Welcome to Quentin Blake Class - Year 4

Mrs Sewell & Mrs Todman

Canon Alf who is the priest at St Wulstan's is now overseeing St. Mary's parish due to Fr Michael being poorly. Canon Alf came in to introduced himself, find out what we've been learning about in RE and answered some questions the children had. We found out lots of interesting information about his vocation as a priest and impressed him with our knowledge.

In our lesson, we discussed what puberty is and how not only does our body change physically but it has an impact on our emotions. The children thought about times that teenagers maybe have conflict with their parents and role played how to resolve the conflict by compromising.

On Monday 22nd April, we celebrated Earth Day. We reflected on the focus being Planet V Plastics and what the damage plastic is doing to the world, but also how we need to help protect our world for future generations.

In our first lesson of the half term on Athletics, we concentrated on practicing the skill of throwing for distance and throwing for accuracy, as well as practicing how to run fast. We discussed each task's success criteria and what each activity needed to be successful doing it.

To begin our new Computing topic of work, we discussed what data is and how it is used in everyday life. The children then used a world map, the atlases and the ipads to research different temperatures of cities in a certain continent. We then worked together to input this data onto a spreadsheet and use the 'sort' option.

A lovely on the last day of the term before finishing for Easter. We had a lovely couple of hours at the Emmanuel Church to join them in retelling the story of Holy Week and concentrating on what happened on Good Friday and what it means for us. The children also made their own tomb representation out of biscuits.

Year 4 thoroughly enjoyed their reflective time in the hall to remember the sacrifice Jesus made for us on Good Friday. We went around the stations and to retell the story and reflect the pain and suffering Jesus must have experienced. Afterwards, the children had the opportunity to visit any stations they wished and engage with them.

To complete our Art topic on sculptures and 3D work, we looked at the memorial work of Sokari Douglas-Camp, created after the twin towers in 2001. The children created their own lettering for a work to describe their peers/ want they look for in a friend and then used themselves as an active part of their own sculptures.

Following one of the templates, we worked with wire, bending and twisting it to create the form of an object, using smaller pieces of wire to add features.

In preparation of creating a sculpture with wire, we first practiced with the wire to create shapes, to bend and twist.

During this half term, we have been in Lent. As a class, we gave up our dojo points and prize and worked together to collect jelly beans in a jar. The children had to earn jelly beans through their actions, after we changed the Jelly Bean prayer about Jesus to our work and actions in school.

To complete our Science topic, we completed two investigations in one day! One to test evaporation and see it for ourselves in the results and one to understand the water cycle, which involved creating a mini water world to grow our own cress.

We learnt about the work and life of Barbara Hepworth as a sculptor. The children learnt and used different tools to carve a softer material: soap to create a fish. The children had to work patiently and slowly.

On a piece of large sugar paper, the children used chalk to model drawing the pot from from the artist Magdalene Odundo. We watched a video and modelled how to play around with shapes, talking about what you can see and showing them that this drawing need not be ‘perfect’. The children used the two colours to create new lines on top of the shapes they have drawn. 

As part of our RE topic we have been learning about Holy Week. In our lesson, we learnt about why Jesus died on the cross and how this links with Eve's original sin. We shared how Jesus dying on the cross is a sad day but a happy day too. The children created their own posters to share around school about what happened and why it happened.

We have continuing our work on state of matter by exploring water in its three forms - solid, liquid and a gas. We did three different activities linked with being able to see melting, freezing and condensation.

As part of 'Changing States' science topic, we explored whether gas has weight, by weighing a can of fizzy pop, which we discussed is filled with Carbon Dioxide. We investigated that if the gas has chance to escape whether this would affect the weight of the can.

We are really enjoying our PE this half term on cheerleading. The children have been using the pompoms and practicing their lifts. We can't wait to display the full routine.

World Books Day 2024 - we have had a great day celebrating all things books! We started with our annual parade in the hall with Sonny being our winner of best costume as Cat in the Hat. We completed a World Book Day Quiz and watched a virtual lesson with Axel Scheffler.

On Thursday 7th March, we celebrated Science Day. Our day was very busy with a carousel of activities - rocket making, slime and lava lamp making in the morning, followed by completed an engineering task from the Engineering Fairy Tales book. We completed one of the task for the Three Billy Goats Gruff which was to build a bridge using specific resources given to them. The children worked in small groups to make their bridge and it had to be able to hold a goat at the end of the challenge.

On Tuesday 5th March, Year 4 parents/carers were invited into school to join us for a Lenten Workshop. We began our session with the children recapping what Lent is and why we celebrate it, the children then made their own prayer cross, thinking of things they can do during Lent - forgiving, offering a smile, tidying their room, sharing, don't waste food and more. We then discussed how we can gift someone an act of kindness and the children went away with a gift certificate to complete and pass onto someone. We finished our sessions with the 5 finger prayer.

Take a look at some the examples from four children in the class who wrote the beginning and build up to the story of 'The Dreamgiver', leaving the story on a cliffhanger. We mainly focused on including fronted adverbials/adverbs and adjective, thinking carefully about our choice of language, using resources like word wheels and thesauruses to help find alternative synonyms. 

The children are thoroughly enjoying cheerleading during their PE lesson this half term and have even begun lifts!

As we continue in the season of Lent, we have our Easter mystery Box going around the class each night to allow the children time to reflect on the meaning of Lent and by the sharing the Easter story we remember the life, death and resurrection of Jesus and, as a family, take time to stop and think about the true meaning of Easter.

During our second lesson of a topic on the Anglo-Saxons, we discussed the differences between settlements in the Iron Age and in the Anglo-Saxon period. We used different sources to identify the similarities and differences; then worked with a partner to make our own representation of how Anglo-Saxons used wattle and daub.

Some of our photographs so far, of the children participating and enjoying taking the Easter Mystery Box home during Lent.

In our first lesson, on our new RE topic of Jesus, the Saviour we studied specific stories from the bible to prove and decide whether the evidence was showing Jesus as truly human or truly God.

A lovely treat of a yoga session today where the children learnt poses and had a relaxation session too.

During English today, we used images from a fantasy story we are going to tell and had to predict the correct order and what the story may be about. Each group then shared their prediction. After, we watched a clip of the story to discover what happened.

Dominic and Thomas are our Year 4 Eco-Team representatives and they joined the rest of the Eco-Team to do some planting in our peace garden, getting it ready for spring.

A selection of pictures from Year 4 children who have been baking at home, following on from our work in class last half term, on adapting a recipe. Sonny has given up chocolate and sweets for Lent so made a healthy fruit salad instead - yummy!

This half term we have been studying stories that raise issues with the theme of the rainforests. To complete our work, we wrote a story in character from the story 'The Shaman's Apprentice'. Here is our classroom display and examples of the stories the children wrote.

To complete our DT project, we went into the hall and worked in our three groups to complete another biscuit, but this time, with our own ingredients added - we had blue food colouring, milk choc chips, white choc chips and cocoa powder. 

With this week being Mental Health Week with the theme of My Voice Matters, we have had a different focus as a class each day. In school, we use the acronym SCARF (Safety, Caring, Achievement, Resilience and Friendship) to teach children about positive mental health. We finished the week by holding a 'wear your scarf to school' day'!

On Thursday 8th February we had a Valentine's Disco, full of fun, dancing and laughs!

This half term we have been focusing on developing our vocabulary by using the resources in class. We have word wheels and thesauruses available every lesson for the children to access synonyms for their words, therefore they can improve their sentence and learn new vocabulary. 

On Tuesday 6th February, it was Safer Internet Day. Year 4 watched Newsround to listen to their new bulletin on being safe on the internet as they interviewed a social media expert. We then took part on a quiz to test out knowledge and learn about being safe. To finish, the children made their own Safer Internet poster to inform others of how to keep safe.

We learnt about what a parable is - a story Jesus shared to teach a lesson. The children then role played the story of the 'Unforgiving Servant' and reflected on why it is important to forgive.

As part of our topic we investigated different types of packaging used for biscuits, as well as discussing our target audience. The children got themselves into groups and have decided how they will adapt the recipe to make their own biscuit. They then prepared a design for their packaging using a 3D net.

In Year 4, we have a prayer wall that we use when we want to show a prayer we want to say to God. Each letter of STOP has a colour and stands for a type of prayer - sorry, thanksgiving, others or peace.

In our next lesson of our DT topic we followed and completed a basic biscuit recipe. We discussed the importance of good food hygiene and how to be safe in the kitchen too before following the method, step by step and everyone getting involved.

We read the rest of the book ‘The Shaman’s Apprentice’ together, discussing events and the meaning of new vocabulary, e.g. ‘missionaries’. We discussed the idea that the shaman’s knowledge was proved to be valuable in the end and explain that many of our own modern medicines are indeed plant-based and have been used by people in villages for centuries. 

We had pages from the book around the room and on the tables to discuss with a partner and used the book-talk starters to help discuss together.

In our next lesson of Ruby, we repeated our relay race and added in a swing pass to the next person in the line. We did it against each other, timed teams and swapped team players around as we concentrated on being encouraging. Next, we got into two games side by send with attackers and defenders, trying to score a try after passing the ball, using the swing pass to the end of the 'pitch'.

During our Prayer and Liturgy session, we concentrated on 'centering prayer' being in a still, relaxed and ready to feel God's presence. We listened to the scripture of Mark "Follow me" and reflected our our love for God and for others, but how this is demonstrated too.

We began our new DT topic 'adapting a recipe' by taste testing a range of biscuits and evaluating their taste, texture and appearance.

Well done to Yasmin! She was acknowledged by our headgirl as someone who had a very smart uniform.

As we continue our Invasive Games unit looking at Rugby the children had to apply their swing pass, making space and trying to score a 'try'. The children completed relay races to begin with, to be in and out of the cones, light on our feet and touching down for a 'try'. Next we worked on games 4v1 with attacking and defending, using the space and passes as practiced. 

Our first class mass of 2024 was lovely. A few children brought in some money, to donate to church, to light a candle, for someone in their lives.

A great time enjoying the snow today (16.1.24) before school started this morning!

We learnt what rock and roll music is and where it originates from. We listened to the audio track: ‘Rock around the Clock’ by Bill Haley and his Comets and ‘Oh Boy!’ by Buddy Holly. We linked the fact that dancing is an important part of Rock and Roll as it is a key part of understanding the beat of the music. The children had a go at a very simple dance to a piece of rock and roll music - 'Born to hand Jive'.

In our first PE session, we concentrated on holding the ball correctly and knowing how to score a try, practicing the swing pass and knowing how to receive the ball.

Today (11.1.24) was our first computing lesson of this half term and we have begun with coding using a program called 'Logo' on Purple Mash. The aim of the lesson was to:

• To learn the structure of the language of 2Logo.

• To input simple instructions in 2Logo

In small groups, children chose one of the talking animals each. They practiced reading carefully what it says and tried to learn the lines by heart. They then chose a child to be the logger, who acts out cutting at the tree and then falling asleep. Each of the children then take turns to come and issue their messages to the sleeping man, thinking about their pitch, volume and tone.

Here are a sample of our well-thought-out and organised science investigation plans. The children planned it out reflecting on their knowledge to make a prediction and then to organise it so it was fair, with the right equipment and so we all knew the steps we would be taking (our method). The children thoroughly enjoyed being hands on with the circuits components and discussing their findings.

We have spent out first couple of days of the new half term completing our Science topic on Electricity. The children have learnt about how to create circuits, use a switch in a circuit, solve problems with circuits, as well as plan and carry out an investigation to test whether certain materials are conductors or insulators.

Autumn Term with Miss Wade

'Every Child is an Artist'