We are extremely proud of all the children who are running for JLT this year. The candidates spoke to the rest of the class this morning to explain why they deserved their vote.
Voters are spoilt for choice with such strong candidates to choose from. Well done to all the children for being brave and for speaking clearly at an appropriate volume (two of our oracy targets this half-term.)
In Science, we have started a new unit of learning all about states of matter. Our first lesson focused on identifying solids, liquids and gases. We started with some mystery bags that we had to observe closely.
We made observations about the properties of the samples with a particular focus on whether they had a fixed shape. We had great fun taking the samples out of the bags to see if they had a fixed volume.
Help at home: We like to use actions to help us to remember our learning and we have created gestures for our key words: solid, liquid and gas. Challenge us to teach you the gestures for the key words and play the game we played in class where one person says an object and the other person has to respond with the gesture for whether it is a solid, liquid or gas.
If your child likes an extra challenge, discuss objects which are harder to categorise such as toothpaste, shaving foam and slime. Are they a solid, liquid or a gas? Can they convince you?
This week Year 4 have started a new unit in maths with a focus on addition and subtraction.
We started the learning by practising adding between one and nine to a number. We started with 2 digit numbers and worked up to 4 digit numbers. We showed great teamwork with our partner when using double sided counters and place value charts to look for a pattern.
We noticed that the digit in the ones column always changes, the digit in the tens column sometimes changes and the digit in the hundreds column sometimes changes.
We will be moving on to formal methods of addition and subtraction (often called column method) but it is really important that we all notice when there are calculations that we can do in our head. Looking for patterns and being able to imagine the numbers will help all of our amazing mathematicians to calculate efficiently.
Help at home: If you would like to consolidate this learning at home you could watch the video from White Rose Maths with your child: https://vimeo.com/729667222
You could also challenge your child by choosing a 4 digit number and asking them to add between 1 and 9 to the number. The children are really good at spotting the tricky ones where they will need to exchange. If you want to make it more like a game why not try this random number generator (https://numbergenerator.org/random-4-digit-number-generator) and challenge your child to do as many examples as they can in a minute. Can they score higher than you?
We are becoming quite the experts on Ancient Greece and have really enjoyed learning about the innovations made during the Golden Era of Ancient Greece. We conducted our own research and made posters to summarise our findings. We also reflected on what the most important innovation was.
Help at home
Challenge your child to teach you what they have learned about innovation in the Golden Era of Ancient Greece. They could use this website to help them: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/ztxc4xs#:~:text=The%20Greeks%20pretty%20much%20invented,and%20even%2C%20the%20vending%20machine!
We really enjoyed dressing up for our Times Tables Rock Star photos to create pictures for our Wall of Fame! Congratulations to all the children who are on our Times Tables Wall of Fame this week. To be on the Wall of Fame, you need to have played 15 minutes of Times Tables Rock Stars games over the week. The Wall of Fame is updated every Friday so I can’t wait to see which superstars we will be celebrating next week!
Rumour has it our classroom will be open for TTRS Club on a Tuesday lunchtime for anyone who wants some extra time to play. See you there!
This week, we have been developing our knowledge and skills in using certain types of words to make our writing more exciting. Can you spot them on our working wall?
Adverbs
We started the week applying our knowledge of adverbs. We wrote sentences about a soldier from Ancient Greece who returned to Athens from a war.
Using an adverb makes our writing more exciting because it gives us more information about the verb. Some of us wanted an extra challenge so we used the adverb at the start of the sentence and followed the adverb with a comma.
Prepositions
Having mastered adverbs, we moved on to identifying prepositions.
For a challenge, we tried some SATs style questions to show off how confident we felt about finding prepositions in sentences.
Being able to confidently identify prepositions set us up to compose our own sentences using prepositions. For those of us wanting a further challenge, we included adverbs to help the reader picture the scene.
Next week, we will be planning and drafting our recount. I can’t wait to see how these sentences develop into a descriptive recount! Watch this space for copies of the finished pieces!
Help at home
Play a game of adverb charades – Mime performing an action, such as skipping, in the style of an adverb. The rest of the players must then try to guess the adverb.
Example – while skipping with a big smile and swinging my arms, I could be miming the adverb ‘excitedly’.
Bonus points for any unusual adverbs!
In history this half-term, we are learning about Ancient Greece with a focus on the concepts of power and innovation.
We started the unit reviewing the timeline in our classroom to work out when the golden-era of Ancient Greece was relative to other historical events and periods that we have already studied. We then looked at the physical geography of Greece and discussed how having many islands made it difficult to be under one centralised ruler. I was really impressed when a child explained that this would also make it difficult for other people to invade Greece and another child thought about whether it would be easier to invade a country that is by the sea rather than landlocked. What great reflections for children to have thinking deeply about their learning!
This week we have been comparing the city states of Sparta and Athens. The children were very persuasive in their debates about which would be the better city state to live in. The biggest source of outrage for many children was that it was unfair that girls weren’t allowed to go to school in Athens.
This week we will be researching the most significant innovations made during the golden-era of the Ancient Greeks and thinking about the impact these have had on our modern day lives. I am sure you can’t wait to hear all about it!
Help at home
Year 4 have been working hard this week to represent maths stories using gestures, pictures and expressions.
Help at home: Challenge your child to teach you how to use the gestures and pictures we use in our Mastering Number sessions.
This week’s book club in Year 4 has been a busy one! There was much excitement exploring Mrs Poole’s recommended reads and the “Mystery books” were snapped up within minutes. We are looking forward to some new titles entering our shelves with some of our budding authors creating their own books for other children to borrow.
Help at home: Sharing a book with your child is the best way to develop reading fluency and a love of reading. Do let us know what you have reading using the Reading Records and if you need help finding a book to get lost in do come and see me at drop off / pick up for a recommendation.
Year 4 have really enjoyed making our class reward system this week. They made the rules, chose the prizes and designed the recording system. We used our debating skills in our Philosophy Friday session to consider what we should do if we won two prizes from the Golden Ticket draw.
After listening to the arguments presented by our classmates, we recorded our final opinion and positioned ourselves on a scale to represent our thoughts. You can see there was quite a wide variety of opinions!
