As part of the Roots and Routes project, we undertook a photography workshop with a local photographer called Gavin. The children practiced their snapping. We of course mean taking pictures. 4A used high-tech, waterproof cameras to practice some photography skills, which included close up photos, using different lighting, using different perspectives and ensuring that the picture is focused. 

Another interesting week comes to an end in year 4 and it has been another cracker! 

The students of 4A have dived in (literally) to another week of writing by producing some fantastic portal story shared writes. The class have been telling a tale of a young classmate who is transported into the ocean during a trip to the library. I have been incredibly impressed with the resourcefulness shown by all as they have produced some great work. In maths, we have continued to work on fractions. In particular, we have been learning how to convert fractions from mixed numbers to improper fractions and the visa versa. 

As part of our Lent work, we have been tasked with doing a weekly activity to spread joy. It is part of the Church of England scheme for Lent called “40 Acts.” This week, we shared generosity by playing a game called anonymous friend. Everyone was given a piece of paper with someone else’s name on. They had to write a compliment on the piece of paper – which we revealed the next day.

During this half term, we worked on a piece of art in the style of Jean-Michel Basquiat. We used our knowledge from previous art projects to create a wash on cardboard. We then added a black figure and used different coloured chalk pens to add detail to the design and write on our kennings about fears.

Over the last two Mondays, 4A have visited the Ramgarhia Gurdwara to help supplement our class learning on Sikhism. They have all had a superb time hearing about the the Sikh religion by people who run the Gurdwara. They discussed the daily routines of the Gurdwara, langar meals and the 5Ks. They were also lucky enough to see a member of the Gurdwara read extracts from the Guru Granth Sahib and experience a small Langar offering before heading back to school. 

Across the last two weeks, we have been working really hard on our multiplication and division. Many of us initially found it difficult and had to be really resilient. It was amazing to see the children work through their difficulties and come out of the other side. We ended this week by working in groups to answer worded problems. We all worked so well together and helped each other get to the correct answers.

In Spanish, we have been looking at the Spanish words for different shapes. We learnt 5 different shapes and used these as well as retrieving our number knowledge to play a game of Spanish Bingo. We also learnt the word bingo is the same in both Spanish and English!

On Friday, we undertook a Geography experiment to demonstrate the effect ice melting has on sea levels. We measured the water level every half an hour and realised that as the ice melted the water level rose. Following this, we plotted our results on a line graph.

We also learnt about climate changes by researching its causes such as burning fossil fuels, over farming and chopping down trees (deforestation.) We then looked at the effects of climate change and found out that extreme weather like floods and hurricanes are all caused by it.

In Maths, we have been looking at dividing and multiplying by 10 and 100. We used our place value whiteboard sliders to help us work out our problems. They helped us understand that when we multiply the numbers move to the left as they get bigger and when we divide they move to the right as they get smaller. We also discussed the need for using a place value holder when we multiply by 10 and 100.

This week, we have been getting into the festive spirit by taking part in lots of fun activities. We firstly used an app called keynote on our iPads to create Christmas jumper designs.

We then helped Mr Ash out as he had forgotten his Christmas jumper. We designed Christmas images to help transform his school fleece into a fully functioning Christmas jumper!