As we reach the penultimate week of the spring term, the students of 4DA have been partaking in their spring tests! The children have shown a tremendously positive attitude towards their papers and really impressed with their desire to be the best they can be!

Away from the tests, we have also brought our Geography topic to a close by looking more closely at the water cycle. The children explored how the water cycle works and have set up a classroom experiment which will showcase this (but on a much smaller scale). We also rounded off our science topic by using our knowledge of dichotomous keys to identify invertebrates.

Sticking to science, the most exciting time of the week certainly came right at the end. The class were invited to attend the school Science Fair – held in the main hall. There were plenty of interactive experiments for the students to get involved in, including rockets firing into the sky and erupting volcanoes!

Just a reminder – we have the first of our class swimming sessions next Friday – please ensure that you have given permission for your child to go!

As another busy week comes to an end, it’s once again time to reflect on what 4DA have been up to this week!

We have continued to look closely at fractions in maths. We have been exploring what an improper fraction is and exploring their mixed number equivalents. Our writing topic has also come to an end with the class producing some brilliant independent portal stories, where their main character gets thrown into danger in the depths of the ocean. Some of the ocean specific vocab and description has been exceptional! We also took advantage of the sun on Thursday afternoon and had a great afternoon playing dodgeball. The teamwork and effort put into the lesson is something that I always admire during PE lessons – and Thursday afternoon was no different.

Finally, the pupils from 4DA spread hope and kindness, linked to our lent values. We all took part in a class activity where we wrote words of praise and encouragement to our fellow classmates. Everyone at the end of the lesson felt a great sense of happiness and belonging – a great way to spread the kindness and hope to everyone!

It has been another busy week in 4DA! Our maths topic has continued to focus on the perimeter of shapes, in particular, rectilinear shapes and regular polygons. The children have also investigated how to work out the perimeter when there are missing lengths on these shapes! Our writing topic has continued to focus on story telling, as we have dived into the writing techniques we may find and sue during story writing!

World book day was on Thursday and there was so many interesting and inventive costumes worn on the day. We spent the day taking part in variety of book related activities, including taking part in CBBC’s live lesson and producing our own class book of mixed-up fairy tales – told from the point of view of the bad guys. Lent also stared this week as the children took to the MUGA for a big pancake race!

It’s been good to have 4DA back in the classroom this week as we start our journey towards Easter!

Our fresh writing unit has seen 4DA learn the model text “Shark Tale”. It tells a portal story based on an annual school trip to an aquarium. Year 6 student, Tom, finds himself swimming with one of the most deadly sea creatures in their tank after being transported in midway through their school visit. (Don’t worry, no harm comes to him). Our maths topic has seen us focus on perimeters. The students have been looking at ways to work out the perimeters of shapes, mainly focussing on rectangles. If you need anyone to refence your garden this weekend, the children can work out how much fencing you will need!

We have also started to build on last half-term’s topic of climate change, to focus more closely on the Blue Planet. In particular, the class have explored the damage done by plastic pollution to our oceans and the animals that live there. They now have a good understanding on what materials are biodegradable and that plastics may take hundreds of years to decompose – leaving microplastics in the water.

Finally, the class had a very special workshop on Friday morning. Graphic design students from Leeds Becket University came in to teach the class all about graphic design. They ran a workshop where the children designed their very own mascot for Room 17, which will be used moving forward!

In the final week in the classroom for the half-term, 4DA completed their very own persuasive speeches. They had the task of convincing their Roman legions to invade Britannia and risk their lives for the benefit of expanding the Roman empire. In maths, we have continued to focus on long multiplication and division. The students have been practicing the bus stop method in order to solve longer division problems. Our science topic also came to an end this week as the students once again turned into electricians. They had the task of exploring what materials would conduct electricity and what materials would be insulators, they created their own circuits, including switches, to test their materials. We even managed to create a whole class human circuit, using our energy stick, to test some materials!

Have a great half-term everyone and see you very soon.

Back to normal this week after a tremendous Arts Fortnight and we have been continuing to look at speech writing. They have been writing speeches as a class, from the point of view of Boudicca. They have been convincing and motivating their armies to go and fight the Romans and halt the Roman invasion on Britannia! In maths, we have been focusing on longer multiplication and division problems. We have had a strong arithmetic focus on solving these problems using column methods.

We have been continuing to look at climate change in Geography and focussed on reducing our carbon footprints. The students made pledges to make changes to help reduce their carbon footprints! Finally, we the students have been turning into electricians in science. We have been exploring how electrical circuits work and exploring what materials conduct electricity

What a week at has been in 4DA , topped off by the amazing arts celebration this afternoon! Thank you to everyone who came along to see what the kids have been up to during their arts fortnight. Your support goes a long way to making afternoons like this so special for everyone involved. Instead of writing lots, I will leave plenty of pictures below that sum up our tremendous time!

Have a great weekend!

It’s Arts Fortnight in 4DA! And what a great week we have had. The students have been working hard on many different artistic projects, ready for the celebration next Friday! They have been exploring different printing techniques in the art studio, learning a fantastic new dance and even created some poetry..

I don’t want to give much more away, so I will leave a couple of sneak previews from the week.

Have a good weekend!

With the Ice finally melting (inside and outside the classroom), it has been good to get back into normal routines this week in 4DA!

We have continued to look at speech writing in our writing lessons, focussing on what goes into a successful speech and what techniques may be successful in convincing and motivating a crowd of people! Geography took us on a trip to the coast as we looked more closely at the effects of climate change and global warming. The students looked closer at the rise in sea levels and why it is happening. We set up a class experiment which mimicked the effects of climate change and plotted our findings on a line graph throughout the day. We can all agree that global warming is a danger to a lot of people and something needs to happen to reduce our greenhouse gas admissions!

A exciting chapter of the week saw Isaac head to West Yorkshire’s Poet laureate competition. Isaac had entered the competition by sending a poem that he had written to the national literacy trust. With over 100 applicants in the year 4 category, Isaac was shortlisted with 5 other poets and was invited to a day at the Bradford City Library. Here, he worked with professional poets throughout the day and performed his poem in front of the judges. We wish Isaac good luck and have our fingers crossed that he makes it through to the final round of the competition!

Have a good weekend.. and next week.. Art!

The penultimate week of the first year 4 term has been another great one! Christmas twists on activities have started to creep in as well as the main filming for our Roman v Celts battle.

Our mathematical focus has switched to geometry this week, looking closely at what area is and how to measure it. The students have been been comparing the areas of shapes and creating their own Christmas themed shapes with specific areas! In writing, we have carried on our topic of instruction writing. We have written a set of instructions for making tortilla pizzas, linking to the practical roman cooking session we had last week. It has been great to break down the structures of writing instructions, including a gripping opening question to engage the reader, the importance of imperative verbs and adverbs, and how to add important and specific detail.

The time finally came for the Roman v Celt battle! Over the course of the week, the children filmed many different scenes linking to the Roman invasion of Britannia. The Romans showed great organisation in their legions and fought well and tactically against the barbaric, unorganised Celts. Next week, the children will be putting together their own film that captures the story of the Roman invasion, using the clips that we filmed this week. With the filming over, make sure you make space for your new Roman shields that will be coming home.