Year 4 Class News

Fun, fun, fun!

The Reception and Nursery children have had a fantastic day celebrating Nursery Rhyme Week and Children in Need.

19 November 2021

For this week’s spellings, create word shapes by drawing around them. Try to remember the shapes of each word.

Year 1

• do
• for
• friend
• full
• go

Year 2

• has
• he
• here
• his
• house
• is
• love
• me
• my
• no

19 Nov 2021

This week we would like you to learn these spellings that use the suffixes:

-ful, -ness, -less and -ly. We will be having a test on Thursday 25 November.

thoughtful              

meaningless   

successful             

thankless

careful                    

aggressively

consciousness     

hungrily

loneliness               

happily

19 November 2021

Living and Learning is the focus of this week’s Talk Time.

I know how to STOP bullying.

As it’s Anti-Bullying Week, we’ve placed a strong emphasis on what bullying is and how to stop it. In fact, ‘STOP’ is an acronym that provides a clear definition of bullying:

Several Times On Purpose

An example of bullying would be someone saying on multiple occasions that you can’t join in with their game. On the other hand, getting upset/angry in the heat of the moment or accidentally bumping into someone wouldn’t be considered bullying. As part of your discussions, can your child identify examples of what bullying does and doesn’t look like?

Our school ethos statement is that our school is a happy and healthy place to achieve and believe. School will not be a happy and healthy place if we don’t know how to stop bullying.

‘STOP’ not only tells us what bullying is, but also how to make it stop:

Start Telling Other People.

Ask your child what ‘STOP’ means – encourage them to remember both: Several Times On Purpose and Start Telling Other People.

This week’s Remember 2s (R2s) are actions to take if you see, or are the victim of, an unpleasant behaviour:

• Challenge the behaviour with that person. It may well have been accidental or something not intended to be hurtful.
• Tell that person that you don’t like that behaviour and that you want it to stop.
• If the behaviour occurs again, let a trusted adult know so they can explore the situation.

Leeds Art Gallery

Today, we travelled into Leeds city centre to pay a visit to the art gallery. This visit enriched the children’s current art learning experiences.

Throughout the afternoon, the classes took part in two workshops. They studied pieces of abstract art by looking closely at the shapes, lines, colours, spaces and patterns. Then, the children were asked to recreate the shapes using their bodies.

I loved seeing all the different pictures.

I wonder how the artists got their ideas?

I never used to enjoy art because I can’t draw. Now, I am loving it!

Ask your child about this trip. Can they remember the meaning of abstract art?

This week’s bible story

Persevering in life: Hebrews 12:1-2

Click the link and read the story all about Patrician St John.

Reflection:
Think about what you want to do this year, what you want to achieve. I’m not talking about impossible things, but maybe learning a new skill, or doing better at something, reaching the next level. What if it isn’t so easy, what if it doesn’t seem to be working out straight away – will you give up? Are you willing to fail before you succeed? If you believe in God, what difference will that make?
Just a moment of silence while we think about these things.

Bible Bits:
Listen to what the Bible says about persevering:
“Be determined and confident! Don’t be afraid or discouraged, for I, the Lord your God, am with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:9)
“Let us run with determination the race that lies before us. Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus….He did not give up…” (Hebrews 12:1-2)

Prayer:
Thank you, Father, that you have given me the ability to succeed, not in everything, but in many things. Help me to play my part by working hard and not giving up. And thank you that you will give me extra help if I ask for it and trust in you. May what I learn not just help me but others too.
Amen

Science

This half term, we are being physicists as we are studying physic. Our topic is all about light. On Thursday we were understanding about darkness being an absence of light. To do this, we created a darkness den in the classroom and all had a turn experiencing it.

Although not completely dark, it was pretty close!

If we did it again, we agreed that we might use a few more blankets to shut out the light.

Follow this link to see our science vocabulary for this topic.

Remembrance Day

This week across the school, the children have been learning about the meaning of Remembrance Day. From reading activities to art, we have covered an array of learning. The Year 6s have been collecting for the poppy appeal daily and the donations have been very generous. On Thursday 11th we had a minute’s silence in the playground in remembrance and the children were all really respectful.

Observational Drawing and Colour Wheels

As part of our Art topic, the children have been participating in some observational drawing techniques.

What is observational drawing? 

Observational drawing is where you draw something right in front of you. Anything can be drawn from observation – this could be a bowl of fruit, a landscape, or a person. Rather than drawing from memory or what’s in your head, you draw what you see!

The children spent time looking closely at some pieces of fruit. We discussed lines, patterns, shading and textures. The finished sketches were very impressive indeed! A few of the children thought about adding a shadow to the image by identifying where the light source was.

In our next lesson, the children explored and created their own colour wheels. We discussed primary and secondary colours as well as warm and cold colours.

The class enjoyed creating their own colour wheels.

This week’s bible story

Remembrance Day

How much can we remember?

Let’s start by asking ourselves some questions about today.

– What did you do as soon as you got out of bed?
– What did you eat for breakfast?
– How did you feel when you got to school this morning?

Next, let’s think about last weekend.

– What did you do on Saturday afternoon?
– What did you eat on Sunday?

How about last week?
Have you noticed how it becomes more difficult to remember events the further back in time they are?

These events may have happened quite a long time ago, but they are remembered because they were fun. Happy times tend to stay in our memories for a long time.

Sad times can stay in our memories for a long time, too.

Click the link to read all about Remembrance day and why we remember.

Reflection:
Have a look at the pictures of the poppy. Think about why wearing a poppy is important to people. Wearing a red poppy means, ‘We are remembering together.’

Prayer:
Dear God,
Thank you for the many happy memories that we have.
We are sorry that some people have sad memories at this time of year
As they remember those who have died for our country.
May we wear our red poppies with love and compassion,
And may we remember and be thankful.
Amen.