We have had a fantastic first week in 4A! I have really enjoyed getting to know everyone and getting ourselves back into our daily routines. 

The children have been working incredibly hard in many different subject areas. In our English sessions, we have been learning ‘The Book’ by Michael Rosen. I have been blow away by the children’s enthusiasm and ability to learn the poem so quickly. Within our Maths learning we have been looking at place value by using base ten to create 3-digit numbers.  

A couple of key things for next week: P.E. will take place on Tuesdays so the children will be able to come into school wearing their P.E. kits. Reading scheme books were given out this week and we will be expecting the children to read at least three times every week. 

Another great week in Year 4!

During our writing sessions, we have been creating amazing setting descriptions all about a volcano. The children have been paired writing – which has seen them working with a partner to create some incredible pieces of writing. I have been really impressed with their collaborative skills supporting one another to push their vocabulary as well as checking in on each other’s sentence structures and use of punctuation.

In Maths, we have been learning about lots of different types of angles such as acute, obtuse and right angles. We used a piece of artwork by Kandisky to help identify them in a real life context. 

Our TTrockstar of the week is Phoebe and our Lexia legend is Emelia. It is really important that we continue to keep up our Lexia usage as well as completing our TTrockstar sessions.

This week was Refugee Week and we took part in different activities to gain an understanding on the topic. We welcomed Year 5 on Wednesday – who spoke to us about all their amazing learning on Refugees and they informed us that they were selling wristbands in order to support Refugee charities. On Friday, we created short films using Imovie to display facts about Refugees and urge people to support different charities.

On Tuesday, we worked on our Viking purses – which needed lots of resilience as many of us found the stitching difficult. However, by the end of our DT sessions everybody felt much more confident in sewing and threading needles.

This week was certainly action packed! 

On Tuesday, we visited Harrogate Showground to take part in Countryside Days. We started the day by learning all about sheep and were even treated to an impromptu dance routine. We then took part in a variety of different activities such as learning about dinosaurs in Yorkshire to watching a sheep dog show. 

On Friday, we took part in our Sports Day at Leeds Beckett Headingley Campus. Despite the weather, we still had a fantastic day. Staff were so proud of the children’s sportsmanship, teamwork and resilience throughout the different activities.

On Friday, we had an amazing Viking workshop. The session started by explaining the Viking’s invasion of Britain. We learnt that they invaded an area of Northumberland called Lindisifarne and that they attacked monasteries killing and enslaving many monks. Following this initial discussion, we looked at different Viking weaponry and we talked about how each one would have been used in battle. We then looked at the different pieces of armour that Vikings used to protect themselves such as helmets and chain mail.

4A finished the half term with an excellent week of learning.

During Music, we ended our Garageband topic by creating pieces to soundtrack the opening of ‘Doctor Who.’ We created our pieces and then used an app called Imovie to twin the video with the music. I was simply blown away by the quality of the children’s work. 

We ended the week by having some fun in our PE lesson. We didn’t let Wednesday’s wash out spoil our enjoyment. We played an assortment of games but particularly enjoyed our game of chicken run. 

This week we have been LOVING getting stuck into our ‘evil villain’ character description writing unit. We acted out the model text and, as you can see, everyone gave it the full dramatic effect. We discussed how, although we are looking at character description, the setting description is equally important to create the atmosphere. We also explored how being vague with certain parts of writing like the dialogue used and why guests might be invited to a mysterious dinner party leaves the reader wanting more and makes them have to infer more.

On Friday, we took on a group challenge. Mr Ash challenged us to build a 30 cm structure using newspaper to support an orange without holding it. We started by creating some designs but we struggled to think how the structure would be strong enough. Mr Ash then showed us how we could strengthen the newspaper by rolling it using a piece of dowel but again we were unsure about the structures ability to hold the orange. We then talked about making the base more solid using a triangular base. We then were able to complete the challenge. Well done to all the groups who collaborated incredibly well and showed excellent resilience.

Our TTrockstar of the week is Phoebe and our Lexia legend is Amelia. Book club this week was hosted by Elsie and Emelia. They chose 101 Dalmatians by Dodie Smith and Percy Jackson by Rick Riordan.

Even though this week has only been four days, we have managed to cram in so much great learning. 

This week, we have been learning all about things we can do to support our own mental health. On Wednesday, we took part in the Big Sing – which involved us singing as part of a school wide choir on the playground. We then came to school dressed in green to show our support for mental health week. We undertook a trail which led us to us watching the amazing ‘The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse’ by Charlie Macksey. The film, which is adapted from an amazing book, provides the reader/watcher with many important pieces of advice. 

On Thursday, we did lots of collaborative learning. Firstly, we undertook a retrieval relay (a class favourite) in Reading. Then we recapped some of our decimal work around part whole models using big sheets to support us. The children worked really well and have really improved their collaboration skills. 

On Friday afternoon, we looked at creating pointillism drawings using our creature designs from last week. We looked at simplifying our initial designs and adding spots in the style of the pointillist movement. 

I want to spend this week’s blog post focusing on the children’s writing. Each and everyone of them have worked so hard on their recent hot writing about an underwater creature that I want to share some of their work. 

Annie’s Introduction:

After years of searching, scientists finally caught sight of the transparent creature called the Rainbow Fish. The Rainbow Fish is on the verge of being extinct because of the plastic all over the ocean.

Zara’s Appearance Paragraph:

With its distinctive body, the Sealeacta is instantly recognisable. This animal is classified as a fish because it is cold-blooded and it has gills to breathe. Using its bioluminescent light, this elusive predator navigates in the murky, gloomy waters of the Midnight Zone. When it opens its mouth, this strange creature consumes anything in its path. The Sealeacta is the only animal that has blue skin so it can camouflage in the water to hide from predators.

Amelia’s Nutrition Paragraph:

The Long-nosed Devil Fish is an omnivore which means it ingest plants and meats such as seaweed, kelp and octopus. Unlike other predators, this creature turns its bioluminescent light red before it devours its prey. During Winter, it attacks young Bernafish known as Bernies to survive.

Max’s Habitat Paragraph:

For the majority of its life, the Moon Knight Fish dwells in the murky depths of the Twilight Zone. Unlike other predators, this scaly beast finds a safe cave to lay its eggs away from prying eyes. In Winter months, the Moon Knight Fish migrates to the Indian Ocean because of the warmer climate.

Our TTrockstar of the week is Keilan and our Lexia legend is also Tahha. Book club this week was hosted by Myra and Max. They chose ‘Starring Tracey Beaker’ by Jaqueline Wilson and ‘How High the Moon’ by Karyn Parsons.

Its been another excellent week in 4A!

We completed our shared write all about an underwater creature. On Friday, we created our own elusive species which is in preparation for our hot writing planning next week. The children loved the opportunity to sketch and label their very own monster of the deep. 

During our Geography session, we looked at four figure grid references. We learnt a phrase to help us avoid making mistakes ‘along the corridor and then up the stairs.’ This means that you have to look on the bottom axis first to get the first two figures and then on the side axis for the second two figures.  

On Thursday afternoon, we continued to explore Garagaband. We created drum patterns using the beat sequencer and then started to create a simple four note pattern. We learnt about the different notes on a piano and realised that they repeat themselves started at A and going to G but not to H! Here are a few snippets of the tracks we have started to create.

We located our new country of the month which was Spain and in Spanish we have been looking at ordering different ice cream flavours. We learnt that Quisiera means I would like. We added to this different flavours (un helado de limon, chocolate, cafe, mora and carmelo.) We then roleplayed ordering ice cream with one person acting out being the ice cream vendor and the other a customer. We all really enjoyed this and it really helped us practise our language skills in conversation. 

On Friday afternoon, we undertook a challenge to test our communication skills. We paired up and had to instruct our partner – who was blind folded – through an obstacle course. We discussed how clear and short instructions were the most effective.

Our TTrockstar of the week is Phoebe and our Lexia legend is also Phoebe. Book club this week was hosted by Maidah and Maryam. They chose Climate Action by Katie Rewse (which she won as part of a competition at Moor Allerton Library) and The Night Bus Hero by Onjali Rauf.