In Geography this half-term, we are learning about natural disasters with a particular focus on volcanoes and earthquakes.
We have been fascinated to learn about the layers of the Earth and tectonic plates. On Thursday we investigated how mountains are formed. The children were challenged to read an explanation of how volcanoes can form mountains and to draw a picture that they could use to describe the process.
Help at home – Can your child use a picture to explain this process to you?
In writing, we have been working hard to fix squashed sentences.
On Friday, we used our understanding of main clauses and subordinate clauses to use subordinating conjunctions. We used this image to help us recall some of the most popular subordinating conjunctions:
We used subordinating conjunctions to write sentences about natural disasters (linking to our learning in Geography). I think you will be particularly impressed with Alara’s sentences as she has used a subordinate conjunction in the middle of one sentence and a different subordinate conjunction at the start of the other sentences.
Help at home – if your child is interested in learning some alternative subordinating conjunctions, you could use this song from Grammasaurus to give them other ideas they could use in their writing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FK2Gyto5gTQ
Next week we will begin writing our diary entry about escaping from a volcanic eruption so there will be plenty of opportunities to show off all that we have learned about coordinating and subordinating conjunctions.
This week in living and learning we have been discussing how medicines and household products can help us, what the risks are of using them and how we can reduce these risks.
Year 4 were unanimous in their appreciation of medicine as something which can help you “to get better” but noted the risks:
Their top tips to minimise these risks are:
Help at home: discuss with your child how you store and access medicine at home to keep them safe. Can you work with your child to do a ‘safety audit’ around the house to find any risks associated with medicine or household products that could be mitigated?
On Thursday and Friday, Year 4 explored how to multiply three single digit numbers efficiently. We started with a maths story …
The children used the picture to help them to visualise the maths story and then recorded their method for calculating how many counters there were altogether.
As a team, we shared our different methods and discussed which ones were the most efficient.
Our oracy target this half-term is all about using others in the group. The class worked collaboratively to ensure that they explained their method. When other learners didn’t understand, they rephrased their explanation and used clear descriptions to help their peers visualise their method. I was really proud of how the children were brave and used our Christian Value of honesty to tell their peers when they didn’t understand their method. The children showed compassion to each other by being patient and explaining in a different way to make sure that we could all move forward together.
Having discussed and picked apart the different methods, we realised that the pictures helped us to do part of the calculation in our head but if we wanted to be able to calculate with bigger numbers or evaluate maths stories without a picture, it would be useful to find a method we could apply consistently. This lead us to investigate whether it mattered what order you multiply factors if there are more than two factors.
Great teamwork Year 4! What amazing mathematicians and collaborative learners you are!
Today we have been busy making our egg pots. We learned lots of new skills including how to use a bridge cut to cut the tomatoes and how to open a tin of beans safely.
Back in class, we evaluated our product with some children reflecting that they would refine the recipe by including carrots or cooking and serving the ingredients separately.
Thank you for the donations made towards the ingredients, we are already looking forward to our next project in the new year.
Help at home: Try one of these recipes and let us know if any are particularly popular with your family.
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/health/family-health/top-10-healthy-meals-for-kids
We have thoroughly enjoyed our learning this half-term about the work of architects Zaha Hadid and Sir Christopher Wren.
As well as learning about the work of these architects, we have also developed our art skills to use techniques such as tracing, using carbon paper and freehand drawing.
Having honed these skills, we created multiple pieces which we then combined to form a collage. The children have thought carefully about the use of technique, colour, space and the composition of their final pieces.
Each piece was truly unique and it was wonderful to see the happiness experienced during the creation of the collages!
There was much excitement in Year 4’s PE lesson this week!
The children applied what they have learned about jumping and travelling to the big apparatus. They showed courage and resilience pushing themselves to achieve new personal goals in gymnastics.
They followed the rules to ensure that they kept themselves and each other safe. There was a great sense of pride in the room as we reflected on what we had achieved by believing in ourselves. A great opportunity to see our school vision being lived.
This week we have been thinking about different emotions that we experience and about how it is normal to experience a wide range of emotions. We used the characters from the Inside Out films to help us identify different emotions and consider how they can vary in strength.
We will continue our learning about emotions to reflect on how each emotion makes us feel and what we can do to manage those feelings if they become too much.
Help at home
It is always great to talk about emotions but if you would like something more structured to support your conversations you might enjoy using this workbook from MindMate:
We loved welcoming parents to our topic review where we looked at the work we have done so far this half-term in art. Having reviewed the art we have already created using white pencil on black paper and by using different pens on tracing paper, we trialled a new process using carbon paper.
We will soon be combining all the different processes to make a collage.
As a class, we reflected on what we could do if we were presented with a search result that was not appropriate, we received a pop-up advert/message or received an unkind/inappropriate message when we were playing on an online game. The children had lots of ideas which they were keen to share with each other.
The 3 most popular tips were:
Help at home: If you are keen to learn more about how to keep children safe online, take a look at the advice provided by the NSPCC: NSPCC safe online