We all had such a fabulous final week of the half term! 

We started the week by taking part in a Roman workshop led by master storyteller Matthew Bellwood. We acted out different Roman scenes from battling in the amphitheatres to then taking a walk down a Roman high street. The experience really helped consolidate a lot of our previous learning as well as teaching us so many intriguing facts. We also finished our Celtic or Roman shields by adding detailing using chalk pens. 

On Friday, we undertook a science experiment to end our digestive system topic. We used a fork to imitate our teeth and mashed up some banana and bread adding some water (saliva) to make it easier. We then discussed that the food would move down the oesophagus and into the stomach. We simulated this part by putting our mushed up food into a clear plastic wallet (stomach) and adding vinegar to demonstrate the acid that helps break our food down. 

Our TTrockstar of the week is Mollie and our Lexia legend is Ayra. Book club this week was hosted by Barney and Fatima. They chose ‘Matilda’ by Roald Dahl and ‘I lost my Granny in the Supermarket’ by Jo Simmons.

This week has been an incredible week in 4A. 

On Wednesday afternoon, we were incredibly looking to meet the award winning illustrator Chris Mould. He talked a little bit about the books he has worked on and the things that helped inspire him. He talked about some of the books and artists that he liked such as ‘The Borrowers.’ He was so complimentary about our school library and even said he could sleep in one of the rabbit holes. He taught us how to draw a picture of the Iron Man, which he illustrated. 

During our writing sessions, we planned and wrote our shared writing – which was a recount letter. We used our class novel ‘The Firework-maker’s Daughter’ as a stimulus for our writing. In Maths, we looked at adding and subtracting using no, one and multiple exchanges. 

This week, we continued our Design and Technology project by painting our shields. The children have really persevered as it certainly wasn’t an easy thing to do. Next week, we will be putting the final touches to our shields by adding in detailing in preparation for our battle next half term.

Our TTrockstar of the week is Mollie and our Lexia legend is Ayra. Book club this week was hosted by Elisa and Aron. They chose ‘Going Solo’ by Roald Dahl and ‘That’s (not) mine’ by Ann Kang.

Firstly, I would like to start this week’s blog post with a thank you to all the parents and guardians who came to parents evening this week. It was a real pleasure to share the children’s work and achievements with you.

This week, we have focused a lot of our time and energy into making Celtic shields. We learnt that the Celts were a group of tribes that lived across northern Europe and Britain. We started the week by looking at different Celt shields and talked about the difference between them and Roman shields. We then created three designs drawing from our inspiration. We noticed that some of our designs were a little too intricate so we had a go at redesigning our shields in preparation for building them. 

The building stage saw us draw out the outline of our shields and cut them out using scissors. We then created shield bosses (the middle part of a shield) by stacking cardboard and glueing it on – which made a relief. Next week, we will complete the painting of our shields. 

On Thursday, we also welcomed Reverend Dave into our class. He spoke to us all about the life of a reverend and what he does in his working life. The children asked some incredibly thoughtful but most importantly respectful questions. 

Our TTrockstar of the week is Ayra and our Lexia legend is Rahand. Book club this week was hosted by Eesa and Ayra. They chose ‘Demon Dentist’ by David Williams and ‘Rotten Romans’ by Terry Deary.

We have had a great yet unexpected 4 day week in Year 4! Thank you for the understanding and support during Monday.

In English, this week we wrote our warning story. The children did an excellent job of transposing their work from plans to finished pieces. We were blown away by the quality and their use of everything we have been working on. In Maths, we finished our place value topic by looking at rounding to the nearest 10, 100 and 1000.

On Wednesday, we had a fantastic History afternoon. We learnt all about Roman soldiers and the power of the Roman army. We learnt by taking part in our first retrieval relay – which both staff and children enjoyed. Following this, we used our retrieval skills once more to label a Roman soldier. In Music, this term we are learning all about samba music. We have initially learnt the different types of instruments and began to practise different call and response rhythms.

Our TTrockstar of the week is Mollie and our Lexia legend is Audrey. Book club this week was hosted by Olivia and Joel. They chose ‘Grandpa’s Great Escape’ by David Williams and ‘Oi Duck-billed Platypus’ by Kes Grey and Jim Field.

Our history topic is really coming to life. This week, we learnt about the class system in Ancient Rome and the way different jobs fell into three main categories: patricians, plebeians and slaves. We also did some excellent research to learn about different aspects of their daily life. We also took part in a silent debate looking at different objects and wondering what they might have been used for.  

Our TTrockstar of the week and our Lexia legend is Mollie. Book club this week was hosted by Josiah and Scarlett. They chose ‘Dogman and Cat Kid’ and ‘Dogman: Fetch 22’ both by Dav Pilkey.

It has been another tremendous week in Year 4!

During our Writing sessions, we constructed our shared writing plans and began the initial writing of our warning story. The children had some amazing ideas and all the teachers are really looking forward to reading their work. In Maths, we continued to explore place value by using a variety of manipulatives from place value counters to base ten. The children all worked really hard and showed great resilience when flexibly partitioning numbers.

In our Science learning in class we began an experiment looking at the effect different drinks have on our teeth. We put a boiled egg in a glass of milk, water, Diet Coke and coke to mimic the effect they have on our teeth. We made some observations about their colour on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. The plan is to observe them after the weekend, hopefully our classrooms don’t smell too bad!

In History, we started our new topic ‘The Roman Empire,’ which will take us all the way through till Christmas. We began the topic by splitting ourselves into different countries that were each given a selection of resources. We then set up a trading forum where we were able to barter in order to get different resources for our country. Once trading finished Mr Ash took on the role of the Roman Empire and told countries that they needed to give away resources to different countries and then to him. Although we all thought this was really unfair, it did demonstrate the power that big empires had over other countries. 

Our TTrockstar of the week is Zak and our Lexia legend is Mollie. Book club this week was hosted by Nyla and Arvin. They chose ‘Varjak Paw’ by S.F. Said and ‘A Collection of Ancient Myths’ by Geraldine McCaughrean.

Another fantastic week in 4A!

In our Reading sessions, we began our class novel ‘The Firework-maker’s Daughter’ by Phillip Pullman. The children have really enjoyed reading the story and they are itching to hear what happens next. During Writing, we learnt our new model text by acting it out. It is always so impressive to see the children internalise the stories with such ease. Next week, we will be starting our shared planning and writing to create our very own warning tales. 

In Maths, we have continued to develop our place value understanding by using manipulatives to make the learning really hands-on. We ended the week by recapping our Spanish about the four seasons. We then played a game that allowed us to practise our pronunciation of each season. 

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.