Author: Rachael Poole

Year 4 have proudly completed their Design and Technology project by designing and making their own fabric pouches. Throughout the project, the children  practised sewing techniques and carefully planned their designs to create a pouch for storing a special item of their choice. They showed fantastic creativity, resilience and attention to detail while learning valuable practical skills. Every finished pouch was unique and reflected the pupils’ thoughtful ideas and hard work.

This week our living and learning statement has been ‘I can say one good thing about myself.’

It has been lovely hearing the children be proud of themselves for a wide range of reasons.

Year 4 have really enjoyed their Going for Gold Party celebrating all the effort they put in to learning their times tables. Thank you for all of your support!

We had so many books competing in our Book Wars this week that there was a book that everyone wanted to try!

Graphic Novels are still a firm favourite but it was lovely to hear how many children are trying different books by the author of our class novel, Hannah Gold. As well as Turtle Moon (by Hannah Gold) there were other animal-themed books such as Paws and Whiskers (by Jacqueline Wilson) and a Bear Grylls novel.

Escape Room by Christopher Edge now has a waiting list and lots of children were interested in the non-fiction book about the human body that Isabella brought  from home.

Help at home – talk to your children about your favourite books from when you were there age.  Are there any that you would enjoy reading together?

We’ve had a great week revisiting some core fractions concepts before we start our new Year 4 learning.

We’ve thought about wholes and parts in lots of different contexts.

See if your child can explain wholes and parts using the map of Europe:

We also considered how fractions are wholes split into equal parts and how those parts might look different but still be equal.

Finally, we thought about how if we are given a part and we know how many equal parts there are, we can work out the whole.

Help at home: challenge your child to explain parts and wholes to you using something they have at home (this could be a plant, a toy, a room.)

Some children had to think hard about how to fold a strip of paper into equal parts so this might be something you would like to explore at home.  Can your child fold the paper into 2 equal parts? 4 equal parts? 6 equal parts? Is it easier to fold the paper into 4 or 6 equal parts? Why is that?

I would love to hear about how any of these investigations went.

We had a fantastic trip to the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford this week.  The museum is full of lots of  activities that inspired the children to ask questions and investigate like scientists.

A particular favourite exhibit was Wonderlab which had lots of immersive, hands-on exhibits which dived into the physics and technology behind what we see and hear.

Highlights included a 15m long echo tube, a mirror maze, laser tunnel and the chance to make art using light.

We also had a workshop recapping and extending our learning about sound. We revisited our learning about how sound travels and learnt about how special effects sound engineers use sound to enhance films.

Thank you for the donation you made for the trip – the children had a wonderful day!

We started this week thinking about what makes a healthy relationship.  The class generated some great ideas of characteristics of healthy relationships that we are going to build on this half term.

Help at home – when you spot your child showing one of these characteristics in their relationships outside of school it would be great to highlight this to them.

This week has been one of our Living and Learning themed weeks.  We have been learning all about how to stay safe.

• Being Safe

We’ve been learning about what is appropriate and what is not using Rachel Brian’s book ‘Respect: Consent, Boundaries and Being in Charge of YOU’.

We’ve also thought about boundaries when negotiating about space and objects.

“If someone is feeling cross, they may need their own space.” Hunter

“Always make sure nobody is in front of you when you are on the slide or gym equipment.” Sophie

“In WUSU, don’t go too close to other people because you will trip them up when dancing.” Orianne

“When playing ball games, you need to check where you are kicking or throwing the ball.” Lillie-Jane

“Some people don’t like you in their personal space because they don’t want germs.” Aria

We’ve discussed about it not always being right to keep a secret if it relates to being safe.

“Even though it’s a secret, I would tell my Mum because it might be dangerous.” Lincoln

If something doesn’t feel right, in person or online, with someone we do or don’t know, we’ve talked about how we should Start Telling Other People (STOP.)

“If something doesn’t feel right you should just tell an adult.  Just trust your instincts.” Hattie

• Health protection and prevention

We’ve been learning about safe and unsafe exposure to the sun and how to reduce the risk of sun damage including skin cancer.

5Ss for sun

• slip on a t-shirt
• slop on sun cream with a protection factor of 30 or more
• slap on a wide brimmed hat
• slide on some quality sunglasses
• shade from the sun wherever possible

We’ve had a very engaging session with D:Side learning about drugs and medicine.

• Personal safety

Louise Crossland (our PCSO) spoke to us about how to stay safe near roads and at the park.

We reflected on hazards that may cause harm, injury or risk:

– around water

“My Dad said the rocks near the river are really slippy.” Zachary

“The current might not look strong but it might still be strong.” Poppy

“If you swim out to the island in the middle of the river it is really deep and you could drown.” Violet

We discussed how we should always speak to an adult to check it is safe before going in water.

– on the road

We put our learning in to practice by going on a walk to the park, thinking about how to be safe near the road and at the park.

– with food

– in the home

and thought of ways to reduce these risks.

• Online safety

We learned that we need to be aware of our digital footprint.

• Citizenship: Living in the wider world

We thought about how the British values of the rule of law and individual liberty link to keeping us safe.

“Our parents have rules. It’s not to be mean – it’s just to keep us safe.” Max

“It is your body your choice.  So you can decide whether you do something or not. You can always ask your parents too.” Orianne

• Christian values

We reflected on how the Christian value of courage to help keep us safe.

“If you are lost in a shop and need to ask for help you might need to be courageous to ask for help.” Lily

“It’s like D:Side Dave said, if one of your friends tries to get you to drink wine you need to be courageous to say no.” Poppy

“If your friend asks you to play in the road you could say it’s dangerous because a car might hurt you.” Cheyenna

I spotted Year 1 playing a fun new maths game and knew that Year 4 would love it! Think Only Connect but for Primary Maths!

We’ve played a couple of games (on the Year 4 setting) in class and I promised to share the link so you can play at home: SQM Connections

Enjoy!