Week 1 at home ...

I hope you are all well.  Each Monday I will write a blog with the tasks set for the week.  These will be on Sumdog and Education city and will be due in on the Friday of that week.  However, currently Education city is not working so as soon as I have set the work I will text all parents to let you know. 

Myself and Miss Heim-Sarac will be trialling setting work through Class Dojo.  This will mainly be reading and writing tasks.  A text will come to you shortly if your email address is not registered with school as this is how we will be contacting you about this.

I have also attached a Learning Project document with additional ideas.

Learning Project Week 1

In the meantime, please continue to read and access the home learning packs.  The recommendation is that children should be doing school work for two hours per day. 

We have also set up a year group email so that I can be contacted to answer any questions.  These emails will only be answered in school hours.  The email address is;

year4@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk

Have a nice week, stay safe and let the children know that I am missing them!

Mrs Cunningham-Kay

Home learning

In light of the current situation regarding school closure, we have sent home learning packs to support home study. Below is a list of additional useful resources/websites to further enhance their learning. Our blogs will be updated in due course with additional information and support. Under the difficult circumstances of this week’s announcements, we have been very proud of how the children have shown resilience and maturity.

Thank you for your continued support,

KS2 team

Home learning activities

Read

Read as much as you can at home-there’s nothing better than getting engrossed in a good book!

Write

In your home pack you have been given a yellow notebook. The children could keep a diary of the things they do at home or encourage them to write short stories.

Websites we already use and your child has a login for:

Discovery Education : Espresso 

We have a whole school subscription for Espresso which is part of Discovery Education. There are loads of resources and games that you can access that link to the National Curriculum.

https://www.discoveryeducation.co.uk/login/eha/?service=espresso

Username and password has been sent home in the pack.

Sumdog 

https://www.sumdog.com

Free access has been granted for all resources on Sumdog during school closures. Use your own sumdog login username and password provided in your learning pack.

TTRockstars

Keep practising your times tables by logging onto this website using individual username and password that has been sent home.

https://ttrockstars.com

Other websites that are offering home learning resources are:

 Education City

Children will be coming home today with usernames and passwords for Education City. This is a new website for the children with access to English, Maths, Science and Computing resources.

https://www.educationcity.com

Classroom secrets home learning:

The pack we have sent home, comes from this website but they have many more resources on offer for children to use:

https://classroomsecrets.co.uk/free-home-learning-packs/

Twinkl  

Twinkl is also a resource that we use in school and has many resources that can be used at home. 

https://www.twinkl.co.uk/search?term=school+closure

Oxford Owl

Maths and English resources

https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/school-closure-resources/?region=uk

Third Space

Please see letter regarding access to Third Space maths.

Physical Exercise Links

Young Champions has been created by sports coaches, movement specialists and sports scientists to provide young children with home practice sessions to develop fitness, motor and sports skills. It will help children of all ages and abilities to play sport to the best of their ability and keep them active and healthy. Parents can sign up here:

https://www.amaven.co.uk/young-champions

An alternative one is The Body coach TV 9am Monday to Friday with Joe Wickes.

Another busy week in Year 4

The children have been working extremely hard this week especially on their timetables. I have been very impressed with their scores! Well done Year 4!

Maths - This week we have been focusing on subtraction. We have been using mental, counting up and written methods to solve our calculations.

English - We have began to look at the story of Rumpelstiltskin, which we are going to base our own playscript on. We analysed the story, examining the thoughts, feelings and motives of the characters. We have also began to build our own character of the King.

RE - We have been reflecting on the story of Palm Sunday. We listened to the story and gave reasons for the behaviours of the people of Jerusalem. We then looked at how the story impacts us now.

Science - This week we have been creating circuits. The children were given all the equipment and in small groups they made their lightbulb light up. We then discussed why the bulb lit up using our scientific vocabulary.

Geography - We have been focusing on the Amazon rainforest this week. We looked at the different layers of the rainforest then explored how the rainforest feeds us.

Award Winners

Maths Award - This week the Maths Award went to Laciee. Laciee has been working extremely hard in all maths lessons and has been using her growth mindset to solve challenges. Well done Laciee!

Star Writer - The Star Writer Award went to Mia. Mia wrote a beautiful reflection on the events of Palm Sunday and how it affects our behaviour now. Well done Mia!

Golden Award - My Golden Award this week went to Evie. Evie has blown me away with her hard work and effort that she has put into every piece of work. She is constantly going above and beyond what is expected of her! Well done Evie!

Homework

4-digit subtraction sheet

Homophones worksheet

Spellings

Timestable Rockstars

Have a lovely weekend!

Mrs Cunningham-Kay

'The more that you read, the more things you will know, the more that you learn, the more places you'll go' - Dr Seuss

What a fantastic week we have had! We have been doing lots of drama, Father visited us and we also dressed up and shared our favourite stories for World Book Day. The children have blown me away this week with their times table knowledge and results from their Star Reading tests. I can see real progress! Well done Year 4! Keep working hard, I am incredibly proud of each and every one of you!

English - This week we have been continuing with our playscripts theme. We have been doing lots of drama to gain more of an understanding of the thoughts and motives of characters.

Maths - We have been working hard on our methods of addition and subtraction. We have looked at both mental and written methods then we chose the appropriate method for our calculations.

RE - Father came to visit us this week to discuss how our responses in Mass links to our beliefs. We analysed three parts of the Mass and looked at both Father’s words and our responses.

Science - This week we have been looking at the dangers of electricity. We played a game on the interactive whiteboard where we needed to find all the dangers inside a house. We then created information posters.

Geography - We have been investigating what life is like in the Favela of Rochina in Rio. We found out information about how the families made their money and survived. We also discovered how the children contributed to their families income.

Notice

If you haven’t already done so, please can I ask parents to send in the reply slips for your children’s reports. Thankyou.

Awards
 Maths Award - This week my Maths Award went to Olivia. Olivia is always using her growth mindset to continue to put in an incredible amount of effort and hard work in every lesson. Well done Olivia!

Star Writer - The Star Writer award went to Grace.  Grace produced a beautifully detailed account of what life is like in Brazil.  It was a joy to read.  Well done Grace!

Golden Award - My Golden Award this week went to Nathaniel.  Nathaniel is working extremely hard at the moment and has really impressed me with the incredible work he has produced.  Well done Nathaniel!

Homework

English - I have sent home a comprehension based on a playscript.

Maths - I have sent home some addition and subtraction questions.

Spellings - The children have decided what spellings they would like to learn this week ready for our test on the 13th.

1 game on Times Table Rockstars.

Have a lovely weekend

Mrs Cunningham-Kay

'Love one another, as I have loved you' (John 13:34-35)

We have had a lovely first week back. On Wednesday, we went to Church for Ash Wednesday. The children’s behaviour and responses to Father were incredible. Well done Year 4.

We have been very busy starting our new topics in our subject areas.

Maths - This week we have been focusing on one-place decimals. We have been placing decimals on number lines and calculating what we need to add to it to get to the next whole number. We have also been comparing decimals using our greater than and less than signs.

English - We have started our new theme of playscripts. We have been analysing the Vietnamese folk tale ‘The Fly and the Fool’. We made predictions of what could happen then created a story map to highlight the main events.

RE - We have been investigating our belief that Jesus is truly human and truly God. We discussed our thoughts then used Bible stories to show examples of both. On Tuesday we wrote our Lenten promises and linked them back to scripture.

Science - We have started our new topic of Electricity. We began by defining what electricity was and how it is made then, decided what resources in our classroom runs on electricity and what does not.

Geography - We have started looked at Brazil. We found what continent it was on then located it on a map. We then gathered information and created a fact file.

Notice

The children will be taking part in the ‘gulp challenge 2020’. Blackpool FC Community Trust along with Blackpool Council will be encouraging children across Blackpool to ‘Give Up Loving Pop’ and to think of drinking healthier alternatives instead such as water or low-fat milk.

The challenge is for each child to complete 21 days of pop free living, starting on Monday 2nd March, and marking it off in their drink diary. After the 21 days parents will need to sign the diary and children need to bring their diary back to school so I can calculate how many days all children in the class has been ‘pop free’.
The Year 4 class with the highest number of combined ‘pop free’ days in Blackpool will receive a complementary trip to Blackpool High Ropes at Stanley Park.

Awards

Star Writer - The Star Writer award went to Isabelle this week. Isabelle’s handwriting is incredible! The effort she puts into making sure every piece of work is presented beautifully blows me away. Well done Isabelle!

Golden Award - My Golden Award went to Cianna. Cianna has such a positive attitude to learning and the hard work and effort she puts into every piece of work is incredible. Well done Cianna!

Homework

Maths - I have sent home a sheet on decimals for the children to complete.

English - Pages 86 and 87 (Word endings gue and que)

Spellings

Times table rockstars

Have a lovely weekend

Mrs Cunningham-Kay

Halfway through Year 4 already!

I cannot believe we are now halfway through Year 4! It has gone so fast and the children have worked so hard!

What an incredible week we have had.  On Wednesday we went on out trip to Old Holly Farm.  We learnt about how the cows are milked and where the milk then goes, we made butter and tasted ice-cream and then we learnt about the younger animals the farm had. The children were brilliant, and their behaviour was incredible.  Well done Year 4 I am extremely proud of you all!

Even though we have been busy we have done some fantastic learning.

Maths – We have been learning about money and calculating what change we would receive from £10, £20. £50 and £100.  We have also done our Maths assessments.

English – This week we have been planning and have now written our own persuasive letter.  We wrote this letter based on our theme of ‘For the Birds’ where we wrote to the smaller birds to persuade them to stop bullying the big bird.

RE – We have been looking at the Parable of the Two Builders.  We explored what Jesus’ was teaching us and
how he wants us to live our lives.

Science – We have been investigating how pitch can change.  We conducted an experiment where we used different resources such as triangles, a glass, drum and a xylophone and carefully explored how we can
change the pitch.

Geography – This week we have learnt about the future of our food.  We investigated Genetically Modified food and the advantages and disadvantages of them. We then created an information poster explaining all about them.
Notices

We return on school on Monday 24th February at 8:45am.

Award Winners

Maths Award – This week the Maths Award was given to Lila for her excellent work on factors and her brilliant explanations of maths concepts.  Well done Lila!

Star Writer - The Star Writer Award went to Sam.  Sam is really working hard on his writing and making sure he is including the correct punctuation.  Well done Sam!

Golden Award - My Golden Award this week went to Molly.  Molly has such a positive attitude to her learning.  She is always working hard and trying her best.  Well done Molly!

Homework

The only homework I am setting for this half term is Times Table Rockstars.

Have a lovely break!

Mrs Cunningham-Kay

Another week in Year 4

We have had another fun-filled week in Year 4! We have done lots of exciting learning.

Maths – This week we have been focusing on multiplication and division.  The children have been dividing numbers beyond their known times table facts and have been identifying factor pairs of numbers.

 English – We have moved onto our new theme of persuasive texts.  We watched a video clip called ‘For the birds’ where a group of birds are not very kind to another bird.  In the video there is no dialogue, so the children worked in groups to create their own dialogue and presented it through drama.

 RE – This week we have looked at how Jesus taught through parables.  We read the Parable of the Sower and identified that the seeds were the Word of God.  We then explored the meaning behind the parable and how we can learn from it.   

 Science – This week we have been making links between volume and vibrations.  A large drum was brought into the classroom which had rice on it which represented vibrations.  The children watched as the drum was hit softly creating a low volume therefore the vibrations were weak.  The children then watched as the drum was hit hard causing a high volume and strong vibrations.

 Geography – We have been exploring whether there is enough food in the world.  We heard two stories about children called Mukta and John who both did not have enough to eat due to environmental circumstances.

 Trip notices

•  For our trip on Wednesday, Old Holly Farm has said that the children need to be wearing wellies.  If any children do not have wellies, then the farm has said they have some spare which we can borrow.  Children will need to bring a spare pair of shoes that they can change into on the way back from the farm.

• Children must be in their full PE uniform.

 Award Winners

On Monday we gave out our awards for last week. 

Star Writer award (W/C 27/1/20) went to Brodie.  Brodie has really impressed me with the thought and detail she has put into her writing and has created a wonderful letter.  Well done Brodie!

Golden Award (W/C 27/1/20) was awarded to Jack.  Jack has such a positive attitude to learning and has been working super hard.  He is also such a kind and considerate friend.  Well done Jack!

Awards (W/C 3/2/20)

Maths Award – My Maths award this week went to Onalee.  Onalee’s confidence and belief in herself when it comes to her Maths work has improved greatly.  Her positive attitude has blown me away.  Well done Onalee!

Star Writer – Our Star Writer award went to Molly.  Molly wrote a beautiful explanation describing the link between volume and vibrations using brilliant scientific vocabulary.  Well done Molly!

Golden Award – The Golden Award went to Mia.  Mia’s confidence and belief in herself has blown me away.  She constantly tries her best, has her hand up and even taught the class how to solve a division problem! Well done Mia!

Homework

Maths – I have sent home a sheet on Factors.

English – I have sent home a ‘Super Speech’ sheet for the children to complete.

Spellings for quiz on 14/2/20

Times tables – I will be doing a random test on all times tables on 14/2/20

Have a lovely weekend

Mrs Cunningham-Kay

What another busy week we have had.  On Monday we had the cricket coaches, Danny and Dan, come in to teach us how to play cricket.  The children were incredible! Their behaviour and teamwork were outstanding.  Well done Year 4 you made me very proud!

Maths – This week we have been looking at 2D shapes.  We have been identifying right angle, acute and obtuse angles.  We have also been recognising parallel and perpendicular lines and used all this knowledge to describe the properties of shapes.

English – In English we have been analysing explanation texts.  We looked at the features of an explanation text and based our writing around our own made up school.  The children then wrote a letter of application explaining why they should be given a place at their chosen school. 

 RE – This week we have been looking at how Jesus showed us how to live and how we can change our behaviour because of this.  We looked at images of sick people, the homeless and refugees and came up with ideas of how we can help them.  We then linked our ideas to scripture.

Science – We had a super practical lesson exploring how sound travels.  We made string telephones and discovered that we could only hear when the string was straight and tight.  We then wrote a paragraph explaining how sound travelled.

Geography – We have been investigating food from around the world.  We looked at lots of different countries and their popular foods.  We then identified those countries on a world map and wrote the different foods from that country.

Notices

• On the 13th February the PTA are holding a ‘silly sock day’ in aid to raise some money for our school library.  The children are to wear their normal school uniform but with the addition of some silly socks and a £1 donation.

• PE is back to normal next week.  Our indoor session is on Tuesday and our outdoor session is on Wednesday.

• The children have been given the opportunity to design the front cover of the programme for the Taming of the Shrew.  They need to draw and colour their picture onto an A4 sheet of paper (portrait) and bring it in by Monday 3rd February.  The picture could be of Padua, where the story is set, or a picture of the characters from the play.  There should be no text at all.  Thankyou.

Award Winners

Maths Award – This week the Maths Award went to Nevaeh.  Nevaeh has blown me away this week with her hard work and effort during our fractions lessons.  Well done Nevaeh!

No Golden Award or Star Writer Award this week due to us having Mass on Friday.

Homework

Maths – I have sent home a times table sheet for the children to complete.

English – I have sent home a sent on possessive pronouns for the children to complete.

Spellings for quiz on 7/2/20

Times tables - 12 times tables for quiz on 7/2/20

Have a lovely weekend

Mrs Cunningham-Kay

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and with all your strength and with all your mind. Love your neighbour as yourself. (Luke 10:27)

We have had a lovely week and have been working extremely hard.  We have been focusing on what Jesus taught us and how we can be good disciples of Christ.

We have also changed our learning partners this week.  The children have been brilliant and have adapted really well to their new partners.

Maths – This week we have been looking at fractions.  We have been exploring fractions of amounts by dividing by the denominator and multiplying by the numerator.  We have also been finding equivalent fractions and simplifying them.

English – In English we have planned and written our own version of the Bogeymen and the Trolls next door.  We used the text to come up with our own ‘spin-off’ story where the Trolls and the Bogeys faced another problem. 

RE – This week we have been looking at Jesus’ teachings. We looked at Jesus’ quotes from the Bible and explained what Jesus meant by them.  We then came up with ideas of how we can use Jesus’ teachings to change our behaviour.

Science – We undertook an ‘Hearing enhancer experiment’.  The children created a small and large cone out of paper and their partner spoke to them through it.  The children then decided which hearing enhancer made their hearing better. 

Geography – We have been investigating Food miles this week.  We looked at different foods and calculated the miles they have travelled to end up on our plate.  We then explored the positives and negatives of importing food.

Notices

On Monday afternoon we are having a cricket coach coming in to teach the children how to play cricket.  With this being said, we will have PE on Monday and Tuesday next week rather than Tuesday and Wednesday.

Some of the children forgot their instruments this week.  Please could all parents make sure their child has their instrument in school on Thursday for their clarinet or flute lesson.  Thankyou

I spoke to the children earlier in the week to remind them about the presentation and standard of homework being sent in. I appreciate that the children are busy at the weekends but some work has been hard to read. Please can you ensure that the children are completing their homework neatly. Thankyou

Award Winners

Maths Award – This week the Maths Award went to Elliot.  Elliot is a brilliant mathematician and works extremely hard in each lesson.  This week Elliot has blown me away with his explanations of different concepts.  Well done Elliot!

Star Writer – This week the Star Writer award went to Nathaniel.  Nathaniel has blown me away this week with the hard work and effort he has put into his writing.  The story he wrote was incredible and had not one but two problems in it leaving the reader on a cliff-hanger.  Well done Nathaniel!

Golden Award – The Golden Award went to Hallie.  I have noticed, especially over the last couple of weeks, how kind and considerate Hallie has been towards others.  She has praised other children’s successes and supported them when needed.  Well done Hallie!  

Homework

Maths – I have sent home a fraction of amounts sheet this week.

English – page 65 and 66 questions 4, 5 and 6.

Spellings for quiz on 31/01/20

Times tables - 9 times tables for quiz on 31/01/20

Have a lovely weekend

Mrs Cunningham-Kay

Another week in Year 4.

What a busy and exciting week we have had.  We have been working extremely hard on learning our times tables and have had a few ‘times table challenges’ in class.  The children’s times table knowledge is incredible all the hard work is really paying off.  Well done Year 4!

On Wednesday Dan Worsley came in to do a writing workshop with the children.  We explored a piece of text he had written about an alien and collected a few ideas for our own writing.  We then looked at the vocabulary we can use to show people how we were terrified when the alien appeared.

 Maths – This week we have been looking at subtracting 3-digit and 2-digit numbers from 3-digit numbers.  We have also been exploring how we can multiply 3-digit numbers by 1-digit numbers.   

English – We have continued looking at the story of ‘The Bogeymen and the Troll next door’.  We looked at how it was written in first person and what evidence we had to support this.  We also looked at how the story would change if it was written from a different point of view.

 RE – We have been exploring the story Simeon and the presentation of Jesus at the temple.  We looked at Simeon’s behaviour and gave reasons for his actions. 

 Science – This week we have continued with our ‘Sound’ topic and have been investigating how humans hear.  We then looked at how animals hear and gave reasons for why some animals can hear better than humans.   

 Geography – In Geography this week we have looked at seasonality and the benefits and limitations of this.  We also explored how some food come from field to fork. 

Notice

On Wednesday I sent out a letter regarding our trip to Old Holly Farm if you have any questions or queries please do not hesitate to contact me.  Thankyou

Award Winners

Maths Award – This week the Maths Award went to Mia.  Mia’s confidence in Maths have increased greatly.  She always has her hand up ready to answer questions and her explanations are incredible.  Well done Mia!

Star Writer – This week the Star Writer award went to Sienna.  Sienna wrote a beautiful two paragraphs based on the work we had done earlier in the week with Dan Worsley.  The vocabulary she used was incredible showing she was scared rather than telling the reader that she was scared.  Well done Sienna!

Golden Award – The Golden Award went to Isabella.  She is such a positive role model not only for Year 4 but for the entire school.  She is hardworking, kind and considerate all the time.  Well done Isabella!

Homework

 Maths – I have sent home a column subtraction word problem sheet this week.

 English – Page 64 (Paragraphs) Questions 1,2, and 3.

Spellings for quiz on 24/01/20

Times tables - 8 times tables for quiz on 24/01/20

Have a lovely weekend

Mrs Cunningham-Kay

Happy New Year!

What an incredible start to the year we have had. The children have returned from the holidays engaged and eager to learn.  I have been very impressed!

 Maths – This week we have been focusing on 4-digit numbers.  We have been rounding to the nearest 10, 100 and 1000 and been counting in multiples of 100s and 1000s.  We have also been adding and subtracting 10 and 100 from 4-digit numbers.  Some of the children became ‘teachers’ and explained to the rest of the class how to solve their calculations.

 English – We have started our new topic in English which is about a story called ‘The Bogeymen and the Troll next door’.  We explored the summary of the text and created a mind map of what information we knew.  We then read the full version of the story and identified the different features it had.

 RE – We have begun our new theme of ‘Jesus, the Teacher’.  We have been learning about how Jesus was born a Jew and have investigated the different symbols of Judaism.  We then compared the Jewish religious symbols to the symbols of Christianity.

Science – We have started our new topic on Sound.  We had a discussion about what sound was and went on a ‘Sound Hunt’ around school.  We tried to find different sounds and then identified what part vibrated to make the sound. 

Geography – We have looked at our new topic ‘Food for thought’.  We explored how food has changed over time and created a timeline of the most popular foods. 

Notice

From Friday 28th February – Sunday 1st March 2020, Evie will be performing in a fantastic show for all the family.  ‘The World At Your Feet 2020’ is a production that celebrates the best of song and dance including Riverdance, Tap, Ballet, Jazz, Contemporary and Musical Theatre by the elite students from Blackpool’s Whittaker Dance and Drama Centre (est 1952).  Tickets can be bought from The Grand Theatre Box Office either in person, over the telephone (01253 290190) or online at www.blackpoolgrand.co.uk.

Award Winners

Maths Award – There was no Maths award.

 Star Writer – This week the Star Writing Award went to Georgina.  The vocabulary Georgina used when describing the thoughts and feelings of the characters in our Guided Reading sessions have been fantastic.  Well done Georgina.

Golden Award – The Golden Award was given to Jacob.  Jacob has blown me away with this positive attitude to learning.  His hard work and effort in every piece of work is incredible.  Also, his eagerness to do well and achieve is outstanding! Well done Jacob!

Homework

Maths – page 9 (1000 more or less)

English – pages 14 and 15 (Clauses)

Spellings for quiz on 17/01/20

Times tables - 7 times tables for quiz on 17/01/20

Have a lovely weekend

Mrs Cunningham-Kay

Time flies when you're having fun!

WOW! I cannot believe we have come to the end of our first term together in Year4!  I am absolutely loving every minute with the children their personalities and little characters are really coming out. 

We have had a lovely, creative week together.  On Tuesday we explored the story of ‘The Santa Trap’.  We read about a child named Bradley who was mean, horrible little boy so Santa left him a present of socks.  He decided that because of this he would trap Santa and steal all the presents.  The children then created their own scene and characters.  They then made their own ‘Santa Trap’. 

We watched the dress rehearsal of Year 1 and 2’s Nativity.  We also had a special Christmas assembly with Dan Worsley where he acted out and told us some of his new stories.

On Wednesday we had the Key Stage 2 Carol Concert.  The children’s singing was incredible, and they made me incredibly proud. 

 Although we have been busy, we have been doing some fantastic learning.

 Maths – This week we have been consolidating our learning from this half term by doing Christmas code breakers.  We also had our Maths assessment.

English – With the children creating their own scene and Santa Trap the children wrote their own version of the story changing it to include their own Santa trap.  These pieces of writing were incredible!

RE – In RE we have been looking at Mary and Joseph and giving reasons why they said YES to God.  We then recapped the other Bible stories we have been looking at over the term and made links between them.  The children then explained how they can change their actions based on their understanding of the lessons from the stories. 

Important notice

School reopens on Monday 6th of January.

Award Winners

Maths Award – This week my Maths award was given to Jensen.  Jensen is a brilliant Mathematician and words really hard in all lessons. Well done Jensen!

Star Writer – I gave my writing award to all of Year 4.  I couldn’t choose just one person as all of the children’s writing around our ‘Santa Trap’ theme were incredible! Well done Year 4!

Golden Award – My Golden Award this week went to Elliot.  The hard work and effort Elliot puts into every piece of work is incredible.  He constantly tries his best and always challenges himself to do more.  Well done Elliot!

Homework

I am not setting any homework over the holidays. 

Have a wonderful Christmas and I will see you all next year!

Mrs Cunningham-Kay

Another week in Year 4

What a week we have had in Year 4! The children have been doing lots of writing in different subjects and have blown me away with the pieces they have written. They have included everything we have learnt so far including fronted adverbials, expanded noun phrases and pronouns. They were all a joy to read. Well done Year 4!

Maths – This week we have been focusing on volume and mass. We looked at how we can convert grams into kilograms and millilitres into litres. We also presented our findings in the form of a bar chart.

English – In English we have been concentrating on our theme of ‘Kevin the Carrot’. The children wrote a detailed story about what had happened in the video clip and included fronted adverbials, pronouns and dialogue.

Science – This week we created a local habitat survey. We looked at our surrounding area and noted the impact some changes have on our environment and also what we could do to help.

History – This week we have been exploring the Bayeaux Tapestry. We found out that it was 70 metres long and isn’t a tapestry but is a piece of needlework.

RE – In RE this week we have been looking at the Annunciation. We watched a video clip of when the Angel Gabriel visited Mary. We then discussed why God chose her and how she trusted in God so much she agreed to become his mother.

Important notices

We are holding our Carol Concert at 2:30pm on Wednesday (18th) at church we would love to see you there!

There is no wider opportunities (clarinet) on Thursday (19th).

We are collecting tokens as part of ‘The Sun’ newspaper Books for School campaign. If we collect 3500 tokens we will be sent £600 worth of books. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thankyou.

Please can I ask all parents to make sure that they sign their child’s reading record as it is the only record we have of you child reading at home.

Award Winners

Maths Award – The Maths Award this week went to Hallie. Hallie has blown me away this week with her hard work and resilience during all our Maths lessons! Well done Hallie!

We had no Star Writer or Golden Award this week as we watched the Reception Nativity.

Homework

Maths – 3 games on Times Table Rockstars.

Reading

With it being our last week of term next week I will not be quizzing the children on their spellings or times tables.

Have a lovely weekend!

Mrs Cunningham-Kay

‘When you are kind to others, it not only changes you, it changes the world’

As a class this week we have been looking at how we can be kind to each other.  Each group were given a scenario where the children were unkind.  The children acted out the scene and we discussed the unkind action that had taken place.  We then gave the children who performed the scenario ‘advice’ on what their characters should do in that situation.  The acting skills of all children and the advice they gave blew me away!  Well done Year 4!

Maths – This week we have been focusing on multiplication and division.  We have been looking at what happens to the digits when we multiply numbers by 10 or 100.  We have also been looking at the column method of division which leave a remainder.

English – In English we have been really working hard on our descriptions.  We have focused our writing on ‘Kevin the Carrot’ (2018) Christmas advert where Kevin’s family is locked away inside a castle by the Wicked Parsnip.  The children wrote their own description of the castle and the indoor setting.

Science – We have been exploring classification keys this week and created our own about woodland creatures.

History – This week we have completed our newspaper report on the Battle of Hastings.  I was extremely impressed with the detail and effort all the children put into their work!

RE – In RE this week we have been looking at the time of Advent and how we can serve others.  We then created our ‘advent promises’ where we wrote a promise of how we can serve others at home and at school.

Important notice

We are collecting tokens as part of ‘The Sun’ newspaper Books for School campaign.  If we collect 3500 tokens we will be sent £600 worth of books.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.  Thankyou.

Please can I ask all parents to make sure that they sign their child’s reading record as it is the only record we have of you child reading at home.

Award Winners

Maths Award – The Maths Award this week went to Jack.  Jack’s hard work and effort in Maths has blown me away this week.  He has been even choosing his own challenges! Well done Jack!

Star Writer – We had two writing awards this week.  The writing award for last week went to Theo.  Theo’s recount of a lion coming into a school playground was incredible.  Well done Theo!

My writing award for this week went to Nevaeh for the accuracy and detail she had put into her newspaper report on ‘The Battle of Hastings’.  Well done Nevaeh!

Golden Award – The Golden Award this week was awarded to Kayden.  Kayden has blown me away this week with how focused and eager he is to learn.  His hard work and effort has really paid off this week as he has produced some incredible pieces of work.  Well done Kayden!

Homework

Maths – page 6 (Counting in multiples)

English – page 8 and 9 (Pronouns)

Spellings - recap of spellings the children have been learning so far.  (Quiz of 15 randomly chosen spellings on 13/12/19)

Times Tables – recap of all times tables (Quiz of 20 randomly chosen times tables on 13/12/19)

The children need to be going on TT Rockstars at least once over the weekend please.  If anyone has any problems logging in please let me know.

Have a lovely weekend

Mrs Cunningham-Kay

This week in Year 4

We have had another busy week in Year 4.  We have been working really hard on our column subtraction in Maths and recounts in English.  We have also been delving a little deeper into our text ‘The Butterfly Lion’ which we are focusing on in Guided Reading.  We have been using both inference and retrieval skills to understand the characters and plot a bit better.

Maths – This week we have been focusing on column method for subtraction.  We have also started to look at 3 digits by 1 digit multiplication.

English – We have been looking at recounts and how they can be presented in different ways.  We compared 2 recounts and wrote our own about a lion entering the school playground.

Science – In Science we have been using our notes from our Invertebrate hunt to classify the invertebrate we found.  We identified the different features of our invertebrate and wrote the habitat where it was found.  

History – This week we have been looking at the Battle of Hastings and have begun to write our own newspaper report on it.

RE – We have been looking at the questions we wrote last week and have compared the answers our peers have to our own.

Important notice

We are collecting tokens as part of ‘The Sun’ newspaper Books for School campaign.  If we collect 3500 tokens we will be sent £600 worth of books.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.  Thankyou.

Please can I ask all parents to make sure that they sign their child’s reading record as it is the only record we have of you child reading at home.

Award Winners

Maths Award – The Maths Award this week went to Sam.  Sam has blown me away with his work on rounding numbers to the nearest 10 and 100.  Well done Sam!

Star Writer – No Star Writing award this week.

Golden Award – The Golden Award this week was awarded to Isabelle.  Isabelle has blown me away this week with her hard work and effort in every piece of work.  Well done Isabelle!

Homework

Maths –page 25 (Written multiplication)

English – page 20 and 21 (Adverbial phrases as introductions)

Spellings (Quiz 6/12/19)

Recap of the 4 times tables (Quiz on 6/12/19)

The children need to be going on TT Rockstars at least once over the weekend please.  If anyone has any problems logging in please let me know.

Have a lovely weekend

Mrs Cunningham-Kay

Science is magic that works!

The children have had another busy week of learning.  They have worked so hard practising their spellings and times tables at any opportunity they have had, and it has really shown in their scores.  

I have also been extremely impressed with all the children who have been doing extra work.  Lots of children have asked me to set them extra challenges and have been doing work at home.  Well done Year 4! 

On Friday afternoon we had an afternoon focusing on ‘What information can we share on the internet?’  We watched a video about 2 children called ‘Lee and Kim’ who were about give strangers their personal information.  Luckily ‘Superhero Sid’ stopped them and gave them important tips about sharing information online.  We looked at different scenarios and decided whether we should tell the person the information or not.  We then created internet safety posters,

Maths – This week we have been focusing on addition.  We have been looking at how we need to ‘carry’ a ten over or a hundred when we are calculating 4-digit additions.  We have also been rounding numbers to the nearest 10, 100 or 1000.

English – We have been looking at how we can change the theme of poems by swopping words.  We have also created our own stanza for the poem ‘At the end of the school day’.

Science – In Science we have been exploring our outdoor area.  The children went on a ‘bug hunt’ to search for invertebrates.  They explored the school grounds and with magnifying glasses they looked for bugs.  They then wrote the characteristics of the insects and created their own fact file about a bug they had chosen.

History – This week we have been looking at Viking longships.  We looked at the different parts of the boats and why they were built that way.  The children then pretended that they were going to ‘sell’ a Viking longship and created a leaflet describing all the features their ship had.

RE – We have been thinking about questions that we have about God.  We wrote our questions down then went around the classroom and asked two children to answer our questions for us.

Important notice

We are collecting tokens as part of ‘The Sun’ newspaper Books for School campaign.  If we collect 3500 tokens we will be sent £600 worth of books.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.  Thankyou.

Award Winners

Maths Award – The Maths Award this week went to Olivia.  Olivia has blown me away with how hard she is working when learning her times tables.  Well done Olivia.

Star Writer – This week our Star Writer award went to Eliza.  Eliza has blown me away this week with her poem.  She included all the success criteria and created a fantastic poem.  Well done Eliza.

Golden Award – The Golden Award this week was awarded to Laciee.  Laciee is such a kind and considerate member of our Year 4 class.  She is always helping others and myself and is an absolute super star.  Well done Laciee!

Homework

Maths –page 12 and 13 (Rounding)

English – page 18 and 19 (Adverbial phrases)

Spellings (Quiz 29/11/19)

Recap of the 6 times tables (Quiz on 29/11/19)

The children need to be going on TT Rockstars at least once over the weekend please.  I have given all the children new log in details.  If anyone has any problems logging in please let me know.

Have a lovely weekend

Mrs Cunningham

Another exciting week in Year 4

This week all the children have made me incredibly proud! They have all been working so hard and other teachers have commented on how focused and hard working they are.

We had our class mass on Wednesday.  The children took part in the mass by reading the gospel and psalm beautifully!  The children’s behaviour was absolutely incredible and their responses to Father were loud and clear.  Miss Haggerty, Father Jim and other parishioners commented to me about how amazing all the children were.  Well done Year 4 I am so proud of each and every one of you!   

Maths – This week we have been focusing on fractions.  We have been simplifying fractions, counting on in fractions and finding the decimal equivalent for fractions. 

English – We have been exploring the similarities and differences of two poems.  We have also been identifying and using adverbs.

Science – In Science we have been looking at invertebrates and the different characteristics they have.

History – This week we have been looking at Viking warriors.  We explored what armour and weapons they used and their beliefs.  We then created our own Viking shield.

RE – We have been recalling the different stories from the Bible about trust.  We then looked at the question ‘Do all believers find it hard to trust in God?’ and used examples from the Bible stories to help us answer it.

Award Winners

Star Writer – This week our Star Writer award goes to Jacob for his hard work and effort it every piece of writing.  Jacob has really worked hard on improving his cursive handwriting and it is beautiful.  Well done Jacob!

Golden Award – The Golden Award this week was awarded to Onalee.  Onalee has blown me away with her hard work and effort in all areas of learning especially reading.  Well done Onalee, I am so proud of you!

Last week our Golden Award went to Georgina.  However, she was taking part in a dancing activity so did not receive it therefore she received it this week.  Georgina has really been shining her light since being in Year 4.  She makes me proud everyday with how kind and caring she is towards others. Well done Georgina!

Homework

Maths –page 14 (Decimal Numbers and Fractions)

English – page 7 (Adverbs)

Spellings (Quiz 22/11/19)

Recap of the 3 times tables (Quiz on 22/11/19)

The children need to be going on TT Rockstars at least once over the weekend please.

Have a lovely weekend!

Mrs Cunningham-Kay

This week in Year 4

Thankyou to all the parent’s that came to parent’s day on Thursday.  It was lovely to meet you all. 

The children have had another busy week of learning.

Maths – This week we have been doubling and halving 2-digit numbers. We have also been looking at fractions.  We have been exploring equivalent fractions.

English – We have been continuing with our poetry theme.  We have been looking at a Haiku poem and the rules they have.  We also wrote our own Haiku poems about a subject if our choice.

Science – We have been investigating vertebrates this week.  The children created characteristics for each category, e.g mammals, fish etc, then created a diagram.

History – This week we have been exploring the different aspects of Viking life.  The children worked in groups to create posters about; religion and Gods, clothes and jewellery, art and craft, houses and food and finally, writing and rhyme.  The children then presented their findings to the rest of the class.

RE – We have looked at the story of Zechariah and how he found it difficult to trust in God.

Reminder

Please can I remind parents that children should not be coming in to school with nail varnish on.  Thankyou.

Award Winners

Star Writer – Lennon for his beautiful handwriting.

Maths Award – Evie and Nathaniel for their perseverance and resilience during Maths lessons.

Homework

Maths –page 29

English – page 6

Spellings

12 times tables

The children need to be going on TT Rockstars at least once over the weekend please.

Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs Cunningham-Kay

A busy first week back!

What a busy first week we have had.  On Wednesday we had a visit from a lady from the Blackpool Tower Circus.  She showed us historical images of the circus and the children created their own ‘act’ which we may see in future circus performances.

On Thursday we had Maths Day.  I was extremely impressed with the children’s outfits.  They all looked incredible!  We looked at famous mathematicians and tried to think of jobs where we didn’t need to use maths.  We created posters to promote Maths and how important it was.  We then created our own Maths games.  I have added pictures from Maths day onto the Year 4 Gallery section of the website. 

Maths – This week we have being looking at length.  We have been converting measurements from centimetres to millimetres and vice versa.  We also looked at how we can estimate length and measured the length of out playground.

English – We have started our new theme of poetry.  We read two poems and then closed our eyes to create an image in our minds.  We also acted out a poem and created ‘freeze-frames’ with our bodies.

Science – We have begun our new theme of ‘Living things are their habitats’.  We looked at what characteristics living things had and created a poster. 

RE – We have been looking at how Christians trust in God.  We explored the story of ‘Jesus calms the storm’ and discussed what we can learn from this miracle.

History – This week we have been comparing the Anglo-Saxon justice system to the modern day justice system.  We explored the different punishments the Anglo-Saxons performed then came up with our own punishments based on some scenarios.

Important notice

• Apologies that I had to cancel Parent’s day.  I have arranged another Parent’s day on the 7th of November please ensure that you have an appointment with me.  If not, please call the office to arrange one.  Thankyou.

Homework

Maths – page 42 and 43 (Units)

English – page 42 and 43 (Commas for Writing Lists)

Spellings for our quiz on the 8th November

7 times table for our quiz on the 8th November

Times Table Rockstars (at least 1 game over the weekend)

Award winners

We had no awards this week.

Have a lovely weekend!

Mrs Cunningham-Kay

This week in Year 4

I cannot believe we have come to the end of our first half term together.  The children have blown me away with the way they have settled in and lived up to the expectations Year 4 brings.  What a fantastic start to the year we have had!

Maths – This week we have been looking at Time.  We have been looking at how times can be represented differently on analogue and digital clocks.  We have also been looking at the 24-hour clock and intervals of time.

English – In English we have been looking at how inventors may ‘pitch’ their idea to potential investors.  We decided what made a good pitch and worked with our learning partners to create our own pitch to the class on a gadget called ‘Holo-World’

Science – We have been looking at how humans can impact on food chains.  We investigated how humans harm habitats through deforestation and urbanisation and created an information poster.

RE – In RE we have been making links between Bible stories and the actions of Christians.  We discussed how we show we trust in God and how we follow in Jesus’ footsteps.

History – This week we have been exploring the story of King Offa.  We looked at the dyke he created to stop potential invaders and created a film reel of the story of King Offa beheading his daughter’s future husband.

Important notice

In a previous blog I said that the children need to be going on Times Table Rockstars at least 3 times a week.  Just to clarify this includes once at the weekend.  If the children are unable to go on at the weekend, then iPads will be made available for the children to go on it during break time on a Monday.

Homework

I have not set any homework for half term although I would like the children to go on Times Table Rockstars at least once over the holidays.

Award winners

We had no awards this week as on Monday we had our Harvest assembly and we had no Golden assembly.

Have a lovely half term break!

Mrs Cunningham-Kay