Happy New Year! Everyone in Year 4 hopes you all had a very merry Christmas and happy start to 2022.
There have been lots of wonderful tales from over the Christmas period and even some photographs of amazing creations! Thank you so much to Joseph who spent his holidays reflecting on the Nativity scene.
This week in Year 4 we have spent time exploring the story of the three wise men and their journey from the East, all the way to Bethlehem to visit Jesus. Father Frank and Miss Haggerty were particularly impressed with Year 4 when attending Mass for the Feast of the Epiphany on Thursday. The class answered lots of questions about the three wise men’s journey and their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. Father even asked if we had brought over our most sensible class to Church that day!
In English, we spent some time writing about the Epiphany story, retelling the narrative of the three kings using all the skills they have learnt so far in Year 4 such as using paragraphs, adjectives and similes!
In English, we also began our brand new Narrative Verses Topic. We have begun looking at an old favourite to help us in our understanding of Narrative Verses; The Owl and the Pussy Cat! We have used this poem to practise our expression when reading aloud, to identify adjectives and adverbs in a text and to guide us in understanding how a Narrative Verse tells a story.
We also looked at the context of The Owl and the Pussy Cat, written in 1871 by Edward Lear who loved making up nonsense words such as “runcible” and “piggy-wig”. Hopefully, Year 4 will be able to use the examples of the Narrative Verses they have read to eventually plan and write their very own!
In Maths, the class have spent time mastering multiplying and dividing by 10, 100 and 1000. We have used place value charts to help us understand our thousands, hundreds, tens and ones and the value of each depending on an amount. Year 4 have also worked very hard at understanding how a number may become greater than or less than depending on if it is multiplied or divided by 10, 100 or 1000. It is not adding or taking away a zero! Year 4 then utilised this skill of something being 10, 100 or 1000 times greater or less than in their multiplication and division. For example, we looked at number facts such as 12 divided by 4 equals 3 to then establish what 120 divided by three would be?
In Science, we started our brand new topic of Sound! We spent time learning about how sound is made from vibrations that travel through the air as sound waves. Year 4 then put on their investigating caps and had a lesson of exploration, making different sounds from different objects and comparing them in a school sound survey! We also witnessed how the sound from the banging of a drum can travel through the air to make rice dance on a piece of cling film.
In History, we began learning about the Viking invasion in England. Beginning in the late 8th century, the class ordered their own timelines to learn about an initial overview of the chronology of the Vikings and the Anglo-Saxons up until 1066 at the Battle of Hastings. We also learnt about how the Vikings were raiders and invaders who came from modern day Scandinavia (such as Norway, Sweden and Denmark) to pillage other nations.
In PE, we have been very lucky to keep our Friday sessions from Blackpool Football Club for another term! We have started a brand new topic on Gymnastics. Year 4 learnt more about how to properly warm up our bodies for exercise through different stretches and have spent this week focusing on different types of balances through working with a partner to mirror and counterbalance. Year 4 then performed the sequences they came up with in front of the class.
Congratulations to our Award Winners!
Golden Award - Rion.
Writing Award - Elsie.
Maths Award - Chase.
Just a reminder during these uncertain times to remain vigilant against the spread of COVID 19. Please keep testing regularly especially if there are signs of symptoms and keep up with the government guidance.
Thank you, from everyone in Year 4!
