We hope everyone is well and is enjoying learning about earthquakes. This is a new area of learning for us all and it is very interesting. We are curious to know what an earthquake feels like, but they are very rare in the UK and only tiny shakes if they do occur. Today you will be finding out about some of the most dramatic earthquakes that have happened across the World.

Tomorrow is a special day remembering 75 years ago when World War ll ended in Europe. Mrs Happy’s mum was a little girl then and she remembers a piano being tied to the back of a lorry and her Aunt playing it in celebration – how funny! Everyone will have lots of opportunities to find out more about what happened during this time and do some activities so that we can celebrate and remember.

This is the last post we will be doing on the web page as after the long holiday weekend, we will be uploading the work to Google classrooms. The kind of work we will be doing will be much the same, just through a different platform. 

Hope you have a lovely long weekend and learn a lot about VE day tomorrow,

From Miss Goddard, Miss Hardy and Mrs Happy

Maths – Pounds and Pence

We have included both lesson 3 and 4 on today’s post as tomorrow is a special day to mark VE day and there will be no Maths set. The lessons fit together well as they are both about how we use decimals to record money. We will leave it up to you to decide whether to do lesson 4. You could do it as an extra lesson today or to break up tomorrow’s learning. Understanding how to record money is an important life skill. Remember we only use a £ sign or p sign never both. Also think carefully about the importance of 0 as a place holder. No one will know if you write £1.5 if you mean £1.50 or £1.05 and that could mean you loose a lot of money.

Here is the White Rose link to both lesson 3 & 4, remember it is Summer 1 week 2.

Daily Maths Challenge

For children who are completing their Maths with ease, and who would like further challenge, Miss Goddard’s ‘Daily Maths Challenge’ is available. If you complete today’s work and would like to access it, please click here. 

English – Research about a significant Earthquake in history

There have been many significant Earthquakes in history. Significant because of their size, due to the fatalities they have caused or even because of devastation to buildings. Your task, and some new vocabulary will be explained today in the first Youtube video. 

Once you have chosen the Earthquake (or tsunami) you would like to focus on, then see if you can find out the answers to the following questions. You can record your findings as answers or write them into full sentences like Miss Goddard’s example. 

Where did the Earthquake happen?

When did the Earthquake happen?

What was the magnitude of the Earthquake?

Was there a tsunami also?

If so, how big was the seismic wave?

What devastation was caused?

How many fatalities were there?

What was the cost of the damage?

Were there any significant buildings which were damaged?

What were the effects on humankind?

How did the effected people rebuild their lives?

Your topic work is about presenting these findings, so make sure you watch the second Youtube video to find out about some creative presentation ideas after you have completed your English.

Art and Creativity – Presenting your research in a creative way

Now you have all your research, we are going to think about some creative ways which you could present your findings. Have a watch of the second Youtube video which may give you some inspiration as to how you present your work.

You may to present your work on: a poster, a folded leaflet or an open out booklet. You could even use flaps just like in your big cat poster last week. To encompass the Earthquake theme, why not see if you can use some of the crack effects like in the video to make your work look eye-catching. 

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The End!

It sounds like many of you enjoyed your first day learning some new vocabulary and about the Earth’s layers. Today, you will build on that knowledge and be finding out lots more about Earthquakes. Your learning in English will help you out when designing your ‘Earthquake proof’ house in Design Technology. 

Maths – Halves and quarters

Today in Maths, we are making special links between decimals and fractions. You will need to use all your learning from the last few weeks but it will really help you understand some ideas you knew about already. Here is the White Rose link to help you understand the questions.

Daily Maths Challenge

For children who are completing their Maths with ease, and who would like further challenge, Miss Goddard is started a ‘Daily Maths Challenge’ page on the school website where she will upload a new set of challenges everyday. If you complete today’s work and would like to access it, please click here. 

English – Understanding Earthquakes

Earthquakes can be a tricky subject to understand so we have suggested the following videos to help you to learn about how and why Earthquakes form. Once you have watched them, see if you can answer the questions attached. A clue is that the answers will come up in order in the videos!

Video 1 – https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/z849q6f/articles/zj89t39

Video 2 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfd1VasIETw

You can learn a little more about tectonic plates in the Design and Technology video lesson!

Design Technology – Design (and maybe create!) your own ‘Earthquake proof’ building

In the Youtube video below, you will build on what you learned this morning in English as Miss Goddard will look at the tectonic plates in a bit more detail and discuss buildings which are built in Earthquake prone areas. If you make your building, don’t forget to take a picture before you test it in case it collapses! Why not try a family challenge and see who can make the strongest building?

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The End!

We hope you had a lovely weekend,

Today is our first day learning about Earthquakes and Volcanoes. In order to understand them properly, it’s important that you learn some technical topic words in today’s English task and then gain an understanding of the Earth’s structure in Geography. There is a lot to learn in this project, and each day your knowledge and understanding will grow. You will be experts on Earthquakes and Volcanoes before you know it! Have a watch of the Youtube video where Miss Goddard will talk a little about your new project as well as explain today’s English and Topic work. 

The standard of work has been incredibly high considering that many of you are learning from home – it’s lovely that you have continued to take pride in your work and we are very proud of you. We will update our Year 4 Homepage to show off your wonderful week as the week progresses. 

If you haven’t sent us any work in the last couple of weeks, we would be grateful if you could send us at least one piece this week so that we are able to praise the children for their efforts. 

Many thanks

Miss Goddard, Miss Hardy and Mrs Happy

Maths – Rounding Decimals

This week in Maths we will continue our work on decimals moving onto how they work with money towards the end f the week. During this lesson you will be thinking about rounding decimal numbers. It is important to remember our rule: ‘0 – 4 stay on the floor, 5 – 9 climb the vine’ as this rule applies for rounding decimals as well as whole numbers. The lesson uses number lines, if you are not able to print the sheets out, maybe you could make your own number line with some string and home made number cards! There is some new vocabulary during this lesson, you are introduced to the word integer which means ‘whole number’. Watch the video carefully as you have a go at the work. This week the White Rose videos are in week 2. Today’s lesson is Summer 1, Week 2, Lesson 1.

Daily Maths Challenge

For children who are completing their Maths with ease, and who would like further challenge, Miss Goddard is started a ‘Daily Maths Challenge’ page on the school website where she will upload a new set of challenges everyday. If you complete today’s work and would like to access it, please click here. 

English – Creating a Visual Dictionary

In school, when we start a new project, we often create a visual dictionary when introducing new vocabulary to children. Our unit on Volcanoes and Earthquakes will be using some technical vocabulary so this lesson will help children to start understanding and familiarising with some of that vocabulary. Watch the Youtube video where this task will be explained.

For each word, they will need to draw a picture to represent what the word means (like a picture dictionary!). If you don’t know the meaning of a word, then you could ask an adult, use a dictionary or even ‘Google’ what it means! 

Your pictures don’t have to be detailed; they can be a quick pencil sketch but of course, if you wanted to add colour and make it look artistic then you can. Remember, once you are finished, you can keep referring back to this throughout the next 3 weeks.

Geography – What’s inside our Earth?

We know what’s inside an apple and what’s inside an orange but I wonder – what’s inside the Earth?

Luckily, scientists do know and it is your job to find out today. We would like you to either draw or a print a cross section of the Earth and then label it by hand. Some of the following words may be helpful for your when you are labelling. You might not need to use all of them, but the more you use the more detailed your work will be. 

inner       core      outer       inner      mantle       upper       crust      liquid      solid      atmosphere

You may want to use the diagram below to fill in but feel free to draw your own cross section. If you haven’t already, then have a watch of Youtube video where this task will be explained. 

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The End!

Overview of the week

A note from your teachers!

Hello to children and parents of Year 4!

Today we are starting an exciting 3 week unit of work all about Volcanoes and Earthquakes. It’s a short week for topic learning as Thursday is a special day dedicated to the 75th Anniversary of VE Day and Friday is a Bank Holiday of course!

This week, we are going to focus on Earthquakes before starting Volcanoes next week. Above, there is an overview of what we will be learning throughout the week so you know what’s coming up. 

Have a great week, and click on today’s date to access the learning for today. 

We love seeing your fabulous work!