SPRING 1

What a busy first half of the Spring term it has been. Read on to find out what fantastic things ahve been going on in YEar 4!

IN English we have explored instructional texts and worked towards writing our own instructions. The children wrote clear and precise instructions for how to undertake a viscosity experiment (linked to our Science learning) with all the steps necessary in completing the experiment. Next we compared instructions to explanation texts - the children looked at the similarities and moreover, the differences between these two text types. We created our own 'Wallace and Gromit' style inventions to help people around the home or school. WE then began writing our explanations for how our inventions would work.

In Maths, we have covered a range of topics over the past few weeks. The children explored column multiplication and learned how to structure this correctly to find answers to problems of increasing difficulty. We then moved on to learning about fractions and decimals, and how these relate to each other and how they are both parts of a whole. The children solved equivalent fractions and compared and ordered fractions and decimals together. On Finance Fridays, we solved budgeting issues and also used spreadsheets to calculate receipt totals.

Our science-based project, WE ARE Alchemists, was a real success. The children explored the history of science and began to understand how alchemy linked to scientific discovery in the past. They researched their own 'magical' science experiments and wrote scripts ready to e=demonstrate these. Next, in groups, the children came together to practice their chosen experiments whilst learning the scientific vocabulary and reasoning behind the chemical reactions that occurred. Finally, they put on a very successful Science Show for the parents in which they demonstrated and explained their experiments! WELL DONE EVERYONE!

AUTUMN 2

As we close out the first full term in Year 4, it is time to reflect and look back at some of the fantastic learning that has been going on in the second half term of the year.

In English, we have been exploring newspaper reports. The children delved into the mind of a journalist to draft and redraft their own fantastically detailed reports based around the Roman invasion of Britain. Taking on the role of a journalist from Roman times, they explored all of the features needed for a succinct and informative report - such as journalistic language, columns, a catchy headline and direct quotes. The children also learned about poetry and discovered different poetic devices that they then subsequently used within their own winter poems!

In Maths, we have explored telling the time to the hour, half hour, quarter to, quarter past, 5 minutes and to the minute. WE have also plotted co-ordinates on a grid and now know the x-axis and y-axis, plus how to write out these co-ordinates correctly. More recently, the children learned their Roman numerals in conjunction with our project. The children can now decode Roman numerals up to at least 100, with some knowing them up to 1000!

In Project Based Learning, our WE ARE Romans project allowed the children to look back in time into Roman history and their invasion of Britain. We explored and discovered a range of things the Romans left for us that we still see in Britain today - such as public parks, public baths, domestic cats, apples, pears, grapes, straight roads, and even stinging nettles! This learning all led them towards creating their very own Roman mosaics from tiles in which they depicted the different things left by the Romans!

What a busy second half term of the year, see you all in January!

AUTUMN 1

What a BUSY half term it has been in Year 4! We have really got this academic year off to a fantastic and WORLDLY start!

IN English, we have been exploring fact files and travel leaflets. The children have explored the many features of these different text types and have produced their own amazing travel leaflets based on countries around the world that they have researched. These travel leaflets had to be very persuasive and so the children explored persuasive language in order to captivate and encourage their audience to visit their chosen country.

In Maths, we haev looked at recapping our place value knowledge, explored addition and subtraction strategies and delved into the world of 2D and 3D shapes. We described shapes by their properties and also by their interior angles and their lines of symmetry; discussed whether they are regular or irregular shapes and what this means. We also linked our Maths learning to our project by finding symmetry within flags from around the world.

Our Autumn 1 project - WE ARE Around the World, required us to engage in a LOT of research. The children explored food, culture, clothing, flags and other aspects of different countries. The engaged in research around different biomes (habitats) and where in the world these biomes can be found. The children then began their journey to creating their own travel vlogs - in which they drafted scripts to share their research into a range of countries and explained the best things about them, persuading people to visit! The travel vlogs were then filmed and edited and look fantastic! Well done Year 4!