4M

WB 11th July 

In our final RE lesson of Year 4, we wrote some beautiful poems about peace. Last week, we discussed what things people can do to create peace within the world and made some ‘peace leaves’ to display in our classroom. This week, we listened to and read the lyrics of John Lennon’s famous song ‘Imagine’ and discussed what John Lennon believes would create peace in the world. Following this, we compared the ideas in the song to our personal beliefs of what peace looks like, linking back to our peace leaves and poetry planning from the previous week. Finally, we put pen to paper and wrote some fantastic peace poems and some children even got the opportunity to perform their incredible poems at the end of the lesson! Have a read of some of the poems to understand how mature and touching the children’s views are. If everyone in the world had the same attitudes as the children of 4M, the world would definitely be a much more peaceful place!

Just a final note – I’d like to say thank you to 4M for being such a lovely, kind and enthusiastic group of children and congratulate you on an amazing year of learning. I hope you have a wonderful and relaxing summer holiday and I wish you all the best of luck in Year 5. Your Year 5 teachers will be very lucky to be able to teach such an amazing group of children!

WB 4th July 

In our penultimate art lesson, we prepared ourselves for our final water colour painting! Firstly, we looked at water colour paintings of trees in different seasons and discussed the similarities and differences we noticed between the trees, thinking about the colours, the density of the leaves, how exposed the branches were and more. After this, our amazingly talented teacher (we had the pleasure of the lovely Miss Conway teaching our art lesson this week) painted some examples to show us, recapping the water colour techniques we have learnt over this half term. The children were able to teach Miss Conway lots of different techniques, such as using scrunched up paper to dab on the paint for the leaves and changing the concentration of the water colour paint to alter the tone. Finally, we had a go at painting four different trees ourselves, one for each season, in order to practise the techniques in readiness to paint our final design next week (one tree that represents all four seasons). Looking at how fantastic their practice paintings were, I can’t wait to see the beautiful pieces of artwork the children create for their final piece!

WB 27th June 2022

This week, Year 4 travelled to España! Whilst listening to traditional Spanish music, the children enjoyed eating tapas where we tried lots of different traditional Spanish foods.  The Spanish cuisine included: gouda & chorizo rollitos, feta stuffed peppers, chorizo & serrano Spanish omelette, patatas bravas, Spanish olives and a selection of prosciutto, salami and chorizo, which was all washed down with some child friendly sangria and some churros filled with chocolate & hazelnut for dessert! As we tried the dishes, the children used their Spanish vocabulary to say whether they liked (me gusta) or disliked (no me gusta) the dish and described the flavours using some Spanish adjectives. After this, the children interviewed each other about the food in Spanish, asking and answering questions such as, “¿Qué comida era tu favorita?” (what food was your favourite) and “¿Qué comida era tu menos favorita?” (what was your least favourite food). Some brave children even interviewed each other in Spanish at the front of the class, using “porque” (because) to explain why they had certain opinions of the foods.

WB 20th June 2022

In geography this week, we explored the polar regions. Using atlases, the children were tasked with finding out anything they could about the Arctic and Antarctic Circles. As the children have fantastic atlas skills, it didn’t take them long to find out where they are situated (using their prior learning of longitude and latitude) and what countries are located inside them. Next, the children compared the polar regions to the UK, focussing on their daylight hours. They were shocked to find out that during June and December, there aren’t any hours of daylight for one region, whilst the sun doesn’t set in the other! Finally, the children drew line graphs to represent the data to be able to accurately compare the differences between the daylight hours in the different regions. 

WB 13th June 2022

In RE this week, Year 4 built on their learning of humanist beliefs. Firstly, we read the story of The Good Samaritan and discussed the values The Good Samaritan showed, linking to humanist beliefs of being a good person and leading a good life. Next, the children completed a diamond nine activity in pairs, where the value they believe is most important is placed at the top of the diamond, and the least important value at the bottom. This highlighted that, although we believed all the values were important, some people place more importance on certain values than others depending on our personal beliefs. After, we planned and wrote our innovated versions of The Good Samarian, using the values that are important to use as a basis for the moral of the story. It’s so lovely to see how much the children of Year 4 value kindness, respect, honesty, and compassion.

WB 6th June 2022

This week in Geography, we started our new topic ‘Our World’. Using inflatable globes, we explored the meanings of key geographical vocabulary, such as Equator, Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere. After, the children used atlases to identify three different countries around the world – one in the Northern Hemisphere, one in the Southern Hemisphere and one along the Equator. Working in small groups, the children then used the laptops to research key information about their chosen countries, such as their capital city, population, official languages, average rainfall and average temperature. Finally, the children picked one of the countries they researched and wrote its average temperature on a sticky note to add to our class map. Have a look at the map – what does it tell us about the temperature of countries compared to how close they are to the Equator?

WB 16th May 2022

In humanities this week, Year 4 explored the history of Edinburgh Castle’s defences. Using a variety of sources, we researched the different defences (such as the location of the castle, the dry ditch and drawbridge and the long stairs) and relayed the information to the rest of our table in order to complete our research notes. Following this, we imagined we were soldiers stationed at Edinburgh Castle who were writing letters home to loved ones. To put our families’ minds at ease, we wrote our letters to urge them not to worry too much about us as we were stationed in a very safe castle and explained all the amazing defences that were keeping us protected and giving us an advantage over our enemies.

WB 9th May 2022

In English this week, we have been writing ‘Gahiji’s Story’. Last week, we read and immersed into Christophe’s story – this narrative is about a boy from Rwanda who fled his country to seek safety due to war.  We were inspired by how Christophe overcame the barriers of starting a new school in a new country (such as language barriers, bullying and understanding a new culture) and how he found the courage to tell his story.

WB 3rd May 2022

This week in RE, we learnt about humanists (people who seek to live good lives without religious beliefs). We discovered how humanists are more than just people who don’t believe in God; they believe that we have certain responsibilities as human beings and that we should try our best to be good and kind to one another and the Earth. After this, we sorted different humanist beliefs into a ‘diamond nine’, where the children worked in pairs to discuss and order the beliefs they agreed with most at the top of the diamond, then worked their way down to the beliefs they disagreed with the most. Finally, the children wrote their reasons why they agreed / disagreed with certain statements the most.

WB 25th April 2022

In Year 4 this week, we have continued with our topic in DT – ‘Pavilions’. We first made a design brief of our pavilion (frame structure) reflecting the theme of animals. After, we created a footprint of the pavilion in pencil, ready to start constructing our frame over the next few weeks.

WB 19th April 2022

In humanities this half term, Year 4 will be researching the history of some famous British landmarks and learn the stories behind why they are so significant to the British people today! To start off our new topic, this week we named some landmarks and used a map to locate where they are in the UK. We used our prior geographical knowledge of mapwork and coordinates to pinpoint their exact locations on the map. After this, we prepared a historical timeline by labelling key events and dates throughout history. Every week, we will add to this timeline by sticking a picture of the landmark we learn about next to when it was built, developing our knowledge of chronology.

Firstly, I’d like to say that I’ve been absolutely blown away with the writing in English this week! Every single child in my class put in 100% effort, resulting in outstanding pieces of writing; they all should be extremely proud of themselves, as I am! This week, we produced two different diary entries from the perspectives of the Lucy and Edmund, recounting their contrasting experiences when entering Narnia for the first time. I was astonished by how well the children were able to capture the two children’s different personalities, feelings, thoughts and experiences in Narnia. This child’s work demonstrates this perfectly; notice how this child perfectly captures sweet, little Lucy’s thoughts and emotions, opposed to thoughts and feelings of her horrible, spiteful brother, Edmund. What a way to end the term! Well done Year 4 for your hard work and incredible effort - enjoy a well-deserved break over the Easter Holidays.

In PSHE in Year 4, we are currently learning about money and work. This week, we discussed why it is important to have a job, what jobs we’d like to do when we're older and what skills are needed for different jobs. We discussed our individual qualities and skills and how they would enable us to be successful in the future job role we want. It was lovely to see how self-aware the children were in understanding their own strengths and weaknesses and applying this to their future. After this, the children wrote their own CVs, describing their amazing personal qualities, the job role they want and what skills and qualities they have that would make them perfect for the job! We have lots of budding athletes, artists, teachers, actors/actresses and footballers, as well as a marine biologist, a NASA engineer, an architect, a police officer and a therapist in the making!

In DT this week, the children of Year 4 used their knowledge of seasonal fruit and vegetables to make their very own stuffed peppers! Working in teams, the children supported each other to firstly cut a ‘lid’ off the top of their pepper and scoop the insides out. Next, we took turns dicing a courgette, focussing on our cutting skills and using a ‘claw grip’ to ensure our fingers were safe. After this, we mixed the diced courgette into the pre-made couscous then stuffed our peppers. Finally, the children decided if they wanted to sprinkle some mixed herbs and/or cheese on top! I hope all the children enjoyed eating them as much as we enjoyed making them.

This week in maths, Year 4 have been learning all about data handling. First of all, we learnt the differences between discrete data (data that can be counted and is a whole number) and continuous data (data that is measured and can be a decimal). Next, we explored how we can represent different types of data, such as using tally charts and bar graphs for discrete data and line graphs for continuous data. It was so much fun to collect our own data in tally charts and tables, then represent our findings in our own graphs (see examples pictures)! Towards the end of the week, we focused our learning on interpreting data from a variety of graphs and tables, as well as asking relevant questions about the data presented, such as 'which was the most popular...?' or 'what is the difference between the most popular and the least popular...?'