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Year Four

Hello and welcome to Year 4.
Spring 1

We have had a busy half term in year 4! In English, we have been looking at a science fiction story, Jazz Harper Space Explorer. We spent time creating newspaper articles based around Jazz’s trip to Mars.

We also designed our own aliens, labelled their features and imagined they’d be visiting Beech Hyde! We used these aliens to help us write explanation texts based around a guide to a first day at school. In our explanation text, we focused on using time conjunctions in our writing.

In science, we have been looking at states of matter. We learnt about solids, liquids and gases; we even went onto the playground to see how they would move around! During our lessons we conducted different experiments to learn more about changing states.

  

During our maths lessons, we have been working hard learning about decimals. We first learnt how to partition decimals into tens, ones, tenths and hundredths. We have recently moved onto column addition and subtraction using decimals. We are also working really hard on our times tables in Year 4! We are really enjoying using Times Table Rockstars and Hit the Button in class. We spent number day playing games practising our times table knowledge.

In PE, we have been focusing on bridging, using the equipment. In our outdoor PE lessons, we have been learning how to play tag rugby and are really enjoying it.

       

In art, we have been looking at landscapes. We spent time learning about Leonid Afremov and created our own colour wash sunset pictures.

During PSHE, we have been looking at dreams and goals. At the beginning of the term we created our own dream catchers. On the back of them we wrote what our individual dreams and goals were and coloured in the front!

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Autumn 2 2023
In English, we have been reading How to Train Your Dragon. We created our own dragons and wrote setting descriptions including them. We created ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ brochures, writing our own dragon training instructions. As a class, we looked at the features of non-chronological reports, and wrote our own. We also wrote poems entitled ‘Beware of the Dragon’.
   

In maths, we have been working hard on learning how to multiply and divide by 10 and 100 and use this to help us convert between different units. We have been using our place value sliders to help us, and are now able to complete the questions independently!

In DT, we made our own money purses! We first looked at different money purses and their features and used this to help us design our own. We then drew out our designs and templates which we attached to material to cut out. Then, we worked hard sewing our purses together using different stiches we had learnt. Finally, we evaluated them. We are all really proud of our purses!

      

During our French lessons, we have learning the French version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears! We have learnt key words and phrases which make up the story, and created our own flashcards with pictures and the English translation. We finally created our own story board to help us remember the story.

For anti-bullying week we each made a kindness flower. As a class and individually we thought about what kindness means and how we can all show kindness. We drew on each petal of the flower to represent all the different ways we can be kind to each other. 

                      

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Autumn 1 2023

In Year 4 we have had a great start to the Autumn term!

In English, we have been reading Robin Hood. We have done lots of work around the setting and characters to help us write our own story!

We also wrote our own acrostic poems and setting descriptions about Harvest. We presented these in our harvest assembly to the school.

In maths, we have been working hard on learning our times tables. We have made our own flashcards to help us and have used them to test our partners. Also, we have been listening to different times tables songs to help us remember them.

Our science topic for this half of the term has been ‘Living Things and their Habitats’. We have spent time learning about different animals and where they live. We have learnt the difference between an invertebrate and a vertebrate, and went on a mini beast hunt to find them! Also, we learnt about endangered animals and made fact files about them!
                
In art we have been weaving! We started practising our paper weaving before moving onto material. We have also learnt to make our own loom.

In RE we have been learning about Hinduism. In one of our lessons we created our own rangoli patterns. We used tissue paper, chalk, oil pastels and colouring pencils to create a range of different designs. We even drew some on the ground outside of the classroom!

              

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In Year 4 we have had a fun filled summer term, culminating in our open evening where we show cased our moving eye art work.

We have been exploring acrostic and list poems in English. Here are our goldfinch acrostic poems. We were inspired by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris’ amazing book - The Lost Words.

When we had finished our own list poems about St Helen’s Church we took a line from each and made class poems that were put up outside the church for village day.

     

In maths, we have been learning about coordinates and used them to create treasure maps.

In science we were remembering how to make electrical circuits.

We also had a great time at the Natural History Museum in Tring learning about how animals adapt to the environment in which they live.

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One of our focus books in English has been the mysterious Tuesday where in the village residents see frogs flying on lily pads.

During our English treasure hunt we learnt about synonyms.

    

In science this half-term, we have been investigating sound.  We investigated string phones and how vibrations and sound travels.

    

We've also been investigating vibrations - here we could see, hear and feel the vibrations!

      

 

In art, we have been looking at landscapes.  We focused on creating a sunset picture inspired by the artist, Leonid Afremov.  First we applied water colour to create the sunset background and then we added silhouette detail.

In geography, we are exploring Florida, USA.

As part of Mental Health Awareness Week, we made worry monsters to take our worries away.

    

    

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We have been reading 'Cloud Tea Monkeys' by Mal Pete and Elspeth Graham.  The children have started to create their own tea packaging and enticing descriptions for the outside.

    

  

    

In geography, we have been studying the weather.  We have been taking daily recordings and monitoring changes.

     

In RE, we have been creating artistic representations of the Easter story and the cross.

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In maths, we have been learning about time and different ways of recording data.

 

We’ve also been learning a new game; the ancient game of kalaha.

In English, we have been learning the features of an explanation text and have written some of our own!

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In English, we wrote our own versions of chapter 2 from 'How To Train Your Dragon' by Cressida Cowell. Following this, we looked at non-chronological reports about dragons and read sections of Dragonology. This week we completed a feature hunt from a piece of text, asked questions about the appearance, habitat and feeding habits of dragons then we designed and labelled our own dragon. Next week we will write non-chronological reports about our very own dragons!

 

For homework, Mrs Berry challenged us to create our own Christmas decorations using materials found at home. We were very imaginative and used a wide range of materials. These are now in our classroom by the class Christmas tree!

In RE, we learned about the significance of Advent around the world. We created our own Advent wreath last week. This week we discovered Pinatas have a significance during Advent in Mexico. We watched a video clip about how they are made then created our own 2D Pinata with wishes for the world on the back. We will add these to the school Christmas tree.

A few weeks ago, we looked at Remembrance during Guided Reading. Our comprehension task was to carefully follow a set of instructions to make a tissue paper poppy. These are now on display in the classroom.

    

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In Year 4 we have been looking at classifying different species of animals. The children have carried out some research using books from our library and iPads to create fact files.

   

Year 4 presented our harvest festival with Year 3. We collated facts about harvest and sang the song, Cauliflowers Fluffy!