A very Happy New Year from 4DA! It has been good to get back into the swing of things this week as we kick started the new year with a bang!

The children dusted off their holiday heads by starting a new writing topic – instruction writing. We have already planned and started creating a set of instructions on how to create a homemade tortilla pizza (just like the ones that they made during arts fortnight before Christmas). They have tackled the writing with the new skill of S,M sentences which move the subordinating clause to the start of the sentence. Our maths lessons have focused on multiplication again. We have been exploring factor pairs and how to multiply and divide by 10/100.

As we leave the Romans behind us in 2025, 2026 sees us start out topic on climate change. For me, this is one of the most interesting topics of the year which has been proven by some of the fantastic conversations we’ve had around greenhouse gases and electricity already this week. We have introduced the term ‘global warming’ and looked into what is causing the earth’s temperature to rise and why. This will lead us on in future lessons to looking at the consequences of climate change and what we can do to help reduce our carbon footprint.

Have a good weekend everyone!

The penultimate week of the 2025 calendar has been a fun one.

Our writing topic has ignited with us completing a whole shared write this week. We have been working on creating a descriptive and spooky story opening that leads a main character to a dilapidated building, only to find something mysterious and strange lurking inside.. I look forward to the hot writes next week!

The class have also been taking a look at how the Romans impacted Britain and we explored what kind of things we see today that the Roman Empire introduced to the British shores. From straight roads to sanitation, we enjoyed an afternoon of learning about all of the things we can be thankful for from the Romans. Finally, we have been exploring farms. In particular, which farms ensure that their animals have a happy life. We have explored the differences between caged/barn chicken farms and free-range and organic farms and produced some wonderful posters promoting the consumption of free-range farm products.

Have a great weekend, everybody!

The first week back after our hugely successful arts fortnight has been another interesting one – that’s right, test week!

The children have been completing their tests in reading in and maths and have done a brilliant job! We have also introduced our final writing unit of 2025.. a spooky, snowy story opening.

Away from the hard work and tests, we had a very interesting work shop with Sam the Sound Man. He came in to the classroom all Tuesday morning and taught 4DA all about sound and how it works. His series of interactive and interesting experiments had the children engaged and enthused by the laws of sound. Feel free to quiz them on the different home-made instruments that can be made over the weekend!

What a week of arts fortnight-ing we have had! I don’t want to tell you too much and ruin the surprises of next week.. but we’ve been working incredibly hard on a number different portrait techniques in the art studio. This has included  different sketching techniques, drawing in the correct proportions and how to shade to create depth in a drawing. I also never knew that there were so many talented dancers in 4DA! After only a few days of work, our class dance is starting to look fantastic and we can’t wait for everyone to come and watch it next week..

It has been another great week in 4DA with plenty to celebrate! 

Our writing has continued to focus on wintery sentence structures which have been fantastic. Excitingly, the first pen licences of the year have been given out. I don’t think it will be long at all until the next batch are despatched with the ever-improving presentation! Our maths lesson have on different times tables, including the 3, 6, 7 and 9s.

Our history topic has turned to British shores as we have been exploring the Roman invasion of Britain. We have been looking closer at which emperors took on the Celts and how many attempts it took to actually grasp a foothold on Britannia! 

Have a good weekend everyone and look forward to some creativity next week!  

It has been a fun filled and hardworking first week back after half term ! 

Our writing topic has seen us focus on snowy sentence structures, building up to our wintery story opening topic in a few weeks. I have been blown away with the vocabulary and phrases that have been used to create such fantastic sentences across the class! Our maths topic has seen us focus on a few different times tables. We have explored different facts relating to the 3,6 and 9 times tables and noticed some interesting patterns within them. 

On Friday, the class settled down for their library session with Mrs Whitley and enjoyed the peaceful time searching for new and interesting books to read. We are very lucky to have such a nice space to explore and enjoy our reading! 

Have a good weekend, everyone!

And just like that, the first half term of the year comes to an end – but what a good start it’s been! 

We finished the half term by planning and writing out hot writes in writing. We write a letter home to our families as if we were Roman legionary soldiers, telling them all about the day in the life of a Roman soldier. There were plenty of tough days had by the class which included building bridges, walking up to 30,000 Roman paces, taking night watches and even fighting in deadly battles. 

Our art and DT project tied in with this nicely as the children of 4DA painted and put the finishing touches on their Roman shields. I have been very impressed with how symmetrical the designs are and the level of detail that has gone into them. 4DA are going to make a very well organised and matching army when we fight off the Celts! 

I hope everyone has a superb half term!

It has been a very ancient week in year 4! Let me tell you all about it.. 

In writing, we have started to write our next shared write. We are creating a letter from the point of view of Lila from our class novel, the Firework Maker’s daughter. We have been talking about the journeys that she has gone through in order to become a firework maker, including being captured by pirates, scaling mountains and finding the Fire Feind’s grotto. 

Our week started in very exciting fashion, with a Roman soldier coming in to visit us! He taught us all about the life of Romans, what a bustling street in Ancient Rome would look like, discussed the gods and goddesses and experienced live entertainment from the colosseum. This helped inspire our art and DT project which we started production on. Our Roman legionary shields have been cut and designed as we close in on our Roman/Celtic battle.. 

Have a lovely weekend, everyone! 

It has been another exciting week in 4DA, including a fascinating trip to Adel woods to bond with the wildlife. 

Our writing lessons have seen us learn a new model text, based on Willy Wonka’s day at the chocolate factory. The children have once again blown me away with how confidently they have learnt the text and the actions. Maths has seen us shift to subtraction as the children have been practicing how to use the column method for numbers up to 10,000, including exchanges. 

Excitingly, the children spent a morning with the roots and routes teachers in Adel woods. The children explored the different senses in the forest and created expressive dances and descriptive poetry in their session. We have also dug deeper into Roman life as we have explored the different classes of Roman society. There were certainly plenty of takers for role of Emperor for 4DA and not so many for slaves.. 

Finally – BIG NEWS. After coming second in every TT Rockstars competition so far this year, 4DA managed to be victorious over the other Year 4 classes this week! I am incredibly proud of the efforts that the children have put into their times tables as we managed to accumulate over 36,000 correct answers in a single week!

Have a great weekend everyone!

It has been another superb week ion 4DA this week with plenty going on!

Our first writing topic of the year has come to an end with the children producing their very own brilliant warning tales in our hot write. I have been so impressed with the creativity and the resourcefulness from the class. Our maths topic has seen us venture onto addition. They have blown me away with how solid their column addition strategies are.

In Science, we explored the digestive system, learning about the different organs involved and their specific roles. One of the highlights was an experiment where we made our own “poo”, simulating the process of digestion and mimicking how each organ contributes to breaking down food. It was a fun and messy way to understand how our bodies work.

Finally, 4DA have kick started their design and technology project by designing their very own Roman Shields. We looked closely at the symmetrical design of the shields and the children have produced some fantastic sketches – ready to start creating next week!

Have a good weekend and get on TT Rockstars to bring the year 4 trophy home!