Category: Year4

TRIP TO THE GORDON BROWN CENTRE REMINDER

Our trip has finally arrived! Tomorrow we will be leaving school at 9am prompt so it is very important that all children are in school for register at 8:45 am.

We will be based in woodland so your child must wear/bring

• A hat and sunglasses.
• Have a layer of sun cream applied, please note, most of the day is under tree canopy but sun cream is still essential.
• Water bottle that can be refilled at fountain points if needed.
• Closed toed shoes with good grips, we suggest trainers.
• Long trousers because they will be walking in long grass and collecting wood in the woodland area.
• Light weight long sleeved top or something they can put on over a short sleeved t-shirt when we are in the forest collecting wood. This will reduce any accidental scratches from bark if they brush past.
• Lunch in a bag or box inside a bag that they can carry. We suggest a small back pack as we will be moving across a large site and children will need their water. All waste is to be recycled at the centre and any non-recyclable rubbish brought back to school where we will dispose of it at the end of the day.
• NO NUTS please as we have children and staff with nut allergies.
• Please do not send chocolate in lunch bags because children will keep their bags with them outside and it will melt.
• Wellies and waterproofs if the weather changes, will send an email in the morning advising you of any adverse weather reports.

 

We are all looking forward to the trip. Thank you all again for your continued support.

The Year 4 Team.

As your children will probably have told you, today we had the most amazing day learning about the Romans.

This morning we had the chance to play a couple of Roman games and learnt about life in Ancient Rome in which we got to look at some artefacts in the gazebo.

Then this afternoon got very exciting when we learnt about the Roman Army, their armour and then finished off with some gladiator fighting.

As you can imagine we took so many more photos than we can put on here, so we are going to create a photo montage on display in the Year 4 corridor. So on Monday’s Open Evening, make sure to look out for these outside 4C.

Thank you so much for all of your contributions towards this fantastic day, and the costumes that you all put together.

Year 4 Team 🙂

We are very excited about our special visitor coming in on the 10th July for our Roman Day. They have requested that the children come into school dressed as Romans, as we have suggested on the letter we sent home, but this can be as simple as an adult sized t-shirt, belt and some sandals. Please note that the children do not need to bring in any props such as swords or shields as they will be Roman citizens and not soldiers.

On the 6th July, the children will be finding out their new classes for next year. As it stated on the newsletter, we will be telling the children on that Friday morning and then go straight to their new classes for some exciting activities. As you can imagine the children have been talking a lot about next year and what to do if they are not put in the same class, such as arranging to meet at break time with their friends. We have been really proud that they have already been doing this after splitting for Maths and Book Club this half term, and we hope this continues next year.

A last reminder, please make sure that all of the children have their PE kits in everyday. We have noticed that there are many children who either forget to bring in their kits, or  wear them to an after school club and then don’t bring them in the next day.

Thank you for your support

Year 4 Team

We are continuing to enjoy our Prancing Piranhas topic, and have finally got round to finishing all of our amazing art work.

We have learnt about the pop artist Andy Warhol and his famous image of the soup cans.We have then made our own version creating weird and wonderful flavours of soup. 

Next, we have been graphic designers thinking about how we could use negative space in our name logos. This has been a tricky concept to master, but all children have had a go and designed their own name logo with some fantastic results. This then helped us to create packaging for Uncle Ernie’s Potted Pilchards, using some of these ideas.

Overall a very arty start to the term.

Enjoy the bank holiday weekend.

The Year 4 Team.

We hope that you are rested after a good Easter Holiday. Our topic of Prancing Piranhas has got off to a swimmingly brilliant start. We have read the first few chapters of the Boy Who Swam with Piranhas and have been introduced to Stan, Uncle Ernie and Auntie Annie.

We have jumped straight into the deep end, by making a variety of moving fish toys. 4G have also made some colourful name plaques and will later be using these skills to design Uncle Ernie a logo for Pott’s Perfect Pilchards. 4T have made a start to making their moving diorama boxes, which we will be continuing through to next week. 4C have been designing soup cans in the style of Andy Warhol, thinking up some very creative varieties of soup.

 

Next week, we will be making a model of the digestive system and continuing with our gym sessions, from Monday. So please make sure that children have their PE kits in on Monday morning and leave them in the classroom all week.

Enjoy the good weather this weekend,

The Year 4 Team

It has been an exciting start this this half term.Already this week we have made and erupted some volcanoes, created a new display board in each of the classrooms and performed in some drama workshops. 

We have lots of things coming up which we wanted to remind you of:

• Tomorrow (22nd Feb) is World Thinking Day, so all children who are a part of Brownies, Cubs or Scouts are allowed to wear in there uniforms if they wish
• Dogs Trust is coming in on the 27th Feb to run some workshops on how to be safe around dogs
• 1st March is World Book Day, so the children have been invited to dress up as a character from a book that they have read. Please do not feel like you have to run out and buy a costume, the Year 4  team are dressing up as the characters from the Wizard of Oz, so if the children want to wear something green then they can join in with us.
• We are underway with our Easter Production and are intending to get costume letters out by the end of the week, so please look out for this in your child’s school bag. On the letter is a reply slip which we need back, regarding the evening productions and timings. Please return this as soon as possible as we have given the children lines already.

We are looking forward to this half term,

The Year 4 Teachers

A Guide to RockStars

We are very excited to be introducing a new tool which will help children learn their times tables – Rockstars!

Why is learning Times Tables important?

As you know, learning multiplication and division facts are key fundamentals of mathematics and are used and applied to so many other areas of maths; knowing these facts will help children to make progress in their learning. The National Curriculum expectations are that children should know all these facts by the end of Year 4. We appreciate that this is a hard task for some children so Rockstars is yet another tool to help them achieve this.

What is Rockstars?

Rockstars is a website where children take on the role of a Rockstar – their Avatar. They give their Rockstar a name, decide what they are going to look like and of course, choose which instrument they are going to play.

How do the children practise their tables?

Once they log in, there are different ways in which they can practise their times tables. 

Your child’s teacher will have set up specific times tables for them to focus on which will be highlighted when they log in. When they play in the ‘Garage’ or ‘Arena’, they will be solely focusing on the tables set by their teacher. In the ‘Studio’, ‘Festival, and ‘Rock Slams’, they can practise all their times tables. They children can practise independently by trying to improve their speed and accuracy but if they fancy playing competitively, in the ‘Festival’, they compete against other children from around the world and in the ‘Arena’, they can play against other children in their Year Group. In the ‘RockSlam’ area, this is where children can choose another peer in their Year Group to challenge! Additionally, sometimes teachers may set ‘Rock Battles’ where children can compete against other year groups, for example there may be a battle between Year 3 and Year 4 as to who can earn the most points over a week’s period. 

What rewards do they get for playing?

Each time the children practise or compete, they gain credits which are used in leaderboards but they can also use these to buy new accessories for their avatar.

Every few week, teachers will be awarding certificates to children who have the most credits and also to those who make the most progress in learning their times tables. The more they practise of course, the more progress they will make!

How do they know if they are making progress?

There are a number of tools on this platform which allow children, parents and teachers to see how they are progressing. They can view and compare their initial baseline speed to how fast they are now and continue to strive to improve this.

Also, by using colours, it show which tables they are confident with in green and the tables which need more practise will be in red.

How do they log in?

Rockstars is available from Year 2 – Year 6. By the end of this week, all children will have been shown this website by their teachers and all children will have username logins in their Learning Logs. Additionally, we’ll send home a parent letter which explains in more detail how to log on.

Now and again, we will play in school but primarily, this is a resource to be used at home. Rockstars is available through WebBrowser but can also be accessed through the app on a mobile, ipad or tablet.

 

We are very excited about this fun learning tool and already the children are showing such enthusiasm to learn their Times Tables. If you have any problems, please don’t hesitate to see your child’s class teacher.

Many thanks,

The Maths Team

 

 

Happy New Year from the Year 4 team. We hope you have had a lovely Christmas and New Year.

This is going to be a really busy half term for Year 4, with swimming and Planet Education coming in to help us develop our gymnastics. Therefore it is essential that all children bring in their PE kits on a Thursday and their swimming kits every Monday and some Wednesdays. The Wednesdays sessions are on the 17th Jan, 24th Jan and 7th Feb.

PE kits must include t-shirts, shorts (not trousers please due to health and safety on apparatus), hairbands for long hair and tape to cover earrings, along with trainers for Golden Mile. PE kits will need to be in from tomorrow as Planet Education starts for 4C and 4G tomorrow afternoon, and Friday afternoon for 4T.

Swimming kits should include swimsuit, one piece swimsuit for girls and fitted trunks for boys, not baggy swimming shorts style. They will also need a towel and goggles or swimming hats if they have them. Please remember no deodorant, sprays or talcum powder. Children are welcome to come into school with their swimming costume under their clothes on the day of lessons, however please remember to pack their underwear in their swimming bag.

Looking forward to seeing you all tomorrow and hearing all about your holidays.

 

From the Year 4 team.

There will be no homework this week as the children need to spend this time learning their Christmas Carol lyrics so they are secure by next week.

Thank you

 

Hello from the research base that is year 4.

Over the last couple of days, we have been conducting our own research about life in Ancient Egypt. To do this we have been using iPads, information books and fact sheets. Then we created a poster or leaflet to present what we had uncovered to others. 

The children have been wowing their teachers with their exciting and imaginative stories that they have been writing in English. They have created some really interesting characters, and we cannot wait to see how their stories unfold. Once they have finished their draft, we would like to share these amazing stories with you, so will be sending home a copy home for you to enjoy.

We are in full caroling mode, and preparations are underway for our Christmas Carol Concerts, the first of which is next Thursday. Please can you encourage your children to learn the words of the carols which were sent home on Friday. The evening performance is on the Monday 18th December at 7pm, so we would like the children to arrive between 6.30pm and 6.40pm. We are expecting all the children to attend, so please let us know if your children are unable to make it, as we will be handing out readings and acting parts soon.

Thanks for your continuing support

The Year 4 Team.