Welcome Back!

Everyone in Year 4 hopes that you all had a very happy and restful Easter. Let’s crack on with the summer term!

Year 4’s learning this week:

English: Year 4 wrote their own, independent biographies this week with a particular focus on using fronted adverbials and expanded noun phrases to make their pieces more sophisticated. Myself and Mrs Dunford have enjoyed learning facts all about some famous figures from Paul O’Grady to Marie Curie to Elizabeth I.

Year 4 have been working really hard on increasing their concentration during their writing, to maintain their focus and stamina for their independent work.

Maths: Year 4 have been working hard on dividing two and three digit numbers by a one digit number, using part whole models to partition numbers effectively.

RE and Liturgy: Year 4 have been formulating questions on how the disciples would have felt before and after Easter Sunday.

We discussed how Jesus’ followers would have felt mixed emotions of anger, fear, sadness, disbelief and joy over the course over Jesus’ arrest, death and resurrection. Year 4 then used their Bible skills to find, use and reference quotes that backed up their opinions on how the disciples would have been feeling at different times.

Science: Year 4 have been exploring how a switch opens and closes a circuit therefore determining whether an electrical current can flow from its source of power to light up a bulb.

Year 4 explored a circuit they were familiar with before working out how to insert a switch into their circuit and seeing if they could prove a switch’s role to turn a bulb on and off.

Year 4 have been using their knowledge of electrical circuits and useful materials to design their own torches in DT. Year 4 thought about who the target audience for their torch was, what it would look like and the features that would make it useful depending on their audience such as being brightly coloured, glow in the dark and lightweight.

Geography: Year 4 have begun to explore and evaluate their local area this half term. This week, we explored our locality of Blackpool. We thought about the region of the country we occupy and the county we live in before working out how we could move around our locality using points of a compass; north, south, east and west.

Computing: Year 4 have been researching the coming forecast in our locality of Blackpool so that they can prepare a weather broadcasting script to create their own virtual weather forecast using a map background and present this to be filmed.

Spanish: Year 4 have been practising recognising reading and writing their Spanish numbers up to twenty as part of presenting themselves in a Spanish translation.

PE: Year 4 have started exploring their orienteering topic this week, concentrating this week on the importance of building trust and active listening between themselves and their classmates.

PSHE: Year 4 have been working hard on exploring their emotions in a safe and healthy way this week, recognising that it is ok to share their thoughts and opinions in a positive way.

Notices:

Please make sure you are reading at home regularly and recording this in reading records.

Please make sure you are practising times tables on TT Rock stars and The Daily Ten on Topmarks regularly. Hit the Button on Topmarks is also a fantastic resource for times tables practise.

Another good resource for times tables is the Pinpoint Mathematics times tables check: https://www.themathsfactor.com/times-tables-check/pinpoint/#/ a simulation for the Year 4 check in June.

Please make sure your school instruments are practised regularly at home for our weekly Wider Opportunity lessons on Thursdays, fifteen minutes a day makes all the difference!

Times tables booster club will continue weekly on Fridays until 4:10pm.

A message from the school SENCO:

Please find attached details of the Being a Parent groups running next term.  There will be two 9 week groups starting on Tuesday 25th April

10.00am-12.00pm      The HealthWorks, 1 Clifton Street, FY1 1JD

6.00pm-8.00pm          Online using Google Meet.

The group is suitable for parents of children aged 18 months – 11 years (priority is given to parents with children under 4 years) and is led by parents.  It looks at communication, behaviour management and listening techniques.  The group is free and childcare can be paid for to attend the group.

Parents can book their place by contacting Blackpool Learning Rooms on 01253 478131 or learning.rooms@blackpool.gov.uk .

Congratulations to our award winners this week!

Golden Award - Peter

Maths Award - Olivia W

Writing Award - Zahra

A big thank you from Miss Whitehead and Mrs Dunford!

Posted
AuthorKatie Whitehead

This week in Year 4 ...

Year 4’s learning this week:

English: Year 4 have been immersing themselves in the life and genius of Sir David Attenborough this week. As part of Year 4’s new Writing topic all about biographies, the class have been learning all about one of England’s most loved national treasures and familiarising themselves with examples of biographies written about Attenborough.

Year 4 will eventually go on to write their own biography about Jacques Cousteau, another incredible famous figure in recent world history.

Maths: Year 4 have continued to work hard on their multiplicative skills and are now moving on to work on a more formal, written method of multiplication using their well practised partitioning and times tables fluency.

History: Year 4 have continued learning about Alfred the Great as well as his victory at the Battle of Edington against the Viking, King Guthrum. We examined the sequence of events that led up to the battle, including a story of King Alfred burning a peasant woman’s cakes! (Year 4 found this story very amusing but questioned how true the legend really was). Year 4 then examined the different reasons which granted Alfred’s success in battle and used their reasoning skills to deduce whether or not the reasons were important or not.

PE and PSHE: Year 4 have continued working hard this week on being a team, particularly taking part in activities that requires every individual to do their bit and work together in order for a task to be completed successfully.

Notices:

Please make sure you are reading at home regularly and recording this in reading records.

Please make sure you are practising times tables on TT Rock stars and The Daily Ten on Topmarks regularly. Hit the Button on Topmarks is also a fantastic resource for times tables practise.

Please make sure your school instruments are practised at home for our weekly Wider Opportunity lessons on Thursdays.

Times tables booster club will continue weekly on Fridays until 4:10pm.

Our Fairhaven Lake trip will be on Tuesday 21st March for a full day. Please remember to send your child in their PE hoodie, comfy/waterproof trousers and their wellies/waterproof shoes. Please also bring a spare change of clothing and a carrier bag. Packed lunches will also be required for this day.

Year 4 will be completing their walk for CAFOD while on our Fairhaven Lake trip on the 21st March.

A message from the school SENCO:

Please find attached details of the Being a Parent groups running next term.  There will be two 9 week groups starting on Tuesday 25th April

10.00am-12.00pm      The HealthWorks, 1 Clifton Street, FY1 1JD

6.00pm-8.00pm          Online using Google Meet.

The group is suitable for parents of children aged 18 months – 11 years (priority is given to parents with children under 4 years) and is led by parents.  It looks at communication, behaviour management and listening techniques.  The group is free and childcare can be paid for to attend the group.

Parents can book their place by contacting Blackpool Learning Rooms on 01253 478131 or learning.rooms@blackpool.gov.uk .

Congratulations to our award winners this week!

Golden Award - Jana

Maths Award - Connie

Writing Award - Kurt

A big thank you from Miss Whitehead and Mrs Dunford!

Posted
AuthorKatie Whitehead

Let it Snow!

Despite not having a white Christmas this school year, Year 4 have managed to enjoy a school snow day (even if it is in March)!


Year 4’s learning this week:

English: Year 4 have written their own newspaper reports all about a deep sea creature! The class made sure they were inserting speech correctly into their writing as well as changing the voice of the text from third person to first person and back again, a challenging skill to master!

Maths: Year 4 have continued working hard on their multiplication and division skills, this week focusing on multiples of 7, 11 and 12.

RE and Liturgy: Year 4 have continued to explore the example Jesus gives us during our Lenten period.

Science: Year 4 have been investigating circuits and the different components that work together to make a complete circuit. The class then worked very hard to build their own circuits using a bulb, wires and a battery as a source of electrical power.

Year 4 then tested out the scientific question; what would happen if two batteries were inserted into a circuit with one bulb?

We also considered how the plastic coating around the wires meant that we were able to safely build our circuits that produced an electrical current.

Our Science learning has also come in handy for our new DT topic in which we will design and build our own torches through creating a successful, complete circuit to power a light source.

History: Year 4 have continued learning about Alfred the Great and have gathered all of the evidence they could that supported the narrative that Alfred truly was great.

Spanish: Year 4 have started learning about how to present themselves in a conversation. This week, we concentrated on being able to greet others formally and informally, ask people how they are as well as how to respond based on how we are feeling.

PE and PSHE: Year 4 have been working hard this week on working harmoniously as a team, being resilient and honest team players as well as showing our care and compassion for others during ball games.

Notices:

Please make sure you are reading at home regularly and recording this in reading records.

Please make sure you are practising times tables on TT Rock stars and The Daily Ten on Topmarks regularly. Hit the Button on Topmarks is also a fantastic resource for times tables practise.

Please make sure your school instruments are practised at home for our weekly Wider Opportunity lessons on Thursdays.

Times tables booster club will continue weekly on Fridays until 4:10pm.

Our Fairhaven Lake trip will be on Tuesday 21st March for a full day. Please remember to send your child in their PE hoodie, comfy/waterproof trousers and their wellies/waterproof shoes. Please also bring a spare change of clothing and a carrier bag. Packed lunches will also be required for this day.

Year 4 will be completing their walk for CAFOD while on our Fairhaven Lake trip on the 21st March.

A message from the school SENCO:

Please find attached details of the Being a Parent groups running next term.  There will be two 9 week groups starting on Tuesday 25th April

10.00am-12.00pm      The HealthWorks, 1 Clifton Street, FY1 1JD

6.00pm-8.00pm          Online using Google Meet.

The group is suitable for parents of children aged 18 months – 11 years (priority is given to parents with children under 4 years) and is led by parents.  It looks at communication, behaviour management and listening techniques.  The group is free and childcare can be paid for to attend the group.

Parents can book their place by contacting Blackpool Learning Rooms on 01253 478131 or learning.rooms@blackpool.gov.uk .

Congratulations to our award winners this week!

Golden Award - Emilia

Maths Award - Peter

Writing Award - Olivia W

A big thank you from Miss Whitehead and Mrs Dunford!

Posted
AuthorKatie Whitehead

This week in Year 4 ...

Congratulations to our Young Seasiders nominees for 2023 whose work is currently displayed in Blackpool and the Fylde College. A big well done to Corben, Zahra, Harriet and Olivia Welsby who were nominated from Year 4.

Year 4’s learning this week:

English: Year 4 have been practising their newspaper article writing this week, taking a piece of narrative text written in the first person and turning it into a recount of interesting events.

Year 4 also worked hard at inserting speech into their newspaper report, using inverted commas to slot in eye witness reports within their newspaper report.

Maths: Year 4 have continued working hard on their multiplication and division skills, this week focusing on multiples of 6 and 9.

RE and Liturgy: Year 4 have been trying to understand Jesus’ shining example and how he shows us the way to live through love, forgiveness and strength.

Science and PSHE: Year 4 had a visit from The Life Bus this week! Not only did did Year 4 get to see Harold the Giraffe again but they learnt about how great it is to be themselves. Year 4 spent their time learning all about how they are unique from their physical body to their personality.

History: Year 4 started learning about Alfred the Great this week. The class looked at a portrait of King Alfred and came up with lots of different adjectives they thought described him.

Year 4 then thought about the question; How great was Alfred the great? .

Notices:

Please make sure you are reading at home regularly and recording this in reading records.

Please make sure you are practising times tables on TT Rock stars and The Daily Ten on Topmarks regularly.

Please make sure your school instruments are practised at home for our weekly Wider Opportunity lessons on Thursdays.

Times tables booster club will continue weekly on Fridays until 4:10pm.

Our Fairhaven Lake trip will be on Tuesday 21st March for a full day. Please remember to send your child in their PE hoodie, comfy/waterproof trousers and their wellies/waterproof shoes. Please also bring a spare change of clothing and a carrier bag. Packed lunches will also be required for this day.

Congratulations to our award winners this week!

Golden Award - Lola Mae

Maths Award - Elsie

Writing Award - Rosanna, Dominic and Jana

A big thank you from Miss Whitehead and Mrs Dunford!

Posted
AuthorKatie Whitehead

Have a Happy Half Term!

Everyone in Year 4 hopes you all have a happy and restful half term!

Year 4’s learning this week:

English: Year 4 have continued using their vehicle text of ‘The Whale’ to inspire their Writing and English learning. This week we have been gathering more banks of vocabulary including powerful adjectives and nouns related to the story to prepare us for our writing.

We moved on to using this vocabulary to create different expanded noun phrases so they will be ready to slot into our final piece of Writing when we come to it. We added these expanded noun phrases into full sentences ensuring we were including a determiner, adjectives and nouns linked to our story. The children did so well with this that they were challenged to add prepositional phrases onto their expanded noun phrases. Year 4 felt very grown up and scholarly!

Maths: Year 4 have gone back to exploring how to calculate the perimeter of rectilinear shapes after mastering more efficient ways of counting last week. Last week’s interlude of practising our fluency in counting really helped us when adding up measurements to calculate the perimeter.

Year 4 then progressed to calculating the lengths of sides of a rectilinear shape. This is something the class found tricky at first and still need to practise over time but their hard work and resilience has resulted in clear progress!

Science: Year 4 had a fantastic Science lesson testing the hypothesis ‘The further the distance, the quieter the sound’. Our experiment consisted of making an old-styled cup and string telephone to communicate with each other and find out if sound is quieter or louder depending on the distance the sound waves have to travel.

RE/RSHE: This week, Year 4 were aiming to recognise the words of the Gospel and chose their favourite Bible passages, writing them in a bright and colourful way to celebrate the word of God.

History: Year 4 have been learning about the story of Saint Cuthbert this week. Saint Cuthbert was a Monk, who in the 670s travelled to the Monastery in Lindisfarne. In the year 687 AD Cuthbert died and after eleven years had passed, the Monks discovered his body had not decayed.

As well as exploring what is deemed to be a miracle to Christians around the world, Year 4 investigated how this story serves as evidence that by the 7th Century, Christianity was a prevalent religion within Anglo-Saxon Britain.

Art: Year 4 have been creating more landscape pieces inspired by the artist John Brunsdon. This week we incorporated oil pastels into our drawings to bring out strong and bold colours that contrasted with one another in the same paintings.

PSHE: Year 4 have been looking at the way our brains work and how they are responsible for the emotions we feel. Together we worked hard to come up with strategies that will help us be in charge of our emotions and prevent us from making wrong choices in challenging situations.

PE: Year 4 have continued progressing in creating routines to perform for their class to close off their Gymnastics topic before half term.



Notices:

Please make sure you are reading at home regularly and recording this in reading records.

Please make sure you are practising times tables on TT Rock stars regularly.

Please make sure your school instruments are practised at home for our weekly Wider Opportunity lessons on Thursdays.

Times tables booster club will continue weekly on Fridays until 4:10pm.

Congratulations to our award winners this week!

Golden Award - Corben

Maths Award - Tommy

Writing Award - Grace

A big thank you from Miss Whitehead and Mrs Dunford!

Posted
AuthorKatie Whitehead

"Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven." Matthew

This weeks Gospel tells us of Jesus’ teaching to us that we should be patient, that whatever our troubles, we can be rewarded when we get to heaven.

Year 4 have spent this week discussing friendship and what we look for in a good friend.

Year 4 have agreed that there are lots of things that add up altogether that make us a good friend. However, that we have to think about all of these different qualities, can be quite challenging.

We agreed that to be a good friend you have to be kind, caring and respectful. Year 4 also thought about the importance of being a trustworthy friend, a friend that stands up for what is right but is also not afraid to disagree with what is wrong, even if that person is their friend. The class also thought about our differences and how it is ok to be friends with someone that is different from us.

Overall, Year 4 are in agreement with the qualities they have selected that make a good friend and noticed that these qualities link well with our school values of care, learn and respect.

Year 4’s learning this week:

English: Year 4 have started immersing themselves in a new book called ‘The Whale’ in preparation for their final piece of writing; a newspaper report.

Year 4 debated the newspaper headline from the story;‘Giant Whale or Giant Hoax’ , about a great spotted whale sighted 50 years ago. Year 4 had to decide if they believed the whale was real or if it was all a giant hoax invented and turned into legend over the 50 years. Year 4 concentrated on forming an argument based on their opinion and ensuring they backed it up with evidence.

Maths: Year 4 have been looking at units of measurement this week; metres and kilometres. We started the week by converting metres into kilometres and vice versa.

Year 4 then moved on to investigating the perimeter of squares and rectangles.

RE and Liturgy: This week, Year 4 explored the Jewish prayer ‘Shema’ and its importance in the Jewish faith.

To share the Wednesday Word together each week, please follow this link:

http://www.wednesdayword.org/

Science: Year 4 have been exploring different musical instruments this week and investigating how they can make the sounds from the instruments louder, quieter, higher and lower. We discovered that the volume of a sound depends on the force and the pace used to create vibrations. Year 4 also learnt that the pitch of an object depends on the space vibrations have to travel through.

PE: Year 4 have consolidated the different balances, rolls and now jumps they have been learning about within their gymnastics topic this week, creating routines to perform for their class.

Spanish: Year 4 have been revising their learning so far in their ‘Ancient Britain’ topic including the different eras, how to say they are a boy/girl from an era, the different tools and inventions from each age and the different homes from different eras.

Computing: Year 4 used the computers this week to transfer their designs of a system to prevent extreme weather harming people or places on to a digital platform.

Art: Year 4 used a reference of a feather to develop and showcase their sketching and shading skills. We concentrated on our shading becoming gradually darker and darker to create texture as well as adding depth by subtly adding colour into our sketches.

Notices:

Please make sure you are reading at home regularly and recording this in reading records.

Please make sure you are practising times tables on TT Rock stars regularly.

Please make sure your school instruments are practised at home for our weekly Wider Opportunity lessons on Thursdays.

Times tables booster club will continue weekly on Fridays until 4:10pm.

Congratulations to our award winners this week!

Golden Award - Lily T

Maths Award - Darcy

Writing Award - Hallie

A big thank you from Miss Whitehead and Mrs Dunford!

Posted
AuthorKatie Whitehead

Rules, rights and responsibilities.

Year 4 have spent their PSHE time this week thinking about the rules, rights and responsibilities that they have in their school. As we follow our school values, we are learning to respect the set rules of our school to ensure everybody is safe and thriving. We are understanding the importance to care about each others rights within our community, our rights to say stop and to speak out against any injustices we may witness. Finally, we can learn about the responsibilities we have as individuals in our school.

Year 4 have spent this time discussing these issues as they will need to understand the rules, rights and responsibilities of society in our democratic country. We explored what it means to have rights such as freedom of speech, the right to vote and the right to live peacefully in our country’s society.

Year 4 have decided that understanding these three concepts well and in depth now, is going to make their wider school life and later on experience more enjoyable and fulfilling.

Year 4’s learning this week:

English: Having written their information reports all about polar bears and their habitats last week, Year 4 have spent this week rereading and editing their work. Year 4 wanted to take ownership of making their writing better by going over it, checking their grammar, spelling and punctuation and editing it to create a final and formal piece of writing.

Year 4 have also spent a good portion of their time practising their reading comprehension skills, particularly their ability to infer information from a text. We have examined how subtle information in a text can reveal how a character is feeling, what they are thinking and other important factors that contribute to a story’s plot.

Maths: Year 4 have continued extending and deepening their problem solving and reasoning skills using addition and subtraction. We have concentrated on exploring a word problem and underlining the important information within it. We then spent time using that important information to help us choose the most appropriate operation and calculation to use. Finally, we ensured that we were presenting and showing ALL of our calculations and working out to help us explain our answer clearly.

RE and Liturgy: Year 4 have revisited the parable of The Prodigal Son and have linked the story to our school values of care, learn and respect.

In the parable, the younger son takes responsibility for running away from his home and his family and wasting his share of inheritance by returning, apologising and accepting the consequences he believes he should face. This is just like how Year 4 have been working really hard on taking responsibility for their actions to guide them in learning from their experiences and making the right choices in the future.

To share the Wednesday Word together each week, please follow this link:

http://www.wednesdayword.org/

Science: Year 4 practised recording information in the form of diagrams this week. The class have spent lots of time exploring how sound is made, how sound travels through a medium to the ear as sound waves and how the parts of our ear work for the sound to be heard and recognised by the brain. Year 4 drew a diagram of the inside of the ear, labelling its anatomy clearly.

PE: After spending time on mastering our balance in Gymnastics, Year 4 have started looking at rolls that can be used in a Gymnastics routine. We explored using pencil rolls, egg rolls and forward rolls safely on our mats. Year 4 then thought about how they could combine their balances and rolls into a routine; demonstrating their teamwork and resilience to achieve their learning objective.

Spanish: Year 4 have been revising their learning so far in their ‘Ancient Britain’ topic including the different eras, how to say they are a boy/girl from an era and the different tools and inventions from each age. We have also started to learn the different types of homes used in the various eras.

Computing: This week, Year 4 used their prior learning of the different types of extreme weather and started their preliminary plans and designs for a system that can either warn of or prevent extreme types of weather.

Notices:

Please make sure you are reading at home regularly and recording this in reading records.

Please make sure you are practising times tables on TT Rock stars regularly.

Please make sure your school instruments are practised at home for our weekly Wider Opportunity lessons on Thursdays.

Times tables booster club will continue weekly on Fridays until 4:10pm.

Congratulations to our award winners this week!

Golden Award - Alexander

Maths Award - Lily T

Writing Award - Ronnie

A big thank you from Miss Whitehead and Mrs Dunford!

Posted
AuthorKatie Whitehead

"We all have the duty to do good." Pope Francis

Year 4 have been continuing to work hard, this week, to be kind, caring and compassionate members of society. As a class, we have spent time thinking about how it is our duty to make the right choice and to be the best we can be, even if we find it challenging.

As a class at Our Lady’s, we always want to make sure we are following our school values of care, learn and respect.

Year 4’s learning this week:

English: Year 4 have spent this week making final preparations and planning for their information texts all about polar bears and their habitats. As part of this, we have spent time revising how to use apostrophes for possession and add more information into our sentences using fronted adverbials. Finally, Year 4 were ready to write out their non-fiction information texts independently.

Maths: Year 4 have been exploring how to solve word problems using addition and subtraction.

RE and Liturgy: Year 4 have spent their RE time this week exploring who Jesus was as a person, his religion and the qualities that have made him the person he is. It is often difficult to understand why Jesus was given such an ordinary life, born into a hard working Jewish family that were not considered important during their time on earth. However, God wanted the human part of himself that he gave to the earth to represent and connect with the everyday people of the earth, understanding their problems. Through understanding and having access to our everyday lives, he was able to perform the amazing miracles with the people that really needed them the most.

To share the Wednesday Word together each week, please follow this link:

http://www.wednesdayword.org/

Science: Year 4 explored in more detail how sound travels from its source all the way through the air particles as invisible sound waves, through the ear canal and ear drum before it is turned into electrical signals and reaches our brain.

PE: Year 4 have been thinking about and discussing the different types of balances used in gymnastics this week and how they can use individual balances, mirror balances and solo balances in their PE.

Computing: Year 4 have continued with their topic all about investigating the weather by exploring the different types of extreme weather experienced on the earth such as thunder and lightning, tornados, tsunamis, flooding and scorching heat. Year 4 then started thinking about and planning their ideas to create a mechanism or machine that could help warn against and prevent extreme types of weather and are ready to begin their designing process next week.

Art: Year 4 continued with their ‘Jeffrey the Maggot’ inspired drawings, thinking about their sketching and shading skills.

Notices:

Please make sure you are reading at home regularly and recording this in reading records.

Please make sure you are practising times tables on TT Rock stars regularly.

Please make sure your school instruments are practised at home for our weekly Wider Opportunity lessons on Thursdays.

Times tables booster club will continue weekly on Fridays until 4:10pm.

Congratulations to our award winners this week!

Golden Award - Olivia S

Maths Award - Zahra

Writing Award - Elsie

A big thank you from Miss Whitehead and Mrs Dunford!

Posted
AuthorKatie Whitehead

Welcome Back!

All of Year 4 hope you all had a very happy and restful Christmas time!


Year 4’s learning this week:

English: Year 4 have continued preparing to write their information reports about polar bears and their habitats. In preparation for this, we have spent time exploring similar information reports and analysing what makes them a good example to help us with our writing.

Maths: Year 4 have been revising our estimating skills using numbers up to 10,000.

RE and Liturgy: Year 4 have been exploring the story of the three wise men bringing their gifts to Jesus. Year 4 spent time comparing the three kings to Jesus’ other visitors, the shepherds, and discussed how we felt God wanted to represent all walks of life, rich and poor, by Jesus’ side.

The three wise men went searching on a long journey, trusting that they would find the new king after many days. Like this, Christians also search for many virtues and answers in their pursuit to find God, trusting that one day they will reach God and understand what they need to do to embrace him in their hearts.

To share the Wednesday Word together each week, please follow this link:

http://www.wednesdayword.org/

Science: Year 4 have started to explore their new Science topic, Sound, this week. We spent time investigating how sound is made by making as much noise as we could! Then we explored how the vibrations that we produce are what cause sound to be made.

We then thought about the fact that the vibrations that are produced need air to be able to travel as sound waves before reaching the ear to be heard.

PE: Year 4 have started their new Gymnastics topic this week. We spent time discussing the importance of balance and posture to be a successful gymnast and to practise this, we spent time working on our counterbalancing skill in pairs.

PSHE: Year 4 have continued examining their relationships this week, including the different groups of people in their lives. The class then thought about the choices they could make to make these people in their lives happy.

Computing: Year 4 started their new Computing topic of investigating weather this week. We used the computers to go online and investigate the different time zones, temperatures and weather in different locations across the world before comparing them to our local weather in Blackpool.

Art: Year 4 explored the story of Jeffrey the Maggot together in class and his journey through the inside of a pumpkin; from the pumpkin being harvested, all the way to being used on Halloween to hold sweeties and candles.

The children discussed what they thought each stage of Jeffrey’s journey would look like before using different forms of media to sketch and shade their interpretation of the journey through the pumpkin.

Notices:

Please make sure you are reading at home regularly and recording this in reading records.

Please make sure you are practising times tables on TT Rock stars regularly.

Please make sure your school instruments are practised at home for our weekly Wider Opportunity lessons on Thursdays.

Times tables booster club will start on Friday 13th January after school for those who received a letter and have returned the attached slip.

Congratulations to our award winners this week!

Golden Award - James

Maths Award - Emilia

Writing Award - Olivia

A big thank you from Miss Whitehead and Mrs Dunford!

Posted
AuthorKatie Whitehead

"The one who is coming after me is mightier than I ... He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."

Year 4 have kicked off their Winter Reading Challenge properly this week. Our goal is to read books, within our ZPDs at school, quiz on them and earn points for our individual teams. Groups have to hit milestones with their points to work their way up the tree, being a team to win the final prize on the star of the Christmas tree.

Good luck Year 4!

Year 4’s learning this week:

English: Year 4 have continued writing their very own outsider narratives inspired by the vehicle text and its illustrations from Leaf. This week the class published their writing, by editing their final pieces and taking on board feedback to make their work even better. Then Year 4 presented their work beautifully in their writing books and designed a front cover for their story that gave clues so that their reader could predict the events of their narrative.

Maths: Year 4 have been concentrating on what exchanging during subtraction with three and four digit numbers actually means. We used the base ten equipment so that we could prove visually that when we exchange we are borrowing from our different place value columns.

RE and Liturgy: Our class have explored the story of Mary this week and thought about all the different events that happened to an ordinary young girl from Nazareth that led up to the birth of Christ in Bethlehem. Year 4 then retold the story in their own words.

Year 4 spent a good portion of their RE time thinking about the meaning of Advent and exploring the significance of the Advent wreath, God’s complete and unending love for us. Year 4 then explored the meaning of each of the candles on the wreath; hope, joy, peace and love. All being virtues that Jesus taught us.

To share the Wednesday Word together each week, please follow this link:

http://www.wednesdayword.org/

Science: Year 4 have continued looking at Living Things and their Habitats topic this week. Year 4 used their knowledge of grouping living things in different ways to follow and analyse classification keys.

PE: Year 4 have used their practised skills of dribbling with and passing a ball to play team games of basketball this week.

Geography: Year 4 have been learning about where their food comes from. We continued learning about the Northern and Southern hemispheres as well as classifying countries and continents into these two groups.

For homework this week, Year 4 have been given homework that builds on our learning that the food we eat everyday comes from all over the world. Please complete the food diary for one day this week and research where the ingredients/produce used for your meals comes from.

Spanish: Year 4 have continued learning about Ancient Britain. We started this week by revisiting the Spanish translations for the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, the Roman Age, the Anglo-Saxon Age and the Viking Age. We then moved on to saying “I am a boy from” or “I am a girl from” any of the above eras.

PSHE: Year 4 have continued examining their relationships this week, including the different groups of people in their lives. The class then thought about the choices they could make to make these people in their lives happy.

Notices:

Please make sure you are reading at home regularly and recording this in reading records.

Please make sure you are practising times tables on TT Rock stars regularly.

Please make sure your school instruments are practised at home for our weekly Wider Opportunity lessons on Thursdays.

Congratulations to our award winners this week!

Golden Award - Grace

Maths Award - Rosanna

Writing Award - Oscar

A big thank you from Miss Whitehead and Mrs Dunford!

Posted
AuthorKatie Whitehead

"Stay awake, then, for you do not know on what day your Lord will come."

This week’s Gospel reading teaches us that we must always be ready to greet Jesus as we do not know the day in which Christ is coming to us, it may be when we least expect it.

In a similar way, Year 4 have been thinking about how they can make themselves ready for the coming of Jesus throughout Advent. Year 4 have been trying their best to stop and reflect during this period and ensure they are making this time of preparation count.

One way in which many Year 4s are preparing themselves before Advent has even begun, is through the Sacrament of Reconciliation. By giving their first confession tomorrow (Saturday 26th November) the children in our class can begin Advent with the certainty that they have wiped their slate clean and can have a fresh start as this Liturgical year comes to its close.

Year 4’s learning this week:

English: Year 4 have been writing their very own outsider narratives inspired by the vehicle text and its illustrations from Leaf. Our main objective has been to use fronted adverbials, powerful verbs and powerful adjectives in our writing and we have spent much of this week analysing what those three things look like if used successfully. The staff in Year 4 have all been blown away by the quality of the writing completed this week, Year 4 have shown huge steps of progress within their writing as well as an increased concentration over their work.

Maths: Year 4 have been practising their column subtraction skills. We have focused on what happens to a number when we use subtraction and how it becomes less than it was before as numbers are taken away.

We have also been developing confidence in being able to exchange between our hundreds, tens and ones when subtracting numbers.

RE and Liturgy: Our class have continued exploring stories from the Bible’s Old and New Testament. Specifically this week, Year 4 have explored the story of Jonah and the Whale.

To share the Wednesday Word together each week, please follow this link:

http://www.wednesdayword.org/

Science: Year 4 have continued looking at Living Things and their Habitats topic this week. We continued consolidating our understanding of the the term ‘classification’. Then we continued to investigate the different ways in which various living things can be grouped.

As well as exploring the use of more Venn diagrams, we investigated the use of Carroll diagrams which aided us in classifying vertebrates and invertebrates in different ways.

PE: Year 4 have used their practised skills of dribbling with and passing a ball to play team games of basketball this week.

Geography: Year 4 have been learning about where their food comes from. We discovered where the food we eat for breakfast everyday comes from such as; oranges that come from Spain and milk that comes from Great Britain.

Year 4 also learnt about the different hemispheres of the Earth and the fact of Great Britain being situated in the Northern hemisphere.

Spanish: Year 4 have continued learning about Ancient Britain. We started this week by revisiting the Spanish translations for the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, the Roman Age, the Anglo-Saxon Age and the Viking Age. Then we spent time ordering these ages in their chronological order and exploring where they would be on our time line.

PSHE: Year 4 have continued examining their relationships this week, including the different groups of people in their lives. The class then thought about the choices they could make to make these people in their lives happy.

Notices:

Please make sure you are reading at home regularly and recording this in reading records.

Please make sure you are practising times tables on TT Rock stars regularly.

Please make sure your school instruments are practised at home for our weekly Wider Opportunity lessons on Thursdays.

Congratulations to our award winners this week!

Golden Award - Connie

Maths Award - Isaac

Writing Award - Ronnie

A big thank you from Miss Whitehead and Mrs Dunford!

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AuthorKatie Whitehead