Welcome to Year 4
Staff in Year 4
Teacher: Mrs O’Donovan
Teaching Assistant: Miss Colquhoun
PPA Cover: Mr Fellender and Miss Colquhoun
Year 4 Mission Statement
Summer 2
In English this half term are writing will be based around the books, 'Mrs Noah's Pockets' and 'Survivors'. We will be covering play scripts, continuing a narrative and newspaper reports.
A delightful story with a new twist to the classic Noah's Ark tale. It features a host of mythical creatures including dragons and unicorns as well as being about Mrs Noah - a character very under-represented in historical settings.
In our English lessons this week we read , 'Mrs Noah's Pockets' and then worked in groups to work out the main pints of the story before drawing a story map. We then considered the characters feelings at different points in the story and inferred and evidenced why they might have felt this way.
Ranging from classics such as Shackelton's expedition to the Antarctic, to more modern exploits, including the adventurer who inspired the movie 127 hours, these courageous survivors all have one thing in common: an incredible ability to draw on all their strength, bravery and self-belief in order to beat the odds, and live to tell their tales.
In Geography this half term our unit is, 'Extreme Earth' which will be about the destructive powers of nature, from volcanoes and earthquakes to tsunamis and tornadoes.
In our first lesson we learnt all about what is beneath our feet.
In Science, our unit for this half term is, Electricity. After identifying which appliances use electricity, we were given the question ‘How can I make a simple circuit?’ We worked in groups with the equipment we were given. We had to think about: What do the different parts do? How do we know that the circuit is working? What are the keys things that we need to do to get a circuit working?
In French we began the new half term by recapping learning about 'Mes Hobbies'. We love the games and songs taught to us by Madame Becky.
Spring 2
Whitby Residential March 2024
Day 1. - Arrival, town trail and night walk
Day 2 Endeavour and fossil hunting
Day 2 - Viking swords and shields and lighthouse team challenge
Day 3 - Lifeboat House and Museum
In English this half term, we will be learning all about Roman myths and using the books, 'The Romans, Gods, Emperors and Dormice' and ' The Orchard Book of Roman Myths'.
As part of our Grammar and Punctuation lessons, we have been revising words classes alongside reading a Roman Myth. Here is our lesson today.
As part of our English work, we looked at the Roman myth, 'Romulus and Remus'. We read the story as a class and used drama to show how these characters felt towards each other when they disagreed where to build their city.
In Science this half term, we are continuing with our unit, 'States of Matter". We have been learning about the Water Cycle and made mini water worlds to show how the water cycle works.
We started the week back after half term by completing our DT project - Slingshot cars.
Once our slingshot cars were made, we needed test, assess and evaluate them as to why some cars may have gone further than others. We discussed this as a class before deciding that next time many of us would make the cars more aerodynamic by designing them lower to the ground so that there wasn't as much air resistance.
Our second DT project of the term was to make bookshelves with a fastening. We used buttons to achieve this.
In PE this half term our unit is Football. We are all excited to learn the skills and knowledge needed for this came.
In History, our new topic is ,’The Roman Empire’. In our first lesson, we looked at the spread of the Roman Empire and placed the different events in chronological order. In our second lesson, we learnt about Boudicca’s rebellion, the causes and consequences of this and how both the Celts and the Romans felt about her.
Spring 1
In English this half term, we will be reading and writing from 'Charlie and the Choclate Factory' by Roald Dahl.
When the eccentric chocolatier Mr Willy Wonka announces that there are five Golden Tickets to be won, and the prize is a visit to his wonderful factory itself, children everywhere rush to buy his products - but Charlie's family are very poor and can only afford to buy him one bar of Wonka's chocolate on his birthday. he never dreams he'll have the chance to see the inside go the factory for himself but then his dreams unexpectedly comes true.
When we returned to school, we had a letter waiting for the class. Inside, was a golden ticket from Mr Wonka himself! He has requested our help to design a new chocolate bar for next Christmas. We wrote our replies and our ideas down straight away!
In Maths this half term, our lessons will be focusing on multiplication and division. Our first lesson, was all about factor pairs. We drew factor bugs and used counters to make arrays to check that we had the correct number of factor pairs for each number. We also learnt that factors needed to be integers (whole numbers)!
In Science this half term out unit is States of Matter. We began this unit by looking at solids, liquids and gases and went into the playground to recreate how the particles of these would look!
Next in Science, we investigated the weight of gas and we set a task to see which fizzy drink contained the most carbon dioxide.
Our fourth lesson in our unit, States of Matter, was to take accurate measurements using a thermometer. We first discussed how to us a thermometer and then measured various places including puddles, our classroom and our closed fist.
This half term in PE is gymnastics. Today, we learnt to develop individual and partner balances by trying to make our bodies tense to help us hold balances with increased control. We worked safely and were confident to perform in front of others.
In Music, our unit is called Changes in pitch, tempo and dynamics (Theme: Rivers). In our first lesson, ‘The Singing River’, the children began to make links between the course of a river and music as they sang about a flowing river in rounds.
In Art, we have started our new unit called, Exploring Still Life. In this pathway children are introduced to the genre of still life as an old art form and also one which is still enjoyed by many contemporary artists. Throughout the unit, we will be revisiting and developing our drawing and observational skills before exploring a collage project.
In our first Art session we looked at the work of the artist Paul Cezanne and captured the elements of his paintings in our sketchbooks.
Next in Art, we completed a simple exercise to help the children appreciate how seeing simple shapes can help improve drawing skills, and how one material can be used in a variety of ways to create different qualities of line. We used ink diluted three different way and introduced them to the concepts of routine, form and shadow.
In Geography this half term our unit is called, ‘All Around the World’. In our first lesson we recapped our knowledge of the world and learnt about countries which are in the northern and southern hemisphere’s as well as those that lie on the equator.
In Computing, this term we are learning how to Further Coding with Scratch. Our first lesson began with us recalling the key features of scratch we had learnt in Year 3, followed by our second lesson which saw us identifying what code does.
Autumn 2
In English this half term, are writing stimulus is the book, 'Marcy and the Riddle of the Sphinx'.
Buried amongst the treasure in Professor Brownstone's vault, lies a humble collection of books. Filled with legendary stories from his ancestors, they tell of fearless fighters and unlikely heroes.
Join Marcy as we travel to ancient Egypt in this thrilling adventure from the Brownstone's Mythical Collection. In a place filled with dangerous challenges and mysteries gods, can she overcome her deepest fears and save her father?
In Maths, we have been continuing to embed ALL the times tables up to 12x12. As a class we have been helping and challenging each other to know more. We have enjoyed playing some friendly games of Hit the Button!
As part of our RE Christmas unit on ‘light’, we made Christingles and learnt about the symbolism of the different parts.
We have now had two French lessons with Bex. We are loving learning through songs, actions and lots of movement!
In History this half term our topic in Ancient Egyptians. Over the last few weeks we have learnt about the timeline (chronology) life in Ancient Egypt (cause and consequence) and burials as well as mummification. Our lesson today involved looking at different primary sources of evidence about the discovery of Tutankhamen.
In Design and Technology, our unit this half term is Structure: Pavilions. Our first task was to explore and make different shaped frame structures.
After designing our own pavilions based on a theme of endangered animals, we built our frame structures, making sure that they were stable, before cladding them to protect and make them atheistically pleasing.
In music, we are continuing with our unit, Body and tunes percussion (Theme: Rainforests). We composed and performed some basic body percussion rhythms, starting with something called, Boom, Snap, Clap'.
In Computing,this term our unit is called 'Computer Software and Collaborative Learning'. Our third lesson was to understand how to create a digital survey.
Autumn 1
In PSHE, we started off Year 4 by reading the books, ‘Only One You’ and ‘ Our Class is a Family’. We discussed how we are all different and how amazing that is. We finished our first week back together at school by rock painting and designing our own fish to take home.
In English, our first writing stimulus has been the short video, ‘Zahra’, which is about a young girl who spends all day collecting water in order to help her tree grow so she can get some shade. After spending a lesson discussing her character, several of us took on the role of Zahra in out ‘Hot Seat’, whilst the rest of the class asked her questions.
In English, our second writing stimulus has been the book, 'Last: The Story of a White Rhino'. This is about a rhino who is put in a zoo in the middle of a grey city, where all he can do is pace back and forth. He misses his home, his mother, the smell of earth and rain. He fears he may be the last of his kind. Then one day, he is rescued and released back into the wild, to live free with the other rhinos.
In writing we independently wrote non chronological reports about gorillas. Here are just a few which we hope you enjoy reading. Did you find out any interesting facts that you didn’t know before?
In Maths, this half term our first units were Place value and Addition and Subtraction this included learning how to round to the nearest 10, 100 and 1000 as well as column addition and subtraction with 4 digits numbers.
In PE this half term, we are learning how to play Tag Rugby. Out first lessons were all about passing skills and learning to tag our partner.
In Geography, our first topic in Year 4 is Water. We have learnt about how water is know to exist in different states; as a solid, liquid or a gas before moving on to learn all about the water cycle.
Today in Geography, we continued our Water unit by learning about clouds and rain. We learnt that cloud form when warm, moist air is cooled. When it is cooled, it condenses into tiny water droplets which appear as cloud. We then, made a rain cloud in a jar.
In Art this half term, our unit is called Storytelling Through Drawing. The aims of this pathway, is to enable pupils to think about how they can create sequenced drawings to share or tell a story. We have looked at the book ‘The King of the Sky’ and the illustrator Laura Carlin. We recreated some of her drawing using water colours, wax crayons and pastels as well as pencil.
The second book we looked at in Art was, ‘The Arrival’. This is a wordless book with drawings by Shaun Tan. We looked at the different techniques used such as tone and use of lines and created our own versions.
Today, in Art we created our own story scenes using playmobile, charcoal and pastels. We discussed tone, shape and texture before starting our work and included these art elements in our drawings.
In RE this half term, we have been looking at the significance of 'light' in different religious festivals. We have learnt about the Jewish festival of Hanukkah and the story of Guru Hargobind and the Sikh Festival of Light - Diwali. This week, we looked at the story of Rama and Sita and the Hindu Festival of Light. We then used puppets and acted the story out in small groups.
In music, this half term our unit is called, ‘Body and tuned percussion’ (Theme: Rainforests). This is a topic of discovery where the children will explore the rainforest through music and be introduced to new musical terms. They will also use a mixture of body percussion and tuned percussion instruments as they create their own rhythms of the rainforest, layer by layer.
Year 4 Information
Our Year 4 school councillors were voted for by the class to represent Year 4 in School Council meetings. We know they will do a fantastic job to make sure our voices are heard and to help in making important decisions for us and our school.
Class Book 1
Our first class book was recommended by many of the class, who have chosen to read in Accelerated Reader, books from The Tree House Storey Series. We are reading the first book in the series called, The 13th- Storey Treehouse.
Book overview:
Andy and Terry live in the WORLD'S BEST treehouse! It's got a giant catapult, a secret underground laboratory, a tank of man-eating sharks and a marshmallow machine that follows you around and shoots marshmallows into your mouth whenever you're hungry!
Class Book 2
With Christmas approaching fast our new class book is, 'The Christmasaurus' by Tom Fletcher.
Magic is about to take hold of William Trundle's life again - because he has just discovered that Christmas itself is in danger.
Now we must return to the North Pole, where we'll meet.
The Christmasaurus - the most extraordinary dinosaur.
A lovely photo of Year 4 on our non uniform day.
March 7th was World Book day. An egg citing egg competition ran throughout the school with some egg mazing entries. These eggs were characters from books and we loved looking at each and every one! In Year 4, we voted for our favourite designs.
Today, 6th February, was Safer Internet Day. This celebration takes place in February every year to raise awareness of a safer and better internet for all, and especially for children and young people. In class, we watched a live assembly from Teach She Can, which explained all about technology and AI and how we could all stay safe whilst using it.
Our assembly today was lead my the Leeds Rhinos. We learn that rugby is for all and what being inclusive meant as well as how to be a teamed player. Following the assembly, Year 4 were chosen to take part in a workshop.
Today was Blast from the past day, and in Year 4 we delved deeper into the events of the 1980’s. We started the day with a quiz before completing a timeline of the decade and writing about the differences between today and the 80’s. Whilst we were researching, we listen to some amazing music from the 80’s such as Wham, Duran Duran, Nick Kershaw, Band Aid and Mrs Lancaster’s favourite A Ha!
World Religion Day is celebrated every January on the third Sunday of the month. In 2024, that falls on the 21st January. This week we had a whole school assembly to learn about this day and how its aim is to promote understanding and peace between all religions, encouraging people to learn about other faiths and their followers.
As part of World Religion Day, we looked at how different religions throughout the world could be depicted in art.
Today we shared the story, 'The Proudest Blue'. This is a story of Hijab and family. It created some lovely discussions in class about how hurtful people can be towards others. One child commented,
'How good is it that we learn about all religions so that we understand the differences. We would have all know that she was wearing a hijab".
PSHE - D Side
As part of our PSHE lessons, we were able to have D Side visit us today and talk to us about alcohol. We learnt about alcohol and the law, its anffects and different types of alcohol and units it’s contains.
Today, we had an amazing visit from the Leodis brass band who played a selection of Christmas songs for us.
We have had a fantastic Christmas Jumper Day and loved chasing after Santa on our Reindeer Run which raised money for Wakefield Hospice.
As part of the festival of Chanukah, we joined a live event from the Jewish Museum in London which explained how and why Jews celebrate Chanukah.
As part of our science topic ‘Animals including humans’, we have been learning all about why teeth are different shapes and sizes. We had a visit from a dentist who explain this as well as helping us to understand how teeth are made up and how we can look after them.
This morning we enjoyed the Leeds 2023 Children's Day assembly. We learnt more about our rights and our voice and why these rights are so important.
This week is Anti-Bullying week and the theme this year is Make A Noise About Bullying. The focus is on understanding the difference between ‘Banter’, ‘arguments’ and ‘bullying’. We had an assembly all about this and will be completing work in the week to remind us.
Today, 13th November, was also World Kindness Day. We were able to join in with a ‘live’ virtual assembly. The assembly focused on what kindness meant, why kindness is so important in creating strong supportive communities as well as the science of kindness and the impact it has on our physical and mental health.
As part of our PSHE lessons, we took part in a visual assembly all about British Values and the protected characteristics. Throughout the session there was time for discussion and even a shout out!
Yorkshire Water
As part of our Geography topic, 'Water', Yorkshire Water came into Year 4 to hold two workshops. The first one was all about how we get our water and how it is treated and the second one was about what we can flush down the toilet! We had a fantastic morning of learning and even conducted some experiments.
Harvest
Although we were unable to attend St Mary's church this year to perform our Harvest assembly, Reverend Sharon was able to come to us and Year 4 were able to perform in school. We loved reading our autumn poems, explaining what harvest is about, singing and describing how we can all play our part to help our world.
All Around the World Day
Today, Year 4 travelled to Zimbabwe, in southern Africa. We found out many things about this landlocked country, including its neighbours, landmarks, population and how the cities and rural areas are very different!
We enjoyed trying 'sadza', which is a Zimbabwean porridge-like dish made from cooking maize meal in hot water until it forms a stiff dough-like consistency. Most of us really liked it and even asked for more!
We listened to the Zimbabwean national anthem, learnt some words in shona- one of the most widely spoken languages- and then spent the afternoon creating our own Ndebele art using paint, pastels and felt tips.
To finish the day, we read,'Tsuro and Shumba'- a lion and hare tale from Zimbabwe.
We had a fabulous day!
