Welcome to Year 4!
WB 13th July 2015
A final fabulous week in Year 4. We were bursting with pride on Monday afternoon and Tuesday evening as the children
sang their hearts out in the Year 6 production of Bugsy Malone. A special thank you to the children who were able to come back for the evening performance on the Tuesday, we have definitely got some talented singers!
It was also our final swimming session which meant there was a final assessment and I am delighted to report every child has made progress in their swimming ability and half of the class completed 25 metres which is an end of Year 6 expectation. Well done everyone!
Well done to Eva who won the Merit Award for this year and to Emma for winning the Progress award for the year. The girls were presented with these special awards in our end of year celebration assembly today.(Friday)
Finally, we would like to thank you all for your continued support and the lovely cards and gifts that have been sent in with the children. We wish you all a safe and happy summer break and look forward to seeing all the children back and raring to go in Year 5 in September!
WB Monday 6th July 2015
This week in Year 4 the children have continued to work really hard. On Monday we had a really exciting day when we spent the day with our new teacher, in our new classroom, for next year. We found out lots about Miss Tang, she has travelled to lots of different places in the world!
We really enjoyed creating ‘selfies’. These will help Miss Tang learn lots about our class and will help her to plan some exciting lessons for us next year. Our selfies will look fantastic when they are displayed in our new classroom in September!
In maths the children have been measuring angles, some of them quite tricky, using their protractors. Keep practising this at home Y4!
In English the children have been looking at the end of year expectations for writing and how they can further improve their work by coming up with their own success criteria of what they need to include. This was used to help them when they planned a story all about a lonely robot! The children were excited to show off their skills by producing an amazing piece of writing for their new teacher for next year. I know Miss Tang is going to be impressed with how good they are! This piece of writing will move up with them into Y5 as a baseline for next year.
Don’t forget to come and watch us next week when we have our choir performance as part of the Y6 production of Bugsy Malone. Mrs Threlkeld said we are the best singers in the school!
WB Monday 29th June 2015
This week, we have really enjoyed lots of topic work. Monday afternoon, we did a carousel of activities including research on the longest rivers in the world.
Do you know which is the longest river in the world? We have talked about rivers and other open water and discussed the dangers as well as the fun activities you can experience. In English, we wrote safety manuals to advise people how to be safe near open water.
Our hard work came to a fun conclusion with a trip to Sankey Valley Park in the sweltering heat on Wednesday afternoon. The rangers set up a pond dipping
session for us which the children all thoroughly enjoyed. We found tadpoles, frogs, water scorpions, dragonfly nymphs and blood worms.
A wonderfully hands-on, exploratory afternoon! We hope to see you all at the Summer Fair tomorrow. Don't forget our disco next week!
WB Monday 21st June 2015
I have been so proud of our Year 4 children this week. Sports Day was a roaring success and our children showed their athleticism in the sprint and the Obstacle race.
A big well done to the children who showed off their talents to open our Sports Day event.
A huge well done to Lola, Eva, Poppy, Ruby, Rose, Connor and Harley from our class who took part in the St Helens Dance Festival at the Theatre Royal on Tuesday evening. I was so impressed with their performance and their sheer guts to get on stage and dance in front of hundreds of people. I am extremely proud of them all.
Also, a few of our class walked across to Heyeswood Residential home on Wednesday morning to share their writing on VE day and the birth of Princess
Charlotte with the residents. The children enjoyed their visit and the residents commented on their wonderful manners and politeness.
We are enjoying practising our Bugsy Malone songs and have begun to join the Year 6s for practices this week. Lots of you have purchased tickets already and if you haven’t then please don’t hesitate to order. It’s a fabulous school event to be a part of.
Coming soon!
WB Monday 14th June 2015
We had a great start to the week by exploring bubbles as part of our Science Week. Year 4 designed a fair test to make their own bubble mixture. We found out that the more concentrated the washing up liquid to the water, the better the bubble mixture was to produce the best bubbles. We had so much fun making the bubbles showing that Science is fun!`
Lots of other exciting lessons have taken place this week! On Tuesday we learnt how to look after our teeth and gums and received a new toothbrush and toothpaste. On Thursday we continued to use our scientific skills and vocabulary in maths when ‘Batman’ set us a challenge. We had to hypothesise what would be a cheaper option for making ice lollies. On Friday it was our art day. As a school we lined this to our Eco theme and made fantastic mobiles out of old CD’s and wool. We were very good at weaving and made some lovely patterns to hang and display in our class.
I was also really pleased to hear very encouraging comments from the swimming teachers this week. The class are making
so much progress in their stroke technique in just 3 weeks. It’s a pleasure to see the children enjoying swimming so much.
Reminders:
It is Sports Day on Wednesday 24th June at 1.30pm. Can all children have their team coloured t-shirts and full kit in for our races. Many thanks.
School CD Recording
Don’t forget, if you haven’t already ordered your CD there is still time to buy. Just complete the slip that was set home to you and send back in to school with payment. Any profit made will go towards purchasing new musical instruments for school
Own Clothes Day
Don’t forget own clothes day next Friday 26th. Bring toiletries or sweets for the summer fair.
WB Monday 8th June 2015
What a beautiful sunny week! We started off the week with a Science afternoon where we created our own musical instruments to round off our Science Topic on Sound. The children thoroughly enjoyed the practical side of this lesson and made shakers, guitars, didgeridoos and drums out of plastic bottle, pringles tubes, cereal boxes etc. Year 4 showed how creative they can be.
In English, we have started writing our own mini novel with chapters and the children are already asking if they can take them home when they have finished to show their families.
We are also very excited to be performing vocally alongside the Year 6s in their production of Bugsy Malone. A letter has gone out to invite you all to watch the performance and we ask if all Year 4 children can come back into school for the evening performance on Tuesday 14th June. The children are enjoying learning the songs from this fabulous musical.
Next Thursday we are making our very own school CD. Each class is performing a song. Our song is 'Hopeful' by Bars and Melody. The lyrics have been sent home for your child to practise along with a letter to see if you want to order a copy of the CD.
Sports Day (weather permitting) will be held on Wednesday 24th June- please ensure your child has their coloured PE top in school as soon as possible.
Have a lovely weekend
Year 4 Team.
WB Monday 1st June 2015
‘The water is your friend. You don't have to fight with water, just share the same spirit as the water, and it will help you move’ ~Aleksandr Popov
Swimming! A fabulous start to our half term and I was hugely impressed that every child in Year 4 remembered their swim kits and took part in the lesson. The first lesson was assessing the children so they have been put into groups where they feel comfortable for next week. No matter where your child is starting from in their swimming journey, I look forward to seeing the progress made
in the coming 6 weeks. It is an extremely important skill to learn and develop, as well as being an enjoyable experience.
We enjoyed learning some conversational French this week.
All children were able to say to each other ‘Hello’, ‘What is your name?’
‘My name is …..’ and ‘Goodbye’.
Have a go at home!
Bonjour.
Comment tu t’appelles?
Je m’appelle Madame Fowler.
Au Revoir.
WB Monday 18th May 2015
A slightly rainy end to the half term but spirits have remained high in Year 4.
This week the children have been very busy with reading and writing assessments in the mornings. However, in the afternoons, we have had lots of fun in topic lessons. We got involved in our Eco Week. We have had lots of exciting visitors to school including Natalie and Elaine our Community Police Officers who came in to talk to us about our environment, walking to school and staying safe. Thank you to everyone who has supported our Walk to School Week.
Thank you also to Carmel from The Community Arts Citadel for doing some drama and dance workshops with us, we had great fun pretending to be seeds germinating, growing into trees of different shapes and moving in the wind.
We had a visit from Edwina, the Beekeeper from Fir Tree Farm. Edwina spoke to the children in assembly all about keeping bees and how they make their honey.
In English we produced our own Eco-codes and discussed lots of ways to help the environment especially with in our lovely school.
We enjoyed creating a timeline of Beatles hits in History from the early 60s into the 70s Linked to Music we listened to the Beatles tracks and gave our opinions on each song. ‘She Loves You’ seemed to be a particular favourite as was ‘Eleanor Rigby’! The children thought ‘Yesterday’ was a bit slow and not upbeat enough!
Mrs Threlkeld introduced us to Cilla Black and her friend Dora who visited Y4 and performed a version of ‘You are my World’ (Miss Sheffield and Mrs Larner in disguise!) We looked at their outfits ( popular in the 60’s and 70’s) and discussed the cycadelic colours and patterns . We looked at other patterns and colours from the 60's and 70's and used these ideas to create our own design in art.
In art children looked to create their own similar patterns using sycadelic colours and designed their own symmetrical patterns on the wings of butterflies to add to our ‘Kindness Tree’
Kindness has been something that we have been thinking about these past few weeks. We have talked about acts of kindness and made our own ‘Kindness Tree’ in class. We each have a butterfly peg each, that we have made, to add to our tree if we are found to have carried out an act of kindness. I’m sure our Y4 tree will always be full of beautiful butterflies!
Have a great half term break everyone you deserve a rest after your hard work this term! We will see the children back safe and well on Tuesday 2nd June.
PLEASE REMEMBER SWIMMING BEGINS ON THIS DATE!
WB Monday 11th May 2015
I was amazed at what fabulous speakers we have in Y4 when on Tuesday afternoon we set up a debate on the advantages and disadvantages of living in Liverpool. The class were divided in to two groups to compile their arguments in preparation for the debate. Children got their views across with confidence and some children even objected to some points with very valid counter arguments. Mrs Fowler was thinking about the General Election last week, perhaps we have some future politicians in our midst!
Our Science topic continued with another investigation, this week we graded the volume of sound whilst we continued to move away from the source of the sound. We used our wonderful field to get as far away from the source of the sound as possible. We discovered the further away you move from a sound, the quieter it becomes.
In maths we looked at line graphs and the information we had gathered from our science investigation and recorded our findings in a line graph.
In art we have been learning to draw a body in the correct proportion. This week we chose our best one and painted it for our Anthony Gormley display in the hall.
Next week is Eco Week. We are encouraging children to walk to school for this or leave a little earlier and park away from school and walk a little way.
We have lots of exciting activities planned including gardening, drama workshops with The Community Arts Citadel, a visit from the local farmer, Sankey Valley Rangers and also a Beekeeper, hopefully she will leave his bees at home!
Looking forward to seeing all next week, enjoy your weekend.
WB Monday 4th May 2015
We have continued to explore sound in our Science topic this week. We investigated the pitch of sound by using plastic bottles filled with different amounts of water. We discovered that by blowing over the top of the bottle, it creates a low or a high pitched sound depending on how much water is in the bottle.
Mrs Fowler was really pleased to give out handwriting pens to some super writers this week. Very well deserved for beautiful handwriting, I look forward to giving out more by the end of half term.
We had some amazing Royal reporters this week as Y4 had to research the birth of Princess Charlotte. Reporters interviewed members of the Royal Family and quoted them when writing their newspaper articles. Camera staff were on hand to video the events for News at Ten! Have a look at one of our Royal Reporters, Jasmine, interviewing Prince William.
Reporters had to come up with an eye-catching headline, find facts and opinions about the event, record interviews and work to a deadline.
Today we continued in our reporting roles by finding out information all about VE day as it’s the 70th anniversary this weekend. Children interviewed Miss Nancy who was 11years old when Winston Churchill announced the end of World War II.
We have all worked so hard learning about two very important events in history, but have had great fun in the process, hopefully helping us to remember these events for many years to come.
Important Information.
- A letter will follow next week about Year 4 going swimming every Tuesday morning after half term. The children are really looking forward to learning to swim or further improve their swimming skills.
- On Thursday our new school gate arrived which means that the electrics will soon be activated. The gates will be controlled by the office as an extra security measure. Keeping our children safe at all times is so important to us at Grange Valley. The gates will be locked to cars from 8:40 until 3:40, access within those times will be limited. Staff will have access fobs and visitors will need to speak to the office via the intercom that will be situated by the entrance. The gates for pedestrians will also be locked and access to school will be limited with permission needed via the office through the new intercom. Any queries please do not hesitate to contact Mrs Holcroft or the office staff.
- Please bring in any outstanding sponsor money. Thank you
- Cancelled next week due to SATS - DANCE Wednesday / Thursday before school. CRICKET / NETBALL Wednesday after school. KEYBOARD / GUITAR Thursday lunchtime.
Have a lovely weekend everyone from the Y4 Team.
WB Monday 27th April 2015
Another busy week in Year 4! We have been getting to grips with negative numbers in Maths in the context of temperature. Also, I was extremely proud of all the class who wrote an explanation of 'How to recognise a Witch' from our Roald Dahl book. The writing was creative, imaginative and full of detail. We have some wonderful writers!
Thank you to all the children who completed their topic homework on Liverpool. I've enjoyed reading them and Jasmine even presented her PowerPoint to the class on Wednesday. We are currently in the process of creating a poster to advertise the City of Liverpool. James came up with the strapline 'LiverCool'!
We got a little messy in art this week! We looked at the work of Anthony Gormley’s Another Place in Crosby, Liverpool. We used chalk, pastels and paint to create our own beach scenes. We also found out lots of facts about the artist and his iron men and completed some lovely writing for our display.
We had lots of fun in music this week with Mr Smith who was telling us all about his trip to the Falkland Islands. We learnt that the Falklands are famous for Penguins! We learnt a very funny song all about Penguins helping us to get better with our ‘Pulse’ and ‘Rhythm’.
Today we enjoyed meeting up with friends, in the hall, for our Sponsored Dance. Thank you to everyone who has sent in money up to now, we are looking forward to us being able to buy some new books for new area.
Have a lovely, long weekend and we shall see you all on Tuesday 5th May.
WB Monday 20th April 2015
Welcome back everyone! What a lovely, sunny week to return to school. Year 4 have managed to enjoy some sunshine as we went out on the field
as part of our new ‘Sound’ topic in Science. We were listening to the sounds around us both outside and inside.
In PE we enjoyed athletics outdoor in the sunshine too!
We have begun to read ‘The Witches’ by Roald Dahl this week and have followed up with lots of imaginative writing. Also, Emma, the dance teacher is continuing the theme of Roald Dahl and the children are dancing to ‘Charlie and the Chocolate factory’ on Monday afternoons.
I would like to say a huge thank you to all the parents who attended parents afternoon / evening. It was lovely to share your children’s successes. We have very talented children in Year 4 and I’m looking forward to the Summer term with them.
Reminder about sponsored dance!
WB Monday 30th March 2015
This week we have all really enjoyed the happy ending to our class story the Butterfly Lion. In maths we have worked extremely hard doing assessments and our teachers have been very proud of our results.
On Monday we had our Tea Dance! We enjoyed learning a friendship dance and the waltz, Owen and Ellia were voted our superstar dancers, however, we were all amazing! The best part of the day was when we had afternoon tea with cream and jam scones!
We had great fun when we danced our friendship dance, you can view a snap shot of this below!
In art we had a lovely lesson when we learnt about Decoupage. (Ask your child to explain what this is!) We all made lovely little trinket boxes using this technique and were all surprised when the Easter Bunny visited and left some eggs for us.
We visited Christ Church, also, this week for a 'Walk through Easter' We really enjoyed our visit, it made us think about the meaning of Easter and why we celebrate. Everyone at Christ Church went to so much trouble to organise this event , we really appreciate all they did for us on the day.
Thank you for all your support this term. When we return our theme is all about Liverpool. The children have been given a project for homework to support them with this.
We hope you all have a good Easter, don't eat too many eggs! We will see you all again after the break on Monday 20th April 2015.
WB Monday 23rd March 2015
We finished this week on a high as we really enjoyed playing our brass instruments today, performing for the whole school and Parents. Although we were vey nervous it was worth it in the end and we were all proud of ourselves after the event. Our teachers were proud of us too! If you missed the show you can watch a short piece of our favourite song below, Mrs Threlkeld's favourite in particular!
Also this week we have progressed further with our class novel the Butterfly Lion. We have looked at emotive language and powerful adjectives to help us to write a page from Bertie’s diary.
We developed our skills even further using powerful adjectives to write lovely spring poems including similes to include more complex sentences in our writing. Some of us even chose to spend our break time exploring the school grounds looking for signs of spring to give us extra inspiration for our poems.
In art we did some still life sketches of fresh spring flowers and used pastels to finish which are now on display in our classroom along with our poems. We are looking forward to parents visiting to look at our fantastic work during open evening when we return after the spring break.
In Maths we have been working on out times tables, you can support us at home with our rapid recall by testing us, for example ‘What is 6 x 4?’ By the end of Y4 children should be able to recall multiplication facts up to 12 x12. This week we have been learning to understand simpler ways to multiply bigger numbers using our rapid recall skills.
In science we continued to investigate circuits and what items were good conductors of electricity. Ethan found out that metal was a good conductor but plastic wasn’t.
Next week our early morning dancers are in as usual on Wednesday and then they need to come in on Thursday also, when parents are invited to come and watch their performance. We hope parents can stay for this as we know you will once again be so proud!
Have a lovely weekend everyone from the Y4 team.
WB Monday 16th March 2015
This week we have continued our English work linked to the Butterfly Lion. We have moved on in our adventure now as Bertie has gone off to war. Bertie was called up to serve his country in World War 2 and was awarded the Victoria Cross for bravery. This created much discussion and we tried out ‘hot seating’ which is where we interview a book character and the children take it in turns to be that character. I had some fantastic Bertie’s who were able to get into the character and answer questions about his life. This really supported the children when they came to do their writing. They produced some fantastic letters in the character of Millie to send to Bertie.
The children had fun learning a new spelling game; ask them to show you this at home!
In maths we have been solving problems linked to column addition and subtraction for most of the week along with some Easter problems.
We have our trip to church coming up soon so in preparation for this we have started to learn about the Easter Story. In our writing linked to this we concentrated on adverbial phrases and making sure we have used punctuation.
In Science we carried out some experiments linked to electricity, setting up circuits to light bulbs.
Children looked at toys and games from the early 20th century. We even got to play some! A favourite seemed to be marbles and leap frog! In groups we read playground rhymes from the past and discussed our favourite ones. We voted to choose a game to sing / play for the whole class.
Next week we have our Easter Bingo, come along and join in the fun! In the last week we will be having our Egg Competition once again so you can start thinking of an idea for then!
Have a great weekend everyone from the Year 4 Team.
WB Monday 9th March 2015
In English, we wrote wonderful diary entries, at the beginning of the week, as if we were Bertie from the Butterfly Lion using lots of emotive language. In maths we were looking at different ways to subtract.
Paddington also visited Y4 this week on Thursday morning and the children were very excited about this! The children had to use their problem solving skills in maths to plan a journey for Paddington around the UK. The children used their map of the UK to plot Paddington’s journey and used their knowledge of his interests to write a character description, using 2A sentences.
The children also used 2A sentences to write lovely poems for someone special, this weekend! Why not ask your child to explain what a 2a sentence is when you read their poems, have your tissues ready!
In Science, we explored how electricity is useful to us. The class worked really well in teams of four and had very confidently presented their work to the rest of the class. We were very proud of their confidence and presentation skills!
In History this term we are researching leisure and entertainment in 20th Century. Following on from work carried out last term, in the Victorian era, we began by looking at Leisure and entertainment in the early 1900’s.
Friday was Red Nose Day, and the children looked amazing, dressing funny for money! In assembly Mrs Threlkeld had us making funny faces as we sang the Red Nose Song, Making Funny Faces! Have a look on our Twitter page for the link to this video.
Thank you all once again for your continued support, have a lovely weekend everyone, from the Year 4 Team.
WB Monday 2nd March 2015
We have had another exciting week this week in Y4. This week we have focussed a lot on our reading as it has been Book Week at school. We have been excited to share our new class read , The Butterfly Lion by Michael Morpurgo.
World Book Day was an amazing day, we had so much fun learning about books and the importance of reading. The day started with an assembly with Mrs Threlkeld, all about World Book Day. The children looked at and discussed their characters and delved into books they hadn't read before. Assembly ended with a great song, have a look on our new Grange Valley Twitter page for the link to watch this. (Website homepage) Don't forget the children have brought home a book token that they can spend in their local booksellers by 29th March, have a look on WORLDBOOKDAY.COM for information on the £1 books available. One of the books available is a Morpurgo book called Best Mates, I am sure you will all enjoy this one as much as you are enjoying The Butterfly Lion.
Our week ended with a trip to Haydock High School to take part in some Multi skills activities. Have a look at some of the activities we learnt in our photographs below.
Reminder for Next Week!
Photographs
The school photographer will be in school next week to take class photographs.
Red Nose Day – Friday 13th March
The theme this year is ‘Dress Funny for Money’. We stress, as always, that parents do not need to spend money on outfits but make use of items they already have, e.g., funny hats, glasses. You could just paint a red nose or simply add a splash of red to clothing that day. We are raising money for Comic Relief, as usual, so a donation of £1, if possible, would be great.
Dance Club
Tuesday’s early morning dance club for Y3 and Y4 will be changing soon, next week (Tuesday 10th March ) it remains the same but from the following week it will be changing to a Thursday morning ( From Thursday 17th March onwards) at the usual time.
Have a great weekend everyone. View our visit to Haydock High School below.
WB Monday 23rd February 2015
What a week! We have had such an exciting time travelling around the world, learning all about the different countries we visited, especially about our class country India. We have enjoyed so many activities including music from around the world with a visit from the Pop Project band, we have enjoyed tasting foods we have never tried before, stories from around the world, we have produced some fantastic poems. Indian art work and we were taught an Indian dance by Emma our dance teacher. Our favourite part of the week, however, was Friday when we got to dress up in our country colours and present to the whole school facts we had learnt about India, some of our parents even came to watch!
WB Monday 9th February 2015
This week I have been extremely pleased with year 4 for their hard work completing assessments! The children have tried their best throughout the week and I have been extremely impressed with the progress the children have made. Well done year 4.
On Monday afternoon we completed making our Scratch games, taking time to debug any codes that were not working correctly, and adding levels to our games to make them more complex. The children have worked really hard creating their educational games and have used their imagination to include different characters, backgrounds and sounds.
On Thursday we had a fantastic day out at Langtree Park and the World of Glass. We spent the morning having a tour around the stadium, playing some rugby activities and also talking about healthy eating. We were also lucky enough to have our photograph taken with the Super League trophy! In the afternoon the children then had a lovely afternoon walking around the World of Glass, learning about the heritage of St Helens and watching a live glass blowing demonstration!
See you in a week!
Miss Preston and Miss Sheffield.
WB Monday 2nd February 2015
In Literacy this week we have started a new topic ‘Explanation texts’. We started the week by looking what an explanation text is and identifying the features. We then looked at how we can use causal connectives in an explanation text to show reasoning and cause. The children came up with their own machines that could help us to carry out every day activities such as the ‘Tidy your bedroom’ machine and ‘The chores’ machine. We wrote our own explanation texts about our machines to explain how they work and why they are useful. We then added to our explanations using diagrams to show more detail. On Monday we also had a lovely visit from Mrs Holcroft, who came to read us a class story as part of storytelling week.
In Numeracy this week we have also started a new topic of ‘Data handling’. Before we started our topic, we discussed what data is, what it is used for and why it is important. We then had a go at reading and interpreting data. On Tuesday, we had a fantastic lesson at the fun fair. Year 4 discussed their favourite food, rides and games, and created some questions to ask each other to collect some of our own data using a tally chart. We also discussed the use of frequency when collecting data. We then looked at our data in more detail and used bar charts to present our findings.
In Science, Year 4 carried out an experiment with Mrs Fowler looking at what happens to different materials when they are heated and cooled. They discussed the importance of making predictions and how to carry out a fair test. The children then heated ice cream, butter and chocolate to see how they changed states and wrote their findings. They then heated the materials to see what happened next.
To end our week we had a fantastic day out at Quarry Bank Mill! Thank you to all parents / carers for your help in dressing the children as Victorians for the day. They all looked absolutely fantastic! Throughout the day, we had a lovely tour around the mill and found out what it was like to live in the Victorian times. We also learnt about the production of cotton and watched some fantastic demonstrations around the machinery the Victorians used. The children were all excellently behaved throughout the day, and got involved in all activities on offer. Well done year 4 for representing Grange Valley so brilliantly!
We also had an exciting surprise whilst on our trip, as we met MP George Osborne! He kindly talked with us about our trip, asking us what we had been doing and asking us what we had learnt. We all looked wonderful in our costumes for some photographs.
Hope you all have a lovely weekend,
Miss Preston and Miss Sheffield
WB Monday 26th January 2015
Reminders
Friday 6th February - Quarry Bank Mill trip! Please can you ensure all remaining trip consent forms and money is returned by Wednesday please.
No Brass lesson on Friday so children do not need to bring instruments to school.
Please can you ensure that homework is returned on a Wednesday.
This week has been a very exciting week with all the snow that we have had! I would firstly like to thank all parents / carers for your patience regarding mornings and home times whilst our playground has been closed.
Throughout this week we have completed our topic in Literacy ‘Authors and letters’. This week we have concentrated on letters. We looked at the features of a letter, and discussed the difference between formal and informal letters. We then planned our own reply letters to letters we had been sent from characters from stories! We thought carefully about the questions we had been asked and also came up with some of our own questions we would like to ask in our letter. The children then wrote their letters, which were fantastic!
In numeracy this week, we have been learning all about directions and co-ordinates! We started by discussing the eight compass points and other directional language we can use. We then used our knowledge to help us to follow directions and also write our own set of directions for us to follow! We had fantastic lesson outside on the playground, following our directions using the compass points and degrees. We then looked at the use of co-ordinates. We looked at the use of the x and y axis and also looked at how we can plot points on a grid using co-ordinates.
In science this week we learnt all about the water cycle. We learnt lots of new vocabulary and discussed the water cycle story.
In topic this week we have continued with our Spain topic. We looked again at where we can find Spain on a map and then looked closely at our focus city Barcelona. The children then carried out research on Barcelona and began to create our own tourist brochures, which we will print off and add to our topic area!
Have a lovely weekend,
Miss Preston and Miss Sheffield.
WB Monday 19th January 2015
Reminders
Please can you ensure you have returned reply slips for our trip by Friday!
Please can you ensure your child has tracksuit bottoms as part of their P.E kit incase we go outdoors.
This week we have continued with ‘Authors and letters’ in literacy. We looked at other authors, created questions to ask them to find out more information, and looked at how we can write book reviews to recommend books to others! We ended our week by thinking about our topic ‘Spain’ and wrote letters in creative write that we could send to pen pals in Spain!
In Numeracy we have focused on positive and negative numbers. We looked at how negative numbers are used in relation to temperature, and also compared and ordered positive and negative numbers.
In computing this week, we have started to build a prototype of our own educational games, which we designed last week! The children are becoming more familiar with different variables and how to use ‘Scratch’ software. We will continue with this next week, and hopefully move on to building our games!
In topic we have continued with our ‘Spain’ topic. We looked at Spain on a map and thought about its different regions. We then used the laptops to carry out further research on each of the regions of Spain, and created power points in pairs which we then shared as a class.
In science we have continued our ‘How could we survive without water?’ topic. We looked at the difference between hot and cold and looked at how we can measure temperature. We carried out a range of tasks, feeling the temperature of different surfaces, looking at the use of thermometers and we also used our hands to test the temperature of different bowls of water! The children worked extremely well and we had a fantastic lesson.
Hope you all have a lovely weekend,
Miss Preston and Miss Sheffield
WB Monday 12th January 2015
This week we have had a very exciting week in school – ‘Money, money, money’ week!
On Monday, we started off our week with a visit from Mr Roach who told us all about his career, the jobs he has had and what he had to do to get to where he is now. It was very interesting to hear all about the different jobs he has had and learn about his journey through work life.
We then went into class and thought about what we would like to do as a job when we are older. The children wrote some fantastic explanations about the job they would like to do and why. In the afternoon, we then designed our objects that we sold at our Grange Valley Market on Thursday. We chose to design our own bookmarks.
On Tuesday, we had our dance lesson, in which we thought about Spanish dance linked to our Spain topic. We listened to Spanish music and thought about how it makes us feel and how it makes us want to move. We then watched a traditional Spanish dance, and looked at 5 dance moves that they use. The children then worked in groups to practice and perform these different dance moves.
We then had another visitor tell us all about their job – from the Bank! We learnt about how to keep our money safe, what we need to use our money for and talked about the use of having a bank account and how important it can be to save our money and spend is sensibly.
In Maths, we then looked at money and calculated change from different amounts. The children worked really well and I was impressed with their knowledge of money!
In the afternoon, we then started to make our bookmarks! We used wool and felt to create different bookmarks – we even did some stitching! The children tried really hard and created some fantastic bookmarks. Well done Year 4!
Throughout the rest of the week, we continued looking at money in maths and talked about jobs in our community and how we can apply for jobs when we are older. We also had other visitors such as the charity Zoe’s place.
On Thursday after school was our Grange Valley Market! Thank you to all parents who came and bought our items, to help us raise money for charity. Year 4 raised £29.00 which is fantastic!
To end our week, we had a penny trail in the hall. This was a lovely afternoon and the children thoroughly enjoyed making our class trail as part of a school competition.
Well done Year 4 for working so hard this week!
Have a lovely weekend,
Miss Preston and Miss Sheffield.
WB Monday 5th January 2015
Reminders
Please could you ensure your child has brought their P.E kit back into school after the Christmas holidays.
When you read with your child, please could you write a short comment in their yellow reading record so we can track how much they are reading with an adult at home.
Next week - 'Money, money, money' week - On Thursday after school there will be items on sale that the children have made in class - please come along and take a look!
Firstly I would like to say welcome back and Happy New Year! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.
This week we have had a very busy first week back. We have started a new topic in Literacy ‘Authors and letters’, in which we have been looking at two books by the author ‘Dick King Smith’. We have started to read ‘Martin’s Mice’ and ‘Noah’s Brother’, comparing the settings, characters and other features from both stories. Towards the end of the week we also wrote our own setting description around one of the settings from the two stories.
For our creative writing this week, we were faced with being stranded on a deserted island! The children wrote some wonderful diary entries telling us all about a day they had on the island. Well done to those children that were chosen to read your diary entries to Mrs Threlkeld and Mrs Holcroft. They were so impressed and can’t believe how much you are improving with your writing. Well done!
In Maths this week we have completed our ‘Measuring’ topic. We have looked at weight, estimating and weighing different items and converting between grams and kilograms. We then moved on to capacity and volume, adding amounts and converting between the two measures.
In Science this week we have started a new topic ‘How could we survive without water?’. We started this topic by looking at the three states of matter, thinking about how they are different, grouping objects and looking at how the particles change!
In Topic we have also started a new topic ‘Why do so many people go on holiday to the Mediterranean?’ Our focus within this topic is the country of Spain. Thank you to all parents and carers who helped children over the Christmas holidays with their Spain research and creating fact files. These were a fantastic stepping stone for us starting our new topic this week. We used laptops in class to conduct some more research and started to think about the advantages and disadvantages of living in a Mediterranean country.
Have a lovely weekend,
Miss Preston and Miss Sheffield.
WB Monday 15th December 2014
We have had a lovely final week.
On Monday we had final practices before our X Factor performances on Monday afternoon and evening. Thank you to all parents, carers, grandparents who came to watch our performance. We really enjoyed showcasing our talent and hope you enjoyed it!
On Tuesday afternoon we put on our party clothes for our KS2 Christmas party! We had a great time dancing the afternoon away, and then enjoyed the lovely food that children had brought in for our class buffet. Thank you again to parents and carers for providing us with a lovely selection of food for the children to enjoy.
On Thursday we enjoyed a lovely Christmas assembly, where we discussed the Christmas story and sang some beautiful songs to get us into the Christmas spirit. Thank you to parents for attending this assembly. We then had a fantastic afternoon using the ipad’s! We had a go at some basic coding and enjoyed playing with some of the different apps that we have.
To end our week, we sadly sad goodbye to Mrs Gabbitas! We are extremely sorry to see her leave and will miss her dearly.
I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and wish you all a very happy new year.
See you in January!
Miss Preston and Miss Sheffield.
WB Monday 8th December 2014
Reminders
Monday 15th December - X Factor performances - Please can all children bring something Christmassy to wear for our performances - either some tinsel, christmas hat, christmas jumper
Tuesday 16th December - KS2 Christmas party - every child has been allocated food to bring for our party. Thank you very much for your support! Please can children come to school as normal in school uniform and bring their party clothes in a bag. Thank you!
This week we have had a fun filled week in year 4.
We have continued with instruction writing in literacy and have also continued with measuring in maths. We started to look at using grams and kilograms, and looked at how we can read scales accurately!
The children have also been practising extremely hard for our X Factor performance, which we are really looking forward to next week!
On Wednesday we had a fantastic day out at Gulliver’s world! We firstly watched a pantomime show, which got us all into the Christmas spirit! We then had time to go on some of the rides, and got very dizzy on the teacups! After that, we had a lovely train journey up to Santa’s grotto, where the children met Santa and even got to choose a toy to take home from his workshop! We had such a lovely day and all children behaved fantastically! I am extremely proud of you all, well done.
On Friday afternoon, we had a lovely visit to church! We did some arts and crafts and had a look around the church and talked about the Christmas story. The children were extremely well behaved and we had a fantastic afternoon. Well done year 4!
Hope you have a lovely weekend,
Miss Preston.
WB Monday 24th November 2014
This week we have started a new topic in Literacy looking at instruction writing. We have looked at the features of instructions, how imperative verbs are used and looked at time adverbials and how to use them effectively in a set of instructions. We then linked our instruction writing to Road Safety week, and wrote our own detailed instructions on how to safely cross the road, which will go on display in our classroom.
In maths this week, we continued looking at decimals and looked at decimals when working with money. We looked at how to add and subtract amounts of money, and ended the week answering some money word problems!
As part of anti-bullying, we discussed different types of bullying and how we should treat others around us. The children then worked in small groups to write and perform their own anti-bullying raps and songs. We used different musical instruments to help us whilst performing, which were lovely to watch! Well done Year 4.
Have a nice weekend!
Miss Preston.
WB Monday 17th November 2014
Reminders
Please could you return the slip for Gulliver's World as soon as possible!
This week we have had a very busy week in school!
In maths, we continued looking at fractions and also started to look at decimals! We converted small fractions into decimals and looked at how tenths are written as both decimals and fractions. We then looked at ordering decimals, thinking about the value of the digits and the columns after the decimal point.
In Literacy we have finished our topic of ‘Myths and Legends’. We looked at dangerous settings, and then the children created their own dangerous setting! We then looked at how we can use direct speech correctly in our writing, and wrote some speech for our own myth stories that the children have been writing. To end the week, we finished off our myth stories, which I am really looking forward to reading!
On Thursday morning we had a lovely morning taking part in Junior chef! We learnt all about fair trade foods, and put our taste buds to the test experimenting with some new fruits. The children made some of their own tiramisu deserts, which I hope you enjoyed tasting when they got home!
On Thursday afternoon, some of our children went to a football tournament for years 3 and 4. They performed really well and we are extremely proud of the effort that the children put in! Well done!
I would also like to say thank you to all parents who were able to attend parents evening this week! It was lovely to see you and have the opportunity to tell you how well your child is doing and how proud I am of them!
Hope you have a nice weekend,
Miss Preston.
WB Monday 10th November 2014
This week we have continued with our topic of ‘Myths and Legends’ in Literacy. We started off the week by talking about mythical objects. We read some more myth stories together, identifying the mythical objects that were used to complete the quest. The children then used their ideas to write their own mythical object that they can use in their own myth that they started writing last week. The children used their imaginations fantastically! Well done Year 4.
In maths this week we have been focusing on division and fractions! We started the week by looking at dividing whole numbers by a half, a third and a quarter. We then moved on to finding larger fractions of amounts and even unit fractions! We learnt how to divide by the denominator and multiply the answer by the numerator.
We have continued with our new science topic this week ‘All living things’. We decided to go outside and see which animals live around our school grounds. We thought about their habitats and looked at the conditions they needed to survive.
On Friday we had a fantastic day for Children In Need. We did lots of fun activities in class, which we will be using for a display in our school hall! Thank you to all children for coming dressed in their pj’s and for bringing a pound to help to raise money for this wonderful charity.
Hope you have a lovely weekend,
Miss Preston.
WB Monday 3rd November 2014
This week we have started a new topic in Literacy - ‘Myths and Legends’. We started off the week by talking about mythical creatures. We looked at images of different mythical creatures and used adjectives, similes and metaphors to describe them. The children then used their ideas to write their own creature description for the creature they had been looking at in their group. We then moved on to creating our own mythical creatures. I was very impressive with the children’s ideas and use of language features to create a clear image of their creature!
Throughout the week, we then read two myth stories – ‘Pandora’s Box’ and ‘Icarus’. We talked about the meanings portrayed in the myths and started to recognise the features of myth stories. After reading ‘Icarus’, we then wrote our own alternative endings for the myth, predicting what we thought might have happened next. The children created wonderful endings, using powerful verbs and adverbs in their writing. We then finished the week by thinking about our own myth story, writing the opening as part of our creative writing task.
In maths this week we have been focusing on time! We started the week by looking at analogue clocks and 12 hour time. We then moved on to thinking about digital clocks, and used 24 hour to help us to show am and pm on digital clocks. Later on in the week, we then used our knowledge to help us to answer time word problems, calculating differences in time using different written methods.
We have started a new science topic this week ‘All living things’. This week, we talked about different groups of animals, and discussed the characteristics of different groups and the differences and similarities between them.
Hope you have a lovely weekend,
Miss Preston.
WB Monday 20th October 2014
Reminders
Ugly Bug Disco Y3, Y4, Y5 and Y6 - Thursday 23rd October 5.30 pm - 7.00 pm.
Deadline for photograph money is today! Please make sure the office has your photograph and money by Tuesday morning.
This week has been our assessment week! I am very proud of the children, as they have all tried their best and worked extremely hard. Well done year 4.
Other than assessments, we have had a nice relaxing fun week in school. We have continued with our topic of ‘The Victorians’, discussing life as a child in the Victorian times. The children then wrote their own diary entry in the role of a Victorian child.
We have also continued with our brass lessons this week, which are going extremely well and the children seem to be really enjoying!
On Thursday night we had our Ugly Bug disco! The children had a fantastic time and I was really impressed with their costumes.
Hope you all have a relaxing week off,
Miss Preston.
WB Monday 13th October 2014
Reminders
When you read with your child at home, could you please write a comment in their yellow reading record so we can see how much they have been reading out of school. Thank you.
Homework is due in on a Wednesday - can children please ensure they bring this in on or before the Wednesday in their homework file.
Firstly I would like to say a huge well done to Year 3 and Year 4 for putting on such a brilliant Harvest assembly on Wednesday afternoon! The children have worked so hard learning their lines and sang their hearts out. We are extremely proud of them, well done children! I would also like to say a big thank you to parents and carers who came to support the children and have donated food! Thank you for your support.
In Maths this week, we continued looking at shapes. We looked at how we can find lines of symmetry and what symmetry means, then finding lines of symmetry in a range of 2D shapes using mirrors to help us. We then moved on to angles, discussing the different types of angles and how we know what type of angle it is! We discussed acute, obtuse and right angles and looked at different angles in a range of shapes.
In Literacy we have completed our topic of ‘recounts’. We have looked at emotive language, what it means and how it can be used to help the reader gain a deeper understanding. The children then used emotive language in their own short recounts. We then ended the week, starting to create our own recounts about our Harvest assembly, using all of the features that we have learnt about. These will be used for display in our classroom once they are finished!
Have a good weekend,
Miss Preston.
WB Monday 6th October 2014
Reminders
Can children please remember to bring their brass instrument back into school on a Friday.
Harvest assembly - Wednesday 15th October 2.30pm
Can children please bring in a red, green, yellow, orange or brown plain t shirt to wear for our harvest assembly.
Can children also bring in any cans / tins / non perishable foods for our Harvest collection.
Year 4 have been working very hard this week, getting ready for our Harvest assembly next Wednesday! We have all been learning our lines and practising harvest songs with Year 3. I have been very pleased with the hard work the children have been putting in and I’m extremely impressed that they have learnt their lines so quickly!
In Maths this week, we have been focusing on 2D shapes. We firstly looked at the properties of a circle, and used our measuring skills to measure the circumference and radius of different sized circles. We then looked at different types of shapes, discussing their properties and grouping them depending on the number of sides they have. We then moved on to finding the perimeter and area of different shapes, applying our addition and multiplication skills.
In English we have focused on Autumn, looking at similes and how we can use them to describe harvest and autumn. We thought about the colours of autumn and used our senses to think about what we can see, feel, taste, hear and smell at harvest and autumn time.
Hope you all have a lovely weekend,
Miss Preston.
WB Monday 29th September 2014
This week we have been working really hard in Year 4.
In Literacy, we have started a new topic of ‘Recounts’. We first of all discussed what a recount is and read a recount together as a class, recognising the language and presentational features used. We then split off into groups to look at a range of recounts, to see if we could identify the features!
Next, we thought about how we can give important information in a recount, using the five w’s – who, where, what, when and why. We looked at our recounts from the previous lesson, and identified the five w’s for that recount. We also looked at how time connectives were used to sequence the events in chronological order. Later on in the week, we then started to look at the use of facts and opinions and recognised the difference between the two. We identified some facts and some opinions and then came up with some of our own for a range of different topics!
To finish the week, we wrote our own recount in the form of a letter, to tell someone about something we have done! The children used as many as the features of a recount as they could, and produced some beautiful letters. Well done Year 4.
In Maths this week, we have been looking at multiplying and dividing! We started the week by looking at multiplying by 10 and 100, and even looked at multiplying by 1000! We looked at how the numbers move up along the columns, and how we can use zero as a place holder to fill our empty columns. I was very impressed with how the children used the columns correctly and remembered to use their place holders! We then moved on to the same method, but this time dividing by 10 and 100. Throughout the week, we then moved on to looking at multiplying a 1 digit number by a 2 digit number, and looked at different written methods we can use.
To finish our week, we looked at how we can use multiplication facts to help us to work out simple division questions, and answered some multiplication word problems.
We have continued with our brass lessons this week, and you will all be pleased to hear that the children have brought home their brass instruments this weekend
Have a good weekend,
Miss Preston.
WB Monday 15th September 2014
We have had another very busy week this week, and the children have been working fantastically. In English we have continued with our fairy stories unit, this week concentrating on settings. We read Hansel and Gretel, and talked about the different settings in the story. The children worked in groups to identify the language features used in the story, and added their own ideas of how to describe the settings in more detail! We then used these ideas to write our own version of a setting description using one of the settings from the story.
We then watched the Three Little Pigs, looking at different settings that occur from events happening in the story. The children described how the houses looked before and after the wolf had blown them down and we discussed how we thought the pigs must have felt. The children then wrote a diary entry from the view of one of the pigs, also describing what they thought their house looked like.
Towards the end of the week, we had great fun re-enacting different scenes from the three fairy stories we have read so far, which we performed in our groups! Thank you to those parents who organised props for the children. They were fantastic and helped the children to get into character.
The children then used their ideas about settings to create their own fairy tale setting that they are going to use in their fairy story next week!
In Maths we have been rounding numbers to the nearest 10 and 100 and practising our mental addition! We first of all looked at 2 digit numbers, and then moved on to 3, 4 and 5 digit numbers. The children worked really well and enjoyed carrying out different number investigations. Towards the end of the week we have been using number lines to help us to find the difference between two numbers, whilst also working on our mental subtraction.
This week we have started our new topic of ‘The Victorians’. On Thursday afternoon we discussed what we already know and what we would like to find out by the end of this topic. We used laptops to help us to find interesting information and important facts, which the children were then able to recall after the lesson showing what they had learnt about the Victorian period. We also had great fun drawing and painting portraits of Queen Victoria!
I hope you all have a lovely weekend,
See you on Monday for another busy week!
Miss Preston.
WB Monday 8th September 2014
This week the children have all been working very hard!
In English, we have started our new English unit ‘Fairy Stories’. We started off the week by reading Little Red Riding Hood and creating a story board retelling the story. We then used interesting adjectives to describe the characters from the story and created a character description. The children then created their own fairy tale characters and wrote a detailed character description for their character. The children used a range of language features and we even tried using some similes!
In Maths we have been partitioning numbers and recognising the values of different digits. The children looked at up to 4 digit numbers and partitioned them using their place value to help them! We then thought about place value subtractions, and compared numbers using greater than and less than symbols.
The children were out all day on Thursday on a trip to Clonter Opera! Year 4 were very well behaved and had a fantastic day out.
Towards the end of the week, we had our first brass lesson! The children met their brass teacher Mr Smith and learnt all about the instruments that they will have the opportunity to play this year. We are looking forward to learning more about the instruments and learning how to play them!
Hope you have a lovely weekend,
See you on Monday!
WB Wednesday 3rd September 2014
Welcome back! I hope you all had a wonderful summer holiday.
Although this week has been a shorter week than usual, we still managed to get through lots of things and have had lots of fun getting to know each other! It was lovely to see the children come in happy and ready to learn.
On Wednesday, we spent time talking about our summer holidays and shared what we had done. The children then wrote a recount of their summer holidays, which were fantastic and are now on display in our classroom! We talked about our expectations for this year and thought about how we are going to behave in the classroom and around school. We then discussed rewards that we would like to have in year 4, and rules that we must follow.
In the afternoon the children used mirrors to help them to draw a self-portrait for the first display in our art gallery. The children worked well mixing colours and worked together to use the painting equipment carefully and sensibly.
On Thursday, we thought about what our strengths are and created some strength shields. The children talked about their strengths, both in school and outside of school. The children decorated their shields beautifully ready for display. We then used our strengths to help us think about anything that we might want to get better at to set ourselves some targets! We discussed these as a class and the children then drew around their hands and wrote their targets beautifully along the fingers. These will also be used for display, to remind the children of the targets that they have set for themselves.
We then did a fun maths activity, which required team work and listening skills. The children worked in their sports teams, to find maths clues hidden around the room, which they had to work together to answer to crack a code! It was brilliant to see the team work taking place and I was extremely impressed with the behaviour and attitude of all children during this activity. Well done Year 4!
On Friday, we used felt to create our own owls, writing all about ourselves on the wings. Our owls will have the children’s photograph inside, so we can see who the information on the wings is all about! The children worked fantastically throughout the morning and these will look beautiful on display outside of our classroom.
We then talked about our ‘Rockstars’ display, which the children can be a part of through working hard and having fantastic behaviour. Each week, a child will be chosen as rockstar of the week and have their photograph taken with their trophy and certificate to be placed on our display. As part of this display, the children have created short poems to show what they must do to be chosen as rockstar of the week.
I hope you all have a lovely weekend,
See you on Monday!
Miss Preston.
