Year 4 Team: Miss S McVey (Class Teacher), Mrs McRae (Class Teacher) Ms V Coates & Miss C Rawlinson : Blog items
Date: 11th Jul 2024 @ 11:23am
Just a quick message to say a big thank you!
The joy and sheer love for learning Year 4 have brought to the classroom has been admirable. The memories we have made together and the laughter we have had along the way will be cherished by us all.
Thank you to all the fantastic parents/careers who have supported us all this year. Your kind words of support and encouragement really have not gone unmissed.
We thank you so much for all your thoughtful gifts and well wishes for the new year. We look forward to watching you all continue to grow as you head into Year 5.
To support the children's transition into Year 5, please find attached a successful start powerpoint which outlines key information for Year 5's September start.
Love and big hugs from all in Year 4.
Date: 10th Jul 2024 @ 7:39am
As our penultimate week comes to an end, we look back on some highlights from the week.
In recognition of our Collective Worship value, we outlined the responsibilities we will grow into as we ger older and those responsibilities we will need to take on to stay safe and healthy. In RE, we reflected on all our learning this half term and concluded with a prayer to summarise our wishes and hopes for the summer break.
In English, we were inspired by Neil Gaiman’s instruction writing that navigated a journey around his Fairyland Forest. We decided to design our own enchanted woods and use command sentences to instruct our reader on the path they should take to safely venture around of mysterious lands.
Using maps, compasses and directional language, we discovered the main attractions located around St. James Park in London and used the grid references to outline where they were located. We then moved onto listening to given directions in order to draw a given image on a grid in the right location, correctly identifying whether the image should go above, below, to the left or right on the gird.
After visiting the boardroom to pitch our unique biscuit designs, our recipe was finalised and our new biscuit creations were made. Fantastically named, our Chocmellow Delights were not only tasty but looked delightful too!
We are so grateful to the wonderful Liverpool Cathedral for the incredible singing sessions they have delivered over the year. We have learnt so many joyful and meaningful songs that we had the pleasure of performing to our parents this week. We look forward to working with Mr Gordon again in September and hope our parents enjoyed the show as much as we did!
The children recently enjoyed a visit from Josh from Formby Library who shared all the exciting details about this year's Summer Reading Challenge. There are two ways you can take part in the Summer Reading Challenge:- You can join at Formby Library and take part in person. The librarian will give you a collector folder, stickers, and other special rewards, and help you find books to read.
- Or, take part online by signing up here. Set a reading goal and log your books on your profile. When you reach your goal, you will unlock a virtual badge and certificate. Link: https://summerreadingchallenge.org.uk/join-in
We are looking forward to spending one last week together… even if we will shed a tear or two as we say our goodbyes! See you Monday, Year 4!
Date: 4th Jul 2024 @ 10:21am
It has been as busy as ever in Year 4 and we are certainly making the most of our time together before the Summer Break.
In order to understand our new monthly value of responsibility, we recorded all of the responsibilities we hold both in school and at home. We connected our statements to forma chain and recognised that if we don’t uphold our responsibilities, this chain will break.
After receiving a letter from a curious caver, we set to the task of researching facts to form a reply to the many questions the caver has asked. He claimed he had tripped on a stalactite, but we know that can’t be possible as they are located on the cave ceilings!? But don’t worry, we explained in full detail that this couldn’t have been the case and in fact, it may have been a stalagmite he tripped on.
In Maths, we have been collecting data and representing the data on a bar and line graph. We have considered the increments the graph scale should go up in and even used a key to distinguish between two sets of data represented on our graphs.
To continue our focus on sound, we took to the challenge of creating absorbent boxes in Science. After using a diamond 9 to predict which materials would be the most and least absorbent, we selected our top 3 and took to sound proofing our boxes.
Have a brilliant weekend, Year 4. See you on Monday!
Date: 27th Jun 2024 @ 12:03pm
So much fun and games this week as we celebrated Sports Day!
To kick start the week, we considered how religions carry out their prayer. After identifying that prayer mats are used inside mosques, we considered what our prayer mat might look like using symbols and colours special to us.
We have continued to be inspired by the story ‘Blue John’ when writing and have loved delving into the four chapters we have read so far. We considered what we might see and hear if we were the child dancing in the cavern with Blue John and incorporated the use of similes to describe what our senses would experience. Later, we moved on to creating an explanation text to outline how Blue John was created using Geographical vocabulary associated with the aspects of a cave.
In Maths, we recognised the difference between quadrilaterals identifying what parallel lines and the name of 3D shapes. We focused on how many faces and edges 3D shapes have before moving on to look at interrupting pictograms.
We also enjoyed a visit to the Scholastic Book Fair this week and were delighted to find some fantastic reads to go back and purchase.
What a fantastic Sports Day full of laughter and smiles! Thank you to everyone who attended and made it a day to remember. We truly had the best time racing and the joy on our faces was clear to see.
Of course, another highlight was our return visit to Laurel’s Wood. We were delighted to return and learn more outdoor skills whilst putting those we learnt last time to good use. We were thrilled to be able to build different types of dens and even toast marshmallows on a fire!
Have a lovely weekend, Year 4!
Date: 19th Jun 2024 @ 11:53am
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A week full of memory making and learning highlights in Year 4!
‘The Boy Who Cried Wolf’ is one of the most famous fables and we loved revisiting the story this week to think deeper about our understanding of our Collective Worship value, Truthfulness. In RE, we reflected on times when we engage in prayer and the time it gives us to truly reflect and take a minute to ourselves. We discussed the places and times other religions pray, taking a closer look at prayer mats and the symbols we would include on our own mats.
In English, we continue with our story, ‘Blue John’. Before we started reading the new chapter, we explored our new STAR vocabulary, using our dictionaries to define the words and creating a glossary for future reference. We connected our learning with Geography, discovering new terms such as stalagmites and stalactites. Using Hot Seating, we explored the thoughts and feelings on the Queen of Darkness and used fronted adverbials to create sentences about her actions towards Blue John. Our learning then progressed to spotting features in explanation texts and justifying when a new paragraph should be used.
In Maths, we identified different sizes of angles recognising those that are obtuse, acute and right angles. We compared angle sizes in different shapes before identifying angles as turns.
To kick start our DT project, we conducted some product research with biscuit testing! After analysing the appearance and packaging of different biscuits, it was time to sample their taste and texture. We look forward to designing our own recipes and packaging for our own biscuit designs.
To celebrate National School Sport Week, our Sports Ambassadors devised a plan to set up different sporting activities on the playground for us to enjoy at breaktimes this week. From dodgeball to tennis, we spent our breaktimes playing with friends, developing our skills and enjoying time taking part in team games. We are thrilled to have been given the opportunity to grow in confidence and take part in sports we might not normally play.
The countdown is now on to Sports Day and we are looking forward to inviting our loved ones to come and watch us race next week! Have a great weekend, Year 4.
Date: 12th Jun 2024 @ 10:53am
This week has flown by! It must be all the excitement leading up to our fantastic Summer term events.
In our RE lesson this week, we unpicked the Lord’s Prayer to comprehend the meaning behind the prayer and the terminology used. We identified that the Lord’s Prayer is a Christian prayer which Jesus taught his disciples to say. The prayer begins by making it clear who people are praying too because Christians believe that God is the Father of everyone.
This week we have carried out lessons to recap our learning and completed assessments to showcase our knowledge. The positivity and passion for learning that fills the room when the children are tasked with showcasing their thinking is incredible to see!
We are delighted to announce that our Multiplication Check is officially over and we couldn’t be prouder of the commitment and dedication the children have shown towards recalling their times tables. What a joy to hear from all of the children that the test ‘Really wasn’t anything to be worried about!’
A happy Father's Day this weekend. We hope you enjoy a weekend of makign memories with your loved ones... and of course watching the football!
A week full of hard work and smiles, Year 4. Thank you for shined brighter than the stars in the universe!
Date: 6th Jun 2024 @ 9:39am
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The final term is upon us and we are delighted to be spending lots of opportunities learning and having fun in the sunshine.
In RE, we discussed how we have all had opportunities to pray in many different ways, through our school assemblies, time in church and our own reflective time. We explained what prayer means to us and concluded that a prayer is an expression of belief and commitment. Using our handprints, we unpicked using our five fingers, five things we pray for including those who teach us, lead us, those who love us and those who are sick and weak.
With a focus still on Time, we looked at how we convert between analogue and digital time, before exploring how time is recorded in a 24-hour format. We considered those times which occur during the day and times that pass by while we sleep.
Moving on from stories surrounding the wonders of volcanoes, we now delve into the depth of caves and caverns with inspiration from the wonderful book titled ‘Blue John’. The story sees us venturing down into the caves where the Queen of Darkness lives and we follow the adventures of her rare and precious baby, Blue John, who has been created using the blue of a glacier and the gold of the sun. Using the text, we discussed what stalactites are and used similes to describe how they grow. We used aspects of the text to correct the use of past tense and used commands to write a set of instructions.
In PE, we have been working hard to prepare for our up and coming Sports Day. From the egg and spoon race to the sack race, we smiled and laughed throughout as we raced our way to victory against our friends and even mastered a three-legged race. We cannot wait to show our parents and careers the races we have been practising in a couple of weeks
Our History lessons this term all stem around our perspectives of the Vikings and the stereotypes we hold. We generated a range of adjectives and nouns used to describe Vikings and reinforce the chronology of the times of the first Viking raid using a timeline of events. In the role of Saxon spies, we draw from memory, a Viking ship and then posed questions to analyse its features. Next week, we will examine why Vikings have such a bad reputation
On Friday, we attended the TSP Summer Fair. This is by far our most favourite event of the year and we were thrilled to be able to make memories with our friends. From the morning disco, face painting to the bouncy castles and obstacle course. We simply loved it all!
An excellent week and we hope that the sun continues to shine long into the weekend. Enjoy and see you on Monday!
Date: 16th May 2024 @ 10:16am
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The end of term is upon us, our spirits are high and we have lots of reasons to feel proud of ourselves this term.
In Collective Worship, we considered all the times we have been courageous by facing your fears and showing strength in the face of adversity. We recognised how courage refers not only to physical courage but also to moral or emotional courage. As a class, we decided that our favourite courageous moment this term was our efforts to face our fears and enter the Bat Cave at Chester Zoo! In RE, we designed notice boards worth of stading outside our local churches. Our notcie boards promoted the special uses a church has, that enable our communities to come together.
We moved onto looking at time in Maths, reminding ourselves of how to read an analogue clock before moving onto converting and comparing different units of time. We identified how often a leap year and discussed how there are approximately 4 weeks in a month, although most months are slightly longer than this.
It was a joy to revisit some of our English books from Year 2 and look back at a piece of poetry we wrote inspired by the Matilda Musical song ‘When I grow up’. From Lamborghinis to flying off to space, our dreams had no limits! We adopted our poems from two years ago and changed the verses to include a more up to date focus on our future hopes and dreams, consider the hopes we have for others too. We used a repetitive pattern and the phrase ‘so that I’ to add justification for our hopes and dreams. Our poems are definitely worthy to be read aloud on the West End Stage!
In Spanish, we learnt the Spanish words associated with the items we use daily in the classroom and the equipment we need to support our learning. We learnt how we can use the phrase ‘Tengo’ to mean ‘I have’ and add the Spanish word for the equipment in front of us to finish the phase to explain to someone the things we have in our pencil class. Our focus turned to considering whether to use ‘un’ or ‘una’ and how ‘mi’ should be used if we are talking about an item that is mine.
Please see or updated virtual classroom attached to this blog if you would like to explore any of the themes we will be exploring after the half term.
Have a restful Half Term, Year 4!
Date: 16th May 2024 @ 9:59am
Another great week in Year 4!
It was time to get crafty in RE and design our very own churches. Taking a step by step approach to outline the church building, we then added the finer details to show our awareness of the features in a church. Our churches came to life with the addition of stain glasses windows, created using coloured tissue paper to make our desired effect.
Excitement filled the classroom as our preparations and research projects for Chester Zoo got underway. After analysing virtual information boards around the zoo, we created our own information board bursting with factual information about the rainforest and the wildlife that might be found inside it. We selected our own catchy headings, pictures, 3 second summary and sub-headings to support the factual information we recorder to share with the reader. We recognised the importance of making the information board engaging to read and discussed how the use of questions, alliteration and both headings and sub-headings can contribute towards this.
As we draw closer to carrying out our Multiplication Check, we are focusing on the tricky times tables that require a few tricks and tips to help us master. Learning through songs, games and number lines are all strategies we are finding help us grasp the trickier facts we need to recall. We have also been confirming our understanding of converting pence to pounds, finding change and solving money problems by combining and sharing amounts of money.
What a day we had on Friday! If the coach trip itself wasn’t exciting enough, our smiles filled the zoo as we watched the elephants showering, tigers roaring and penguins gliding. We headed off to explore different enclosures, spoke to many of the Zoo Keepers and ventured through their very own rainforest. To conclude the day, we mustered up the courage to enter the free flying bat cave.
Date: 9th May 2024 @ 9:26am
A short, yet productive, week for us in Year 4!
Thinking about the colours we spotted when visiting St. Peter’s church last week, we reflected on why these particular colours are used within the church and the meaning behind them. After exploring what each colour signifies, we connected the colours to events in the Christian calendar such as Advent, Lent and Easter and identified the colour we would associated with each event or celebration.
In Maths, we compared amounts of money and recognised the notes or coins needed to make an amount greater than or less than a given amount. Using our understanding of rounding, we focused on recognising the nearest pound our amounts were closest to and visited the Year 4 TSP Sweet Shop again to check the change was correct when we purchased an item.
After reminding ourselves of the key features of a non-chronological report, we turned our attention to a group of cute Sloths and researched factual information we could use in our very own non-chronological report. Our facts were then grouped into paragraphs, as we allocated a suitable sub-heading to each paragraph, thought of a catching heading and added pictures to match our facts.
We were thrilled to have been given the opportunity to have a Skateboarding lesson on Thursday! With our helmets and knee pads on, we used our balance and coordination skills to not only control the movement of the skateboard but keep ourselves balanced when taking our feet off the ground.
Have a wonderful weekend, Year 4.
Date: 2nd May 2024 @ 9:56am
Another great week here in Year 4!
To connect out learning with a church within our community, we visited St. Peter’s church to identify the common features found inside churches and learnt about their importance to the Christianity religion. Reflecting on our Collective Worship value of perseverance, we set ourselves a goal for the day, week or term and mapped out the steps we would take to ensure we reached our goal.
After reminding ourselves of the key features of a non-chronological report, we identified the heading and factual information about the amazing Amazon rainforest. We were challenged to create a 3 second summary to explain what the page described and create our own sub-headings, for the numbered paragraphs. With so many words ending in the ‘ous’ spelling, we reminded ourselves of the spelling rule when using this ending changing words such as danger and poison into dangerous and poisonous.
Continuing our focus on decimals, we used number lines to round a given decimal to the nearest whole number and ordered decimals from the smallest to largest, also making use of our greater than and less than signs. We then moved on to recognised a half and a quarter as a fraction and its equivalent decimal.
Have wonderful Bank Holiday weekend!
Date: 16th Apr 2024 @ 11:34am
What a fantastic first week back we have had! It was so lovely to see all the children back and enjoying spending time with their friends, excited to hear all about the new things we will be learning this term.
This term, our focus turns to looking at different churches in RE and considering if all churches are the same. Through research, we discovered this week that not all church buildings look the same from the outside but some have similar features according to denomination. We also used religious vocabulary to names features of a church we already knew from visiting St Peter’s and Holy Trinity Church.
We have continued to develop our knowledge of decimals in Maths. We now understand that when dividing, numbers can be shifted into the tenths and hundredths and we must show this by using a zero and decimal place before the number. We also recognised how to make a whole using tenths and hundreds. Next week, we will identify the fractions for a half, quarter and three quarters, we identified the correlating decimal and rounded decimals to the nearest whole.
Our new focus book ‘Where the Forest Meets the Sea’ by Jeannie Baker connects to our Geography and Art topics this term and is full of beautiful illustrates to showcase the wonders of a rainforest. We have explored the sounds associated with a rainforest and used descriptive language to outline what our senses could see and hear. Later, we took sentences from the book and changed the pronouns to ensure there was a varying range of pronouns used. Next week, we will be creating our own glossary of words in the book to unpick STAR vocabulary and consider the use of tense when describing the rainforest tin the past, present and future.
The classroom filled with excitement and determination to achieve a BINGO this week, as we explored a range of books from our reading corner in order to find different criteria on our bingo cards and to discover an interesting read to start the term.
In Geography, we focused on identifying the location of rainforests on a world map. We first identified the line of the equator and learnt that the Tropic of Cancer and Capricorn are located above and below the equator line and it is within this zone that the rainforests are located. Our Science topic surrounding living things started with the use of classification charts, as we classified living things by considering which of the statements we could agree were associated with each plant or animal.
Using the artist Henri Rousseau as inspiration, we explored his famous painting ‘Tiger in a tropical storm’ and discussed the techniques used in the image. With our sights set on making the animals in the forest scene ‘pop’, we made our colour choices and began making the parrots drawn in our forest scenes stand out amongst the over growth. In PE, we began to take on the sport of Baseball, learning what the game entails and the names of the bases, key players and batting style we need to use.
With 13 laps to complete over the course of the week, we took to the field each day to complete laps in support of the London Mini Marathon. Whether we chose to run, walk, skip and jog, we ensured we motivated each other to cross the line and never give up.
If you would like to complete extra Maths practise at home, please use this link to access free workbooks covering topics from our Maths learning this year: https://whiteroseeducation.com/parent-pupil-resources/maths/free-downloads#download
It has been so lovely to have you back, Year 4! Have a restful weekend.
Date: 25th Mar 2024 @ 10:32am
We the end of the Spring Term upon us, we spent some time reflecting on our fantastic achievements and our goings on this week.
This term, we have been working hard to consolidate our knowledges of our times tables ahead of the Year 4 Multiplication Check. We have found that we learn our times tables best through games such as Battle Ships, Monopoly and Top Trumps. We also found a great resource which enabled us to make times tables fortune tellers which meant we could continue to practise our times tables at break times and through the school day.
We have thoroughly enjoyed reading the story ‘When the Giant Stirred’ and took pride in immersing our own characters into the story this week. Applying our knowledge of fronted adverbials, dialogue and expressive language, we showcased our learning this term by re-writing the story with our own character in mind.
On Thursday morning the children were shocked to the Easter Bunny hopping around school. We had a fun time dancing along with the bunny and spreading some Easter cheer.
What a wonderful way to end the term by taking part in our Easter Service led by the fantastic Year 3 children. It was amazing to watch their performance and see their incredible acting and singing come to life. We did a great job supporting Year 3 with the lovely songs in our service and celebrating this wonderful time of the year.
Please find our updated virtual classroom attached to this blog to support optional Home Learning over the Easter holiday.
What an amazing term we have had, Year 4. Go make some incredible memories with your family and friends this Easter and we look forward to seeing you back on Monday 15th April. Best wishes from us all x
Reminders:
- School commences on Monday 15th April.
- Clarinet lessons continue in the Summer term.
- Year 4 PE lessons remain on Wednesday and Friday each week.
Date: 21st Mar 2024 @ 10:30am
As the half term draws closer, let us take a look at some of this week’s highlights…
Coming to the end of our RE topic, we summarised the key Christian values of trust and forgiveness making the connection that Christians believe that they can trust Jesus. We recalled the events of Holy Week and Easter, before remembering incidents of betrayal in the Easter story, through the actions of Judas and in movies we like to watch.
It was time to start our story writing in English, to create our own versions of our focus text ‘When the Giant Stirred’. We began by planning the opening, build up, problem, resolution and ending to our stories and noting any dialogue we would expect our characters to have in each part of our story. We ensured we thought about the possible fronted adverbials we could use to help set the scene or time of day events were taking place and how we could use a range of nouns to make our writing more exciting to read. Each day, we ensured we wrote a chunk of our story to form a paragraph so our stories went on a slow and steady, yet detailed journey, from start to end.
This week in Maths, we have explored how to find fractions of given quantities or amounts using bar models to help us understand how many parts the number is split into and what amount is within each part. We then identified tenths on a place value chart and began to understand tenths as a decimal and fraction, noting the jump on the place value chart when we divide a one-digit number by 10 or 100.
Within our Guided Reading story ‘Ariki and the Island of Wonders’, Ariki is a young girl bored with her interminable lessons on waves and constellations. We were shocked by Ariki’s feelings towards learning about constellations, as we find them pretty cool.
We continue to shine in Mrs McArdle’s clarinet lessons! We now understand how to construct our clarinets and are building speed in doing so, the sounds we are producing are becoming more of a perfected tone and we are even incorporating a range of notes by moving our finger position on the instrument. Our History lessons have also been packed full of evidence hunting, as we focused on the push and pull factors that show reasoning for Saxon settlement and we uncovered the mystery of the empty grave in Sutton Hoo. This week we delved deeper into the story of how Christianity to Britain and it took about 70 years for English kings to give up pagan ways and become Christian.
There was only one way to end the week… with an Easter Egg Hunt! On the sound of the horn, we set off finding tokens around the school to exchange for an Easter treat!
Before we take on the last week, Year 4, have a wonderful weekend!
Date: 13th Mar 2024 @ 9:10am
A week of reflecting about the power of the brain this week in Year 4 and reminding ourselves just how creative and critical we can be.
In RE, we focused on Peter’s denial and Jesus’ forgiveness. We questioned why Peter betrayed Jesus and the denial he showed in the courtyard. We the importance of forgiving others and why Jesus encourages forgiveness too.
Focusing on the thoughts, feelings and dialogue one of the villagers may be experiencing in our story, we created a Bridge map with the support of some fantastic villagers in our classroom room, roleplaying the role to support our writing. We deduced from a given text different spelling, punctuation and grammar elements that should be present in our writing and looked at the power of using different nouns/noun phrases to enhance our writing.
Continuing our focus on fractions, we unpicked different ways to represent a mixed fraction and how in turn, it shows an improper fraction. Then our focus shifted to adding and subtracting a fraction with the same denominator before securing our understanding using the Learning by Questions website. Next week, we will begin to develop an awareness of decimals and their relationship with fractions.
To acknowledge Brain Awareness Week, we looked into our own brains by creating Brain Hats. Placing the hats on our heads, we were able to look at both sides of the brain to help us recognise its essential functions, as well as how the different lobes support us every day. We also reflected on our thinking maps, thinking hats and unique 4C model with focus on how these tools we have in school support us with our learning and enable our brains to create deeper thinking.
To celebrate British Science Week, we became engineers and made our very own pendulum timers. We experimented how to measure time using the pendulums and explored ways to slow the pendulum down and speed it up. We also entered the annual, UK-wide poster competition. We used our creativity to design a poster surrounding the concept of time. Our posters illustrated what time means to use and how it relates to our British Science Week activity.
Red nose filled the classroom on Friday as we completed lots of fun and games – all with a red theme – in aid of Red Nose Day. It was our mission to ensure we came together to raise smiles in recognition of helping others through tough times in their lives. We should did have the best afternoon!
Have a wonderful weekend, Year 4!
Date: 5th Mar 2024 @ 8:42pm
A week full of determination to achieve and a positive outlook towards all of our learning tasks this week… even if we did have a test or two to complete.
This week, the children have worked incredibly hard to complete assessments to showcase their learning so far this year. Our school value of Hope was certainly achieved by all, as they tried their best and were determined to complete their assessments to the best of their ability.
To kick start National Careers Week, we took part in a quiz to guess what jobs the staff at TSP had before they joined the school. We realised that lots of our staff took many different routes before joining the TSP family.
In Collective Worship, we discussed how sometimes people do and say things that hurt us and how it can be difficult when someone has hurt us to forgive. Using the analogy of a fizzing vitamin tablet, we dropped a tablet into a bottle of water. As it fizzed away, we let the hurt feelings go and imagined forgiving the person as the hurt disappeared. We then reflected on how it feels to forgive others and the relief it brings to our hearts and mind.
Thinking about how we represent a new speaker when writing speech, we created a conversation between the villagers in our story ‘When the giant stirred’, reinforcing our knowledge of how to write speech and also adding the addition of a new line for a new speaker. Next week, we will look at how we can incorporate expanded noun phrases and front adverbials into our writing, alongside speech sentences.
Our Maths lessons have helped us to understand how to add and subtract fractions when the denominator is the same and how convert a improper fraction into a mixed number. Next week, we will start to explore decimals and what fraction and decimal amount are equivalent.
In recognition of International Women’s Day, we delved into books from the Little People, Big Dreams Series to find shared characteristics of inspiring women in history, politics, music, arts, design, science, and sports. Characteristics we identified included bravery, ambition and empowerment.
We were amazed by the incredible costumes on show as we celebrated World Book Day on Thursday. It was a joy to see how so many characters from our favourite books were brought to life… some personalists and characteristics were also portrayed too! What a thrill as we took on the challenge of discovering who the Masked Reader was, hidden behind the mask. With our critical eyes at the ready, we looked for clues and distinguished the book being read by listening carefully to the words and characters heards. We also participated in a book bingo, hunting for books in the class libraries across school to cross of our bingo cards. Books we had to find included one with a dragon, a book with a green cover and a poetry book. We definitely left on Thursday night with an increased loved for reading and an eagerness to delve into new books we discovered during the day.
We hope that you make the most of your weekend, Year 4 and we look forward to seeing you again on Monday!
Date: 27th Feb 2024 @ 10:22pm
Reflecting back to the moments of betrayal and trust we identified in popular children’s films last week, we connected our understanding to help us identify when trust and betrayal were apparent in the Easter story. We recognised that Jesus trusted his disciples and they trusted him, yet he was betrayed to the Roman authorities by one of his disciples, Judas.
After reflecting on the daily chores the villagers undertake in the film Moana, we began to write diary entries to document their daily lives. We ensured each paragraph started with a fronted adverbial to indicate the time of day being referred to and structure our writing. We looked back at some of the STAR Vocab we learnt last week and set ourselves a challenge to incorporate our newly learnt words into our writing. Later in the week, our focus switched to writing speech and recalling the rules associated with using inverted comma’s. Next week, we will be working hard to ensure that when we are writing speech, we use a new line when a new character begins to speak.
In Maths, we have been converting improper fractions to whole numbers and identifying equivalent fractions. We made the connection that in order for a fraction to be equivalent, we multiply the numerator and denominator of the original fraction by the same amount. This has ensured we have not only been learning about fractions this week, but also recalling lots of our times tables. Next week, we will be converting improper fractions into Mixed numbers.
We are continuing to thoroughly enjoy our singing lessons with Liverpool Cathedral and preparation is well underway to show off our vocals when we perform to our loved ones next month to showcase the incredible songs we have been learning.
In Science, we constructed a simple series electrical circuit, to build a traffic light. After creating a 3D box, we fitted 3 light builds with a coloured film over the top before creating 3 circuits containing their own battery and switch to light the bulbs and display the coloured traffic lights. Our Football skills continue to develop in PE, as we pinpoint the three main coaching points to accurately dribble a ball and the inside and outside hook technique we can use to help us change direction and dodge a defender.
With our school value of Hope in mind, we continue to be determined to achieve and give our best efforts to beat out Multiplication Check score each and every morning.
What a busy week, Year 4! Have a restful weekend and we look forward to seeing you all on Monday.
Date: 21st Feb 2024 @ 10:24am
What a fantastic first week back!
With Ash Wednesday in our thoughts, we then reflected on how Lent allows Christians to remember Jesus’ fasting in the desert and the things we would give up as a test of our self-discipline. Our focus in RE is to focus on trust and betrayal and how this can be seen in the Easter story, but first we needed to understand what the two terms meant. To do this, we had such fun guiding our trusted friends around our trim trail… blindfolded of course! Continuing with our focus on trust and betrayal in RE, we watched clips from popular children’s movies and discussed the times we could see the characters displaying trust or moments of betrayal. Clips included the trust Wendy had in Peter Pan when taking her first flight and the betrayal Lotso showed to Woody in Toy Story 3.
Fractions have been our focus in Maths, reminding ourselves of how to represent a whole and beginning to find patterns on number lines to be able to count beyond 1, by adding and taking away fractions. It has been important for us to connect our prior knowledge to recall terms such as equivalence, denominator and numerator. Next week, we will begin to partition mixed numbers and compare and order mixed numbers. With a big focus also on Times Tables this term, we are working hard to complete a daily Multiplication Times Table Check and use our school value of Hope to beat our score each day.
It was time to discover what our new book is for the term and make predictions regarding the setting, character and plot in this term’s English book ‘When the Giant Stirred’. By looking at two variations of the front cover, we soon identified the importance of using expanded noun phrases to describe and specify. We found rich vocabulary to help us use topic specific nouns such as Macaws, Loggerhead Sea Turtles and the Pacific Ocean. Next week, we will use the Moana film to help us understand the duties of villagers and begin to complete diary entries, using fronted adverbials, to outline the daily goings on in the tribal village.
On Monday, we were introduced to our new musical instruments and Mrs McCardle discussed with us the different parts of the clarinet and how we can make a sound using the wooden reed inserted into the top of our mouth piece. She showed us how to put the pieces of our clarinet together and the way in which we need to blow into the mouth piece to make a sound. Each week, we will be working hard to learn some musical compositions which we can shared with our loved ones at home later in the year.
We also had a great afternoon creating a Science experiment that enabled us to create the effect of an erupting volcano. By mixing vinegar, Bicarbonate soda and fairy liquid… with a course a splash of red food colouring… our volcanoes bubbled up and out of our volcanoes craters and created a flow of lava trickling down the sides.
A jam-packed week, Year 4. Have a restful weekend!
Reminders:
If your child would like to take their clarinet home after their Music lesson each week, please confirm permission by emailing the Year 4 email account (y4@tsp.sefton.school).
Multiplication Times Tables Check Practise resources can be found on Google Classroom, alongside additional Maths and Reading learning that can be completed at home.
PE days this term are Wednesday and Friday therefore, Year 4 should come to school in their PE kits on Wednesday and Friday.
Date: 7th Feb 2024 @ 10:54am
What a great final week of the Spring 1 term!
This week in RE, we identified how authority is symbolised in a range of different religions. We specifically focused on the Torah and discovered how it contains many laws that guide Jews on how to live a life that pleases God. We also connected our learning with the value of Wisdom, discussing how the Torah is the main source of wisdom to help Jews improve their relationship with God and to live good lives. To continue our focus on Joy, we created our own prayers in class to thank God for all the things around us that bring joy to our lives. Our prayers focused on showing our gratitude to God for the feeling of great pleasure and happiness when we are filled with joy - that feeling when you just can’t stop smiling or jumping about.
After unpicking the story ‘Escape from Pompeii’, this week, it was time to plan and write our own versions of the story. On Monday, we began by recalling the original story, splitting it into 5 parts; the opening, build up, problem, resolution and ending. We were great at retrieving key vocabulary and historical language from the text, that we could use in our own writing. Following this, we planned our story using the first-person point of view, writing as if we were Tranio, the main character in the story. We then took to our Author books to showcase our incredible writing this term. We sure did connect our understanding of volcanic eruptions to create our artwork, before carefully copying across our imaginative and historical stories.
In Maths, we have been focusing on perimeter and made our very own Peri the Snail to support us with our measurements. With our snails attached to a highlighter, we used the highlighter to leave a snail’s slithering trail around the edge of the shape to measure the shape’s perimeter on a grid. We then moved onto measuring the sides of a rectangle with a ruler, before recognising that the measurements of opposing sides of a rectangle are the same.
To celebrate National Football Week, we learnt how to play a game of Crab Football. Keeping in the crab position, we aimed for the bench in order to score a goal. Our TSP Sports Ambassadors have also been on the look out for a ‘Player of the Match’ during our breaktimes and PE lessons to award those showing great sportsmanship or skill development when playing the sport.
A huge thank you to our Year 5 and Year 6 TSP Digital Leaders who helped us to understand the importance of Safer Internet Day. They shared some great tips and tricks on how we can stay safe online, before we watched a remake of the Goldilocks story to spot some mistakes Goldilocks carries out when filming her actions in the three bears house. We also completed an Hour of Code, watching tutorials of how to use the programming software to code characters to complete different actions and support us in building our very own farms.
Attached to this blog is also this month's Virtual Classroom - once again with links to various websites that can further support home learning. You can also find the Year 4 Virtual Classroom on Google Classroom.
We wish you a restful and enjoyable half term!
Date: 31st Jan 2024 @ 9:24am
Here is a snapshot of some of this week’s learning in Year 4….
With a little help from some friends from Sesame Street, we learnt all about Shabbat, the Jewish Day of Rest. We discovered that Shabbat happens each week from sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday. During Shabbat, Jewish people remember the story of creation from the Torah where God created the world in 6 days and rested on the 7th day. Using a flow map, we sequenced the things that happen during Shabbat including family meals, prayers at the synagogue and drinking from the Kiddush cup.
It was time to write letters this week in English, showing off our knowledge of the events that unfolded in Pompeii after tremors could be felt on the ground. It has been heart-warming to see how passionate the children are about our book ‘Escape from Pompeii’ and the historical language they have used in their writing. Connecting our learning back to our speech writing checklists, we also took to the challenge of including speech in our writing. Our letter writing concluded by answering a critical question - should the children return to Pompeii? It was great to hear the debates the children formed surrounding the question and the powerful justification they wrote to support their answers.
To celebrate National Storytelling Week, we have been re-watching our favourite short films and adding our own narration to the clips and voices to the characters. Our narration has brought emotion to the scenes and enabled us to describe the journey of events throughout the film.
We grasped how to use the Bus Stop method in Maths, to provide us with a quick and efficient method for working out division with larger numbers. In this method, we placed the number to be divided under a bracket (or bus stop) to separate it from the number to be divided by. To fully understand this method, we ensured we connected our learning with our known Multiplication facts to calculate how many times a number goes into another number e.g. how many 8’s in 40. We know this method will come in useful when dividing 3-digit numbers and when solving word problems. With knowledge of four written methods to support our calculation, we were given the challenge of selecting the correct method to use to answer a selection of arithmetic calculations; we picked from column addition, column subtraction, column multiplication and our newly learnt bus stop method.
Continuing our focus surrounding volcanoes in Geography, we learnt all about the 3 different types of volcanoes and how we can identify them based on their physical features. Using Google Earth, we identified volcanoes around the world and decided whether they are a Cinder, Shield or Composite volcano.
Bench Dodgeball has been a class favourite this week. We love the new rule which allows us to catch the ball when stood on the bench to gain our place back on the team. In Science, we have investigated how to keep a bulb alight in a circuit and discovered how to connect our electrical components in order to make a motor and buzzer work. In Art, we have explored how to use a range of tones to give a drawing texture, shadows or emphasis on key areas.
Wishing you all a lovely weekend!
Date: 24th Jan 2024 @ 10:49am
We can’t quite believe it’s Friday again! Time sure does fly when you’re having fun!
Year 4 were set a task this week to reflect on their understanding of Wisdom, take inspiration from the wise people we have been thinking about and instil wisdom into their everyday lives. With this challenge in mind, the children have been using their judgements to choose right and wrong in different situations and sharing their knowledge with others to help them make wise choices.
In RE, we identified clues in artwork which suggest that Jesus has authority over the others illustrations that can be seen in the artwork. We were quick to realise that Jesus is stood above or in front of the others in the illustrations, is painted in white and often has a graceful, angelic and powerful pose.
Using a checklist to ensure we have all elements needed, we created sentences including speech to show what the characters in our story ‘Escape from Pompeii’ might be saying to each other. We had to remember to always start our speech with a capital letter and include punctuation before closing the speech. It was great to hear how many variations of the word ‘said’ we could identify to make our speech sentences just that little more exciting to read. We then used a range of words to describe the mood in different points of the story and planned a diary entry to sequence how the eruption of Mount Vesuvius unfolded. Next week, we are going to include speech when writing diary entries and continue to include fronted adverbials to help sequence events in time order.
To support our practise towards the Multiplication Check, we have joined the Emile Education Times Tables competition this week, taking on the football themed contest answering multiplication questions against other schools. We have loved increasing our speed and answer accuracy to help score points for our class. Our fingers are crossed we can top the leader board this week! We have connected our understanding of using column multiplication in Maths, to now multiply a three-digit number and a one-digit number. Year 4 truly have mastered the steps they need to take in order to multiply accurately using this method. Later in the week, it was time to introduce division and practise using the bus stop method to help us to divide. Next week, we will continue to use the bus stop method to support our division calculations and draw upon our knowledge of different written methods to find the most efficient method to use to solve calculations.
We also took the time this week to remember those who suffered in the Holocaust, under Nazi persecution. We created a flame to represent the candles we lit in class in remembrance and explained why it is so important to mark this Memorial Day. In Science, we investigated what components were needed in order to make the current flow around an electrical circuit and we even unpicked the make up of a volcano, labelling the different parts on a diagram.
Year 4, you have worked your socks off this week! We hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Date: 17th Jan 2024 @ 10:31am
What a wonderful week in Year 4!
After recognising what authority looks like to us, this week, we identified Jesus’ authority in a range of Bible stories. By reflecting on Bible stories such as Jesus calms the storm, it became evident that Jesus has authority over humanity, as well as creation and life. In stories, it was clear that his authority is respected and admired by others, all hoping he will assert his authority to benefit them.
Later in the week, it was time to compare our lives with the life of a Roman child. We focused on the activities, games and jobs Roman children carried out and found similarities and differences to our lives. Using fronted adverbials, we created a diary explaining what Tranio, the Roman child in our story, did at different points of the day. We have been working incredibly hard to ensure our paragraphs consist of one or more sentences grouped together, which share ideas centred around one subject or element of our writing.
To support our multiplication calculations when multiplying two and three digit numbers by 1, we have learnt how to use the grid method and column multiplication method. We have completed lots of fluency questions to become confident in using these methods and at the end of the week, selected the method we felt most confident in using to support us in completing problem solving questions.
We have been very fortunate to start singing lessons this week with members of Liverpool Cathedral choir. They brought such joyful song to our classroom and had us all out of our seats copying actions and we sang out hearts out. We look forward to their return next week. In addition, we welcomed visitors from Edge Hill University who delivered a workshop to explain all about Chinese New Year. We were thrilled to have the opportunity to make Chinese lanterns and take part in the traditional Dragon dance.
A huge thank you to our Reading Ambassadors for sharing some Inclusion and Diversity books to read in class. We loved exploring the books this week and selecting our favourite to become our whole class read. To support our understanding of Volcanoes, we have also been reading an information book packed full of interesting facts about earthquakes, tectonic plates and the layers of the Earth. Our writing in English in bursting with technical vocabulary to describe volcanoes, as we have transferred vocabulary and facts learnt in our Guided Reading lessons, to our English lessons.
A reminder that a Parent briefing for the Multiplication Tables Check will take place next Tuesday in the Year 4 classroom. Information will be shared regarding what the Multiplication Tables Check is, and how you can support your child further at home.
Have a wonderful weekend, Year 4!
Reminders:
Tuesday 23rd January - Siblings School Photos
Wednesday 24th January - Parent Teacher Meetings in the School Hall
Wednesday 31st January - Parent Teacher Meetings in the School Hall
Wednesday 7th February - Parent Teacher Meetings School Hall
Date: 9th Jan 2024 @ 3:44pm
A Happy New Year to you all! It has been a delight to welcome Year 4 back into the classroom this week and we sure have had kicked things off with a bang!
To acknowledge of Collective Worship value of Wisdom, we identified the qualities wise people share and used critical thinking to discuss ‘Do you have to be clever to be wise?’ We discovered that although we do need knowledge, our experiences sand judgements are what give us wisdom. With a focus on Authority, we began our RE topic by comprehending what authority is and experiences of authority in our own lives or in professions of people around us. We concluded that the King, Government, Police and teachers all hold authority as they have the power or right to give orders and make decisions.
It is apparent that our focus on volcanoes this term is a huge interest and we are intrigued in all aspects of the curriculum to discover more about volcanoes to support our learning. In English, we have discovered a wealth of vocabulary this week to describe volcanoes and the environments they might be found in. We have defined and illustrated words such as barren, tremors, eruption and pumice, in order to remember their connection to volcanoes and how we can use them in our writing. Using conjunctions, we formed sentences to explain what happened in the opening of our story ‘Escape from Pompeii’, ensuring that we used a range of conjunctions and stayed away from the word ‘and’ as much as we could. We considered the words in the story which would need to be considered in order to create an image of the setting, spotting vocabulary that explained what could be seen, heard and smelt in the Roman town. Using our ideas, we formed a descriptive piece of writing to tell the reader what they would be able to see, hear and smell if they were to visit Pompeii. Next week, we will compare our lives with that of Tranio, the Roman child in our story, and create a diary entry of his daily life.
Connecting our understanding of multiplying by 10, we began the week by multiplying numbers by 100. We discovered that in order to multiply by 100, we need to move our place value counters two columns to the left. Using our knowledge of place value and how the digits move on a place value grid when we multiply by 10 and 100, we recognised that to divide by 10 and 100, we simply moved our counters to the right instead. Using our knowledge from the week, we completed word problems by recording the multiplication calculation we needed to complete and demonstrating the multiplication on a place value grid. Next week, our focus moves onto written methods and how we can use the grid and column method to support us in multiply two- and three-digit numbers.
In Geography, we discovered that the Earth is made up of four layers; the crust, the mantle, the outer core and the inner core. We identified what each layer’s substance is and the distance from the Earth’s crust. PE saw us taking on a defence game of dodgeball. Working as knights, we had to defend our castles from the incoming cannon balls and aim for the opposition’s defences. It was also time to bring back a classic board game in PE, as we took on the TSP Cluedo challenge. We used our orienteering skills and process of elimination to discover which TSP teacher committed a crim in our school. After discovering that electricity comes from different sources, we created a Tree Map to show how appliances in our classroom and household are powered. We discovered those that are mains powered and battery powered before moving onto consider renewable and non-renewable energy.
All children across the whole school are encouraged to read each day both in and out of school. Some additional recommended Reading at Home resources can be found here.
We look forward to seeing you next week, Year 4. Have a great weekend!
Date: 13th Dec 2023 @ 6:59pm
Christmas is nearly here and the New Year will soon be upon us. It might be time to part ways for now, but we look forward to the incredible learning and memorable experiences we will share together in the year to come in Year 4.
What a better way to end the term than with a celebration of our amazing Christmas Service performance. We are so proud of each and every one of you. You were truly remarkable and gave TSP the best Christmas send-off possible.
We hope our class Twitter page has reflected all the laughs and wonderful learning that has taken place since September. Thank you for the gifts and well wishes sent our way, we are truly grateful!
It has been a delight to count down to Christmas with you all, Year 4. You have made December such a magical experience for us all and we cannot wait to welcome you all back in January. From us all here in Year 4, we wish you a very happy Christmas and a safe and enjoyable festive period. Keep shining like the stars that you are! See you in 2024!
Date: 13th Dec 2023 @ 11:03am
Our time in Year 4 this week has truly ensured we are in the festive spirit, ready for Santa’s arrival.
There was a rush of excitement in the air as the children entered the classroom on Monday morning. The schoolwide sing-off was being held and they were ready to sing and dance their hearts out. The school was separated into four houses and then they had an hour to rehearse the vocals and to create choreography for their given Christmas song. After a short break, everyone reconvened in the school hall to compete to give the best show possible. The children all said that they can't wait to do it again next year!
We also filled our boots full of Christmas dinner, celebrating the festive period with our teachers and friends as we wore our Christmas hats and pulled Christmas crackers. If that wasn’t enough, we even gathered to complete our very own TSP Santa Dash. We dashed around school on the hunt for festive clues to reveal the name of the reindeer hidden behind the clue. After discovering the hidden reindeer name, we then crossed off the associated teacher from our list until we were left with just one teacher who we believed was hiding a red nose!
Naturally, glitter and sequins filled the classroom this week as we created lots of Christmas craft. We also brought our best dance moves and favourite festive jumpers to our Christmas party day, dancing to our favourite Christmas songs and playing some of our favourite party games… with a festive twist of course!
The final preparations are being made for our Christmas Service next week at church. After many rehearsals in the classroom and school hall, we finally got the chance to venture to the real venue on Tuesday morning where we will deliver the message of the Greatest Story Ever Told. The children deliver their lines with sincerity and their singing is sure to touch your heart. Things are really coming together and all of their teachers are so proud of the dedication they are putting towards a meaningful, memorable production.
Have a restful and Christmassy weekend, Year 4! We look forward to seeing you on Monday.
Reminders:
- School finishes at 1pm next Tuesday 19th December
- School will resume on Monday 8th January 2024.
- PE days for Year 2 after Christmas will be on Tuesday and Wednesday.