Autumn 1 Week 7

We started the week with our outdoor learning session. We started off with a challenge that tested our communication and problem solving skills. Without speaking, we had to arrange oursleves in to birthday order. We had to find other ways to communicate and it was very tricky at first. Then, we got into groups and used tarpaulins and any natural materials that we could find to create a river system. We needed to think about creating some hills, meanders, a waterfall and making the mouth get wider as it came to the estuary. We poured water onto them to see if they worked.  In our other Geography lesson, we looked at how people often build settlements near to rivers and why this is. We discussed all the ways that rivers are needed by people and all the different uses they have for the water. In Maths this week, we have been focusing on written methods of subtraction. We started off using written methods where we didn't need to do any exchanges. Then we moved onto calculations that needed an exchange because the number we were trying to take away in the column was bigger than the number we had. 

We have been very busy writing the rest of our reports to persuade people to go and watch Abdul Kazam's magic show in English. We wrote paragraphs to tell the reader all about the magic tricks that are performed and about going into the Place Between. Because we were trying to persuade people to go and watch the show, we had to make it sound really good and include lots of persuasive vocabulary. 

We took advantage of some sunny weather on Wednesday and went outside to create our shadow sculptures for Art. We took the words that we had prepared last week and thought about how we could position oursleves and them to make the best sculptures. 

On Friday in RE, we heard about David eventually being made the King and how he was a good King. We read some of the advice that he gave to his son about how to be a good King that is written in the Bible. We then thought about what advice we could give our own King to help him be successful. 

In French, we recapped the French names of some different countries from last week. We then put them into a sentence to say that we lived there, which was J'habite en France. We noticed that when we said we lived in a town or city we said J'habite a, but when we are talking about a country we say en. We played a matching pairs game to match the country name to the flag. 

In gymnastics, we put the finishing touches to our routines, ready for the performance next week and at swimming we practised doing a push and glide from the wall and through a hoop that was under the water. 

Autumn 1 Week 6

In Maths this week, we did some practise of using written methods of addition where there are exchanges. We then applied our skills to some different problems in order to solve them. After that we moved onto subtraction and used the counting on (shopkeeper's) method to help us subtract mentally. 

At the start of the week in English, we gathered some ideas and planned out our report to try and persuade people to go and watch the magic show from the text Leon and the Place Between. We then started writing the report, making sure we had some factual report sentences as well as persuasive sentences that used rhetorical questions, alliteration and superlatives. 

In RE, we looked at the next part of David's life story where he had the opportunity to kill Saul (who was trying to kill him) but he spared him. We discussed how his actions can show us what is in his heart and why God chose him to eventually be the King. We worked in groups to act out the story.

We were really lucky to have a workshop with Cody from the Ribble River's Trust for our Geography this week. We talked about why rivers are so important and what kind of animals live in and around them. We also looked at the structure of a river system and the differnt features it has. Cody then spoke to us about flooding and some of the reasons that it can happen. We talked about areas that can be prone to flooding and what things can be done to help with it. We then worked in groups to make some leaky dams using clay, moss and twigs. Once they are dry we can test them by pouring water onto them. 

In Computing, we looked at the idea of routes and how it is a way of getting somewhere. We then linked this to routers and how they direct the information from the internet. We talked about the difference between a website and a webpage and then spent some time exploring the features of some different websites. 

For our composer explorer focus in Music, we used the ipads to find out some facts about the composer Pamela Z and her life. Then we looked at what bar and time signatures are and some exmaples of Bhangra music that is written in 4 time. We then created our own rhythms in 4 time using crotchets, quaver pairs and rests.

On Friday in French, we started to look at the names of some European countries and what they are in French. We played a matching game, where we had to use our cognates to match the start of the country name to the end of the country name. We were then able to have a go at saying them correctly.  

In Art, we finished our shadow sculpture lettering by gluing them to strips of paper. Sadly it was raining, so we couldn't go outside and create our sculptures as we had planned to. We will do it as soon as the weather is ok. Instead we started to think about designing a sculpture that we could make from rubbish like Sokari Douglas Camp does. We thought about what we could make and what materials we would need. 

Autumn 1 Week 5

In Maths this week, we began our addition and subtraction unit. We started by recapping our previous learning about adding 1, 10, 100 and 1,000 to a number, but with multiples of the numbers this time. Then, we moved onto using formal written methods of addition with 4 digit numbers. We started with calculations where no exchanges were involved and then moved onto calculations where we had to do an exchange. 

In English, we moved onto our non fiction learning and looked at a report that had been written to persuade people to visit a fairground. We identified the persuasive language that could be found in the report - rhetorical questions, alliteration and superlatives. We then started to gather some information that we could use in a report to persuade people to go and watch the magic show in the text Leon and the Place Between. We worked in groups to think of some rhetorical questions, alliteration and superlatives that were suitable and then we used them to write a persuasive paragraph. 

On Monday, we carried out our science investigation into whether all materials melt at the same temperature. We practised reading the temperature on the thermometer before taking the starting temperature of all the materials. We then put them into a water bath and observed them every two minutes. We found out that the ice melted the quickest and that the candle wax didn't even start to melt at all. We were surprised that the white chocolate began to melt more quickly that the milk chocolate. From this we were able to identify that materials have different melting temperatures. 

For our Music, we listened to a different piece of Bhangra music and compared it to the first piece that we listened to. We thought about the tempo, pitch, dynamics and instruments. We then looked at some chaal rhythms that were written using musical notation; crotchets, quaver pairs and rests. Working in pairs, we created our own chaal rhythms and used the written notation for them. We also watched a video of Pamela Z (this half term's composer) performing one of her pieces of music and discussed the instruments that she used. 

Thursday was National Poetry Day and we celebrated with a visit from the poet Paul Jenkins. He performed some of his poems for us and talked to us about what it is like being a poet. We wrote a poem with him from some ideas we generated as a class; an animal, a colour, an activity and whether or not they were good at it. We really enjoyed the workshop!

In Geography, we looked at the features of a river system. We looked at a diagram of a complete river system and identified the different features such as tributaries, meanders, gorges and the estuary. We then labelled our own diagrams and matched the features to their definitions.

In PSHE, we looked at an email from Harold the giraffe after the visit to Diversity World that we learnt about when Steven from the Life Education Centre came to visit us a couple of weeks ago. We identified his feelings in the email and discussed why he might be feeling them and reflected on times that we had those feelings too. We also thought about things that we could do to help us manage those feelings when we have them. 

On Friday, we started to create our shadow art that we are making in the style of Sokari Douglas Camp. We worked in pairs and decided on a word that described us. We then drew and cut out the letters to make the word, making sure that they were all the same height so that we can attach them to ribbon. 

With Madame Wardle, we continued to look at Francophone countries. After recapping that they are countries whose official language is French, we watched a video to show us all of the different Francophone countries around the world. We were surprised at how many countries there were and that most of them are in Africa. 

Autumn 1 Week 4

We have been very busy writing our portal narrative in English this week. We wrote one section each day making sure that we included fronted adverbials followed by a comma, alternative nouns for people's names to avoid repetition and expanded noun phrases to describe. 

In Maths, we started the week by putting 4 digit numbers into ascending and descending order. After that, we looked at reading Roman Numerals up to 100 and enjoyed doing some calculations in Roman Numerals. In the second part of the week, we looked at rounding. We talked about what rounding is and how it can be useful. we rounded numbers to the nearest 10, 100 and 1,000.

In Science, we recapped the scientific processes of melting and freezing. We then thought about the question; Do all materials melt at the same temperature? We planned an investigation to help us find out the answer, ensuring that it would be a fair investigation and that we could measure it accurately. 

For our Geography this week, we looked at the longest river on each of the seven continents. Once we had identified which rivers were the longest, we used the ipads to find out some more information about them. We looked at how long they are, what their depth is and which countries they flow through. 

We continue to learn about the life of David in RE. We heard the story about his friendship with Jonathon and discussed the ways that Jonathon was a good friend to David and the impact this had on his life. We used this to reflect on our own friendships and what makes a good friend. We wrote some poetry to show what we think makes a good friend. 

In Music, we recapped what Bhangra music is and where it comes from. We revisited the Chaal rhythms that we looked at previously and moved onto some more complex ones. We practised clapping them and once we were confident, we used some drums to create the rhythms. For our composer explorer work we listened to Echolocation by Pamela Z and discussed why she gave it that name. 

We looked at some of the work of the sculptor Sokari Douglas Camp in Art and in particular her shadow sculptures which give us a message. We discussed how we could take inspiration from her to create our own shadow art. We practised some different lettering styles that we will use in our shadow art pieces. 

We are continuing to build up our swimming skills in the pool on Wednesdays and with Mrs Windward we are working on our gymnastics routine for our showcase performance. We are keeping it top secret so that parents can enjoy the show. 

In French, we continued to build our confidence in asking the question Ou habites-tu? to ask where someone lives and also the response J'habite a....... We then talked about different Francophone countries around the world and identified some of them. We were surprised at how many countries have French as their first language and where a lot of them are located. 

Autumn 1 Week 3

This week, in English we have been gathering some ideas, grammar features and vocabulary that we can use in the portal narrative that we are going to be writing, based on the story Leon and the Place Between. We thought of some fronted adverbials, prepositional phrases and some alternative nouns that we could use in our own writing. On Friday, we wrote the opening to our narrative where we needed to set the scene and introduce the main character. 
In Maths, we started the week by finding 1, 10, 100 and 1,000 more and less than 4 digit numbers thinking about which columns changed and when we needed to do an exchange. We also looked at representing 4 digit numbers on numbers lines and estimating where they would go when there are no intervals marked on them. On Friday we used greater than, less than and equals signs to compare 4 digit numbers.

In Science, we started the lesson by becoming particles and recreating how particles in solids, liquids and gases are structured. We then tried to move whilst we were in the positions and linked this to the properties of solids, liquids and gases. After that, we looked at the processes of melting and freezing thinking scientifically about what states of matter they are and how they change. 
In Geography, we thought about some of the longest rivers that we have in Great Britain and used an atlas to find them. We then labelled them on our own maps. 
We started to look at the story of David in RE. We looked at the most famous part of the story first, when he fought the giant Goliath. We discussed how David’s faith and belief in God was so strong that he knew God would protect him from Goliath. We wrote some letters as one of David’s brothers who witnessed the fight. 
We continued to think about online safety in Computing. We talked about some of the risks of being online and some of the things that we could do to keep ourselves safe when using online devices. 
Everyone really enjoyed going swimming again this week and did some great focused work on front crawl technique. In gymnastics with Mrs Winward, we were practising doing cartwheels, splits and forward and backwards rolls. Mrs Winward was looking at who had neat positions with pointed toes. 
We had French at a slightly different time on Friday, in the afternoon. We labelled some of the cities in France on a map. Madame Wardle showed us the place name for a minute and we had to try and write it correctly from memory. We also played a rhyming game to help us with French phonics, reading and prononciation. 

Autumn 1 Week 2

Our first full week in school, has been packed with learning and fun. In English, we read the rest of the story Leon and the Place Between and identified it as a portal narrative. We were introduced to fronted adverbials for when, where and how and the punctuation that they need. We also spent some time thinking about the vocabulary that we can use to make our sentences sound magical. We ended the week, by writing some setting descriptions of the different locations in the story. 

In Maths, we used a range of number lines with different sized intervals to represent numbers up to 1,000. After that, we extened our understanding of numbers by reading and writing numbers up to 10,000. We also partionined the 4 digit numbers and identified the value of each digit within them. 

In Science, we looked at the three states of matter and their properties. We discussed the way that solids, liquids and gases behave and how the way the particles are arranged affects this. We then sorted some items into solids, liquids and gases. 

In Geography, we built on our knowledge from Science about solids, liquids and gases to explore the journey of water through the water cycle. We discussed some of the processes such as evaporation and condensation and how they cause a change of state to happen. We sang a very catchy song to help us remember what happens in the water cycle. 

For PSHE this week, we had Steven visiting us from the Life Education Centres. He talked to us about the different ways that we are all unique and special. During the session we saw a video of Harold the giraffe and his friends all wanting to do different activities on a day out. We were then able to discuss how there are some times when friends want to do things that are different to each other and this is ok. We also talked about our bodies and what things are helpful for them and what things are harmful to them. At the end of the session, we were very excited to see Harold! In our other PSHE session with Miss Sullivan, we were given the challenge of working in small groups to create some human machines. We then perfomed our machine action and the rest of the class had to work out what we were doing. It took a lot of good communication and teamwork to be able to be the human machines. 

In Music, we listened to Echolocation by Pamela Z and discussed how it made us feel and what insturments we could hear. We then listened to a piece of Bhangra music. We discussed the origins of Bhangra being from the farmers in the Punjab region of India and how it is now fused with more modern influences. We looked at some of the traditional Indian instruments that are often used in Bhangra music. 

We were very excited to go swimming for the first time on Wednesday! We had a wonderful lesson and all the school staff and the swmming teachers at the leisure centre were really impressed with how well we did with getting there, getting changed, our swimming and getting back to school. We also had our first gymnastics session with Mrs Winward on Thursday. We recapped some of the positions such as pike and straddle and rolls that we have learnt previously. We are learning a routine to share with families later in the half term so we don't want to give too much away!  

In Computing, we did some online safety work. We looked at all the different devices that are around us that can go online and disucssed why it is so important to keep ourselves safe when using them. We recapped the SMART rules for online safety. 

In French, we revisited the map of Europe and identified where France is and how close it is to Great Britain. We then focused on the map of France and found some of the biggest towns and cities and talked about what they are known for. We looked at how their names are spelt and then how to pronounce them. 

We went outside for our Art lesson, where we took inspiration from the sculptor Magdalene Odundo and used the floor as our canvas. We used chalk to draw pots and vases in the same style as Magdalene thinking about getting smooth curved shapes and creating elipses effectively. 

Autumn 1 Week 1

It has been wonderful to welcome the children back into school and into Year 4 this week. They have made a fantastic start and they are settling into the new routines well. On Wednesday, we we did some catching up and created a class promise that will help our classroom to be an environment where everyone can learn safely and be the best version of themseves. Then we did some catching up with a twist on the usual activities; we talked about things that we didn't do over the summer being as imaginative as possible. which was lots of fun. We also looked at some vocabulary that is important in Year 4 and what it means. We finished our first day by thinking about how feedback can help us improve our work and how to give constructive feedback and how to respond to it. 

We started our new English topic on Thursday. We had a short extract of the text and we had to make predicitons about what we thought it would be about, we all thought it was going to be about a magic show and we were right. We then read the first part of the text and talked about the character Abdul Kazam and what we have found out about him so far. 

We started our Maths learning by looking at the value of the digits in three digit numbers. We identified the hundreds, tens and ones and used part whole models to partition them. 

Our Art unit on sculpture began with looking at the celebrated sculptist Magdalene Odundo. We looked at some of the sculptures that she has created and discussed how she often draws her sculptures on the floor or walls before creating them. We made an information poster about her and her style of work. 

We looked at some throwing and catching skills in PE on Thursday. We used chest and underarm throws to pass the ball to each other in small cirlces. We made it more challenging by making our circle bigger and by throwing the ball out of sequence. 

It was lovely to have Madame Wardle back in school on Friday for our French lesson. She introduced our new topic 'Ony Va' which means lets go! We looked at the world map and identified France and the United Kingdom. We also had the opportunity to share some of our experiences of visiting France, how we got there and which places we visited. 

We ended the week, with RE where we talked about what qualities, God would like to see in our hearts and what qualities he saw in the prophets who he asked to do special jobs for him.