It has been another busy week in Year 4 this week as we near the end of the year..

We have everything ready for our final hot write of the year, creating a character description for different story characters. Our shared writes have seen the children produce some wonderfully descriptive pieces of work based on the character Maleficent. This has all been building up to our hot write piece based on the Dementors out of Harry Potter. The have used many exceptional phrases and ideas in their work and I am looking forward to reading them next week!

It seems like ancient history since we covered the Romans but our history lessons are now back in full flow as we started our topic on the Vikings. We have been looking at who occupied Britain at the time of the Viking invasion (the Anglo-Saxons) and linked this learning back to our timeline of Britain and why it was a good place to invade. We are looking forward to diving into more history next week!

Have a good weekend!

It’s been another busy and brilliant week for 4DA with so many different things happening! 

We have to start with Sports Day! With the sun shining, the whole of Key Stage 2 headed out to Leeds Beckett to compete in many different races and field events. 4DA spent the morning competing on the track where we saw many successful races being run. I couldn’t believe how well the students did, particularly the 400m runners in the blissful English heat! The afternoon was also filled with fun as the class took to the field. From dodgeball to football, and from javelin to long-jump, you couldn’t stop the enthusiasm and effort that ALL of the students from 4DA put into that afternoon! Saying this, there could only be one winner. I had previously heard that a certain house seemed to lead the way in previous victories.. And it proved to run true with Birkdale adding to their tally of Sports Day success. Overall, a great day! 

We also finished the week with our times-table check. The children did brilliantly which highlights the importance of the efforts that they have put into winning TT-Rockstars competitions time after time!  

Have a great weekend, everybody! 

Into the final half-term of the year and the children have had a busy one to say the least!

Work has continued on our character description topic as the children have started to unpick our model text and identify techniques and features of what makes a great character description. It has also been an expensive time in maths as the children have taken their knowledge of decimals, which we looked at before half-term, and applied that to money. They have been exploring how to compare different amounts in pence and pounds!

Wednesday saw us take to the farm! Country-side day was a brilliant day out which saw us head to Harrogate, with the Yorkshire Show Grounds the destination. We spent the day completing many different workshops that taught us all about the countryside and farming. 4DA took part in Giant mountain building, ferret races, dog training and even witnessed some dancing sheep!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Just like that, we only have one more half-term of Year 4. We have spent the final week of Summer 1 wrapping up our topics in a very active fashion! 

The class spent time with the other Year 4 teachers this week. Firstly, 4DA spent time developing their own musical tunes on garage band using their ipads with Mr Ash. There are plenty of students with a serious ear for a good melody! The children also spent time with Miss Jackson so produce self-portraits – linking back to skills learnt during our Arts Fortnight. There was once again some super work produced. Finally, the class spent their time on Friday morning searching the school for letters. These were found by using their knowledge of 4-Figure Grid references as they were given a map of the school and some coordinates to use. I was very impressed with their use of maps – if you find yourself lost this half-term, you’ll be in safe hands if you have a map! 

When we get back after half-term, we have our Countryside school trip (to Mr Atkinson’s home of Harrogate) to look forward to. Please ensure you have signed up for the trip. 

We also have our times-table check when we return. A big push on TTRS would be incredibly beneficial! 

Have a nice break!  

4DA have had another productive week as we near the end of the year’s penultimate half-term. 

Our writing unit came to its conclusion with the students producing exceptional hot-write pieces on another newly-discovered sea creature. Some of the ideas and vocabulary used during the week has been superb. We are also coming towards the end of our decimals topic in Maths. We have spent the week taking a closer look how partition decimals into their ones, tenths and hundredths. We have also explored different ways to break up decimals by partitioning flexibly. 

An exciting event occurred on Friday. 6 students from 4DA finally caught sight of their newly published works. Earlier in the year, a group of students were invited to work closely with Liam Formaniuk, author of the Little Pantheons book series. The children worked with Liam to create their own Gods and Goddesses and have had their ideas published in the “Gods of Ace” version of the Little Pantheons series. The book is even available to buy on Amazon! 

A slightly cooler week this time round but another brilliant one in 4DA! 

Our writing unit has seen us dive head-first into our writing our own information texts about our very own aquatic creatures. I have genunily been amazed at how well the students have managed to mix their scientific, geographic and writing ideas together during this week. If you haven’t already, ask them about their newly found species! Maths has seen us continue to look at decimals, including place values when dealing hundredths, and how to divide single digit numbers by 10 and 100. Their decimal and fraction knowledge has also been very impressive! 

It was the last week of Leeds Rhinos training on Thursday. We have been very lucky to have had a Leeds Rhinos coach lead 3 sessions with us since returning from the Easter Holidays. There is a further taster session next Tuesday at 6 o’clock which is free to attend (information can be found on the flyer sent home last week or on the Parentmail). 

Have a sun-filled weekend! 

It has been great to get back into the swing of things this week with a full 5-day week – 5 hot days, may we add.

We were lucky enough to make it 2 from 2 weeks when it came to author visits. Tom Vaughan, author of the Hercules series, came into talk to us about his new book that has just hit the shelves (Hercules 3, Hero to Zero). It was a very entertaining hour, which included dressing up, an exclusive reading, Greek mythology stories and a Greek Gods quiz. He was very impressed with year 4’s knowledge of the Greek gods, despite not having learnt about it yet.

On Thursday, we were incredibly lucky to have a coach come from Leeds Rhinos once again. We started to learn a few different rules about rugby as well as playing some really fun games. Flyers were sent home with information about another Leeds Rhinos taster session on the 13th of May (an outside of school opportunity).

In Writing, we continued our information text topic. We created our own underwater creatures using Blue Planet and different non-fiction books to inspire us. After inventing our own marine creatures in last week’s lessons, we have planned and started writing our own information texts about them!

It has been great to have everyone back in the classroom after a sun-filled Easter Break! 

The first week has been one to remember, as the very first day back saw 4DA head to the local church for our Easter service and the very exciting visit of TV presenter turned author, Dermot O’Leary! Dermot came to talk to the children about his new book, Spy Fox and Agent Feathers’, and involved the students in a draw along! 

In the classroom, we have continued our writing topic that we started before the break. We are currently building towards creating our own information text about a newly discovered sea creature. We have spent our writing lessons looking at what writing techniques go into making a successful and informative non-fiction report and spent time creating our own new species to write about next week! Maths has seen us start our topic on decimals. We spent out lessons understanding how tenths can be represented as a decimal. 

We had an active geography lesson this week as we took a closer look at our globe. The children did some work exploring the equator and used atlases to find out if a number of selected countries where in the Northern or Southern Hemisphere (Papua New Guinea being a country of interest during the hunt). 

Have a great weekend everyone! 

I genuinely can’t believe that we are 2 terms down now in Year 4! We have had such a positive term in 4DA this term and we have finished it off with a great week! 

We finished off our fractions topic in Maths this week, by looking at how to subtract fractions. We have looked at how to subtract fractions from whole numbers, mixed numbers and improper fractions. We have also dived into our new non-fiction writing topic this week, The students will be using their research skills to produce information texts about creatures of the ocean (linking back to our blue planet topic). The children have done a great job at learning the model text this week and had chance to create their own matching story maps in small groups. We look forward to carrying the topic on in the new term! 

With a splash of light! Thursday and Friday saw 4DA head into the Easter Holidays by creating their very own, animal inspired, night-light! The spent plenty of time bringing their designs to life to brighten up their bedrooms. Finally, 4DA finally caught up on their swimming lessons when they ventured to Moorlands school. They learnt/practiced some basic swimming techniques and looked at some basic lifeguard training – so you should be in safe hands if anyone is going for a family paddle over the holidays! 

Have a great Easter!

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!