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2023/24 Our Learning

Summer 2 Week 7

I can hardly believe that we have reached the end of the school year already, it seems to have gone so quickly! In our English this week, we worked in groups to write a play script to tell the story of A midsummer Night's Dream, making sure we thought about what the characters would say and how they would act. We then practised it thinking about our voices making sure we used expression and were loud and clear. On Thursday, we performed them for each other outside in the open air. In Maths, we have been introduced to coordinates and how to read and plot them in the first quadrant. We also looked at drawing shapes accurately on a coordinate grid. We finished our Geography learning by looking at how lots of cities in the USA were designed using a grid and the reasons why. We also thought about why we are now moving away from the grid design and what factors have influenced this. In PSHE we learnt some more about the physical changes that will happen to our bodies as we go through puberty, thinking about what will happen to girls, boys and both genders. We have been treated to some performances this week, one from the children who have guitar lessons and also the Year 6 end of year production, which were both fantastic. On Friday, we had our behaviour treat where we went up to Blacksnape Park and enjoyed playing with each other. It has been a wonderful year and the children have achieved so much, we are proud of every single one of them and will miss them all next year. 

Summer 2 Week 6

This week in Maths, we have been looking at statistics. We have read and interpreted the data presented in pictograms, bar graphs and line graphs. We also managed to have a quick introduction to reading coordinates in the first quadrant ready for next week. In English, we started the week by retelling the story of A Midsummer Night's Dream using a 'Whoosh' story. We got into two circles and took it in turns to tell a part of the story and to act it out in the middle. Then we thought about the character of Puck and how he got everything mixed up, so we wrote a letter to a problem page asking for help with the situation. We also wrote a letter to a problem page as Helena to ask for advice for her love troubles! In Geography, we discussed what a landmark is and some of the reasons that they are protected. We then looked at a variety of key American landmarks and thought about why they are important or protected. We completed our Science learning about electricity by looking at the dangers of electricity. We found out what to look for and how to be safe around electricity, before designing a poster to warn others of the dangers. In our English learning with Mrs Scholes, we completed our newspaper report about the criminal activities of Macavity the Mystery Cat! We included more features of a newspaper report, including a quote and a conclusion paragraph that explained what would happen next. Our symmetry learning continued in Maths with Mrs Scholes, and we completed symmetric figures on a squared grid. We counted squares and looked for the location of vertices (corners) to help us to make sure the shapes and patterns were symmetrical. In PE, we recapped the 6 dance moves we have learnt over the unit and also the action and reaction improvisations. We then worked in groups of 4 to create our own electricity dance routines. On Wednesday in Art, we used a drawing technique created by Henri Matisse called drawing with scissors. We had a range of pictures of different shapes and sizes that we had to cut out. Some of them were intricate so we had to ensure we cut them carefully. We then arranged the images in a collage across the page thinking about where would be best to position them and if they should overlap or not. In our last French lesson of the year, we thought about the Olympics. We discussed how the games were created and the elements that are needed for them. We then played a game to match up some Olympic sorts to their French names using the learning from our Spring term topic. We have been treated to two musical performances this week, one from the Rock Steady bands and one from the keyboard players. It was wonderful to see our class mates performing and seeing ho w much progress they have made over the year with their instruments.  

Summer 2 Week 5

It has been a very busy and exciting week! We started with our outdoor learning session on Monday morning, unfortunately the weather was more like autumn than summer and it was very wet so we did have to come back to school a bit earlier than usual. We got ourselves into teams and then used natural materials that we could find in the woods to create a portrait of William Shakespeare. We then thought about the landscape of Hoddlesden and what physical and human features it has. We went to the reservoir where we sketched the landscape that we could see. On Monday afternoon, we had Computing and we used Scratch to write our own code to create simple games that involved sharks, Mrs Bradley was really impressed with what we made. We really enjoyed our Science learning this week! We used the electrical components to create a simple series circuit and then tested a range of materials to see if they are a conductor (a material that will allow electricity to flow through it) or an insulator (a material that doesn’t allow electricity to flow through it). We made predictions about the materials (wood, a copper coin, glass, aluminium foil, rubber and plastic) before testing them in our circuits. We found that the copper coin and the aluminium foil are conductors because they are both metals. In our R.E. learning, we continued our topic about prayer by looking at the formal prayer that Muslims carry out daily. They pray formally 5 times a day, but can also pray informally at other times. We looked at the ritual of Wudu, which is a cleansing ritual that is an important part of purity and cleanliness. It is carried out before prayer or before reading the Qur'an. In English with Mrs Scholes, we started writing our newspaper report about the crimes of Macavity the Mystery Cat. We wrote an opening paragraph that included the 5Ws (who, what, where, when, why) and the start of the main body of text about Macavity and the wrongdoings he had been committing. We looked at symmetry in Maths with Mrs Scholes, using a mirror to help us to find the lines of symmetry of 2-D shapes. In PSHE we learnt about the election process and how it works. We then had a class vote to decide the best way to choose someone to be 'it' during games as this is something we have been finding tricky. We also wrote our own manifesto to present to Mr Edgar about what we want to happen in Year 5. Then we had the opportunity to go into Year 5 for some transition days and spend some time with Mr Edgar. We began by getting to know each other, Mr Edgar wrote us a letter telling us all about himself and then we wrote him one back telling us all about ourselves. We were then really lucky to complete a design project from Ductu and Aston Martin. We spent some time looking at car designs and the different elements that need to be considered. We then got into groups and designed our own car thinking about the shape, the wheels, how it would be powered and the overall look. In the afternoon, we then built our cars and did test runs and made any changes we identified. Then we had a competition to see how well they went, how good they looked and also how well we worked as a team. We all enjoyed our time in Year 5 and it helped us to look forward to September. On Friday, for our English learning we looked at the plot of A Midsummer Nights Dream, which is quite complex! We then had to sort a jumbled up version into the correct order to show our understanding of the story. In French, we used the adverts we created last week for one of the toys and we presented them to the class to try and persuade everyone to buy them. We had to use all our learning from the last half term and think about our tone of voice and presentation. In Geography, we recapped what a biome is from our learning in Year 3 and how they are linked to climate zones. We looked at the 7 different biomes that there are in North America and what each one is like. 

Summer 2 Week 4

In Maths this week, we have been extending our understanding of time. We looked at the differences between analogue and digital clocks and have been telling the time using both. We also looked at the 12 and 24 hour clocks and have been converting times from one to the other. In English, we started our new unit about William Shakespeare, we thought about what things we already know about him from our previous learning and then found out some more information. We thought about his job as a playwright and we wrote advertisements for a playwright and also for actors to be in the plays. We then wrote in role as William Shakespeare to write an application for the job of Royal Playwright. In Geography, we thought about the different climate zones that there are all around the world and why there are different climates. We then focused on the United States of America and what different climate zones it has.  In Computing, we used Scratch to continue building on our programming and coding skills and this week we wrote our names and animated them. We started planning our newspaper report about Macavity: The Mystery Cat in our English learning with Mrs Scholes. We gathered all of the important information from the poem about the mischievous cat's crimes and thought about our opening paragraph that will contain the 5 Ws (who, what, where, when, why). In our Maths learning with Mrs Scholes, we learnt about quadrilaterals (shapes with 4 straight sides) and looked at their properties, e.g. whether they have parallel lines, right angles etc. In Science, we looked at a variety of circuits and had to decide whether the bulb would light or not. Some circuits were missing components (parts) such as a battery or the circuit was not connected, so it would definitely not work as the current would not be able to flow around the circuit and make the bulb light. Our R.E. learning focused on the artefacts used in prayer in Judaism. We looked at the symbolism of the items, such as a prayer shawl and a head covering, and made connections to other areas of our lives. In PE on Wednesday, we continued to look at how we can mark each other and how we can move around to create space in invasion games. We adapted the game from last week making it more challenging. In Art, we focused on proportion; what it is and how artists can change it to create effects. We had a range of different sized and shaped objects that we need to draw in proportion to each other. We used the charcoal to coat our page and then used rubbers to show light parts of the objects and more charcoal to show the darker parts. There was a wonderful surprise for us on Thursday afternoon, an ice cream van came to school and we all got an ice cream or ice lolly from Mr Dugdale. Thank you Mr Dugdale. On Friday morning, it was our class worship all about British Values. We worked together to decide what we wanted to do and how we would do it. We practiced over the week and did a fantastic job on Friday. In French, we created some advertisements for one of the toys from our vocabulary list. We used some of the wow words that we have learnt and some new vocabulary about special offers on them.  In PSHE we talked about conflict and compromise. We looked at the type of things that might cause conflict with parents and families as we get older and discussed different ways we could compromise in order to resolve them. we ended the week with our PE dance session. This week we looked at creating improvised spark movements and also creating the movements in canon so one person moved and then the other person reacted. 

Summer 2 Week 3

This week in English, we have become The One Show presenters and reporters to prepare and perform a segment for the show all about Macavity and his criminal acts. Working in groups, we created scripts for presenters in the studio, a presenter out on location at the scene and people for them to interview. After some practice we then performed them in front of the green screen so that we can add appropriate backgrounds. You can watch the completed videos using the link https://stpaulshoddlesden.primarysite.media/playlist/year-4-2023-2024-1. In Maths, we finished our money unit by looking at solving two step problems that involve money and applying our previous learning about calculation strategies. We then moved onto a unit about time. To start us off we have been looking at units that we use to measure time such as minutes, hours, days and weeks and converting between them. In Geography, we recapped the countries that make up the continent of North America before focusing on the USA. We looked at how the USA is split up into states and used an atlas to locate them all as well as listening to a song to help us remember them. In Computing, we looked at different kinds of loops that can be used in coding. We then had the opportunity to practice creating them on Scratch. On Tuesday, Trikidz came to school again and we had a session with them where we had to run and cycle. It was hard work and tiring, but also lots of fun. In our Science learning this week, we added a switch into our circuit to see what effect it would have. When the switch is open, there is a break in the circuit and the bulb won’t light. We then had a go at making our own switches using paperclips and drawing pins! We looked at the language in traditional prayers in our R.E. lesson and discussed what the language tells us about God and Christian beliefs. In our English with Mrs Scholes, we had a try at being journalists! We practised writing the opening paragraph of a newspaper report, which contains the 5 Ws - who, what, where, when, why - to set the scene for the reader. We are going to start planning our newspaper report about Macavity: The Mystery Cat next week. In our invasion games PE session, we played time bomb to help us sharpen up our throwing (using chest pass) and catching technique. Then we played games where we had to move into space to either pass or receive the ball. We started our Music lesson by identifying the different string instruments you would find in an orchestra. We then listened to Dance of the Knights by Prokofiev again and thought about how the string instruments affected the dynamics and texture of the music. Then we set ourselves the tricky challenge of trying to sing I Wanna Sing Scat in the two different parts.  We chose which part we felt the most comfortable singing and we did a great job with the first part of the song. In Art, we experimented with different types of pencil to shade with; we had a HB, a 4B and an 8B. We discussed how we can use shading and tone to show light and dark and make things look 3D. We were inspired by the piece of art work Eye by Ed Ruscha and made a shape with a piece of ribbon that we then drew and shaded. In PSHE we thought about changes that can happen in our lives and how this makes us feel. We shared some of the changes we have experienced in or lives and we also discussed how we felt about moving into Year 5 soon. In our dance PE lesson, we recapped the 6 moves we have learnt over the last two weeks and worked in groups to perform the routine in the right order. We had to work hard to be in time with each other. In French, we continued to practise creating sentences to express our opinions about toys. We played le Chef d'Orchestre to help us say them before beating Mrs Bullen at a guess my sentence game. 

Summer 2 Week 2

In Maths this week, we have linked our learning about decimals to money. We have identified that the ones are the pounds, the tenths are the ten ps and the hundredths are the 1ps. We have then compared and ordered different amounts of money. We also used our rounding skills to help us estimate amounts of money to solve some problems. In English, we got into role as detectives and responded to an email from the Chief Inspector wanting to know why Macavity hasn't been caught yet. We also read another one of T.S. Eliott's poems about cats called Skimbleshanks. We then compared the characters of Macavity and Skimbleshanks in a Venn diagram. To finish off the week we worked in groups and performed a section of the Macavity poem which you can watch on the school website https://stpaulshoddlesden.primarysite.media/media/macavity-performance-poetry.  We started our new Geography topic about The Americas and looked at the different countries that make up the continent of North America, labelling them on a map. In Computing, we used Scratch to write programming code to draw different shapes. In our English lesson with Mrs Scholes, we continued looking at the features of newspaper reports so that we know what to include in our own. The features include a headline, an opening paragraph with 5 Ws (when, who, what, where, why), quotes, pictures with a caption and a conclusion paragraph with information about what might happen next. In Maths, we compared and ordered angles. We loved our practical Science lesson, where we got to get the circuit equipment out and make a series circuit! We created some simple circuits, making a bulb light up and a motor run. We then investigated what would happen if we added an extra bulb and an extra battery. We drew the circuits, using the symbols for each component. In our R.E. Lesson, we used the Bibles to look up some verses in the New Testament. We used the verses to find out what we could learn from Jesus about prayer. We found out that Jesus often prayed alone, which we thought might be so that he could really focus on what he was saying to God, without any distractions. He also prayed often, for long periods of time and in lots of different places! For PE on Wednesday, we looked at the skill of marking an opponent and played a shadowing game. We then looked at how we can use space to get away from someone who is marking us so that we can receive the ball. In Music, we listened to a famous piece of music by Prokofiev from Romeo and Juliet and used lines and colour to show how it made us feel. We then looked at part two of the song I Wanna Sing Scat that we started last week. We had to work hard on the timing as it was much slower than we thought. In PSHE we thought about some of the advantages of having mobile phones and also some of the risks involved with them. We looked at some scenarios where people had been sending unkind messages or comments about others and decided what we would do if we were in that situation. In French, we recapped the wow words from last week and also the toy vocabulary from the unit. We continued to build up sentences to express our opinion about toys for example J'aime le poupee c'est fantastique. Madam Wardle then showed us some sentences and we had some time to look at them before we had to try and write them from memory - it was very tricky. On Friday afternoon, we ended the week with some dance in PE. We recapped the 3 street dance moves we learnt last week and then learnt 3 new static shock moves. Then we put all 6 moves together in a sequence. 

Summer 2 Week 1

It has been lovely to be back in school this week and although it was a slightly shorter one, we have made a super start to our Hoddlesden Globe topic. In English, we became detectives and investigated a crime scene using video evidence of Dusty the criminal cat to help us. Then we read our new text; the poem Macavity The Mystery Cat, which has quite a lot of challenging vocabulary in it. We used dictionaries to find out what the vocabulary meant to help us understand the poem better. In Maths, we finished off our unit on decimals by identifying fraction and decimal equivalences for halves, one quarter and three quarters. We then started a new unit all about money. We talked about the different coins and notes we have and their values. We then learnt how to write money as a decimal. In our English learning with Mrs Scholes, we started looking at the features of newspaper articles in preparation for writing our own. We read a variety of articles and gave our opinions about them, thinking about the structure and content. In our Maths lesson, we continued our shape learning by identifying different types of angles. We learnt about acute and obtuse angles; acute angles are less than a right angle (a quarter turn) and an obtuse angle is greater than a right angle but less than a half turn. We started our Electricity topic in Science by acting out the moment that Benjamin Franklin and his son discovered how to harness electricity's power so that people could use it. It was a dangerous experiment that involved lightning and a kite! We then talked about how we use electricity, sorting appliances into those that use mains electricity (electricity from a power station, accessed via a socket) and those that use batteries. In our R.E. learning, we started learning about prayer. We considered what prayer is and learnt that it can take many forms, including praise, thanking God, asking for things we need or just having a conversation with God. In PE on Wednesday we started our unit about invasion games and talked about the importance of marking opposing players and good ways to stick with our player and mark them effectively. We practiced by trying to stay with our partner when they were moving around and also by playing triangle tag. In Music, we found out about our new composer for the half term Sergei Prokefiev and some of the events and influences in his life and music. We then listened to some scat music and discussed what it is like and how it is structured. We had a go at singing the first part of the song I Wanna Sing Scat. In Art, we looked at the work of the French artist Henri Matisse and we were surprised to find out that he only started painting when he was 20 and how much his style changed over time. In PSHE we looked at some online safety. We watched a video that showed us that people can lie about who they are online and then we discussed the things we need to do to keep ourselves safe from strangers. We designed posters to share our knowledge. In French, we recapped our learning from before half term about numbers and toy vocabulary. Then we discussed how we are going to be trying to persuade people to buy a toy and we recalled some vocabulary that we learnt in Year 3 that would help us to do this such as c'est fantastique and incroyable. In our second PE lesson we were doing dance linked to our Science topic of electricity. We learnt some basic dance moves, but as our style was electricity we needed to have straight lines and for our movements to be sudden and sparky when we were doing them. 

Summer 1 week 6

It has been a busy and exciting end to the half term for Year 4. We started the week with Sports Day, where everyone joined in all the activities brilliantly and demonstrated our sporting values. After a physical morning, we came back into the classroom and did some History, where we looked at the Ancient Egyptian process of mummification. We also talked about some of the Ancient Egyptian beliefs about the afterlife. In Computing, we learnt how to use the clone tool to either add or remove things from a picture. We started with a picture of the pyramids with a camel in front and used our skills to add and remove the pyramids or camel. On Tuesday, we put our juggling, balancing and spinning skills to the test in a fantastic circus skills session. We enjoyed having a go at a variety of different activities, some of which required a lot of perseverance! Amongst other things, we hula hooped, cycled, juggled a variety of items, balanced on stilts and had a go at spinning plates. We loved it! See us practising our new skills here. We completed our Animals, Including Humans unit in Science by looking at food chains and food webs. We revisited key vocabulary such as predator, prey, producer (an organism that creates its own food or energy) and consumer (a living thing that eats other plants and animals). In our R.E. learning, we looked at the symbol of light and how it is used across several world faiths. It is used to represent aspects of the different faiths such as Jesus, Allah, the victory of good over evil and the miracle of oil burning for 8 days. In English with Mrs Scholes, we performed our kennings poems as a group, choosing the best lines from each of our poems and putting them together to create a new poem. Enjoy our poems here. On Wednesday in DT, we finished our slingshot chariots and then got to test them in the hall. Some of them worked really well, some even went backwards. We then evaluated our end product and thought about what we would do differently if we did it again. In English this week, we have been looking at newspaper reports and the journalistic style and features that they have. We then used our knowledge of Howard Carter discovering Tutankhamun's tomb from History and wrote a newspaper article about it. In Maths, we have been putting decimal numbers into ascending and descending order and also rounding decimals to the nearest whole one. On Thursday, we went on a trip to Bolton Museum. In the morning, we looked around the different areas of the museum including the aquarium, the art gallery and the nature gallery, answering the questions on the special trail. In the afternoon, we had a workshop with Katie, who talked to us about why Bolton Museum has so many artefacts from Ancient Egypt and we shared some of our knowledge with her. We then went into the first room where we created a giant timeline to show us how long ago the Ancient Egyptian period was and looked at the different artefacts. The second room was all about mummification and the afterlife and we were able to build on the learning that we had done in school. Finally, we went into the replica tomb, where we re enacted removing the organs and putting them into the canopic jars and also weighing the heart against a feather to see if you could enter the afterlife or not. we also got to see a genuine Egyptian mummy of the 'unknown man' that was over 3,000 years old. The children were all fantastic ambassadors for our school and showed wonderful recall of their learning. 

 

 

Summer 1 Week 5

We had an exciting start to the week, with a visit from Pets at Home to link with our Science learning. They brought some small mammals (hamsters and a guinea pig), some reptiles (snakes) and some molluscs (African Giant Land Snails). We were given the opportunity to handle them and look at the differences between them. In our Maths learning this week, we have continued to build our knowledge and understanding of decimals. We looked at hundredths that total one, partitioning decimals to show the value and for calculating and have also compared decimals using the greater than and less than signs. In English, we have been exploring the journals that Howard Carter wrote to document him discovering Tutankhamun's tomb. We looked at the different features it contained and then had a go at writing our own journal entry as Howard Carter. We also started to look at some newspaper reports about the discovery.  In Gymnastics we started to put our learning together by working in groups to create a sequence that included some rolls, balances and jumps. We started planning and practicing them this week and we will refine them in next weeks lesson. In our Science learning this week, we discussed how our teeth and gums have to be cared for in order to keep them healthy. We came up with lots of ways we could do this, including cleaning them regularly, going to the dentist and not eating too many sugary foods! We then did an investigation where we put hard-boiled eggs into different liquids to see what effect the liquid would have on the shell (the shell is similar to our teeth). We used cola, orange juice, vinegar and water. We found that the orange juice and vinegar both caused the outer layer of the shell to come off as the liquids are both sugary and acidic. We were surprised about the orange juice because we thought it was healthy! The cola stained the egg shell and the water did not have affect the shell at all. In our R.E. lesson, we continued to look at the places of worship of World Faiths. We looked at the features of a mosque (Islam) and the features of a gurdwara (Sikhism). There are many similar features to the different places of worship, even though the religions are different. We wrote our kennings poem about Ancient Egypt in our English lesson with Mrs Scholes, using nouns and either an er noun or an ing verb to create hyphenated words. Some great examples of our kennings are 'pyramid-assembler', 'body-wrapper' and 'gods-praiser'. In DT we started to create the slingshot mechanisms for our chariots using lolly sticks, elastic bands and paper clips. It is quite fiddly and was frustrating at times, but we persevered with it. In Athletics we looked at some of the throwing techniques that we can use in athletics. We practiced the technique for javelin and also for a sit down throw. In History, we looked at the different groups of people that lived in Ancient Egypt and what they each contributed to society. We discussed which of them we thought contributed the most and thought back to what is needed for a successful civilisation. We had a special PSHE lesson all about the effects and impact of calling each other names. We shared what names we didn't like to be called and how they made us feel. We used a piece of paper by scrunching it up to show the effect that name calling can have on us even after someone has said sorry, it still leaves a mark. Our French lesson was a bit different this week, we recapped our numbers to 59 but then we learnt about the French currency; the Euro ready for when we do our 'shopping' parts of our topic. As it was warm and sunny, we went outside to do our Music lesson with Mr Richards. We continued to work together to compose our own pieces of music using the Egyptian scale. 

Summer 1 Week 4

It may have been a short week with the bank holiday, but we have packed a lot into it. On Thursday, we had our outdoor learning session which was canoeing at Fishmoor Reservoir. We split into 2 groups for the sessions, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. The first group had to work together to join the canoes to make rafts that were stable. We then got out on to the water where we practiced our paddling. Louise then challenged us to collect some balls and inflatables that she had thrown into the reservoir to earn as many points as we could. After that, we rowed to the shore and got out to play a game with our paddles. Louise gave us different instructions and we had to swap our paddles or let go of them to do a dance move without dropping them or we were out. Next, we got back into the canoes and headed out into the middle of the reservoir. We held onto each others boats so we were one large raft. Then we took it in turns to stand up, turn around and jump. Some people were brave enough to dip their faces in the water to say hello to the fish and some people walked the planks joining the canoes to swap into different canoes. Our final activity in the canoes was to play canoe football. We had to try and get the ball and throw it into Louise's canoe to win points. Before we finished, the second group had to work together to separate the canoes and take them back up to the top. At the end of the session, we had the chance to paddle or swim in the reservoir near to the shore, which was loads of fun. All of the children were wonderfully behaved and got involved in the sessions even if it was out of their comfort zones.  In our English learning with Mrs Scholes, we gathered vocabulary ready to write our kennings poems about Ancient Egypt. We made a list of nouns, -er nouns and -ing verbs that we will use to create the kennings (a figure of speech used in poetry that describes something, without actually mentioning its name). In Science, we compared the teeth of herbivores, carnivores and omnivores. They all have some similar teeth but they are different depending on what they eat. For example, carnivores have larger, sharper canine teeth to tear the meat they eat and the rest of their teeth are also pretty sharp! In our R.E. learning, we explored the places of worship for the World Faiths Judaism and Hinduism. We looked at the features of the synagogue (Judaism) and the mandir (Hinduism) and compared them to a church. We also enjoyed a cricket coaching session in the sunshine on Tuesday morning! We practised bowling, throwing and batting before using those skills in a game. In English with Mrs Bullen, we finished writing the ending to Secrets of a Sun King and revealed whether or not Lil managed to save Grandad. In Maths, we looked at some of the questions that we found tricky on our assessments and strategies to answer them. We also started our second decimals unit and looked at adding tenths to make a whole one. In PSHE we thought about what makes a healthy lifestyle and what things we need. We created an imaginary hotel and made posters to advertise what facilities it could have to promote a healthy life style. In French, we impressed Madame Wardle with the work we did last week whilst she was in France. We recapped the vocabulary for toys that we were introduced to last week and added some actions to them to help them stick in our mind. In Music, we continued to investigate the Egyptian scales and we took advantage of the nice weather and went outside. We worked in groups to improvise and compose our own pieces of music that we linked to the food beats and Egyptian scales. 

Summer 1 Week 3

We have loved our English learning this week. We got to read more of our novel Secrets of a Sun King and we finally found out what is hidden in the jar. We wrote some telegrams to the different characters and then planned an ending for the story. On Friday we started writing our ending. In Maths we looked at dividing numbers by 100 and how it affects the value of the digits. We then did some assessments to bring together all of our fractions and decimals learning. In our gymnastics session, we recapped some different balances in our warm up and then we focused on different types of rolls. We looked at log and teddy bear rolls and recapped the techniques we had learnt previously, then we learnt how to do a side role. This week in our poetry unit with Mrs Scholes, we focused on kennings poems. A kenning is a figure of speech used in poetry that describes something, without actually mentioning its name. Kennings poems are like riddles - they describe something without ever saying what it is. We created two-word, hyphenated phrases with a noun followed by an -er noun to describe ourselves, e.g. pizza-demolisher. The poems were super! In Science, we started learning about human teeth. We have four different types of teeth (incisors, canines, premolars and molars) that all have a different job while we are eating. Our R.E. learning about the Church continued with us looking at the guidance that Paul gave the early church about how they should behave and what their attitude should be. For example, he told them they should live in harmony. We linked this to our own school values and then designed a poster to display the guidance. In DT we designed the body for our chariot thinking about the shape and using typical Egyptian patterns. Then we used the glue gun to attach the axels to the chassis and then added the wheels. In our athletics session, we went back to the long jump and to the flight part of the jump. We practiced the hitch kick technique of peddling your legs in the air as you are in flight to help us go further. For PSHE we thought about choices. We identified the choices that we can make as children and also some of the choices adults have to make for us and some of the reasons why. We then looked at some of the choices that adults have that children don't. In Computing, we looked at different ways we can alter the colour on a digital image. We then experimented with some of the different effects on some photos of Darwen. On Friday, Madame Wardle was in France so we did our French lesson without her and we think she would be proud of what we achieved. First we recapped numbers to 59 from last week and then we were introduced to some new vocabulary for some toys. We were able to identify what some of them were very easily using words we already knew and some similar words and sounds to English. In Music, we continued to look at the work of Hans Zimmer at the start. We then went outside to practice some of the Egyptian scales on the glockenspiel and to try and compose some of our own pieces. 

Summer 1 Week 2

This week in Maths we have built on our understanding of decimals and have moved onto Hundredths. we have explored hundredths as a fraction and then as a decimal in a place value chart. In English, we have read more of our novel Secrets of a Sun King and have been introduced to some new characters. We also learnt that the mysterious jar is Egyptian and it is cursed. We made some predictions about what the curse could be. In History, we identified that Ancient Egypt is considered to be one of the most successful civilisations across time and we explored some of the reasons why. We worked in groups to research one area that they were successful and created information posters to share with each other. In DT we made the chassis for our slingshot chariot using the glue gun and then measured and cut the two axels using the saws. We started our new English poetry unit with Mrs Scholes. We looked at a range of poetry styles (e.g. haiku, shape and acrostic) and we decided which type of poem we liked the best and why. In our Maths learning, we continued finding missing lengths on rectilinear shapes before calculating the perimeter (the distance around a closed 2-D shape). Following our Science lesson last week where we learnt what the main parts of the human digestive system are, this week we learnt what the function (job) of each of those parts is. In our R.E. lesson, we looked at a variety of churches and we learnt what the main features of the churches are. For example, even in different denominations, most churches will have things like a cross, candles, a way of playing music for worship and somewhere for the congregation to sit. In PE this week, we looked at jumping over obstacles such as hurdles and the best techniques to do this. We looked at photo editing in Computing and used Canva photo editor to crop and flip some images of Darwen. We explored and celebrated all of our different talents and qualities in PSHE this week. We identified each others talents and qualities before identifying 5 things that made us, us. In French, we continued to build our confidence with numbers up to 35 and then extended our knowledge to numbers up to 59. With Mr Richards in our Music lesson, we sang the song about the human body from last week that links with our Science learning. This week we added a glockenspiel accompaniment to parts of the song as well as singing it. 

Summer 1 Week 1

What a fabulous start to the summer term (apart from the weather!) we have had in Year 4. We have started our new topic of Historical Heroes. In Maths, we have been introduced to decimals and Mrs Bullen and Mrs Sullivan have been blown away by how well we have understood this new learning. We found out that decimals show us parts of whole ones just like fractions. We learnt about the decimal point and the tenths column and how to write number with whole ones and tenths. We also put decimal numbers onto a number line and divided single digit numbers by 10. In English, we started our new novel Secrets of a Sun King. It has a very mysterious start and we have been making predictions of what could be in a parcel that was sent to one of the characters. We have also been doing some letter writing between the characters using our predictions and we produced some fantastic writing.  In History, we built on our learning about the stone age from Year 3 and thought about what things a civilisation needs in order to be successful and we made posters. We are going to be thinking about an ancient civilisation and so we thought about what the word ancietn means and where it would be on a timeline. In English with Mrs Scholes, we finished writing our non-chronological reports about the Romans. We added features such as a heading, an introduction, a glossary and pictures. In Maths, we continued our learning about perimeter by finding the missing lengths on rectilinear shapes. We started our new Science topic about teeth and digestion by learning about the basic parts of the human digestive system. We played a game where we had to work in a group to draw a simple picture of the digestive system...but we were only allowed to look at the picture we had to copy for a few minutes before we had to try to replicate it! We were all pleasantly surprised by the outcomes. We had some great discussion about the new topic and we were amazed by how long our intestines are! Our new R.E. unit is about the Church. We began by learning that the Church is not a building - it is the people. We looked at the features of the Church that Peter and the other disciples 'built' after Jesus left and we realised that the Church is still very similar now; people still gather together to do things such as learn about Jesus, pray and spend time together and try to help others. In Computing, we looked at different ways that digital images can be edited and looked at some examples. We had some technical issues when we came to have a go at cropping and rotating an image, so we will have another go next week now they have been resolved. Our DT topic this half term is slingshot chariots. We looked a simple chassis design for a car and thought about how we could adapt it to be for a chariot. In PE on Monday, we did some gymnastics and thought about the vocabulary accelerate and decelerate and what it means. We also discussed when we might need to accelerate or decelerate in gymnastics. We practiced accelerating and decelerating. In our other PE session, we thought about different athletics events before focusing on jumping. We looked at the flight part of the long jump and tried to improve our jumping technique. In PSHE we did an online safety lesson, where we looked at copyright. We found out what copyright is and how it protects creators. We looked at a scenario where copyright had been broken and thought about what we should do. In French, we started our new topic L'Argent de Poche which is all about pocket money. We discussed our own experiences of pocket money and how we like to spend it. We watched a video of a French child earning some pocket money so that he could buy a toy he wanted and picked out some familiar vocabulary.  In Music, we learnt to sing a song about the body which links to our learning in Science. For our composer explorer focus we listened to some of the work by Hans Zimmer. 

Spring 2 Week 6

We have had a fantastic end to the half term in Year 4 with lots of exciting activities.  To finish our History topic about the Romans, we thought about the reasons why the Romans left Britain and their rule ended. We also had a battle re-enactment using shields that we made as part of our home learning (which everyone did an amazing job of). We made some of the different army formations and tried to march keeping in position. On Thursday, we went on a trip to Ribchester Roman Museum. We did a workshop with Patrick the curator where we learnt about Ribchester being a Roman Fort for mounted soldiers and what it was like there in Roman times. We were able to look at and handle some authentic Roman artefacts that had been found by archaeologists and also some replica items. We went out to look at the ruins of the granary (food storage) buildings. Additionally, we were able to try on some of the different armours, helmets and hold some weapons. We finished the visit by completing a trail around the museum to find the answers to some questions. We got back from our trip just in time to have our gymnastics session with Miss Winward. Because it was our last week, we did some races that tested our core strength, speed, balance and teamwork. Also this week, we had spirituality day where we learnt about different days of Holy Week and their significance to Christians. We had different adults come to do different activities with us for each of the days. We completed our Science unit on sound by carrying out another investigation. We were testing different materials to see which is the best insulator (a material or object that does not easily allow heat, electricity, light or sound to pass through it) by measuring the loudness of a sound source when it was covered in each material (in decibels). We found that rubber was the best insulator out of the materials we tested. In our R.E. learning, we finished our Easter unit on trust and betrayal by thinking about what World Faiths say about forgiveness. We were surprised that the faiths can be so different to each other but they all said the same thing about forgiveness...we should forgive people because God forgives us! In English with Mrs Scholes, we started writing our non-chronological report about the Romans, using the notes we made from our research last week. We used the features of a non-chronological report, including a heading, subheadings, paragraphs, a glossary and a text box. We loved our behaviour treat for this half term. We enjoyed a bouncy castle assault course, spending our time racing each other and finding different ways to come down the slide! Watch our experience here. We enjoyed making Easter cards for our families using the chalk pastels to blend and create different shades.