we are all looking forward to a great trip out! 


Highlights of the week:
This week the children have really enjoyed reading 'Friend or Foe'  and have been getting into role by writing diary entries and letters from the point of view of the character. In maths the class have been recapping how to work out long multiplication. Some children have used dienes blocks to help them, others used the grid method and other children used the column method. They have really been challenging themselves this week when working out 2 or 3 step problems. 

Next week:

English:
Finishing off 'Friend of Foe' with comprehension focus.

Spellings:
This week we are looking at different homophones. The children need to know the spellings and when to use them all. 
-weather
-whether
-medal
-meddle
-team
-teem
-mist
-missed
-whose
-who's
Please also recap: there, their and they're and when to use them. 

Maths:
Written methods for division

Science:
Investigating switches.

History:
Researching culture. 

ICT:
Times table practise.

RE:
Comprehension on Sikh religious stories. 

PSHCE:
Showing love and appreciation for animals and others. 

D&T:
Making fruit sculpture. 

Have a lovely weekend and I will see you on Monday! 

10/05/19

Good afternoon Year 4!

Highlights of the week:
This week the children have had a real fire in their bellies about climate change, and are determined that as a class, we need to do something to raise awareness of what is happening to our world. The children have been planning, drafting and writing letters to the local MP explaining what we have learnt, what we are doing to help the environment and suggestions for what they can do on a larger scale. Next week we will be posting their letters off so please ensure you have emailed me by next Friday if you do not  want your child's letter being sent off. The only information on the letter will be their first name and the name of the school. Fingers crossed that we get a response and some of the ideas the children have thought of for climate change will get considered!

Next week: 
English:
Comprehension focus on 'Friend or Foe'.

Spelling:
This weeks spellings are 20 spellings taken from the Year 3/4 statutory spelling list. The children have had their pretest today and have spoken individually with me about which ones they are practising out of that 20. Children that have got them all, or nearly all right, have been sent home with the whole list of Year 3/4 and Year 5/6 statutory spellings to identify which ones they need to learn. In this case, please choose a selection of these to practise.

This is the list of spellings for this week:
-grammar
-guard
-guide
-heard
-heart
-height
-imagine
-increase
-important
-interest
-island
-knowledge
-learn
-length
-library
-material
-medicine
-mention
-minute
-natural

Maths:
Fractions in the context of measurement and conversions.

Science:
Continuing complete and incomplete circuits.

PSHCE:
This week the children talking about special memories, so next week they will be looking at animal rights.

ICT:
Editing out letters to the local MP.

History:
Exploring information about the Picts and Scots and their culture.

ART:
Painting our printed designs inspired by Indian art.

Have a lovely weekend, hopefully filled with sunshine and not hail or thunder!

Miss Bradford

03/05/19

Hello Year 4! What a busy week of learning we have had!

Highlights of the week:
The week began with our trip to Potters Bar train station. The school had a talk from the railway safety officers about how to be safe on the railways and how to use information in the train station to navigate to different destinations. Our class put this into practise at the station, and I was really impressed with how much information the children were able to gain from the timetables and different information points at the station.

On Thursday we had 4 children who were randomly selected to take part in the science and technology workshop at Oakmere primary school. They competing against other schools and they had to combine their design and science skills to build a roller coaster structure for a marble to go through without breaking. The children worked really hard and also developed their teamwork skills and I was very impressed with what they produced!

As always, we have been showing our learning through drama in science. The children enjoyed a very practical lesson where they have been showing their initial understanding of what electricity is. We also made a whole class circuit to help explore this.


Next week:
English:
Publishing nature poems

Spellings:
Please see below for the spelling words. The children had a pretest today so they must be practising the ones they got wrong. If they got them all or nearly all correct they have to find spelling words that follow the same rule. The spelling pattern is words with 'sion'
-professionalism
-compassionate
-impressionable
-expressionless
-conclusion
-decision
-obsession
-discussion
-occasionally
-passionate.

Maths:
Fractions of quantities continued.

Science:
Completing and testing complete and incomplete circuits.

RE:
Exploring wisdom in Sikh stories.

PSHCE:
Animal rights.

Spanish:
Items in my pencil case.

History:
Who were the Picts and Scots and where did they live?

Art:
Designing patterns for prints inspired from  Indian Art.

ICT:
Understanding how emails work.

PLEASE NOTE:
It is absolutely imperative that children are reading, learning their spellings, timetables and completing work on Mathletics at home. It really does show when in both their progress, attainment and attitude to learning when they complete small amounts of work at home. Please ensure that your children are doing this. This week the children had a timetables test as we have now learnt all of the times tables in class. I gave them a blank times table grid to complete at home. This does not need to be returned to school, but I will be sending a blank one home every week after we complete one in class for the children to do at home. 

Have a lovely long weekend! I look forward to seeing you on Tuesday!

Miss Bradford

26/04/19

Hello and welcome back Year 4! I hope you all had a lovely Easter break. The children have returned to school with a calm and ready to learn attitude which shows they have had a good rest over the break (which was certainly needed after our Rock Bottom performances at the end of last term)! It has been a lovely start to the week with the class talent show! I was so impressed by how many different acts we had, and the time and effort the children put into arranging their performances. Well done to everyone who performed. It was such a great celebration of how much their confidence and presentation skills have developed.

Please see below for a copy of the topics we are covering this half term:

Maths: 
Fractions and written multiplication.

English:
-Poetry about nature
-Persuasive writing
-Explanation and discussion text.

Science:
Electricity

History:
Anglo-Saxons

PSHCE:
Memories and loss.

RE:
Sikh religious stories.

Art:
Art from different cultures

D&T:
Food and healthy eating.

Spanish:
Things around town.

IMPORTANT NOTICES REGARDING NEXT WEEK:
-On Monday morning we are going on a short trip on the railway following a railway safety talk the children will have in assembly that day. Please ensure you have provided permission for your child to go via school gateway as we will not be able to take anyone who has not given consent. Please also ensure your child brings a coat on Monday. The weather has been lovely recently but it is important we are prepared in case of rain.

-On Tuesday we will be having class photos. Please make sure children attend school as smart as they usually do for the photos.

Next week:

Maths:

Adding and subtracting fractions.

English:

Poetry focused around nature.

Spellings:

The children are now going to have their pre-test on a Friday with the list of the new spellings words, so they can see how many they already know without seeing them. The full list of spellings will be put on the blog as normal and the children then have a full week to learn them for the test on normal on Friday, followed by the next weeks pre-test. The children only need to practise the spellings they have got wrong and if they have got 10/10 then they need to find spellings that follow the same spelling rule. The spellings for this week are listed below. They have been pretested already so they will know which ones they need to practise. This week the rule is words that have the 'sc' spelling but the 's' sound.

-scenery

-scent

-science

-scissors

-ascend

-descend

-crescent

-fascinate

-scene

-muscle

Science:

What is electricity? Where does it come from?

History:

What is the role of an archaeologist and who were the Anglo-Saxons?

PSHCE:

Relationships and peer pressure. 

RE:

What is wisdom?

Art:

Exploring Indian Art

Spanish:

Revise learning so far. 

Have a lovely weekend and please make sure you are finding time to read and complete Mathletics. As a class, the Mathletics activity has gone down slightly recently, so please make sure you are taking the time to complete this. It really does help with speed accuracy and confidence in maths. 

Miss Bradford

05/04/19

Hello Year 4!
I cannot believe we have made it to the Easter holidays already. This year is going so fast! This week the children performed their production of ROCK BOTTOM once to the whole school and twice to their friends and family. I was absolutely amazed at how fantastic they were and it was an absolute delight to see them enjoying themselves while performing. A massive thank you to all of the adults that pulled together to help with the production and of course to the children who produced an amazing show. Mrs Zegallo also took some fantastic pictures of the performance. I will post these as well as a detailed blog on what we will be doing next half term over the holidays. Unfortunately the end of term means that we are saying goodbye to Mrs Kirby. The children are very sad to see her go but are incredibly appreciative of all of her hard work. She will certainly be missed, but we are looking forward to her visiting us soon. Good luck Mrs Kirby!

IMPORTANT NOTICE!
We will be having a Year 4 talent show in the afternoon of the first day back. This is a chance for the children to show off their talents and skills and think about what makes them special and unique. The children have been informed that the talent can involve anything from singing, dancing, role play, joke telling, story telling, playing an instrument or anything else that can be performed in the classroom. A lot of children have asked me if they have to take part, and I have explained that although it is not compulsory, it would be great if as many children as possible could take part.

Have a brilliant Easter holiday. Please make sure you are taking time to read, and go onto mathletics as well as practising for the talent show!

See you in the summer term!

Miss Bradford

01/04/19

Hello Year 4.

I apologise for a late blog post, unfortunately I was unwell again on Friday.
Last week the children have been working extremely hard on the production of ROCK BOTTOM and are very excited to show the performance to their family and friends this week. The children have really grown in confidence and have been learning about expression and body language as well as learning the lyrics and dance moves to the songs.

This week:

Maths:
Adding and subtracting fractions.

English:
Analysing the performance of ROCK BOTTOM and completing comprehension based around Easter.

Science:
Drama showcasing learning of the water cycle in the different states of matter.

RE:
The Easter story

ICT:
Understanding the difference between different search engines and how information in ranked on the internet.

Art:
Observation painting.

I look forward to seeing you all for the performances on either Wednesday 3rd at 1:30pm or Thursday 4th at 6:30pm